No more dreaming of a white Christmas!

We got lots of snow for Christmas this year! This was a picture before the snow of a beautiful recent sunrise on the farm.

After our first round of recent snow.
Beautiful old house!

4-wheelin' in the new snow with Daddy!

Icicles! The old red barn.

Our farm from the neighbor's driveway.

Dane's icicle sword.

Making cranberry relish with Momma.

We hit the local Andes Tower Hill slopes for a few hours Christmas Eve. Dane made some huge progress yesterday, and now he can ski down the hill all by himself! Nora came with us and rode down the hill courtesy of her parents!!

Our little pro!

Pretty girl!

Our little "Russian" girl!

Video #1 of Dane skiing.

Look at him go!

Since there was more bad weather predicted, we decided to hit the road last night to meet all of my mom's family for Christmas in Bismarck, ND. The roads were fine last night, but not so good today! They have closed every bit of freeway in the state because of blizzard conditions. We are happy to be cozy and warm with family!!

The move

I'm sure you'll forgive me for such a delay in blogging. Much has happened recently, but we're finally settling in enough for a few updates.

This was one last snuggle with both kiddos in the rocking chair in the nursery they both came home to before it was all packed into boxes. This room made me the most sentimental about leaving our house in Henderson, for obvious reasons. I will never forget hanging that border with Renee as we both anxiously awaited the arrival of our first babies.

Grampy and Grammy came for almost a week in early November. They spent lots of time playing with the kiddos (and took more pictures which are on their blog), but they also took the time to begin the process of packing our house. Thanks again for all your help!!
Helping Grammy in the kitchen.

When it came time to pack, neither Dane nor Nora wanted to be left behind!

They tried to help a bit, but our best help was our dear friends Dave, Josh, James, and Bree who gave up a perfectly good Saturday to pack and load our truck.

Dane wanted to make sure the important things were packed!

Ready to embark on our adventure!

We made it to Salt Lake City the first day and spent the night with Mark, Anna, and Morgan. In the morning, Mike and Mark took the dogs hunting while Anna and I ran with the kids in the park a bit. It was a good way to wear off a bit of energy before all the hours in the car ahead!

Morgan gave Nora a ride on the swing.

My happy boy!

Anna, Morgan, and Mark.

The next night, we made it to Casper, Wyoming where we once again unloaded the kids, the dog and his kennel, the cat and her litter box, the fish, 5 house plants and all our luggage for the night. We hit the road again the next morning and kept driving until we pulled into the farm at 3:30 am Thanksgiving morning. Home sweet home!

Family time

Last weekend, we drove just a couple hours to get together with my parents and brother, aunt and uncle, and all three of their children and their spouses. It was so wonderful to just spend time visiting, playing games, and of course, eating ourselves silly! My cousin had made some lefse, so both of my kiddos tried it for the first time as it isn't very easy to come by in Nevada. They must have some true Scandinavian blood in them- it was a hit! If you look closely, Nora has her little fists full as she walked around the house.

Dane chows down!

Jen and Nora.
Chad introduced Dane to the fine pasttime of Wii, and it was a hit!
It kept Grammy and Nora entertained, too!

Soon Chad was worn out, so Ed took a turn.

Dane still wasn't done, so Uncle Benny gave Dane some golf tips!

Jen and Ben concocted some delicious guacamole for us.

Grampy and Nora playing together.

All that Wii playing wears a guy out!

We also headed down to Mike's sister's place for a night before returning to our farm, but I forgot to get my camera out. I think we're ready to stay home for a while now!

Snow on the farm

Until yesterday, we have had relatively mild weather here in Minnesota. Yesterday afternoon, the snow settled in, so now our ground is pretty white. That didn't keep us from enjoying the great outdoors! Here is Nora all bundled up in her snowsuit. It reminds me of this picture of Dane taken almost 2 years ago. Our home.

Here she comes!
Snow angels!
Winter wonderland.

I tried to get a picture of the three of us on our sled, but I failed. However, Dane was so cute that I had to post it anyway!

And a random shot of Grandma feeding Nora some blueberries this evening.

Photos by KMH Photography

While Grampy and Grammy were here, we had these family pictures taken by our friend Kristen Hansen. Farewell, beautiful desert!

A sign of change

I'm sure some have heard through the grapevine (or Facebook) that we will soon be moving. We will be leaving this....

...for this.
The beautiful Minnesota farm. And yes, these pictures were taken just yesterday! While the cold weather will be quite a change again, we are so excited to be moving home!

In honor of our move, this was how we dressed for Halloween last night.

Nora loves lollipops!

Go Vikings!

Trinity and Trelise joined us for some Trick-or-Treating.

The whole family. They will soon be moving back to New Zealand. We will miss all of our friends so very much!

Out Trick-or-Treating. I may have mentioned that the street right behind us goes all out each Halloween, which brings large crowds to our neighborhood on Halloween night. We went through all our candy (at least 20 bags worth) in less than an hour!

Nora shows off her moves!