Happy Thanksgiving!

To Maralee and Jim Robinson's for Thanksgiving, south of Malta.

Great-grandma Jo and Mema.

Roger and his girlfriend, Shari Read. She just moved to Malta from Pennsylvania! They stopped by to visit us in Gillette about a month ago. They were on their way back from picking her things up from back home. So nice to have met you, Shari and see you again for the holidays!

Such a very nice time with everyone!

Love you!

Bath time

Kaitlyn

Whether climbing, standing, watching Matthew, eating, playing or crawling, Kaitlyn is loving life.

More comparisons

Here they both are at about 11 months old. Both interested in doing chores. Little brother and sister.

Happy Halloween!

October 24 - 30th has been Cold! Everyone has been making alternative plans for trick-or-treating outdoors. Brrr!

Kaitlyn has been eating solids now since the 12th. With a little baby food mill, she can eat whatever we are having. All ground up. She enjoys this very much. She also likes finger food like puffed rice, Daddy's homemade bread and getting chunks off of apples. On the 25th she crawled up the stairs, all the way to the top! By the end of the day she had happily gone up 7 times! The next day she walked all the way across the room with Daddy holding her hands. She also went up into Matthew's 'learning tower' and loved that view. Then tonight, monday evening, Daddy showed her how to crawl down the stairs. What a month! Kaitlyn is ready to do it all.

Tuesday the 27th, Kaitlyn crawled right down those stairs this morning! She's not very interested in crawling on plain old surfaces much now. To the stairs! Help me stand! Walk with me! Here we go!

Matthew still really likes story time. They often have crafts for us to do, which is so nice along with the stories. He is getting very good at dressing himself too. We're working at getting those buttons now! When he picks out his clothes, he always chooses the button up shirts. That way, no over the head or pushing on his ears. Matthew also really likes to work at the kitchen sink. The more water the better! So a very good little helper washing the dishes

Little angel

Matthew was going to be Tigger. But just wasn't too interested in getting into the costume. That was fine! Our neighbors were happy to see him.

Three snowstorms in October

Our second snow for October. About 3-4 inches.
Matthew really enjoys his scooter from Blake!

Kaitlyn always like to brush her teeth with us. She insists! She's also started eating finger food, October 12th. And she loves bouncing on the couch when Matthew has taken all the cushions off. Such a cute little laugh. Bouncing is also a favorite. On the 21st Kaitlyn stood up without hanging on to anything! She is moving along so fast! A couple days later she also started to do little scoots. Scoot, scoot, scoot, moving along with something in her hand. This way she doesn't have to put down her treasure to crawl to where she wants to go.

If Kaitlyn needs a little cheering up, we just let her stand next to something. She enjoys it so much!

One day Matthew just lined his little cars up like this. Growing up! He says the cutest things, too, especially with the very apparent absence or his l's and s's. "I yike it! Open the yid pease. Look at my 'eg (leg). That's a 'ot!"

"Otay. There are you. I don't want to miss Daddy today. Welcome home Dad!! (he say's this every night.) Look at that 'moke! Matthew check the 'moker? That's yicky! I'm gonna take a hide, right in the door. (when he peeks through the door) Please I have it? I could kocklate all day." (While watching Sesame Street's bit on how chocolate is made.)

October 2009

The first hunk of meat cooked in the new smoker. Works real nice. It's turned cold now, so Adam is looking forward to doing some more cooking again. Time to stay inside, more or less. After this pork roast he also cooked a couple of chickens. All very tasty.

Adam has gotten to cooking out of the "Dutch Heritage" cookbook from the Churchill area. On different weekends he's has made Pot Eten, which is mashed potatoes with carrots; Stamppot van Beorenkool en Metworst, mashed potatoes with kale; and Stamppot van Kool, mashed potatoes with red cabbage - all very good. He's made Krentje Brij, a type of sweet red soup; Zoepen Brij, a creamy white soup and one weekend I made Spritz Koekjes, a cookie press dessert. Though it turned out to be shortbread. I'm not sure if it was me or the recipe.

Adam has also been making a lot of bread. Mom gave us her 'Champ' blender and mixer combo from K-tec and it really helps when making the dough. So we've been having fresh bread for a couple of months now. Delicious wheat bread with all kinds of extra ingredients, plus nuts, raisins, craisins, blueberries with vanilla or cinnamon swirls.

When we came back from Malta, a load of tomatoes were also sent along. So Adam spent one weekend chopping and freezing some of those and canning the rest as sauce. What a great winter we will have around here! Come over anytime for dinner!

Happy Birthday Kathy!

October 14th, such a nice day! Two months between our three birthdays. Matthew in August, I am in October and Kaitlyn's first birthday coming up December 6th. We are having a very good time with that!

October 1st - 6th, 2009

One of Kaitlyn's favorite standing spots, under the table.

On friday, October 2nd, we had our first cold snap. It went down to below freezing tonight. So Adam harvested a lot of the garden. He then put plastic covering over the rest of the produce. Like the carrots, onions and underground things. It gives it a greenhouse look.

Dad brought Matthew, Kaitlyn and I back home to Gillette, saturday, the 3rd. Immediately we could see how Kaitlyn was so happy. She recognized home sweet home right away. She is so much more outgoing again and laughing like her old self.

Dad went on down to Sterling, Colorado to visit Jeff's daughter, Jamie. She is 16 years old now! Her Mom, Tammi, and she have moved to a nicer home in another part of town. So Dad was so happy to see that they are doing better. He gave her Jeff's old army hat and she put it on right away and was so glad to have it. Her grandmother, Margaret, is also living with them and things look good.

Dad stopped by and spent the night on his way back up to Malta. So glad to have him here! The afternoon he drove in, we had our first snow. It added up to 8 inches! The roads were all clear though, by the time he came. Adam's plastic covering worked great. We simply brushed off the snow and everything looks good! Tree limbs are down all around town. The snow weighed them down so much since they still had all of their leaves. The limbs and some trees couldn't hold it and broke off. This is just like last fall. The city is busy now the next two weeks going around town with their chipper cleaning it up.

October 6, 2009 Kaitlyn Grace is 10 months old!

Tonight is also the first tuesday of the month, so Adam has a Master Gardener meeting. He went over his Farmer's Market Managing course that he took in Casper last month. The group was excited when they heard his ideas. They are ready to also make the necessary improvements. So Adam is now committed to growing the Gillette market!

Trip to Malta ~ September 25 - October 3, 2009

Sure is good to see Great Grandma Jo.

Kaitlyn discovering the delights of standing. She is crawling and crawling. On Sunday, September 27th, Kaitlyn crawled over her first hurdle! Up into the shower!

Today Daddy also had to go back home to Gillette. So hard to say good bye.

Special treat to have ice cream with chocolate topping with Papa.

Over to visit Auntie Deb and Blake.

So many fun toys to play with too!

Thank you so much for the wonderful time!