Daum Christmas

We spent the last week in Murdo celebrating with the Daum family. It was a crazy weekend as we received the blizzard of 2009 while there. We took off a day early to make it in before the storm and stayed one more day then planned to make sure the roads were safe for travel. We had lots of fun and didn't get cabin fever too bad.

Thanks Uncle Heath for the cool helicopter toy.Micah's 1st Christmas and first taste of sweet potatoes, he likes them!
Ethan and Papa looking at tractors and combines in Papa's magazine. One of Ethan's favorite things to do with Papa.
Cool dude with his Nana.

Braving the winter weather. After three days of being inside it finally got nice enough to venture out for some fresh air and a little snow fun.

And this is what we came home to.

6 months!

Our little man is 6 months old! He is a big boy weighing in at 19 lbs. 2 oz. and is 28 1/2 inches long.

A completed bathroom!

The shower curtain has been hung in the bathroom with care and the hopes of taking a shower upstairs have happened! We are done with our big bathroom project and are enjoying it so much.

A few fun pictures

Mommy and her smiley little boy.
We got more snow and there was actually enough to play in this time.
Great Grandpa Gordon made this cool marble toy for Ethan and Micah.

Ethan's friend, Nathan, was over to play and all the boys enjoyed storytime.

Snow!

We got snow this past week so decided it was time to buy Ethan snowboots. Mommy got back from the store and Ethan wanted to put them on right away and go outside and try them out. We didn't have much snow but he didn't care. Ethan and Daddy had some fun outside and broke in the new boots.

Carlson family weekend

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Rochester with the Carlson clan. It was a very full weekend; Thanksgiving, Stan's birthday and Christmas. We had a very fun time being home with everyone and also meeting Deborah's boyfriend, Joe. We'll share a few pictures of our fun week.

Ethan helping Aunt Deborah play Uno with Joe.

Ethan and Grandma relaxing and watching the crew clean up from Thanksgiving dinner.

Mommy and her boys all bundled up to watch the cutting of the Christmas tree.


Dave cutting the Christmas tree.

Ethan helping Grandpa open his birthday presents.

Micah taking a break from opening presents to hang out in his stocking. Grandma makes BIG stockings.

Ethan enjoyed opening presents a lot this year

More bathroom

We are nearing completion! Dave got the grout on last weekend. We have the big wall left to cheesecloth off, hopefully tonight, and then we'll seal the grout. Dave is hoping to get the faucet installed and the caulk done over the weekend. We may actually get to take a shower upstairs on Monday - YEA! And when all the dirty work is done and cleaned up I can hang the new shower curtain to see if I'm going to like it or not. Very cool!

Bathroom tile

Dave finished the bathroom tile today!! It looks great! We'll hopefully get the grouting done next weekend. It is great to see this project nearing the end. Now we can start other home projects. They seem to never end but it is fun.

Sitting up

Micah is learning to sit up on his own. He really likes it and is doing great at holding his balance without falling over although he does fall some. We have also started giving him some milk in a sippy cup and he is learning that good as well. He is growing up so fast!

Pumpkin carving

The Carlson house was a pumpkin carving zone last night. We weren't quite sure we were going to get Ethan to do it but we did and he had a blast. Thank you Nana Pam for growing such a cool pumpkin for us to carve!

The two great pumpkin carvers and their great pumpkin.

Ethan kept asking what was inside so when he saw inside he thought it was pretty cool.

He wasn't too sure about touching it but once in he had fun scooping.

Micah even got in on the fun a little. The pumpkin is so big we decided to put Micah inside it!

Ethan and his pumpkin. He thinks it is pretty cool.

Mommy's big helper

Ethan loves to help unload the dishwasher. I was doing it the other day and he came running into the kitchen yelling, "I do it!" Now if only that will stick around for many years to come. =)

Bathroom tile

Progress...finally! We have two out of three shower walls done with tile. Dave and his Dad put in a good weekend of work and it looks awesome! The plan is to finish tile next weekend and then grout and we are done!

Eating cereal

Our baby is now 5 months old! Where does the time go? We decided to give Micah his first taste of cereal on his 5 month birthday. He did very well with it. I think most of it went in and he seemed to like it. I was impressed with how well he did. We'll keep trying and before we know it he'll be eating us out of house and home. =) He also has two teeth to eat with. He is just like Ethan and popped teeth in at about 4 months. We'll see how long Mommy can hold out with nursing him.

New Toys

We have a few new toys at our house. These are Daddy and Mommy toys but Ethan has been enjoying them a little too. They have been a long time coming and we finally got the chance to purchase them; TV, surround sound, BlueRay DVD player and the bonus was a Wii.

Ethan getting a little help from Daddy before playing.Playing tennis. Ethan has a ways to go yet on learning what to do but we figure it won't take too long. =)

Micah has graduated to the exersaucer and loves it. Ethan likes to give him toys then take them away and also spin him to look at Mommy or just a different direction. They are getting to be best buds already.

4 months!

17lbs. 14oz. and 27 inches - we have a big boy! He is in the 100% and off the charts! He is wearing 6-9 but mostly 9 month clothing. Micah is really starting to look around. His eyes are so big and he loves watching the world around him. We got out the exersaucer and he loves it because he can be up and see what is going on around him. He also reaches out to grab things when he is laying under his play gym. What a fun age we are at.

A weekend with family

We enjoyed have family here over the weekend. Micah got to meet Great Grandpa and Grandma Schneider and get some spoiling in. Papa, Nana, Uncle Heath and Great Grandma Daum were here as well.

4 generation Schneider family

Great Grandma and Grandpa Schneider
3 month old cutie!

2 1/2 year old cutie!

Backbacking in the Bighorns

After dropping off the rest of the family at Grandma and Grandpa Daum's in Murdo I continued out west and picked up Keith (former college roommate) and his brothers on the way to the Bighorn mountains. We camped 2 nights and gave his brother's their first taste of backpacking. We came home sunburned and exhausted, but thoroughly enjoyed the wilderness experience.

Me.

Sunrise the 2nd day.

View of Cloud Peak from our campsite.

Another view of Cloud Peak. We camped right across the lake from here 4 years ago when we climbed Cloud Peak.

On the trail home.

Lake Solitude.

Moose!