Our Little Ballerina

Madigan has been into ballet since we saw The Nutcracker near the holidays. We're hoping to sign her up for a 2-3 year old ballet class on Mondays as soon as they start it. The dress she's wearing is a hand-me-down she found in her closet this morning. She asked for the "tippy dress". Anything ballet is called "tippy" -"tippy-toes", tippy-shoes", etc.......very cute!

Since getting the FLIP camcorder, I feel like I record just about everything and anything!...stay tuned for lots more video....

Poor Dog

Madigan is in a rough and bossy phase with the dogs lately. We're constantly getting them out of her reach/hold. Below, Barnaby succumbs to being read to. He truly is the best family dog EVER!

Chickens

Here's Kyle working on the chicken coop. He was pretty excited once he came up with a design. Since we got a snow storm this weekend (ugh), it's not done yet, but maybe by the end of the week.

And here's a few photos of my babies....I love them so much! 2 of them have names-Dottie and Shiny (Shiny is a name Madigan came up with and is holding to, so Shiny it is.). I have a couple of ideas for the other two.

Chickies

Here's Madigan bringing home our 2nd chick. Our friends, Sarah and Hayden and Soren brought our first one since they were at the store and they had the chicks. (There's been some issues with hatcheries cancelling orders, etc this year for some reason, so getting the chicks has been a bit of a "hit or miss" game.)Below Madigan and Hayden take a lokk at the peeps.


Here's a little movie in the garage this afternoon. Madigan is talking about the chicks growing. We're hoping to get 2 more chick this week, so I have to make a trip to the store on Monday and Wednesday mornings to get them (one each trip).


In other chicken related news, we headed out on bicycles this morning to pick up a few more supplies- on the list: a metal garbage can with lid to keep bedding in and a tub of some sort for the chicks to live in. First we stopped for a latte, then off to visit the ducks at the duck pond, and then downtown.

And here's what a bike trailer can do for you:

I wish I had gotten a few more pictures from the back or side as we rode. We looked like we lived out of our bike trailer. It was funny and also very cool... Now, I just need to learn how to work those darn bungee cords like Kyle can!

More Dancing

Kyle took this video a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure who Madigan's getting her moves from, but it's not me! This is the 2nd video of 2....the first one was her twirling around and around until she fell down.

March Randomness

Madigan's never ending obsession with the cat these days. Hunnybear is extremely tolerant of Madigan!



Before sledding last weekend, I broke out Madigan's skis from my Mom's co-worker, Bonnie from the garage. (Thanks Bonnie and family!). She thought they were pretty cool. I wish more of us could get away with wearing our undies while skiing.

Madigan's other never-ending obsession---card making! She sits down and names people and animals that she knows and makes them a card. If you haven't gotten one in the mail yet, just wait they're on the way.



While Madigan napped this weekend, I was finally able to make these re-used crayon hearts. I found the heart tin a couple of weeks ago for a quarter at the thrift store with this very thing in mind. We didn't have too many broken and/or unwrapped crayons, so I only made a few. Here they are baking in the oven.

Sledding Last Weekend

We took Madigan sleeding last weekend; she hated it. I'm sure she'll like it more when she's older. I, on the other hand, LOVED it! I haven't been sledding in like 10 years or more, so I had a great time. Afterward we stopped and got a hot chocolate at our favorite coffee place not downtown-The Daily. Madigan thought she was very cool with her own coffee cup.

Vegan 'til 6pm

I totally did not think this was me when I heard about it, but after listening to his interview, I think this is totally in line with me. Mark Bittman's book:

Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes

You can listen to an interview with him here.

Just something to chew on.

Bozeman Explosion

If you haven't already heard, a gas leak caused an explosion yesterday morning around 8:15am in downtown Bozeman. Our house shook, but we thought an earthquake or possibly an accident at the high school construction zone ( a block away from us). We had no idea that our downtown would be forever changed....four buildings were leveled and nearby ones have smoke and water damage.
If you know us, you know we love our downtown. A big reason we moved back into Bozeman was it's downtown shopping and restaurants. Madigan and I walk down there atleast twice a week. My office is downtown.

There's one woman missing right now.

Here's a few pictures and a couple of links if you want to follow our story. (sorry if the pictures a re a little bit fuzzy.)



Great photos and video here and a new story here.

Last weekend we also got out for a hike on Sunday afternoon. We went to Bear Trap Canyon which was sure to be dry and sunny (which it was). Madigan walked quite a ways herself,which was good (didn't have to carry her) and "bad" (slow moving). The dogs were excited to get out and run and swim. I was feeling quite spring-y, but then we got snow during the week. It hasn't snowed in town for almost 2 months so we're happy to see the snow, but boy spring was so close....

Treehouses

Last weekend, we headed to the Museum of the Rockies for the members only preview of a Treehouses and Toys exhibit. They had cookies and milk! It was a fun exhibit and we got to see a few friends too. (No pictures of the treehouses, but they were pretty cool. Lots of talk of who lives in trees, etc.)

Wild West Winterfest

Valentine's weekend we headed over to the Fairgrounds for "Winterfest". It was farm animals and dog tricks and a quilt show...the usual stuff. We try to make it to anything with farm animals since Madigan is a total farm girl. We're thinking she'll be in 4H for sure. This trip she really took a liking to the cows-they were tied up so we could see and pet their heads. She really liked their wet pink noses. We also loved the sow and her 10 piglets! They were so entertaining running aorund the pen in circles and over each other. Below, you'll see Madigan with the alpacas.....poor things are always in the petting zoo, but don't really like to be pet. You'll see Madigan gently standing next to them.

Random February Pictures

I love this one because the mountains are so clear and visible from the park in town.
Thanks again Aunt Erika and Uncle Rob for the building blocks- hours of fun around here.
I colored some different types of pasta for Madigan earlier in the month. It's for her to practice sorting. The 1st time I gave it to her and showed her what to do, she got it. All future times it's been more fun to feed it to the dogs (which I totally freak out about because you dye it using rubbing alcohol).
Baking cookies.
The endless card making she does these days. I need to get some of them mailed out (oops).