Winter Wonderland

It's a winter wonderland around here! We got a fresh layer of snow last night that coated all the trees....it's absolutely beautiful! The temperatures were a little warmer too which made it really nice to be outside. Natalie went sledding for the first time. We had a lot of fun - yes, that's Nate sledding with his cast on .....We took Natalie on a little nature walk in the backyard. It's the first time she's really been out in the snow. The pictures were all taken in our backyard as we walked around. It's going to be a white Christmas!

Meet the pets

 
 
 
For those of you who've gotten our Christmas card.....here are the Dufon pets! S'more the guinea pig, Rascal the cat, and Tucker. Rascal lives up to his name....we have many funny stories about him...like the time he fell off the second floor landing and didn't land on his feet (Splat). He staggered away from that one and stopped doing the tightrope walk on the upstairs railing....or the time he crawled out the upstairs window onto the roof of our new house....then he went down into the cold air return vent and was stuck between the wall of our bedroom and Nate's room....I could go on - he definately lives up to his name! We're still getting to know Tucker. We've had him a little less than a year....definately has his own quirks which makes him fit right in around here. Believe it our not he and Rascal have come to terms with each other and actually play sometimes. Rascal pesters him by laying just outside the boundary of his electric fence where he knows Tucker can't come and get him. Tucker is in training right now so that he can go bird hunting with Steve and Nate. He loves to chase the birds!

Backyard Ice Rink

The city flooded the baseball field behind our house again this year. Sarah spent many hours out there skating last year and was very excited to be able to get out on the ice again this afternoon. The picture from far away was taken on the lower level of our deck. It's great to be able to keep an eye on the kids without having to be right by the ice rink. Sarah likes to come home from school and skate for a little while before it gets dark. Her only complaint is that her skates are hockey skates and she wants figure skates! The other girls in the picture with her live on the cul-de-sac near us. Laura is right next to Sarah and is a 3rd grader at her school and is on her basketball team too.

Sarah's Basketball game

Dec 15th- Sarah had her second game of the season. She seems to be remembering what basketball is all about.....if you look at the pictures she's one of the smallest girls on the team. In one of the shots you can see that she's guarding the biggest girl on the other team! She's in a 3rd/4th grade league and they play every Saturday morning. Nate is also on a team, but he's sitting out his games until his hand heals. Sarah's team ended up winning the game 24-14.

Nate VS. Tree

Nate - 0
Tree - 1

The weekend of Dec. 2nd we got our first good snow. Of course the kids were out sledding all weekend. As you can see we have a great sledding hill in our backyard. We also have 1 tree at the bottom of the hill. probably wasn't a good idea to line up the ramps this close to the tree! Nate was using a friend's sled and his hand got stuck in the handle. He couldn't bail out in time and the top of his hand slammed into the tree. This was on Sunday night.....took him in Monday morning and sure enough...3 bones with spiral fractures in the top of his hand. He got his cast put on Tuesday and will have it until the 1st week of January.

Natalie's New Hat

I was having a hard time finding a hat for Natalie, so Gigi (Steve's mom) crocheted one for her. Isn't she cute? The windchills are below zero here so we definately need to bundle up now....

Christmas Cookies

Sarah wanted to make some cookies so we decided to get in the holiday spirit with our first batch of Christmas cookies last night. This time last year we were demolishing our kitchen for the remodel and didn't get to do much baking!

Thanksgiving in Ohio

Happy Thanksgiving! After a very smooth 12 hour drive we arrived at my (Kim's) parent's to spend a few days with them over the holiday. All the kids traveled really well - we got up around 4:30 am and dragged them out of bed, right into the van, and off we went.
The last time we were in Ohio was just prior to moving to Minnesota so Nate and Sarah were very excited to be there and right away stated exploring the house. My mom and dad are avid collectors and antique lovers so you never know what new things they are going to have around. The kids love to play with the "old-fashioned" things they have like the sausage maker and cash register. Right away they found a wig and hat that was upstairs and thought it was really funny for everyone to try it on. We all gave it a try and couldn't decide if we looked more like Slash or Diana Ross :-).
We spent Thanksgiving day playing games, watching football, and eating lots of great food! Mom & Dad's good friends joined us for dinner and enjoyed meeting Natalie for the first time. Tucker didn't come with us, he was at the kennel, but I included a picture of him for those who haven't seen him.

On Friday, Nana & Papa surprised the kids with tickets to the circus. It's been a long time since Nate & Sarah have been and Sarah especially enjoyed the show. After we got back to the house they decided to put on a "circus" for us. Check out the "ball acrobatics" and the "sharp shooting". Fun time for all!

Steve's 1st Minnesota Hunting Weekend

Jim , a co-worker, invited me to hunt a piece of property that he leases in northeast Minnesota for the final weekend of the Minnesota firearms season. The northeast portion of the state and is generally referred to as the arrowhead. This would be my first experience hunting whitetail deer in Minnesota.

The high temperature were only going to be around freezing and the overnight lows were expected in the 20's with some snow showers. Perfect for hunting but as you can see by the pictures we were also tent camping. Some might think that we were insane and I thought that at times but it turned out to be a great time. Oh I forgot to mention that there are also wolves in the general area.

After a 4 1/2 hour drive Friday morning, we set up camp, went out to hang stands and started hunting. We sat until dark and did not see any deer but there was about an inch of snow. So we kind of looked like snowmen coming into camp for dinner. We had a wonderful supper, pasta fagoli soup that Kim made and bratwurst cooked over the fire. With full bellies, we crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to stay warm for the next several hours. Easier said than done. You gain a lot of respect for the early settlers that forged the way.

The alarm going off at 4:15 AM Saturday morning was startling to say the least. But we had to eat and get out to our stands. Kim had made us homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast which went well with a hot cup of tea.

Being unfamiliar with the area it took me a while to find the location of the stand but I eventually made it there. The sunrise was absolutely beautiful and help to put a warmth into the body. At 8:00 I heard a noise off to the left of me and I reached for my gun to prepare but I could not see anything. But then in a small clearing I saw a deer heading from north to south. By the time I could actually identify it as a buck, it was heading behind some small trees. I could vaguely follow it through the trees but I knew that it was going to come out the other side into another opening. As soon as it came out I again identified it as a buck, aimed and then fired. Because of the amount of underbrush, I was not sure if the deer dropped or ran because I could no longer see it. I waited about 10 minutes and climbed down to go see if I could find the deer. As I got close to where I thought it should be, I saw the body laying in the brush. It was not until I actually got up to it that I saw what a large deer it was.

The deer had a total of 11 points. 6 on one side and 5 on the other. It weighed about 200 lbs field dressed. Next was the hard part. I had to drag it back to the campsite that was about .4 miles from where I was at. The terrain was very rugged. Finally, a couple hours later I made it back. Just in time for lunch.

After lunch, a great beef stew that Kim had made, I went back to take down the stand and check out the area around where the stand was set up. That is when I noticed the very large paw prints in the fresh snow, wolves. I did not see any but they, in a short couple hours, managed to clean up all of the deer inner. Needless to say, I quickly headed back to camp since I did not want to become dessert for the wolves.

What a great day.

1st Cereal

 

Natalie is 4 months old now and growing like a weed...she weighs in at 14 lbs 11oz and is 26 inches long. She seems interested in what we are eating and watches us putting stuff in our mouth so we decided to try giving her some cereal. Needless to say, she took it with no problem. We can only hope that it will help her start sleeping through the night!

Halloween 2007

Happy Halloween! Natalie got to experience her 1st halloween this year. She was dressed as a pony in a costume that Nana bought for her before she was even born - love those clearance racks! It's a really cute costume, but most people thought she was a cow because they couldn't see the mane on the back! We headed out trick or treating around 6:30, but Natalie couldn't quite stay awake until we got home...all that riding in the stroller wore her out!

Nate dressed as a "track star" in his school running suit and Sarah was a cheerleader in the costume that Nana (Kim's mom) made for her last Christmas. We didn't have a whole lot of kids out in our neighborhood this year so Nate and Sarah came home with way more candy than we will be able to eat. I think they counted their treats and they had close to 200 each.

Elementary Mile Championships - Oct. 27th

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Each year the high school track team hosts a cross country meet for the fastest elementary students in the mile run. It's a pretty big deal to be asked to come and we are so proud of both the kids because this year they were both invited to race. They both qualified by being one of the top runners in their grade. Nate ran the mile in 7:32 and Sarah came in at 8:02.

We were at the cross country course bright and early on a chilly Saturday morning. Natalie even came to cheer on big brother and sister. You can see in the picture that she was pretty bundled up! The girls raced first and Sarah placed 26th out of 44 girls. What's most impressive about this is that she was the only 3rd grader invited to run! She's very competitive and enjoyed racing with the 4th and 5th graders!

We don't have Nate's final standings yet, but he was in the top half once again this year. Nate got to run the race last year too. One of his best friends qualified too so he had a great time running with Cole.

Making Applesauce

Every year I try to make applesauce so Sunday we went to an orchard to pick apples. We've been trying to go for the last month but between the rainy weather and different activities we haven't made it. We headed out to the orchard after church. I wish I could tell you that I got all kinds of great pictures and we picked a lot of apples, but wouldn't you know it....by the time we got to the orchard (about an hour away) it was raining and extremely windy. We settled for buying a bushel of apples for sauce and some Honeycrisp for eating and headed home. That night we made 15 quarts and 6 jelly jars of sauce. Thanks to everyone's help and the "Squeezo Strainer" that Karen gave me, I was done by 10:30!

As you can see Natalie watched from the Exersaucer......she loves that thing!

I'm 3 months old!

Natalie is 3 months old now. She's staying awake longer and moving around more. She has rolled over from her back to belly - but only once - and Nate witnessed it! Steve came downstairs just as Nate yelled "She's rolling over". Sure enough - she was flipped over. She can raise her head completely up when she's on her belly and she gets her legs going enough to scoot around on her blanket.

In the pictures Nate and Sarah couldn't wait to rake up the first pile of leaves to jump in. It was a beautiful day so Natalie got to play too. Both kids are really good with her and enjoy holding her and making her smile.

Nate's Football Game

Nate is playing football for the first time this year. He's in the 5th/6th grade limited division. That means all the kids on his team are under 95 lbs, which is a good thing b/c he weighs in around 74 lbs and some of the 6th graders weigh 165 lbs!

It's keeping us pretty busy right now - Steve helps with the team and they practice or have games 3 nights a week. Nate plays several different positions including kicker. He can kick the ball pretty far - all that soccer helps out!

Twins vs Tigers

Nate and Sarah entered a "World's Greatest Dad" essay contest and received tickets to a Twins game as a prize. We've had them all summer and finally chose the Twins vs. Tigers game to go to. Tough call ...do you root for the home team or for your "old home" team? We were half and half - Nate wore his Twins cap and Natalie wore her Tigers onesie that Uncle Kirk gave her. We had a lot of fun. Natalie slept through some of the game and wasn't bothered at all by the cheering. Thanks for a great time kids!

Cold Day in MN

Had to break out the sweater for Natalie this morning....it was only 32 degrees!

Finally getting started....

Hello everyone! We're finally venturing into the world of blogging. We've been reading Steve's sister Kathryn's blog for a year now and love how we can keep up with their life even though they are far away - and the truth is, we don't call as often as we intend too! Nicole and Suzanne also started blogs for their families and now we'll be the last of the Dufon siblings to join in.

Much has happened in our lives in the last year. The biggest changes were relocating due to a job change for Steve and the addition of a baby girl to our family. Natalie Grace was born in June and welcomed home by big brother and sister Nathan and Sarah. She has been such a joy and Nate and Sarah dote on her. Natalie is 2 months old now and loves to smile and coo at anyone who will pay attention to her. She's a very content baby and a big girl! She's already 3 inches longer than Sarah was at this age and weighs more than both Nate and Sarah did at 2 months. We're still working on sleeping through the night and taking longer naps during the day, but she's got the eating part down, no problem!

Nathan is playing football for the first time this year. He seems to be enjoying it and Steve is helping out with the team. He practices 3 nights a week which keeps them both pretty busy. He's taking a break from karate for right now. He wasn't too excited about school starting this year, but by the second day he was loving 5th grade.

Sarah is taking a break from sports this fall and is starting piano lessons. She was very excited for school to start and has been hanging out with all her friends from last year. She's a third grader this year.

I'm getting back into the swing of things now that the kids are in school. I'll try to keep the blog updated from time to time and hopefully figure out how to load some pictures!