Thanksgiving and Christmas 2017

Brig reading to G&G Heagy

During the months of November and December we moved in with Grandma Haynes so we could house hunt and spend the holidays with her. We arrived in the first snow storm of the year and the boys were up at 5 am to shovel the snow off of Grandma's deck (in the dark no less!). We went sledding almost every day and checked on the last of Papa's cows and then helped shipped them when the big day arrived. Jared was also very busy studying for his National board exam. It was great to have extra help to keep the boys preoccupied. Jared passed his exam with flying colors right after Thanksgiving. We are so proud of him! The boys got in plenty of grandparent and cousin time. It was a lot of fun being around so much family since we hadn't seen them very often in the last few years. Thanksgiving was spent with Jake and Rachel and Duke and Natalie. Us girls even decided to break tradition and go Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving day, with the condition that we had to deliver a dead coyote to the taxidermist along the way. Well, he wasn't home, so the stinky coyote guarded our newly bought goods while we continued to shop. Haha. Christmas and New Year's we bounced back and forth between FF and Shelby. We cut down a really big tree in Scoutana gulch and Jared went ice fishing a couple of times with his brothers. Brig got to practice driving the 4 wheeler in 2nd gear and Benson was good at finding all the kitties. We also spent a weekend in Frenchtown watching cousins play basketball and zipping down the waterslides at the Wyndham. Jared always had the biggest splash and soaked quite a few unsuspecting onlookers. Christmas morning the boys were excited to see what Santa had brought them. They were very good at making sure everyone got a turn to open presents and were thrilled with every present. We soaked up all the family time but were ready to move into our own place in January.