On the farm

Our first stop was the Anderson farm. The first few days there were very cold and windy!

The thermometer in the lower right-hand corner reads about 12 degrees, but it felt even colder with gusts up to 45 mph.
That didn't stop a certain little someone from wanting to play outside and ride the four-wheeler!
After bundling up, Daddy and Dane headed out to brave the cold!
They were joined by Hugh, Zachary, and Ellie.

Dane gets acquainted with his sweet little cousin Morgan.

Mark and Ellie try their hand at "Operation."

Anna and Zachary take a turn.

Auntie Melodee and Grandma introduced Morgan to rice cereal. What a little sweetie!

Dane discovered Grandma's stash of raisins and helped himself.

Dane and Zachary had so much fun together. Most of the time, all of these balls were scattered on the floor throughout the house!

Poor little Cubby ended up with a broken foot, so I tested my veterinary orthopedic skills!

Pretty big snowflakes coming down on a much calmer day.

Dane developed a new habit of falling asleep while reading!

Arrowwood Resort

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the beautiful Arrowwood resort with Mike's siblings and their families, my parents, brother, grandparents, and aunts with their families. I didn't get very many good pictures of everyone there. They had an amazing indoor water park where we spent many hours and still had to drag Dane away every time!!

My mom and happy little Morgan. She's practicing up her baby-holding for next summer!

Dane rides the lazy river with cousin Linnea and Uncle Benny.
Coming down the water slide with Grampy.

Best buddies!

Milnor

Then we headed off to visit Grammy and Grampy for a couple of days in Milnor.
All cozy with Grammy down by the fire. (Dane somehow has picked up a little southern drawl. When he says fire, it sounds more like "far.")

Dane thought he would rearrange Grammy's cabinets for her. He took every single can out of her corner cabinet and put them all on the table, one at a time. (I think he was just thrilled to find cabinets and both grandparents' homes that didn't have child locks!)

We took a walk uptown with Dane in the sled to visit Grampy at work.

Pretty winter scenery along Grampy and Grammy's street.

Clearing the driveway together.

Winter scene along the drive back to the airport.

Happy New Year!!

Here is a recent family photo to wish you all a Happy New Year!

We are currently home visiting our family and have taken many other pictures that I will sort/post at a later date. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Announcing.... Joey!!

Now that the previous photo has caught your interest (if you read Dane's shirt!), here are some baby pictures! These were taken last Thursday at almost 12 weeks pregnant. Mike saw little baby up on the ultrasound screen and immediately dubbed her/him "Joey." The first is a 3D ultrasound image, and the other two are 2D (or normal).

Side profile.
Side profile with little hand up to mouth.

Due date is July 6, 2008. However, baby's actual arrival will most likely be late June as this will be a scheduled c-section. How fortunate to possibly escape those last few miserable days of late pregnancy in the hot, Vegas summer! By the way, Dane is quite convinced that this is his "baby sister," but none of us will actually know until baby is born. (This is mostly just to drive Renee crazy with not knowing!! But at least she can finally share the news!;)

Still here...

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth! Just lazy, I guess. But here are a couple of pictures taken over the last 2 weeks along with a little update. We're counting down the days until we head to Minnesota and North Dakota to spend a week with our families. Dane will get to see all his cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpas, and grandmas while we're back along with one set of great-grandparents and some great-aunts/uncles and their families! Should be a wonderful time, and we can't wait to see everybody!

We caught a little elf scrambling around our house!
Giving Lizzi a "sleigh ride."

Reading a book with Cortney.

Some other things worth posting (I think!):

1. Dane has a book with numerous pictures of Humpty-Dumpty. He loves to pick him out on each page, calling him "Dumpy Dumpy."

2. Tonight, Daddy offered Dane some (soda) pop. Pretty soon Dane was asking for more sips of "pop a balloon" since he recently had an experience with popping a balloon. Funny how he put the two together!

Pepperoni!

Dane loves his pepperoni pizza!

Santa Train

Boulder City's Southern Nevada Railway put on a Santa Train ride on Saturday. We bundled the kiddos up and made a morning of it. Here are Renee and the boys in front of the train engine.

Vanessa and her girls, Trinity and Trelise, met us there.
Dane and Mommy on the train.

Daddy rode half of the time with us. The rest of the time, he was busy with the group of kids they brought from the After-School All-Stars.

Santa and Mrs. Claus walked through the car during the ride. Dane so far is very much NOT a fan of Santa. This is the second Santa we've encountered this season, and he starts screaming, "No want it, Santa!" over and over. Once Santa passed us by, he was content to watch him from afar. He didn't seem to have a problem with Mrs. Claus a few minutes later.

Camden just slept in his oversized hat!

An attempt at a group photo after the ride. All the kids did pretty well during the 45 minute ride, but they started getting a bit restless by the time it was done. We had to hold them all together for one last picture!!

Grandpa and Grandma time!

The house seems kind of quiet after two weeks of grandparents visiting. Mike's parents just flew home yesterday. Dane really enjoyed his time with them!!

The shirt says it all- "My Heart Belongs to Grandpa!"

Grandma and Dane play with his fun new alphabet school bus!

Fun on the slide!

Future veterinarian??

We can't wait to see both sets of grandparents again in a month when we head home to the cold!! It will be our first visit home during the winter since we've lived in Nevada.

Arizona

While Mike's parents were here, we took a quick trip to Arizona to visit some of their family. Along the way, we stopped in Tucson to visit our friends Bill and Sara. They used to live very nearby, and we miss them lots!

Dane and his cousin Christopher became fast friends, mostly because Christopher shared his tractor with Dane and even gave him rides.

Three buddies on the ranch.

Dane's first horse ride from cousin Carrie.

Grandpa's turn.

Even Grandma took a ride!

Sunset above the saguaros.

Dane, Brianna, and Christopher. (He really liked them much better than this pictures shows!)

James, Carrie, Brianna, and Christopher.

Cousin Jackie and Randy.