I am going to Blog again...

McKayla and I spent the winter skiing and that was about it! McKayla got in more than 20 days of skiing. I got in almost as many, but hurt my knee and that took me out for a couple of weeks. I also got really sick for a couple of weeks... thank goodness it was when my knee was hurt. It would have been really bad to miss out twice.

McKayla loved skiing. By the end of the season she went down a black diamond run and thought the blue runs were a piece of cake. She is amazing. She was going off jumps and having a great time. I love seeing life through her eyes. She is so funny and fun loving. I hope she does not lose that when she gets older.

McKayla has been continuing with her gymnastics. She had a meet a few weeks ago. She did really well. She was also excited Nana came up from Boise to watch her. She did really well and had a good time. She has another meet on May 2nd.

Dan took the pictures and they turned out really good. I am very thankful that he was able to get some good ones. It seems I never get any good ones of her doing gymnastics.

Skeet Shooting and Skiing

At the end of the day...she was still up right and had a huge smile on her face. We had a great time. It was sunny and a B-E-A-T-U-tiful day at Lost Trail.

Meghan and McKayla tried skiing for the first time together. This picture is at the lodge before we got started. They both tired really had and had a good time. McKayla said she thinks skiing is "awesome" and can't wait to go agian. She wants to go next weekend... and that is not soon enough for her. After her lesson, I came back and she was so excited. She was yelling... "watch me Mom". She and I skied down the bunny hill together and she had her hands over her head yelling "whoo hoo!". It was a great day! I had a good time getting in a few runs while they were in the hands of a professional instructor.

Kelly, Lynn and I went skeet shooting for the first time. It was very fun! It was a little cold but still a blast! It was cold enough and the batteries in my camera were close enough to being dead, my camera would not work outside. I was not able to get any action shots unfortunately. We all did better than we thought we would and had more fun than we thought we would too. Kelly and I decided 2009 will be our year of firsts and trying new things. We are going to sign up for a scuba diving class together too.

Snow Shoeing and Flying

How Many eight year olds do you know who have the opportunity to sit on a private plan chatting on the phone? I took this picture to remind McKayla what a lucky little girl she is. She got to spend the afternoon flying around the Missoula, Seeley Lake, Bob Marshall National forest when lots of adults never get that chance. Next time she tells me "that's not fair all my friends....." I am going to break out this picture and remind her she is the luckiest little girl alive. She actually is really good at being grateful. I am impressed by her thoughtfulness and gratitude on a regular basis. what a GREAT day!!!! It is so nice to be living in Montana again!!!

The view from the plane as seen by McKayla. We went for a short flight on Saturday 1/3/2009. It was a great way to start out the new year. It is incredibly pretty, even when everything is all white.

Kelly, Craig and I went snow shoeing! It was a new experience for me... something I had been wanting to try. It was very fun. I was a little worried about cold, but it is hard work and therefore I was HOT!! I was taking off layers. It snowed most of the day but so beautiful and peaceful! I enjoyed being outside and hanging out with good friends!

New Years

Katie and Nick bought a new car and drove up on New Year's Eve to pick it up. They brought Aunt Weezy a.k.a Lisa with them. It was a short but fun trip. We hung out at Dad and Donna's house with the whole family until 11 or so. Then Weezy came to our house for a Wii party. All three of us stayed up until 1 am playing Wii. I kicked but at boxing. McKayla laughed and laughed, she thought Weezy and I boxing was a very funny sight.

Christmas

I am so blessed to have McKayla in my life. She is smart, funny and so sweet!! I can't imagine life without her in it. I try to take time to enjoy these times, I know they won't last forever. She is growing up so fast. She told me she had a great Christmas because she got to be with so many people she loves. She is pretty insightful for an eight year old.

McKayla got a keyboard from Grandma and Papa. She was very excited! She is going to start taking piano lessons. She got a book from Aunt Kristine and has been working at learning a lot by herself! She is an amazing girl!

Santa brought us a Wii!!! It is very fun. McKayla's favorite game is baseball. I think they are all pretty fun. Tennis is my current favorite. McKayla also got a High School Musical sing along game. She had a friend over the other day they had a great time singing their hearts out. McKayla told me I was not allowed to sing too when her friend where over. I am not sure if I should be offened or not?

We had a great Christmas! McKayla got everything she could have hoped for. We had a nice day and played hard with Grandma Donna, Papa, Aunt Kristine, Uncle Clayton, Uncle Kevin and Courtney. We opened presents at Grandma and Grandpa Mohns on Christmas Eve, then had a good morning at our house and finally headed out to Grandma Donna's and Papa house for the rest of the day! We played on snowmobiles out in the field. McKayla wasn't sure at first but had a good time. She was smart... she rode on the snowmobile instead of being pulled on the sled behind. It was cold on the sled!

I was sooo excited!! This year I am going to get into the Christmas spirit!!! We put three trees in our house. One on the plant shelf (fake), on upstairs in the loft (fake) and a real one downstairs in the living room!!! It was all going so well... until I started to remember why I don't put up a real tree. The stupid thing will not stay up straight. I am pretty sure it will end up falling over before the big day arrives. I am happy every night when I walk in the door and it smells like pine thougth. McKayla loves it.

We had a funny conversation about "real tree". One day she asked me, how would we get real tree? I told her we would get a saw, go out in the woods and cut one down. She said "no really mom... I am not joking". I told her I wasn't joking either. She was sure "they" would not allow us to do that. Then she commented, the tree would fall over. I said yes it would then we would drag it to the truck and load it up. She was getting slightly irrated with my comments and proceeded to say "no it would fall over in the house". (she was so right) I told we would put it in a stand and all would be good (I was so wrong). She then got excited about the prospect of going out and cutting one down. Well, we went to the grocery store parking lot to "cut" our tree. I had plans to do it right... but sometimes things don't work out as planned. Maybe next year we will do out and get one.

There was a constant line to hold baby Braxton!! He is such a sweet boy! It was really nice to get to spend the holiday with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kristine, Uncle Clayton, Uncle Kevin and (almost Aunt) Courtney. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Aunt Katie her family would have been there!!

Thursday was sunny and warm. Thursday night it started snowing and we woke up to a white morning. It was pretty fun. Good thing there was a firing going in the arena to keep us a little warmer.

McKayla on Kid... the horse Aunt Kristine rode all through high school. He is a good horse and McKayla enjoys riding him. Grandma Donna roped off of him that day.

McKayla sitting on the fence in the arena. She had a blast watching everyone rope. She likes to hang out with the horses and all that stuff. There was little boy there that was seven and participated in the roping. It inspired McKayla to want to learn how to be "real" cowgirl. She did have a close encounter with a steer that was not so much fun. A steer got loose and came pretty close to her. She was up on the fence, but it did come pretty close. I was up in the timing booth watching... thinking someome grab her. Jeff grabbed her and pulled her off the fence and out of the way. I am sure she would not have gotten hurt, just scared.