Year In Review, Finally?! Part 1

As I've mentioned before in a post, the very end of December 2010, I moved into an apartment. So January truly did start with a new beginning, on my own, for real. Even figured I could threaten my mental well-being by starting another semester of school. Ahem....where was I?

Sarah started her year with being in a Big Girl bed.

Both kids were horribly sick. Non-stop. Christian had the worst of many ear infections between the two of them. And allergic reactions to antibiotics.



I fought hard for Bubba to get tubes and he got them in February


February brought Daddy!!!





March provided a road trip to The Cities with Anne for some much needed shopping and away-from-Sioux-Falls time.


A birthday boy who got to decorate his own cake




Then without warning I fell in love.


I will do an actual "All About Kevan" post sometime later to give him the official introduction to the blog. As well as a Q&A with the kids. :-)

In April the kids met Kevan


We got to work on teaching them about gun safety

And let Sarah know she can still be freakin' adorable and still know how to kick ass and shoot a gun

And since we finally had a direct link to a handyman....we put him to work


Sarah had an ER visit for burst ear drums. Yes, plural. Both of them.


....That prompted her surgery for tubes at the end of April


You can read about both of the kids' days at the hospital here if you want to.

May was very eventful! Started pretty low-key with a picnic with the kids.



Daddy came back to visit



Then this guy right here

Decided to crash this bike right here

On this gravel right here

And go into this ditch right here!!

He broke his wrist, got a mild concussion, and his 10-day streak of quitting smoking cold turkey was shot.....damn you rocks....

I felt sorry for him so I rightly couldn't get rid of him! I nursed him back to health and decided I better go meet his parents. Off to Arizona we go!

The kids saw us off

We went to the range to shoot my new gun and Kevan's bow.

This is my spread. :-) Not having shot a gun in a very long time, and going from a little bitty .22 handgun to a 270 rifle, I was pretty impressed with myself....BAM!


After Arizona we came back to South Dakota and decided to give some coyote hunting a try. We were itching to shoot stuff after aiming at paper targets for an entire afternoon. It was gorgeous. And I wanted to stay.



While no coyotes were found we did see many deer and then completely annihilated a pregnant rattlesnake. :-( In this picture it is still alive. It was coiling around its eggs and hissing at us. We felt horrible. We were not going to risk getting bitten to try and off it with a knife or a long stick so we left it there and checked on it later on our way down the road. It was dead next time we checked. RIP Mamma and little rat'ler babies.

We spent a very long day walking and glassing the hills before we headed home.


And speaking of long. This post?! Ya, I'm stopping. Here is your 2011 Wrap Up Post, Part 1!