Mother daughter photo... a couple of beauties...

... if looks could kill, I'd have a deadly, communicable disease right now. (I still like this pic though)

Cowboy day for the kindergarteners at school today.

Cowboy Karsten

1st & 2nd grade basketball

Zane had his first Parks & Rec game tonight. His team made an exciting comeback in the second half and only lost be one point. Zane didn't score, but he did get a few shots off.
Gunnar watched surrounded by a stair stack of cousins Theo, Ransom, and Louie. Jerome is playing on Zane's team, and Uncle Rob is coaching.

Zane played great defense, guarding one of the other teams best players and holding him scoreless. He also blocked out for rebounds which none of the other players at this level did.

The first kid with braces!

It has been a rough couple of weeks! I got some kind of intestinal bug that wiped me out over two weeks ago, and just as I was feeling better the flu (first time I remember getting the flu) laid me out for a couple days. I'm still a little weak and congested, just in time for Nick and Signe to both come down with it.
While they are home (and Signe spends all day watching HGTV reruns like "Fixer Upper"), I took Zane to the orthodontist to get a mouth full of gear. He has an expander in the roof of his mouth that I will enlarge by tiny increments every other day, in order to make more room in his narrow mouth. Zane went back to school drooling like a St. Bernard until he gets used to all the new stuff taking up space.

On the ice... ice fishing soon.

Boys and guns

Abby likes Nick’s new fur hat.

It's an Ushanka-style hat. Muskrat fur.

Christmas dinner panorama.

Christmas dinner panorama.

Christmas

Signe received her much asked-for bread maker and a new robe, and we feasted this evening at the Sentz house.

Underwear for Christmas? Boooo!

Idaho cousins on Christmas Eve.

It’s getting colder...

... 2 days before Christmas. -3 degrees F.

GI Joe revisited...

Mom and Dad got this GI Joe toy attack boat for Christmas in the mid-80s. Now my youngest son Karsten is playing with it, Christmas 2017. Mom and Dad, I think you got your money's worth out of this one.

11 degrees F as the sun came up. Looks like we’ll have a white Christmas with what we got yesterday. Snow is forecast for Christmas Day too.

New wood stove makes the downstairs much more comfortable.

Gingerbread houses

Our friends the Doanes hosted several families over this afternoon for a gingerbread house decorating contest (with a lot of candy snacking as well). Zane missed most of the decorating because he had his first ever orthodontic appointment - braces are in his immediate future!

Charlie Brown’s Christmas

Karsten has his first play ever today, the last day before Christmas break. He was a narrator in the same play that his teacher Mrs. Sawyer did with Gunnar's kindergarten class.

Christmas house in the December fog.

Thanksgiving 2017

Oops! We forgot to send any pictures of the absolutely lovely week we spent feasting, playing games, napping, and celebrating Thanksgiving with all the grandparents in Oregon last month.

Christmas concert

Sadly Karsten came down with a mild case of pink eye and an occasional low fever the past couple of days, so he stayed home with Signe tonight. He missed looking ridiculously cute singing with all the other kindergartners in the Logos concert.
Gunnar is pictured with his 5th grade classmates Jesiah Brower, Bo Whitling, Tiernan Nuttbrock, cousin Ransom, and Noah Atwood. (And now he wants a blazer for Christmas so he can look as stylin' as the first three). Zane is with 2nd grade classmates Kyle McMurray and Benton Brown - ironically the only other boys that were in his small preschool class. This year there are 15 boys and only 5 girls (and Zane loves having so many buddies to play with!). The last pic is the 4th and 5th graders' turn on the stage. There were a lot of kids who sang tonight!