My little prodigy fashionista

Grace fashioned this turtleneck for her Barbie out of a baby sock. Aww, she has a definite future on Project Runway, I can see it now!

Brrr!

Welcome to North Dakota! Matt had an all morning JV tennis tournament today over in Mandan, and it was SO cold! It was in the mid 50's, but the wind was blowing pretty good and it was cloudy and misty. Not a lot of fun to play tennis in, or be a spectator for, for that matter! He lost all 3 of his matches, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-3. He did get out of school for the day, so that made it all worth it ;).

The weekend in Daglum

We drove over to Grandpa Jim's Saturday morning to watch the Iowa game and relax for the weekend. It's been pretty hot up here...in the upper 80's mostly. It is finally supposed to cool off next week. It gets so nice in the evenings though! We took our usual drive around the country Sat. evening after the game, and it's beautiful with all the wheat out of the fields. Everything is golden. The wheat crop was so good this year that farmer's have to put the harvested wheat in their fields or yards because the grain bins are too full. Doug had a huge pile of wheat in his front yard....when we pulled up the deer were nibbling on it. The dogs had a great time running around too, with the wheat out of the fields they have lots of running room!

Roger Federer

Matt has really been enjoying tennis. He's gotten a lot better in the past few weeks and has started playing matches. He has won 2 of his singles matches so far, and one doubles match. These pics are from his first match against Dickinson. It was at Dickinson, so Grandpa Jim met us there and got to watch him play (when Grace wasn't dragging him all over the grass and to the park :) ).

Yes, we have moved in!

We moved in last Wednesday, and have finally been able to see the floor! A lot of the boxes are unpacked, but there are still messy piles laying all over the place. I took a few random pictures...please disregard the mess. I will be painting the big red wall in the living room, probably a green like my kitchen in Ankeny. We really like our house! It's cozy and warm and is set back from the street just enough to be a little private. Ben has 3 friends on our street, and Grace has a friend who is in Ben's grade 2 houses down. Matt is loving tennis and has made lots of friends, and Tyler is starting to like his classes and school too. Phew! Once we are totally settled it will be great!

The Countdown Is On!

Less than 2 days until The Candlewood Suites are HISTORY!!!! Woohoo! We are all more than ready to blow this joint. We close on our house at 8:30 am Wednesday morning. The moving van should be there when we get done. This has been a *really* long weekend in the old Candlewood...we are driving each other crazy. The poor dogs are going nuts too. The one good thing about this place is the pool...the kids have been swimming at least twice a day every day. The best $1.76 I've ever spent is on these swim masks & snorkels. They were 90% off at the local drug store, so $1.76 for the pair! They had a lot of fun with them.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park

Today Ben, Grace and I drove 7 miles south of Mandan to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. General Custer and his troops stayed in this spot before moving on to Little Big Horn. The Custer house and the troops quarters are still there. They also have a Visitor's Center, a reconstructed Indian Village, some lookout towers on the bluffs of the Missouri River, and an old cemetery with wooden gravestones (that have been replaced and repaired through the years). We had a lot of fun...Ben really enjoyed it. Grace threw a couple of bratty crying fits for relatively ridiculous reasons, but I think she liked it too. I even saw a guy with a Hawkeye hat on! We Hawks are everywhere :).

We also stopped at the Veteran's Cemetery, which is near the State Park. My Great-Uncle Noble Peterson (Grandpa Stewart's brother who passed away in the spring) and his wife Betty are buried there. Noble was a great fighter pilot in the Air Force in WWII. The cemetery is beautiful!