Last weeks warm weather again brought us outside a lot. And then this weekend we headed for kalispell for a nice weekend on the farm where we enjoyed snow, piggies, early birthday cake for Reid and special time with Grandma and Papa. 

This was an early morning misty mountian view. How I have only lived here for 9 years but have the mountains so deeply in my blood, I will never understand! 

Reading Henry David Thoreau in the woods. Fitting. :) 

Grandma K sent an awesome valentine...with a kit for making more valentines! The kids had fun sewing hearts, as well as myself!!

Just before you get to St.Ignatious, you come up this hill on 93 and then the mountains just explode Into view and it takes my breath away. Every. Single. Time.

This week we anticipate more warm weather, the science museum, more woods time, maybe a hike and Della Williams funeral. Since the grizzly bears in Glacier have already woken up, we can assume that spring is here and we will have lots more sunshine and mud to play in! Cheers, folks!

This weeks adventures were all around home....in the kitchen, in the yard, and by the creek. It was a very beautiful week, with temps in the 50's and it's supposed to continue to be that warm this week too.

Last wknd at 13 weeks.

Teaching him to change diapers..his model was extremely cooperative.

They love finding smooth sheets of ice and eating it. 

This was peanut at 13weeks and 3 days. Today I am 14 weeks!

Big bro so kindly and patiently helping little bro with his letters. This makes my heart flutter! 

Kase went on his first sleepover! Logan and the two older boys went cross-state for a few days for a Great aunt Ruth's funeral. Kase felt so sad not being a me to go, so nick and Beth invited him over for a sleepover! 

So that means I had this little bug all to myself! 💕

I've bad trouble making time for long thought-out blog posts, so I decided I'd just do a "photo dump" once in a while and leave it all blank except for pictures...unless of course there's news that needs to be talked about!

So here's a week in the life of us Braatens!

(Not our cat...she invaded us and is still here a week later)

12 weeks, 4 days with number 5!

We Are Brewing Something Special..

On our 8th anniversary we got to see sweet baby bean no.5! 

I've felt so anxious, crowded and claustrophobic these past few days, I'm losing my peace....and my mind! Aside from the literal wall of things from the kids room that are occupying my space while we paint, I've felt so trapped by myself and things that hold NO meaning what-so-ever.  So Im sitting here tonight eating bananas and peanut butter and drinking maternal tea, feeling like I need to "let go and let God". 

I have, however, enjoyed this week with my favorite boys. 

Heidi was with Bonnie for a morning this week and they popped over for a bit. It was a scattered morning here, and it was refreshing when Heidi sat down to read Beatrix Potter to the boys. :)

On Veterans Day, the little boys made a flag with Beth, and Coy and I made one later too. Here we are saying 'Thank You' to Papa and all the souls who did, are, and will fight for our beautiful country. 

A new favorite book is "Diary of a Worm", so Coy and Bent are making their own diaries...of a bull and an alligator ;)

Nothing stops whining and fighting faster then a pack n play tipped on it's side and a pile of blankets. They wanted to hunt this day, so I cut out a deer head for them. This lasted for hours :) Win!

These two...so cute, right? Except they love to just antagonize each other till they're screaming and have everyone else screaming too! Gaaaah!!

Now Beth is helping me paint the boys room!! She's a serious pro at it and oddly loves to paint, so I'm glad she's closeby! This blue room is not only annoying me, is also seriously banged up! We've got fun plans for this room!!

Here's after a few hours, and we have more to paint tomorrow. I'm excited!

The boys are camping out in the living room but it's quiet now, so I suspect they've all fallen asleep...including Daddy! <3 My turn now. 

Night all! Sweet dreams and wake refreshed! 

Flathead and beyond..

Everytime we go up to the farm, I come back with warm fuzzies...and lots of pictures :)

This Reid. I tell ya! His "Sapling" shirt is from one of my favorite companies, Alpine Baby Co. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I found out they're in Whitefish!!! So a super local company that I love love love! And bugs moccasins are from Starry Knight, which is about 15 miles to the south of us. Montana sure makes good stuff!! :)

Like the new family portrait? Hmm, that must be what we have to do when we book a slot with a professional...b.y.o.p...bring your own pig? Everyone's smiling!

This is taking ones love for bacon to a whole new level! Oink!

We all got to help daddy with chores on Sarurday morning. It's in these guys blood...I'm tellin ya! They have never wanted to help so bad in their life before :)

Even Reid! I set him up so that I could shut the gate...but as you can see, a gate can keep the cows in, but can't keep a little country boy out!

On Sunday we went to Ade and Anna's to celebrate Gramna Mary's birthday! I don't have pictures to show for it, but it was so nice to celebrate a lady who holds a big chunk of our hearts! Happy 50mmrph birthday Mary! <3

Friday night we went to the soccer banquet to celebrate how proud of the boys we were!! A taco feed, 200+ soccer players and their families, and giddy kids made for a noisy evening! They got little dog tags with their name, team and year engraved on them. We already can hardly wait for next season!

We will surely miss this spot during the winter. When we got too frustrated and tense to let a good day happen, we head down to the river. We left the books at home and made math with nature. However, the wind always blows harder there then in our yard, so we are usually in for a chilly surprise when we get down there. Ahhh, bitterroot river, you've pleased us greatly!

It was Beths (and Olga's, who we phoned for birthday singing!) birthday last week, and it happened to be our science museum day...and ALSO just happened to be across from The Market on Front, recently dubbed as the 'best latte ever' place. So here we celebrated a fantastic friend whom we love and appreciate greatly. (The little girl, baby J we call her, is the granddaughter of our neighbors who we meet with on Wed nights. Beth cares for her most days of the week)

It's getting colder now, in fact there's snow here now. But for the Wisconsin readers, I'm sure ours doesn't even compare! I missed my chiro appt this morning bc the van doors were all frozen shut and nearly missed it again this afternoon too bc they were STILL frozen! So, not wanting to reschedule for a 3rd slot, I dumped hot water over the track and it did the trick. Barely. 

This boy, he is a beautiful boy! Ok, so he's pretty handsome too, but his heart is so beautiful and large. He's got a lot of crazy energy to burn off before he gets there, but he is tender, kind and so helpful with his little brothers. He also turns FIVE in 9 days!!

Mmk, we are now a flatbed fam at Costco. And this isn't our usual loot either, we usually have more. However, even though it's a chore to go and tiring; I am so so thankful for a daddy who provides and we can get a flatbed cart full of fruits and veggies for our boys. And a cartful of Kalispell Creamery milk from Rosaurs every week. Hey, does anyone have an extra fridge they're not using? We could really use another... 

I got this sweet SWEET picture in my inbox one morning. Baby Lucas is now 4 months, and those cheeks are driving me crazy, as I want to kiss them! I'm soaking the picture in, because by the time we get to meet him in person, he may have already lost those sweet chunky cheeks!

We made a Fall Treasure board. I kinda really like it :) We learnt during this project, that the hot glue gun is indeed hot. 

Well, baby is done nursing and has entered the land of nod and I really have no reason to let my husband keep doing the dishes by himself out there anymore. 

Just kidding, I'm nice and warm, maybe I'll tell him the dishes can wait..there's a sleeping baby here who will be a bit bigger in the morning. 

Keep warm, all!!