Sorry for the hiatus

Sorry for the long break.  If you follow the blog at all, you know that we were expecting a little girl early November and little Abigail Paige was born on November 3rd.  I've been busy since then and with the holiday my free time was usually dedicated to shopping, wrapping, baking, making some homemade gifts, etc. so I left the blog untouched.  The more time that passed, the more daunting updating it seemed.  So now I'm really far behind with just a week left on my maternity leave, but I thought I would touch base and say I'm still here.  We are doing well and adjusting well to being a family of four.  Natalie adores her little sister and Abby is a pretty good baby.  Rick and I will be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary tomorrow and life is good.  Busy, tiring, but good.  I will try and update what has happened in the past 2 months soon, but for now here is a photo of Abby and her proud parents when she was still a wee babe.  It's amazing how much they grow in such little time.

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday season and that the new year is going well for all.  Thanks for reading and understanding.

Family photos

Lori at Le Photo Design took some amazing family photos for us a few weeks ago.  I thought I would share them while they still represented our family (of three)!  Enjoy!

Custer State Park

 One of our first stops when we got to the Black Hills was Custer State Park.  We told Natalie that we were going to see lots of animals that morning.  But mostly we just saw scenery for a long time.  Gorgeous scenery.

 As we wound around the Wildlife Loop Road, we saw a few deer here and there, and 3 pronghorn.  No bison.  We were all pretty bummed about it.

 And then, just as we were seeing some buffalo in the distance, we came up over a hill and there were dozens of bison on the road.  Natalie squealed with delight, and we were all a lot happier with our wildlife sightings.

We made a stop at the Visitor's Center before heading north on Needles Highway.  Custer was a success, despite not seeing any wildlife until the end of our adventure.

Badlands

The first week in September we hit the road as a family and headed west to South Dakota.  Rick and I had been there a few years ago together, but decided it would be a nice little vacation for our little family of three.  Natalie loved it!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the Badlands, our first stop on our South Dakota adventure.