Gretchen's first basketball camp!!!

Gretchen went to her first basketball camp today at daddy's work. Kid Rocker camp. She was a little nervous at first but did a great job!! It was so cute to watch.

In the huddle
Waiting for instructions

That's right my girl can dunk!!!

Enna was a good girl and watched with me.

Lately

We haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Daddy is full swing basketball so a lot of mommy girl time!!! The Hardrockers are currently 5-4!! Have won the last three games, things are looking up!!

Enna displaying our reindeer cupcakes
Hillbilly Gretchen

Playing in the leaves

Happy Fall and Winter!!!

Over due birthday post for my Gretchie 4 years old

So Gretchen's 4th birthday was October 29th!!! I know a month ago basically, a little late!!! We celebrated her birthday on Halloween with a costume party!! It was a lot of fun!! The girls dressed up as Daphne and Velma from Scooby Doo.

Enna as Daphne
Gretchen as Velma, pretty cute in glasses if I do say!
This is the morning of her real birthday October 29

Once again call me Betty Crocker!!! I left the cake on the stove while USING the oven to broil english muffin pizzas, um obviously you can see what happened. Luckily I had ghost cupcakes to serve and wasn't depending on the cake for everyone!!!

Make a wish!! Happy Birthday Gretchen, we love you!!!

Our Hike

Some pictures from our walk in the forest!!

The girls running free on the path!!!
Gretchen thinks she can take pictures with my camera!! This one turned out ok!!

A little sister hug on the trail.

Enna saying "waterfalls!!!"

Just for fun, this is where Gretchen fell asleep on Wednesday!!

The beautiful Black Hills, Roughlock Falls

The girls and I drove to Spearfish Canyon this morning and hiked a trail to the beautiful Roughlock Falls. It is a must do to drive through the Black Hills in the fall. We haven't done it for so long, I always say every fall that we need to but before we know it the leaves are gone and it is too late. So today I said "Let's go!!!" Unfortunately, Jason couldn't come with but the girls and I were able to manage, barely!! It was a mile hike to get there, easy, but with two girls that wanted me to carry them it got a little tiring. They did awesome on the way out though, taking turns leading us on the trail, even running at times. It was fun to watch them!! And GORGEOUS scenery to say the least. It really did feel like we were in a storybook, Gretchen kept saying "Mom, we are in the forest!!" Like it was magical or something. I did have a slight panic attack when I thought of the possibility of something crazy like a mountain lion could approach us(kind of a problem here in the hills) but I just said a little prayer and felt much better!! Everyone should try to come and visit us during the fall. It is worth the trip to take a drive through the hills and see God's beauty in nature!!

Let's go Rockies!!!

We went to Denver this past weekend. We stayed with our friends Travis and Lindsay, they were such great hosts!!

Here we are with them celebrating the big Rockies win, too bad they didn't win the next day!!
ROCKIES WIN!!!

We had soo much fun and were very good girls!!!!

Aquarium

We went to the Aquarium in Denver!!! It was awesome. We saw lots of cool sea creatures. Our favorite was when real, live mermaids were swimming in the tank with the fish. It was sooooo cool!!!

Before we went in!!
These are the mermaids, we loved watching them swim, and then we even got to meet them!!

Daddy and his girls in the cave.

Look at this big fish!!

Ooops posted this pic twice, oh well!!

I love my sister!!!!

A rare moment captured of the girls not fighting!!! Gretchen loves preschool but the most memorable thing that happened on her first day was when we picked Enna up from daycare. She came running towards Gretchen and said "Gretchen......did you go to school?" and gave her a big hug! It was the SWEETEST thing!! She was soooo excited for her big sister to start preschool and so happy to see her again. They do love each other!!!

Our two favorite little people!!!!!

The Girls

Oh my gosh!!! I can't believe I haven't posted on here for almost two months! Naughty me!! Summer went by way too fast. We had a busy, fun summer with lots of visitors and a couple of trips to visit family. The girls are still keeping us entertained daily. They amaze us with their little personalities and attitudes!!

Gretchen's first day of preschool. Enna was crabby because we had to wake her up to get going, she wouldn't take a pic with Gretch.
Gretchen at her desk at preschool!!

Arriving all smiles!!!

Leaving home to head to preschool

Loves her new Tinkerbell lunch box.

Obviously the big news around here is Miss Gretchen started preschool!! She loved her first day and we are so proud of our big girl. She let us take her and leave like it was no big deal. Hope it continues to be an easy transition! She will be going all day Tuesday and Thursday. The preschool is in the morning and the rest of the day is playtime!! We are so excited to see her learn new things!! She is almost four, hard to believe. She is a sweet little girl who is pretty good about playing with her sister Enna(she is a whole other story!!!) She still loves to sing and dance. Gretchen can pull out some "Gretchietude" from time to time but overall she just makes us laugh!!

Miss Enna Grace is something else. This girl is crazy!! Jason and I are convinced she is the energizer bunny. She is nonstop running, talking, screaming, playing, acting, etc. She is just so busy she has no time to sit and relax, way to much to do!!! She is EXTREMELY independent and is constantly saying "I do it Mom!!!!" or "I do it myself!!" We find ourselves just sitting, watching her for most of the evenings and laughing. Gretchen even looks at us and giggles because of how animated and silly Enna is!! Enna can pull out the "Ennatude"(these are Jason's made up words) on a regular basis but she is just so stinkin cute(in our opinion)that we have a hard time getting too upset. We do try to change her sassy ways though!!!

Lake Time!!!!

The lake was a lot of fun this year with the girls being a little older!

Jet Ski
Super Bouncer

Relaxin with cousin Eden watching fireworks on the pontoon!

Floating with Eden and Nora!!

Vacation to ND

We made our annual trip to ND for the fourth of July. We were there for extra long this year so I could see some good friends that were in town the weekend before the fourth! Thanks to our families for putting up with us for sooooo long this year. We loved spending time with everyone. We met our friends for a BBQ at Jen's house, the kids played and the parents tried to catch up between children watching!! Thanks to Jen for hosting all of us!! Then we went to Lake Metigoshe to Grandma and Grandpa Henry's cabin. We went pontooning, jet skiing, tubing and watched awesome fireworks!!! It was so much fun and our cousins Eden and Nora took such good care of us, and played with us the entire time. We loved it!!! Then we headed back to Minot for a few days. We were able to see more friends and spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Ryan, we even went to the zoo. They hadn't been there for a very long time!! We wish we could be closer to family it was so nice to be with everyone!

Gretchen and Violet chillin at the BBQ!
Some of the best friends a girl could ask for!! I have known these girls since middle/high school. They are truly wonderful ladies!!!!

Will and Enna swinging

Some of the girls taking turns on the swing

Fun in Champlin with the Johnsons

We spent our last night in MN in Champlin with our good friends Jaime and Paul and their sweet boys Carson and Ashton. It was so nice to see them even though it was a short visit.

Enna and Carson
Daddy and Gretchen

Climbing the ropes

Fun with friends!!!

Weeeeeeeeee down the slide!