updates

Well, quite a lot has happened since our last post! Emma started daycare, Nate changed jobs, Thanksgiving, a getaway weekend for Nate and I, a visit from Nana LaVonne, and my brother Ben moved in with us for awhile. Wow! First off, Emma started daycare at the nursing home where I work. They have a really great program and do a lot of activities with the nursing home residents which I think is really cool. Plus they take walks around the campus so I get to see her when I making my rounds. She is really doing well and seems to enjoy the other kids. She's always excited to go in the morning, so that's a good sign.

We went to Great Falls for Thanksgiving to spend it with my family. It was a fairly low key event with only 21 people. For the Moores (my Mom's family) that's a decent showing but certainly not the whole shabang. It was a nice holiday with tons of great food. Emma looked very nice in a new winter dress.

Emma and daddy

After dinner we all sat in the living room and were entertained by Emma. It always amazes me that one child can enthrall so many adults! Emma and Grandpa started the evening by sharing a piece of pumpkin pie on the couch. This pie soon became a communal piece of pie as Emma took bits of pie to nearly everyone in the room. It was quite sweet.

Emma and grandpa sharing pie that became communal pie

Emma feeding daddy communal pie

Emma feeding Emma communal pie

Shannon, Ben, and Nate (cousin, brother, cousin)

As an anniversary present my parents got us a night at Chico Hot Springs near Livingston, MT. We took the opportunity of being in Great Falls to leave Emma with my parents and made a whole weekend of it. Friday night we went to a bed and breakfast called Howler's Inn which doubles as a wolf preserve. Unfortunately the night we were there was very windy so the wolves were hunkered down and didn't howl at all. We did see them out in their enclosure and it was pretty cool to see them up so close. It was a beautiful place with great views. We spent Saturday day perusing downtown Bozeman which has lots of great shops. We then check into our room at Chico and went to our massage appointments. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the natural warm spring heated pool in the morning. Then it was back to Livingston to meet my family and pick up Emma who my Mom of course said behaved wonderfully but I think she would say that even if Emma had been horrible.

View from our room at Howler's Inn

Looking at a wolf from our room

View leaving Chico

Next on the list was a visit from Nana LaVonne. She flew in the Wednesday after Thanksgiving and stayed until Sunday. It was a nice visit. Emma and LaVonne both enjoyed reconnecting with each other. We took a day trip to Red Lodge which is about 45 minutes away from Billings. There is a small ski resort there that LaVonne actually skied when she was young, so it was fun to go back and have her tell us how much it hasn't changed. I'm really excited to be so close to decent skiing now. Red Lodge is definitely an easy drive, and will likely be where we teach Emma to ski. However, Big Sky is also not very far away and offers some of the best runs in the country. Let it snow!

Red Lodge Mountain "resort"

View opposite the runs

Another treat while LaVonne was here was Emma's second hair cut. We found a great kid-oriented hair place called Kidz Kutz where everything was kid friendly. Emma had her choice of cool chairs, but we had to go with the Navy jet so Emma could pretend to be as cool as her second cousin Matt (welcome home Matt!!!!) I was so impressed by how well she did! She loved it! The stylist really didn't cut much off per my request, but she certainly looked better when it was done. She even sat through the blow drying which really surprised me because she usually doesn't do well with loud noises. As you can see from the pictures, though, it didn't even phase her.

Loving controlling the jet

Already enjoying the pleasure that is a fresh hair cut

But most of the time LaVonne was here was just spent hanging out. They enjoyed playing blocks together. Emma of course had a few new outfits to try on too. They also played outside while Nate and I tried to hang our Christmas decorations. The visit seemed too quick. Come back again soon!

Trying to figure out the polar bears on her new sweater. Probably the first of many Christmas sweaters from nana!

Emma loves her blocks

Tada!!

Emma and Nana

Ben came to stay with us a couple of weeks ago as he just finished his physical therapy assistant program and took a position with a traveling company. His first position is a 13-week contract with a company her in Billings. So his making tons of money, including a housing stipend he doesn't have to use because he's staying with us. I'm loving it! Hopefully he'll be able to extend his contract. We love you Ben!

Well that's it for now. More news and Christmas pics coming next week so stay tuned!