Merry Christmas!

This is the first year since Megan and Jason have been born that either Jesse or I have had to work Christmas, which isn't too bad since they are 9 years old.  So we were at home to celebrate Christmas and Christmas Eve with just our family.  We will be heading out to the Grandparents' homes over the weekend.  On Christmas Eve, we went to a Christmas Eve Service, and then we delivered "Secret Santa" packages to several people we knew in town.  This is the first year that we did this, and Megan and Jason had fun with it.  If we do it again next year, they will have to work on their get-away back to the car.  They were a little slow the first couple of times.  After looking at Christmas lights, we came home to open presents.   

 

 

Christmas morning having their "Happy Birthday Jesus" muffins. 

They had fun blowing out the candles.

 

 

Halloween

For Halloween this year, the kids dressed up in costumes as usual.  Jason was an alien.  Megan was a Queen, and Kora was Ladybug Girl.  Kora loves the Ladybug Girl books, and always wants a new one when we go to the library, so she really wanted to be Ladybug girl for Halloween.  Not just a plain lady bug, but Ladybug Girl with the dress since in the books she wears a tutu.  Megan and Jason were excited as usual to be able to wear their costumes at school.  That's what they were looking forward to the most.   

 

We went to some of the parties in town and did a little trick-or-treating.  Kora didn't remember anything from last year, so dressing up and getting candy was all new to her.  She was very excited about it all.  Kora wanted to have her own bag to hold, and she said trick-or-treat to everyone she saw when Megan and Jason helped her go around to the houses.  She was also very good about holding open her bag and saying thank you.

   

 

 

They also carved pumpkins earlier in the week.  They each had their own pumpkin that we helped them with.  Megan and Jason drew on their faces, and Jesse helped them cut it out.  Kora had a good time scooping out the seeds and innards from her pumpkin.  She had no problem sticking her hands inside to clean it out.  Jason had fun with the big pumpkin Grandpa Jim gave us.

 

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Bismarck this past weekend to attend my niece's baptism.  While we were there, we went to a pumpkin patch with my sister and her kids.  They had a lot of fun.  Not very often that you can wear only t-shirts outside at the end of October, so we took advantage of it.

With cousin Jakob.

Jason and Jakob covering Megan with corn.  By the time they

were finished, she was completely covered in corn.  Megan

 was a willing participant, but she said she did have corn down

 in her clothes when she was done.

Jason enjoyed helping Kora to the top of the bales, so she could

slide down.  We did have to remind him that he didn't have to

push her so much.

 

 

 

While my sister was taking the picture of us, Jakob was standing beside her jumping around like crazy and making faces.  So it was hard to get the kids to look at the camera and not at him.  Kora wasn't laughing at him like the rest of us.  I think she was trying to figure out what in the world he was doing.

Gotcha Day

Yesterday was Kora's two year anniversary of her Gotcha Day.  Kora and I went to two of her favorite places in the morning: the library and the park.  Then in the evening, when everyone was home, we celebrated by having a campfire and s'mores which is also one of her favorite things.

Here she is enjoying her s'mores.

Kora's 3rd Birthday

Kora turned 3 on Saturday!  She loves "Frozen" so that was the theme for her birthday party.

 

Megan and Jason were trying to be nice and help her with opening

presents, but Kora didn't like it so she kept moving away from them.

 

 

They played "Pin the Nose on Olaf."  Kora was very excited to play, but

she didn't like the idea of being blindfolded and not being able to put

his nose exactly where it should go. Eventually she did do it blindfolded,

after Megan, Jason, and cousin Jakob did it that way.

Fun in the leaves

Kora and Jason were having fun playing in the leaves that have now started to accumulate in our yard.  They especially like to slide down into a pile of leaves.

 

Jason is buried in the pile of leaves below.

 

 

Tank also had to join in the fun.

 

 

Kora also thought it would be fun to ride Tank

 while he was sitting in the leaves.  He was too busy playing

with his toy to care.



International Peace Gardens and Lake Metigoshe Camping Trip

We made a trip to North Dakota last weekend to see the International Peace Gardens and to camp at Lake Metigoshe State Park.  On the way, we stopped at Dunseith to see a turtle made out of tire rims.  Megan and Jason had to climb to the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

We met my mom and aunt at the Peace Gardens.  It has been several

years since we've been there.  Below is a picture of the family

in front of the Peace Towers.

 

The kids standing on the flower clock.

 

Kora loved riding in the car stroller.  Jason also

enjoyed being able to push her around and

pop wheelies with her in it.

 

 

 

Then we headed over to Lake Metigoshe State Park

where we camped for three nights.  We took in several

hikes again.  In the picture below, Kora is riding on Jesse's

shoulders again, but she did walk a good portion of the hikes.

 

Jason, Megan, and Kora riding with Jesse in the canoe. 

They went for about an hour canoe ride around the lake. 

Jason and Kora went with me for a short ride.  Jason was pretty

tired out and was ready to be done after his trip with Jesse.

 

Kora

I haven't taken photos of just Kora for awhile so here are a few of her outside on our swing set.  She had to add a silly face on the last picture.

Fishing on Devil's Lake

 

Megan with a white bass that she caught with Dad and

Grandpa on Devil's Lake. 

 



 

Jason caught this walleye all by himself without any help

from Grandpa and Dad.

Birthday Party

Megan and Jason had their 9th birthday party this past Saturday. They had a Minecraft theme for their cake and a Creeper Piñata.  Jesse had fun moving the piñata up and down while they were trying to hit it.  Kora was scared of it at first and didn't want to try to hit it.  They had a fun day with their friends and family. 

Camping

We went camping this past weekend at Maplewood State Park and had a lot of fun.  We stayed for two nights, all of us in our tent.  Kora didn't want to go to sleep the first night.  She was overly-tired, crazy girl and had a hard time settling down.  The second night went better, but she was still up for awhile before she went to bed.

The kids all had fun at the swimming beach even though it

wasn't all that hot out, especially on Sunday.

 

 

 

We also did some hiking.  They had several trails where we had to walk up and

down hills which were pretty exciting to the kids who are used to flat prairies and fields.

 

  Kora enjoyed picking the wildflowers.

 

 

Megan and Tank leading the way.

 

Jason learned how to use a compass on this hike.

He thought it was fun telling us the direction we were going.

 

 

 

 

Kora got to ride on Jesse's shoulders going up the hill.

 

At the top of the hill.

On the way back down.  Jason is way out in front,

running down the hill. (Top right corner.)