celebration

WARNING: This is a big post with a lot of media that may be over stimulating for some viewers. If you have any sort of heart condition, please only view a few items at a time and revisit after a few days.

There has certainly been a lot to celebrate and update since my last posting. Per usual, my blog has been neglected, as were many day to day things in the craziness of the holidays. The season officially kicked off with Thanksgiving. It was certainly one for the books! We were in Great Falls with my family and had nearly 50 for dinner. I rather absentmindedly volunteered to make mashed potatoes. After peeling 40 lbs of potatoes (thanks for the help Sam and Maddie!), I realized how sorry I was to have put myself in this position - especially after we had probably 30 lbs left over! It was a great day, though, with a great group of people. We made the event a whole weekend experience complete with a cribbage tournament, a grilled cheese cookoff and a couple of live performances at Great Falls venues with some of the more musical members of the family. Awesome.

Digging in

Line for food

December began with a lovely but quick visit from my dear Seattle friends. Carmen works for Alaska Airlines and was able to fly herself, Danielle and Lynn out for a girls Sunday. We only had time for a mani/pedi session and dinner, but it was well worth it. We shared lots of news (Danielle is expecting her second child and Lynn is moving to Singapore!) and lots of laughs. I miss them greatly.

Carmen

Lynn and Danielle

The Christmas season began with Emma's Christmas program. She did quite well with her song and people in the front row say she was singing, but from where I was sitting, I couldn't hear anything. I've tried to post the video of her program, but I think it's too long. So I'm posting some videos of trying to get her to sing her song. She is not as cooperative with videos and pictures as she was in her youth.

Christmas song, Take 1

Christmas song, Take 2

Christmas song, Take 3 (good enough!)

We again went to Great Falls for Christmas, leaving Billings on Christmas eve. Unfortunately, Nate had to work Christmas day and so wasn't able to join us until late that night. Luckily the roads and weather cooperated. It was a wonderful time with my siblings and parents with way too many presents! See the pictures below. We returned home Sunday to return to work (boo!) and then Monday celebrated another Christmas with my grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles who live here in Billings. I love having a big family! Finally on New Years Eve we opened our presents here at home. Again, way too many presents! Thanks Nana LaVonne and Grandpa Paul! Here's some videos from Christmas #3.

Wrapping paper fun

Isaac's ornament

Isaac's thoughts on Christmas

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, Isaac continued to grow. He's reached several milestones including holding onto toys, beginning to eat food, and rolling over. He seems to be discovering more every day. I often lay him on the ground and watch him explore. I almost hate to interrupt him, except that when I do, I am always rewarded with his wonderful smile that is so full of joy, you can't help but smile along with him. He is truly a blessing.

Now we are back to every day life. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas more than most I would say, but this year, I'm ready to pack it all away without the usual melancholy that goes along with it. Until next year.....

fall

Fall colors

Unfortunately, this fall has not been very colorful, so we've had to create our own brilliance. We got an early snowstorm at the beginning of October and the temperatures stayed under 30 for about a week. Although the trees here are pretty hardy (no pansy palm trees thank you very much), the cold temperatures proved too much to handle and the leaves just fell off the trees before changing colors.

We had a nice Halloween. LaVonne was able to come visit which was really nice. Emma enjoyed spending some quality time with her Nana. Emma decided to be a princess for halloween, much to my chagrin. I've never been much of a girly girl and never quite figured out how to use a curling iron effectively, so I had to come up with a creative way to make Emma's hair look more princess-like. I decided to braid it and leave it overnight. I took it out in the morning to give her sort of a crimped look. I think it turned out pretty cute. She made an adorable princess after all. Isaac just got dressed up in some "my first halloween" garb. He was a cutie pie too! The day was absolutely beautiful with temperatures almost in the 70s so we decided to venture out to Boo at the Zoo which turned out to be a bit of a dud. There were tons of people and not a whole lot of candy passer-outers. Oh well. Emma seemed to enjoy herself and Isaac slept almost the whole time. Ah, to be an infant!

Happy Halloween!

Pretty princess

Walking through the zoo

Queen mama and princess emma

After the zoo we came back home and carved pumpkins. I've never used any of the fancy-schmancy pumpkin carving tools, but LaVonne brought some with her and it was actually pretty fun. Emma loved helping get the seeds out which surprised me mostly because I think the feeling of "pumpkin guts" is one of the most disgusting things ever. Then Emma decided to get dressed back up and go out trick-or-treating. She was so funny YELLING "trick or treat" in the house, but then when we got to the neighbors, she barely whispered the phrase. We only made it to about 5 houses and she was done. Fun times at the Meunier house!

two

Isaac is 2 months old today! I can't believe both how fast the time has gone and that he's only been with us 2 months. I have been back to work full time for nearly 3 weeks now. It's been a bit challenging, but honestly, things around the house are getting done more now then they were before mostly because I work better under pressure. But I haven't had as much time to do "fun" stuff like nap and update the blog. So here's what we've been up to lately:

Emma is nearly potty trained. We went out last weekend and she picked some fun undies including Elmo, tinkerbell, and the Disney princesses. We tried wearing them last weekend, but it didn't go so hot. She doesn't quite get the concept of telling us she needs to go before she goes. Oh well. We'll try again this weekend. She has quite a sense of humor and keeps Nate and I laughing all the time. She recently started calling us "guys" like "hey guys, let's have dinner!" So silly. We really need to start looking at preschool programs as I know some of the private school programs have waiting lists. I can't believe she'll be 3 already this year!

Isaac continues to do well. He's growing like crazy and actually fits into some of his 6 month outfits even though he's 8 weeks old! He is usually very happy and loves to share his smile and tell stories. He also continues to love his baths. We are going to Bozeman to see Sam play football next weekend and are staying in a hotel, so I'm excited to see how he likes the pool. He is spending much more time awake during the day. He usually wakes up just once during the night to eat and goes back to sleep easily. By the time I have to get up for work, he's ready to eat again and usually ready for the day, which is not so fun on the weekends, but his darling smile and coos make it all worth while.

As I mentioned, I'm back to work and have a new position. I now work full-time with the PACE (program of all-inclusive care for the elderly) program. It's still a fairly new program and we're ironing out lots of problems. (Un?)Fortunately, they're looking to me to solve all the problems of our little PACE world which is challenging. But I enjoy it for the most part. Nate is now a certified pharmacy tech after passing his test this summer and is really enjoying his job, too. His work schedule has been much easier to work with lately, which makes mama happy.

Here's the past few weeks in pictures. Enjoy!

siblings

Emma has embraced her role as a big sister. People warned me, but I still can't believe how much older she seemed the minute Isaac was born. She is incredibly nurturing and protective of her brother. She'll often remind me that Isaac's crying if she feels I haven't addressed him soon enough. On one recent car ride, Isaac was quite upset and as we turned the last corner to our house, Emma said, "It's okay, Isaac. We're almost home." The first words out of her mouth in the morning are usually "I wanna touch Isaac." So sweet. I'm sure those were rarely, if ever, the first words out of my mouth regarding Ben.




For his part, Isaac tolerates Emma frequently invading his personal bubble without complaint. I'm not sure why she feels the need to do so, but she often will get literally as close as she can to him. He also seems to enjoy her voice as he will normally listen contentedly to her lengthy imaginative ramblings when she "reads" him stories.


Overall, I am pleasantly surprised and proud at how well Emma is adjusting to her new role. Hopefully her positive attitude remains for awhile.

Emma playing Isaac a song on her piano

cute

Isaac getting his first bottle from Daddy. Awhhhhh!

close

Summer is quickly coming to a close here in Montana. Although the temperatures the past few days have still been in the high 80s, the mornings and evenings have a new chilly crispness that can only indicate fall, and, alas, winter will soon be here. Because we haven't done hardly anything outside this summer, we decided to take advantage of the fact Nathan had this last weekend off and headed up to Red Lodge. Our intention was to find a short trail we could take the kids on as well as see what was going on at the Beartooth Nature Center. The nature center is a refuge for animals in the region who, for whatever reason, can't safely return to the wild. Red Lodge is at the base of the Beartooth Mountains, so I thought we'd be able to find a trail fairly easily, but after having lunch and exploring the nature center, we decided to go to the park instead of trying to find a trail. But, I have talked to a few people since then and have some ideas now of where to go for next summer. I am anticipating we will be out "exploring nature" almost every weekend next summer since I hopefully will have much more energy than this last summer.

Isaac slept through the whole exhibit

Admiring the black bear

Big buffalo

The weekend was also busy because I had two baby showers in honor of Mr. Isaac who is now a month old and weighs 13 pounds. The first one was hosted by my colleagues at work and was quite nice. It's always refreshing to see the people you work with in a social situation without the stress of patient care, although conversation always reverts back to that! The other shower was hosted by my extended family here in Billings and was also quite nice. They decided to host it at our house so everyone could see the nursery (I'll post pictures when it's completed - I still have a few pictures and things to hang up) which gave me a good excuse to clean. My grandma Sharon has a tradition of making new members to the family quilts (mine was the first one!) and Isaac now has his! Everyone was very generous and thanks again for everything!

Isaac's quilt

Emma's quilt

My quilt

Great, great Aunt Nettie and a Halloween-ready Isaac

Great, great grandma Sharon

help

Emma, Isaac and I spent the past couple of weeks recuperating in Great Falls with my family. It was wonderful! I got to frequent my favorite GF haunts including Bob's Big Stack Bagel Bakery (owned by long time family friend Bob McNamee. He catered our wedding and made our wedding cake!), Taco Treat, and Gibson Park. Emma loved the park, too, but we weren't able to stay too long because it was quite warm that day and I forgot the sun screen. Isaac slept the whole time. We also went to the Children's Museum of Montana and were the only ones there! Emma had a great time. Isaac again slept the whole time. My grandmother on my Mom's side - Grandma Jeanne (the reason my middle name is Jeanne) celebrated her 85th birthday. Happy birthday again, Grandma! Glad I could share it with you.

This 30 ft boat was built by a family friend, Dick Martin, and actually does float. He donated it to the Children's Museum.

Crawling through the tunnel

Racing the cars. Her favorite attraction at the Children's Museum

Driving the boat/ice cream shop

Grandma Jeanne on her big day

Admiring the ducks at Gibson Park

She would have spent all day swinging if I would have let her

More swinging

We also got to watch Sam play football a couple of times. Sam is carrying on the strong tradition of Wingerter football men. Ben and Jake were both quaterbacks and Nick was a defensive end. I think my Dad even played in high school. Sam is a sophmore this year and plays for both the sophomore team and JV team. However, the varsity quaterback is not doing too hot so there's talk Sam might have to move up and play varsity, which he's not too excited about. Unfortunately, the Bison football coaching program is not the greatest and the teams seem to reflect that this year. In both JV games I watched, the team didn't even score. Makes for long games.

Sam playing football - he's the guy trying not to be sacked. Interestingly, his cousin is the guy on the other team trying to tackle him. My favorite thing about this picture is #93 who is no doubt thinking "huh, maybe I should have blocked that guy"

We also got to watch Maddie play a basketball scrimmage. She's in 6th grade this year, which is unbelievable to me. Also unbelievable to me is how different from me she is. She has such a better relationship with my parents than I did at her age, mostly because she actually talks to them! She's also a lot taller and thinner than I was. She's pretty darn cute. She is such a big help with the kids, too. What an awesome aunt!

Maddie playing basketball - she's #14

Thanks again Mom and Dad for letting us stay! You're the best.