Days 301-358 in South Dakota

Monday, January 2nd through Tuesday, February 28th.
This winter has been very mild considering. This is something that I am very thankful for. However, today is our first "snow day". It is actually a day off for a threat of severe weather. It is about 10:30 right now and we have not had any severe weather yet. We shall see. As for now, we are all enjoying a "free" day.
K took some pictures of the view from our deck. I thought it would be nice to share them.

 Kurt and I celebrated our 20th Valentine's Day. However, we were not together since he had a week long trip to Denver for work. I thought once he retired from the Army that we would get to celebrate all our special days together. Oh well, I did receive some beautiful flowers to brighten my day.

Days 274-300 in South Dakota

 Tuesday, December 6th through Sunday, January 1st.
I have definitely had a few firsts while living in South Dakota. I had never heard of freezing fog before, so when Kurt said that the weather man was calling for some I was not looking forward to it. It certainly didn't sound like anything I wanted to experience. But I was surprised to find so much beauty the next morning. The freezing fog had turned everything white. Trees, bushes, fences. . .it was all so pretty. Really the pictures just don't capture the beauty we were fortunate to experience.

 We had a blessed Christmas this year. It was so nice to be able to get together with Kurt's family and spend Christmas day. I ended up getting sick, but I was very happy that the children were all healthy and happy. The children were looking forward to a white Christmas, but we did not get any snow. So no white Christmas for us this year.

 Each of the children got to play "Santa" and hand out the presents they got for each of us. They just love posing for the camera. LOL

 After all the decorations were put away, we needed to put our pictures back up on the wall. I already had the older three children's baby photos but had not gotten one made of A. As I was getting the picture made I thought about how fortunate we are to have these pictures of A. She was 3 1/2 when she came home to us and it is not uncommon for the children to come to their family with nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing. I am so grateful to the Half the Sky Program that worked in A's orphanage for putting together the memory books that hold the precious photos and memories of her first few years while in China.

Decorating Our New House

 Here is our tree. The cats love to play under it, so the tree skirt is always a mess.

 Here you can see some of Kurt's eagle collection.

 This is tree number two of three. We used to put a tree outside on our porch when we lived in North Carolina, but the winds are so extreme here that it would not last long if we put it outside.

 I have not had a place to display my Christmas village in several years, so I made sure that I reserved a space for it this year. I put this one up. . .

 Katie put this one up.

I love my "Merry Christmas" board that my Aunt made me. It is reversible so I can leave it up all year.

 I really like snowmen. I have collected many of them over the years.

Days 231-273 in South Dakota

Tuesday, October 25th through Monday, December 5th.
Sickness, sickness, sickness!! That is what we have been dealing with in our home for the past month. Everyone in the house has been sick at least once, some more than once. I will be so happy when everyone is feeling better and healthy again.

We have had some snow, some really cold days, and some really nasty wind the last few weeks. The boys got to shovel snow for the first time in their lives. They will be pro's before long. We have also had some days with temps in the 50's. Let me tell you, those are wonderful days. Today it is 9 degrees outside. Not much fun to get out in. We are trying to get used to dressing in layers. It is going to be a long winter. But we will survive. :)

Thanksgiving started out great and went downhill after some family drama that kind of ruined the day. :( I had high hopes that the first holiday dinner hosted in our new house would be a wonderful memory. It just wasn't meant to be. :(


We have all our Christmas decorations up and it is looking quite festive in our home. I went out yesterday and got some shopping done for extended family. I know it is going to be a hard holiday knowing that I am so far away from my family in PA. It will probably be some time before I can get back to see them.

This is kind of a bummer of a post. Reading through it, it feels so negative, but I really don't mean it to be. I am truly thankful for everyone and everything that God puts in my path. Even when things happen that I really don't enjoy.  :)

Days 214 -230 in South Dakota

Saturday, October 8th through Monday, October 24th. We are still settling into a routine. There is always something new to add to the schedule that makes things a little more hectic.
My baby girl turned 8 on the 10th. We scheduled a party at her favorite place right now. . . the gym where she does gymnastics. We invited her gymnastics class and her cousins. They had a blast running around the gym and playing on all the equipment. I think A enjoyed her special day.

K and A were playing in their room one day and heard a strange noise. They went outside and saw about 100 geese flying in multiple V formations. K was amazed by this and came to get me. I tried to get some pictures but the camera would not cooperate. It was a great opportunity to explain to the girls that the geese were flying south for the winter. We have now seen this three different times. That is a lot of geese!!
The weather has gotten a lot cooler. It still is warming up quite a bit in the afternoon but the mornings are down right cold. Kurt keeps telling me that this is not cold, but to me in that moment it IS cold. I finally turned on the heat in the house. I do have it set to what I think is pretty low, but still comfortable at 68. I am curious though to what others set their heat to in the winter. 
I have also been trying to get some crocheting done. I started a new project. Visit my craft blog by clicking the caption on the picture below to find out about it.

Click here to visit my Craft Blog!!!!

Hail Storms

I mentioned in past posts about the hail storms we have experienced since moving to South Dakota, but I never posted the pictures I took during the last one. So here you go. This one was a pretty bad one. We thought for sure that we would have vehicle damage, but surprisingly the vehicles were pretty much unharmed. Thank goodness.

Days 204 -213 in South Dakota

Wednesday, September 28th through Friday, October 7th.
We are finally getting into a pretty good weekly schedule. I am discovering that having four children in three different schools is challenging. There is always something going on. Life is definitely not boring. Just busy.
The weather is getting cooler in the mornings. I have been opening the windows in the morning when it is cooler outside, then close them in the afternoon when it warms up. There has only been one day so far where I have really been tempted to turn on the heat, but I was determined not to do it yet. We had a really bad hail storm last night. That is one thing I have to get used to living here.
Last weekend Kurt, the girls and I went for a drive through Spearfish Canyon. It is really nice to drive through the canyon in the fall when the leaves are changing color. That is one thing that I miss about living in Pennsylvania. Autumn in Pennsylvania is truly beautiful.

Days 196 -203 in South Dakota

Tuesday the 20th started out a pretty normal day. We had an early dinner because Kurt had to leave for a meeting at the church. Just after he left A came into the house crying. She was holding her chin and when she took her hand away I saw that she had split her chin wide open. I got her a rag to put on it and off we went to the ER. This was the second trip to the ER in 8 days. She ended up with 6 stitches across her chin. She was so brave. I am so proud of my sweet little girl.
Wednesday I took the children to youth group at the church and attended a new bible study. Oh boy, is this going to be a good study. I am really looking forward to getting going with this study.
The rest of the week was pretty good. A didn't want to go to gymnastics because she was worried about her stitches. We had a guy come in to work on C's room. All that is left to do is paint, put the ceiling in, and put the carpet in. C will have a finished room soon!!!
Saturday the girls and I went downtown for the Pumpkin Festival. It was a nice day with a warm breeze and we enjoyed walking around. We met my SIL and her girls there. When we first got there A was the only one in costume. She got a lot of compliments. She was representing North Carolina as a southern belle.

 She was happy when her cousins got there and were in costume.

 Then when it was time for the costume parade, there were lots of kids in costume.

Sunday was a nice day. After church we came home and relaxed before Kurt and I left for our Sunday small group.
Monday came and went without much notice. Tuesday after school I took A to have her stitches out. Again, she did amazingly well. She is such a brave little girl.