November

November 2nd my friend Katie and I were honored to throw our friend Jessica a baby shower.  She is due any day now.  I met these two lovely ladies back in January through a small group at church.

This was a cool idea I found on Pintrest.

Grace and I started going to Barnes and Nobel story time Monday mornings.  It is very fun to watch Grace become a little more independent.  Most my days are spent with her attached to my leg.

That's Grace in the orange hat below.

At the end they give each of the kids a little Starbucks drink.  Starting them early.

A few more pictures to gush over.  They look so much alike.

The next few photos were taken the first week of November.  Shortly after Grace was born her Auntie Roberta made her a special outfit (the moccasins are an add-on from my mom-brand new garage sale find, none less).

Now 19 months later she fits in her special outfit.

In the background is a star quilt (Northern Cheyenne) from Tuff's sister Toni.

Her favorite part of the outfit is the "sparkly" as Grace says.  I think we could use a few more accessories (hint hint to Mam, AKA Grandma Melody).

November 6th, Tuff's Grandma Merle Jean got surgery on her neck and mouth.  They found cancer the previous week.  The surgeon (who happened to be Grace's ear tubes surgeon) felt confident he got all the cancer removed.  She is now healing for the next several weeks before she'll know anything else.  She is so strong and continues to pour her love on all of us through her trial.

Grace with Grandma's Get Well Soon balloon.

November 11th the snow hit hard again, which we love to play in.

Also on November 11th our dear friend Leslie came to visit us from Nashville.  Leslie is a small business owner selling bridal veils and more.  She is the veil model on her website,  http://bridalbylesliev.com/.  She also is an actress on the side for fun.  We think she is pretty much amazing.

Leslie's top five things to do is hiking so she was in luck!  Also the weather was pretty nice considering the previous day was full of snow.  Her entire stay the weather was near 60 degrees each day.

Beartooth Mountains in nearby Redlodge, Montana in the photo background below.

Our happy hiker.

A photo from one of our hikes.  Our house is down the hill near the Mormon temple (the large white building in the center of the photo).  Fun fact, there are only 154 Mormon temples in the world.

Leslie and I went pawn store shopping and came across these elk tooth dresses.

I convinced her to put one on for a picture but we chose a children's size by accident.  Haha.

We were in Crow Agency, Montana one of the days Leslie was in town and watched some of the local kids race their ponies.  Grace was enamored by the action!

We had a mini photo session the day Leslie departed back to Nashville.  Grace did not comply for the most part so we only got a few goodies (get it!).

I love this lady! So beautiful inside and out.

We couldn't resist.  Haha.

In our free time what we do for fun looks very different now that we have a toddler in our life. Instead of movies and golfing it now looks like the several examples below:

Drawing.

Grace drawing.  In the video she is saying "circle" and "square" but her dad doesn't know all the toddler lingo.

"Around the Horn."

This a phrase Tuff uses to describe going around an object.  You'll see Grace demonstrating this in the video below:

Blanket Train.

The blanket train is a ride on a blanket throughout the house yelling "choochoo."

Biking.

Ok so this is pretty cool.  Grace got a balance bike, which is a bike with no pedals.  She's quite the natural on it scooting around the house.

Its only six pounds so she can lift it up and put it away no problem.  So cute.  I think I probably love it more than her.

Just for fun and because we can, we started fufu Fridays...

And tutu Tuesdays...

Ok I couldn't resist this potty video.  Poor Grace is probably the most photographed and videoed child on the potty.  Here she is stone cold facial expression to Tuff's potty rap:

Visitors

October 12th-19th our Pittsburgh friends, Matt and Jenny Wright, made their first Montana visit.

Tuff calls Matt and Jenny our "fridge friends," which are friends close enough you can scrounge in each other's fridges for food without asking.

At the Staggering Ox in Billings.  Matt, Goodie, me and Jenny.

We took them up to Beartooth Pass to show them the mountains but the pass was closed because of massive amounts of snow.  Good for Redlodge Mountain ski.

Matt and Jenny were fascinated by the beauty of the tributaries of the mountain which lead to the rivers below.

One of the days they were in town we drove to Crow Agency, located on the Crow Indian Reservation.  We stopped for lunch at the Custer Battlefield Trading Post, a local tourist stop located near Little Bighorn Battlefield.  In the picture below is Tuff's friend Wesley Stops, Tuff, Goodie, Matt and Jenny.

Of course we took them to our local hiking area at Zimmerman Park in Billings.

That's downtown Billings in the upper right corner of the photo below.

Long time coming, Senior Pic Remake!  We need to bring it back.

Throwing rocks off the rimrocks.  Boys will be boys.

The weather for Matt and Jenny's stay was less than desirable but we made do bundling up.

Natural stone steps along the hiking trail.

I couldn't resist this cute picture of Jenny and Grace snoozing in the car.

The day the Wrights departed for Pittsburgh, the Beckman's came to our home to spend the night. Grace loves her 'cuzzies' so.  She always asks for them to come over after they leave.

Then just one day after the Beckman's headed back home my Dad and Mom journeyed from Minnesota to see us.  The weather shaped up to be gorgeous as seen in the photo below.

Our little hiker.

See in the video below the little hiker and her little walking stick:



Tuff and my dad golfed four days in a row.  I joined in a few of those days. No kidding it was beautiful weather, hitting the 60's everyday and even 70 one of the days.

We made the road trip to Crow Agency to see Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument but were one minute too late!  As a teenager Tuff used to participate in the yearly reenactment of the battle, breech cloth and all.

Foxy lady, trying on a fox hat at the trading post.

The beautiful weather called for more beautiful hiking.

Tuff took video of the hike finish with commentary:

Yep she cries.  Maybe this time because of the CATION RATTLESNAKES sign in the background.

Of course gifts came from Minnesota to Grace Goodie.  Here she is in a skirt from Auntie Heather.

One of the days while the boys golfed, Oma, Grace and I went to the zoo.  Oops!  It was Boo at the Zoo day.  We didn't know the kids were supposed to come dressed up.  Good thing I had her owl hat on.

We took this little guy in for a week.  We thought about keeping him but found him a great home with a young retired lady instead.  He didn't appreciate Grace's play, especially since he's only around four pounds.

My parents left town on Sunday the 27th.  That same day the Beckman's were back in town for dental appointments.  More time with the cuzzies!

Sunday night and all the next day Monday the heat wave left and the snow came.  About six inches worth.  See Monday morning in the video below:

Later that day Tuff tried to drive our Yoda the Toyota up the driveway:

Monday night Tuff's brother Jay spent the night with us.  No joke, October was full of visitors!

Tuesday, the 29th, not more than a few hours after Jay left, Tuff's little sister Toni and family came to spend the night from Sheridan, Wyoming.  Amara is Toni's six-year-old daughter and such a sweetie.  So yet another cuzzie play date.

Ok are you still with me? On to Halloween.  Jeri Lyn gave us this adorable lion costume.  It was a hit.

But first our Halloween morning.  I go to a women's bible study on Thursdays and dressed up Goodie as a cute cow.

Oh no here comes the crying again.  Not so much Goodie, more like "Moo"dy.

Back into her lion costume for the evening trick or treating.

I love this picture.  She has no idea what we are about to do but is on board.

 A flower in her hair to signify she is a lioness.

The routine:  Walk up to the front door, say trick or treat, thank you, bye and see you.  Not too difficult for a treat!

No more than a few houses down the line and she had the routine down.  She boldly walked up to the doors, needing no assistance from mommy.

In the photo below its about eight pm and Grace is about to slip into a candy coma if we can get her from her loot.

After two hours of trick or treating, she is not too pleased by me taking a picture of her and her lion scat.  Notice the oreo in hand.  Haha.

Potty training update:  After a month of hard work, I can confidently say Grace is daytime potty trained.  She can even go potty when she doesn't think she needs to go.   However nighttime she sleeps 11 hours and can't hold it that long or undress herself when she wakes up needing to pee.  For that reason I would have waited longer to potty train her.  Any advise welcomed!

The video below is of Grace counting. Somehow she misses '3' and '4' in the count:



P.S. Grace Goodie turned 19 months old today.