At Home in the Mountains

 After basically not experiencing winter for 9 years, it has been great to have winter! The snow is beautiful. If there is snow, we try to go out and play for a little bit, even if it is in the teens or single digits. We bought really good winter gear before moving so it has made being in the cold not a big deal.  At the end of November, we cut our Christmas tree from our property. A friend from Bible Study and her family came and cut one with us. It was bitter that day. We had terrible windchill. We all warmed up with Mexican food after tree cutting.  The kids enjoyed decorating the big tree and we cut them their own little trees for their bedroom so they got to have the fun of that as well. I think having their own tree will be a great, new tradition.  We still have lots of deer around. This deer was sniffing the dog good in the dog pen. I didn't get the pic in time. Houdini scared him so this is him running away.  The

About to take down the Halloween decorations and start the month of thanks. I will post pics of the Halloween activities later when I get a chance to go to Aaron's office where I have Wifi. Meanwhile, I just wanted to start the month saying thanks, specifically to my sisters, Cindy and Tammy. The past couple of months have been crazy with surgery and trips to Texas and they have been great about letting us invade their homes with our craziness. They have been the airport shuttle, car rental service, car repair service, bed and breakfast and lunch and dinner. They have graciously put up with my whiny overly tired and emotional children. They've encouraged Maddy and all of us and just helped look on the bright and funny side of things even when going was kind of rough with surgery recovery or figuring out how to walk on a weak ankle without a cast. I really don't know how I would have made it without their help over the last couple of months.

 We had a fantastic visit with Rachel this weekend. My parents picked her up in Denver Friday night. I am sure they had a lot of fun Friday night and Saturday morning, but we didn't get to participate in that part. On Saturday we had a day filled with lots of family from both sides of the aisle. Aaron's dad was in Denver for a conference. He stayed at the ranch on Friday night so met us at our property late Saturday morning to see the house and how it was coming. My parents and Rachel met us there as well. We were also watching Theyben and Dustin for the day so the girls had some fun cousin time. We hung out at the property for awhile and then went back to our house in Divide for lunch. Aaron's Dad took off after lunch and the rest of us went hiking at Mueller State Park. I had never been before and definitely want to go back. We are considering getting a state park pass. It is so close we could go often. The visitor center was fun for the kids. THey had a animal track ex