Caitlyn's Birthday.
                         Here Morgan is helping make the birthday cake.

          Caitlyn putting on the sprinkles. The kids always want to do as much of the baking as possible.           
           Now if only they would feel that way about cleaning.

   Caitlyn was huffing and puffing trying to get those candles out.

   As you can see, she thought it was quite hilarious. Not so sure Drew agreed.

  Big 5 year old waiting to open her present.

  We have been having a busy time trying to line up doctors for the kids and Kendra, getting adjusted to a new school and job, as well as dealing with the holidays far from family. On the other hand we have been able to focus more time on our family and doing things together, so its a good thing.

    Some evenings the fog is so thick you can hardly see across the road. Odd when temperature is in the mid    20's but that's how it works here. The next morning everything is covered in ice, it can be a real challenge      getting around. However the frost beatifies everything, making it all worth while.

    I think this would be a great place to watch  fireworks from.

    The kids had a school Christmas Program. It was very cute and well performed. All the children always pour their heart into these things. Drew is in the yellow shirt front row.

   Emalee middle row 2nd from right green striped shirt.

  Here is a letter Emalee wrote to Santa.

We went to Gillette for the Sunday School Program December 3rd. It was nice to see everybody and visit, as well as make it to church Saturday afternoon and evening. We stayed the night at Jake and Erica Ploughs before heading home Sunday. It was windy with blowing snow all the way to Sturgis, at which point the road was closed due to blizzard like conditions. We sat for two hours before being allowed to proceed.

Mount Rushmore.

The kid's are always excited to go exploring and find new things.

Drew climbing, he is like a goat, just scampering up any place.

Custer State Park. This park is about 30 miles from our house. Close enough for an easy day trip to hike and picnic, or just drive around looking for wildlife.

I had the window down not realizing these burro's were inclined to come into the vehicle, scared the daylights out of me. Here I am trying to feed it a pretzel, bad idea as he took my only pen and ate it.

I closed the window on this one, doesn't it look like Cujo?

These big old bulls wander alone, they stand up to 6 feet high and weigh 2,000lbs. The park can overwinter approximately 1000 buffalo in it's wild herd, so each year they sell 300-400 head to ranchers, meat packers, or individuals who want lean meat for the freezer. There is a big round-up each Sept. which draws from 10,000-15,000 spectators.

Bighorn sheep.

Very beautiful country. The Black Hills are similar to the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona, with many small lakes for fishing and excellent camping.

One of the back country roads we traveled looking for animals.

We went to the parade of lights on Saturday night in downtown Rapid City. The temp. was about 30 degrees and dropping, we were all bundled up and wrapped in blankets to stay warm.
This ice arena is in the town square, it is open 7 days a week and offers skate rentals which is nice if the kids just want to try it out.

Jenna and Emalee watching the parade.

Dad with his little Morgan. Morgan waved at all the floats. He is so adorable in his winter gear, stiff as a board, he can barely even walk and he refuses to wear gloves.

The airforce float.

Of course now we know what cat does when we're away, and why the tree is so bare looking, the branches are all bent.

The view from our front window. The first week-end in our new home it snowed over 6 inches, of course the kid's were super excited and wanted to rush out and play, which they did, approximately 52 times each. It was so cold they could not stay out long each time before coming in for a warm up.

  This is from our back deck, it will be a very nice outdoor living/eating area in the summer.

  Caitlyn is usually the first to try and the last to quit, here she gets a face full of snow as she jumps over a small berm.

  Drew went to Walmart and purchased a sled for the kid's. It sure got a lot of use in the three days we had snow. Hopefully more comes soon.

We left Phoenix early morning Nov. 3rd, Our family, 2 dogs and the cat in the suburban, Frans and his daughter Lindsay in the moving truck.

Somewhere in Colorado we ran into snow, the kids were running around shouting and laughing. Of course, Caitlyn's shoes were lost in the packing, so she was out in bare feet.

 

  Jenna and kitty. Caitlyn was either in the back seat or riding in the big truck with Frans.

  Finally, on the afternoon of the second day we arrived at Vonada's in Gillette, WY, where we would stay two nights before continuing on to Rapid City. We also left the dogs and the two oldest kids with Vonada's while we were house hunting.