I got online to check out what Cory Ann has recently posted and noticed her new website.  I love looking at her images; she has such a creative eye.  I believe she has several of her photos from this past year posted there, as I saw quite a few familiar faces.  I did notice that she put a few of my photos with Matt under the couples tab.  Under the headshots tab, go check out photo #8; of all of the photos that have ever been taken of Matthew, I think this one is by far my favorite…it just makes me warm and tingly inside. J  Anyways, go check out Cory Ann’s site – AWESOME!  http://www.acellisportraits.com/

Travis and Stephanie were supposed to fly out on the morning of the 30^th and after we drove all the way to Bismarck in bad weather, it was then that their flight was cancelled, so what should have taken 1 ½ hours to get home took us over three.  We did however get a bit more time with them and that included New Years Eve.  Being the blader, Matt spent the day opening the roads in the Artas area, but that evening we were invited to my mom’s for a nice dinner and then we all sat around visiting.  Travis, Stephanie, Matt and I decided to bring in the new year with some drinking games, and Sam wanted to play too so she had her glass of water ready to go.  While playing Categories, Matt made up the “Moose Rule” and luckily, I had my camera ready.  I promised I’d post these, so have a good laugh!  Happy New Year.  C*

 

 

Yesterday I went up to Bismarck to pick up my brother, his wife and my niece from the airport; they flew in from Cali.  I haven’t seen Riley since the first week she was born and she is now 5 ½ months old, so I have been patiently waiting for her to come visit…and Travis and Stephanie too J  I took way too many pictures of her, but I’ll have a good selection to choose from when I work on her scrapbook, and you can be certain that there will be more photos to come.

 

She's growing so quickly and changing with every picture.  Obviously still beautiful, but now she's looking more like her mama than her daddy.  Here's Riley...3 months old.

 

 

I was online shopping for some scrapbooking supplies when I came across a website that has scrapbooking contests.  There is currently a ‘Best Fall Layout’ contest, so I decided to submit a page that I had done on Sam and Caleb.  First prize is a $150 shopping spree on this site, Second prize is a $75 shopping spree and Third prize is a $10 shopping spree.  Here is the page I submitted…wish me luck!  ~CB

On Thursday afternoon as it was coming to the end of my work day, the weather here was doing some unusual things.  I knew it was about to storm; it was getting gray and windy outside, but then the clouds started making unusual motions.  Before leaving work I listened to the radio, it said that the Herreid/Mound City/ Eureka area was in a tornado watch.  Great…that covers me from work all the way home.  About half way home it started to blow and rain so hard that at one point I wasn’t sure if I was on the road or not.  I thought to myself, you’re not that far from home, just get home before you get sucked up by a tornado or trapped in this car in the middle of nowhere.  The rain came down hard, in about 10 minutes time we got almost and inch and a half, but the gray clouds started to clear out and head east towards Eureka as I was pulling into my yard at about 5 p.m.

 

At about 5:15 p.m. a tornado hit the Justin and Jessica Metzger farm about 6 miles south of Eureka.  Jessica was still in town working, but Justin and his dad were at the farm.  It started to hail so they hurried to get the machinery into the Quonset and no sooner did the tornado hit.  Justin said it was just like watching the movie Twister.  He and his dad hid underneath of the tractor and he said that with all of the debris swarming around them, he was lucky to only get a few cuts on him.  We are thankful that Justin and Gary are okay.  Unfortunately, we cannot say that same for their farm.  Matt and I were out there yesterday; did I mention that Matt and Jessica are cousins?  They did clean up over the weekend and basically took a match to everything that was damaged; all that remained as of yesterday was the smoldering ashes; however, the shelterbelt on the north side of their farm still shows signs of the tornado; some trees are striped of all of their branches, others hold shredded grain bins or tin in them.  Their home and many buildings were destroyed; they still haven’t found their refrigerator and Jessica said that pictures of her and her sister were found in Hosmer, about 8 or 10 miles away.  She did say that the Honey Dew she bought the day before lay perfectly unharmed in the middle of their yard.  Most of these things can be replaced, but what really got me were their photos and their wedding rings, all lost with the tornado.  So…please remember to keep Justin, Jessica and their two daughters in your prayers.

 

Today I’m back in the office, after a fabulous week in Southern California.  Last week mom and I flew out of Bismarck to go visit Travis, Stephanie and Baby Riley in Carlsbad.  Wow…talk about a beautiful baby; my new niece is such a little honey!  She loved to take naps on me; I just loved how her little legs curled up Indian-style and she just cuddled into me.  I tell you what, Grandma and I both had a hard time leaving; if I didn’t have Matt to come home to, I just might have stayed there permanently.  It was so good to spend time with Travis and Stephanie; the three of them make just a cute little family.  We also got the chance to meet Stephanie’s grandparents, a couple of her sisters and her step-mom, Kevyn, who was nice enough to let us stay at her place in Oceanside.  We also met Stephanie’s nephew Seth who is 3; he likes to slap his butt and say, “I’m sexy!”  Stephanie and Riley were real troopers, chasing all over with us when we went shopping and down to the beach.  I’m posting some of the pictures I took of Riley while I was there. 

She's finally here. Riley Jean made her grand entrance at 1:09 a.m. (that's 3:09 a.m. our time) Saturday morning.  She came in at 9 lbs. 1 oz. and is 20 inches long.  Her daddy says she has dark hair and skin and blue eyes.

 

Congratulations Travis and Stephanie!