Dakota Country Kitchen...

www.quiltingiowa.com is our new website! Don't forget to come on over and see all the new and exciting things happening over there.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our family and friends. After a few comments from family members getting tired of seeing marshmellows, I realized it is time to make a new post. Actually, Robert and I have been very busy putting together a new multi-blog site and today we are ready to give the new web address for it. Please update our link if you have us on your list of friends and check out the new blog! We look forward to seeing you all there!

Dakota Country Kitchen

www.dakotacountrykitchen.com

Hot Chocolate With Marshmellows...Mmmm...

If you saw a little girl at your door that looked this cold, wouldn't you give her a nice cup of hot chocolate loaded with marshmellows? I thought so.


The kids wanted to go outside and play in the snow sooo bad that they didn't care how cold it was. Before long, one after another they filed back inside starting with Katie. Justin was next with really rosy cheeks. His chubby little cheeks were so red and cold that they started to swell up. I was quite worried, but he is fine now. At the time we were fussying over him so much about it that he said, "Great, I'm going to die now."

Do I really need to say anything about this picture?

If the kids had their way, this is the kind of picture you would find in your Christmas card.

Christmas Kids....

The kids look just like stair steps don't they? They are all very excited about Christmas coming soon and have been counting the days. Today, Rebecca and I went to our church to make cookie baskets to give to various people around town. It was a good time of fellowship and of course a few cookies were eaten. The weather has been great, lots of sunshine and 39 degrees today.
It is amazing how quickly that feels warm!

Frosty...

One of the windows had this pretty frost on it this morning. I am glad that we are nice and warm inside.


One morning we opened the front door and saw these cute little bird tracks on our front porch. Can you see them? I wonder if our cat Daisy saw the bird when it was there?

Justin and Katie..!

Say Cheese! Aren't they cute. Right now they are outside enjoying the fresh, powdery snow. Perfect for trying out the new sled we bought at Menards.

Dakota Dusk...

The frontier life is a good life...

Getting Ready for Christmas....Already...

The day after Thanksgiving we are all set to put away all of the fall decorations and get out the Christmas decorations. Before long we had the whole house decked out with figurines, wall hangings, Christmas tree and presents. This is going to be such a neat place to have Christmas.


The kids saw the snow blowing around outside yesterday and wanted to go out and see what it was like. Katie was the only one dressed appropriately. The boys didn't think that putting on their snow pants was necessary. She was also the only one that wasn't cold. We thought they would be out there for awhile but, they came back right away. I guess Mom does know best after all!

Grandpa and Katie....

Clyde came for a visit two weeks ago. On the last day of his visit he had a conversation with Katie.


It went a little something like this. "Katie, are you smarter than me?" Katie replied, "Yes."
"Katie are you smarter than your Daddy?" Katie replied, "Yes."
"Katie, what does it mean to be smart?" Katie replied, "I know how to do stuff good."

I thought that was so cute. I am glad that she had this talk with her Grandpa...

A View of South Dakota....

I love these views out of our windows. The brown grass, distant farm houses and Spirit Mound are all part of this great big land out here.


We haven't had too much snow yet. Right now the only snow is a coating on the drive way. We have such nice weather the last week or so. Alas, that is all about to end. We are in for frosty cold weather and hopefully some heavy snow....

Snow....

Rebecca is hard at work doing her math. I had just finished knitting her a snow hat and she is modeling it for us. I think she likes it. The kids had a good time playing outside today. The snow was wet and full of leaves, but they managed to make a snow man. The best part of playing outside is coming in for hot chocolate!


You can see the snow out the back window. If you are wondering what is on the wall, there used to be shelves there from the previous owners. We are not sure exactly how to patch it up since the walls are textured like sandpaper. We will have to figure that out soon. We are already used to it and don't notice it until people come over...

Climbing Spirit Mound....

There is a great big hill not far from our house called Spirit Mound. The other day we finally decided it was time to climb it and see what it was like to stand in the same spot that Lewis and Clark stood 204 years ago.

That's Brendan standing up there at the top. Justin and Brendan both went the long way and still managed to beat us. The girls are giving it their all....

It was quite windy up there. Poor Katie was blown around a bit. We looked around and tried to imagine what it would have been like to see a herd of wild buffalo off in the distance. We did see some horses to give us a little perspective. We all were glad that we went while it was still nice outside. Two days later we had our first snow. It was only a light dusting, nothing at all like the dumping that Rapid City and the Black Hills received. Winter is fast approaching....