Happy Birthday, Kelly!!

Thank you, Mom, for the initial post, but I thought I would add some more pictures for Kelly on her special day (as well as some little known facts).

Kelly is terrified of heights, which is why you can still see land in the lower left corner of the photo.  Still quite impressive selfie for her to be that far out on the bridge.

We have officially converted the Iowa girl into a Yellowstone National Park LOVER!!  It took a wedding to pull her out of there this last time.

The only movie Kelly will reliably quote from is That Thing You Do.

Teddy was baptized in St. Patricks Church in Sheldon, IA in the same baptismal font where Kelly was baptized.

This is one happy Kelly after a meal at her favorite restaurant - Lucca's.

Kelly gives all of our children pet names like Macky Bodacky, or Bodacker for short or Bo for shorter.

Leo's devilish grin is all Perry.  As much as Kelly might deny it, her mom has confirmed Leo's mischievousness follows closely to his mom's at that age.

While those are all little known facts about Kelly, it is no secret that she is a great Mom and an awesome wife!  We are blessed to call you ours and we hope that your birthday is a special one.  May the next year bring health, happiness and all the love your ginormous heart can handle.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Love,
Matt, Will, Ben, Leo, Mack and Teddy

Kelly is Having a Birthday!!

Happy birthday to one of the sweetest, most loving, most gentle people we know - Kelly Buyske who is 34 today!!  We love you and we wish you the best birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Mikayla!

Our solstice baby, Mikayla, turns 14 today! Like her mother, she has a birthday very close to Christmas, which makes it a special day. We hope she gets to celebrate it in a special way.

2013 Cousin Christmas Charity Drawing

Hello cousins - please press play and see who we will be donating to this season.  I will post a link to the charity in the comments below so as not to give away the charity when you get to this page.  Please send donations to my address:
    
     Nate Moore
     2621 W Elm
     Lodi, CA 95242

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Hey all,

I got a text from Nate encouraging me to come and vote on a charity - thanks Nate!  So, I thought while I'm here I might as well give ya' all a quick up date on the Bortens.

2013 is likely to fall into history as "the year that shall not be spoken of" for us.  We've dealt with more challenges than I thought possible, and yet...we survived.  From bank corruption to business ordeals to natural disasters to major spa flooding - we're perhaps, officially "well rounded". :)

Looking into the future, we're feeling positive and excited.  Our product line of pain relief products, body care, and medicinals is going to launch (with beauty) in February 2014, we're slated to open another spa in Portland in June, my book should be done (fingers crossed) by March, and we expect no major flooding! 

2014 here we come!!!!

We're so grateful to have been able to get some time with family and friend, and also have the opportunity to relax a bit in Mexico.  It was an amazing trip and we soaked in as much as possible of this beautiful little spot called Akumal.

Here is a picture from our trip:

We're really looking forward to being in Montana for Christmas and seeing a whole lot of you.  We'll be driving out from Boulder and hope to arrive in Great Falls on the 23rd.

I hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday season. 

Love
Briana (Peter and Sabina)

Christmas Charity Voting Post

Ok, here it is. The post to submit the charity of your choice for Christmas this year. It did seem like there were a fair amount of votes cast to have them picked out of a hat with the Charity President of the year dusting off his sombrero and being in charge of the pickin'. Nate, I nominated you and I am sure that all cousins second-ed the motion within their hearts so you are it!! Let's say that all charity submissions, posted via comments below, must be submitted by Tuesday, the 10th to be eligible. Nate, if you would like to video the whole process and post it on the blog, I am sure we would all be delighted. Not that it is required of the Charity President but it would set the bar pretty high for next year's incoming officer. The Charity President is, however, responsible posting the information necessary for us to make our donations - I am assuming that will just be your address but let us know if there is a better way to go about it. Sorry to barge in and start delegating but time is a-tickin' and I am trying to check off down the ol' list. Suggestion: Maybe all the cousins should post an E-Christmas Card on the blog being that we won't have the individual gift giving connection this year. (And just because blog posts are fun with a picture, I am throwing up a shot of our dog, Duke. Perhaps it will inspire someone to throw in an animal charity - we did get this guy from an animal rescue.)

Cousin Christmas Gifts

Okay -

First - this is cousins only. Aunts and uncles and parents are on their own to figure out how they are doing their drawing.

Second - it was suggested that the Moore cousins combine their forces for good this Christmas to serve those in need.  I, for one think that's a great idea.

The question is: how do we want to do it?

- pick one charity to donate to from here on out?
- draw names and you tell your giver your charity of choice?
- start at the top of the list and rotate through cousins and we all give to that cousin/family's charity of choice?
- stick to the name drawing and gift giving?

Place your votes here!

Will's Belated 8th Birthday Post

This kiddo's birthday dreams came true when he opened the gift from Gramma Jan and Grandpa Marc!  Leo's gut totally photo bombed this photo.

Here's the birthday boy a couple weeks before his birthday, mocking a jack-o-lantern.  

Here's to our Will-boy!  Happy birthday again, Big Guy!  God blessed us big time when you came on to the scene 8 years ago.  You bring us such joy.  Love you TONS, and may God bless you with good health and happiness in the coming year and always.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday, Sabina!

Sabina turns six years old today. Although she lives in Boulder, she recently traveled (with her folks, of course) to Chicago, where we spent some time together. She's delightful, adorable, and pretty dang smart. We hope she has a great day, a great year, and a great life. We love ya, Beaner! Opa and Oma

News from the Falls!

We have had a busy crazy fall so far.  Madison has been playing Volleyball for the Central Mustangs and they had a great run.  We had district tournaments last weekend and took third in our district.  This is a huge accomplishment for our girls.  Our district has some of the toughest teams in the state and Belt will probably end up winning state.  They are pretty fun to watch...a very talented team.  So our divisional tournament was this weekend.  We didn't fair so well in Conrad.  But it was a fun season and now we get a break for a couple weeks before basketball season begins. 
During the break, Maddie is going to the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis.  She is very excited for this experience.  We are thrilled that she is thrilled!! 
My work is going well.  My job description has changed a bit and my main function is recruitment which is really hard for me.  But I am trying different things and hopefully we will get "more butts in the seats".  I also spent a good portion of the summer writing a $225,000 grant and am anxiously waiting to hear about that.  Hopefully, it will be granted and our school will upgrade our library, middle school science lab and technology in the classrooms.  Big excitement!
Jim is busy working and a bit happy that construction season is coming to an end for the year.  That means reffing season must be quite close.  So he is getting ready for that season.  He is in charge of his ref pool so he inputs all the games and then schedules refs for each game.  Crazy amount of work for a volunteer job!
Sam is really enjoying MSU and Bozeman.  He likes his classes and is enjoying ROTC except for the 6:00 am PT and Class....and keeping his hair cut short and shaving every day!!  Oh well~
Nick is doing ok.  He is ready to be done and home again.  They are not looking forward to the next month and a half.  I would imagine that the holiday season is the hardest for sure.  I know I am not happy about him being gone!  He is job hunting and trying to make some plans post Kuwait.  I know he will be fine...
Jake has 7 1/2 months left in his residency.  He is working nights right now and it sucks!  He still enjoys what he is doing so that is good.  he is beginning to look at post residency possibilities.  Should be interesting to see where he ends up.  I keep saying Montana is a great place to land!!
Miranda just gave the run down of the Meunier family.  They are busy as ever!  And we loved having the kids here this summer!
The biggest news we have to share is that we are going to be grandparents again!!  Ben and Adrienne are expecting a baby girl in March.  We are very excited and love that they are close in Butte.  Ben is looking for work close to Butte but not having too much luck yet.  I know he will find something,,,he always seems to!

So that is the Wingy news.  The Moore family continues to grow!!
love you all and enjoy this wonderful fall season~

Viva la vie!

Hello wonderful family!  Greetings from Billings.  Just wanted to post a little note about life recently.  First off, Nate and I had a fabulous European adventure this summer, spending nearly 3 weeks between Spain and France.  My favorite places were Bilboa in northern Spain.  There is a Guggenheim museum there that was pretty cool and the town itself was nicely laid out and peaceful.  I also loved Barcelona.  The energy of the city is amazing!  We went to Montserrat just outside Barcelona, which was incredible.  It's a monastery, still operational, initially built in 12th century.  It is carved into the side of a mountain.  The views are spectacular!  Paris was fun, too, but so busy!  I want to go back and just experience the city and not feel that I have to see everything.  The museums are all great, but I felt we didn't have enough down time to simply experience the city.  The Eiffel tour is incredible though.  Truly breathtaking.  We feel so blessed to be able to go on such a wonderful trip.  I think I'll forever be indebted to my parents for watching the kids for so long!

Montserrat.  Not our picture unfortunately.  Google it.  Seriously amazing.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  We usually host a Halloween open house and this year I invited both Isaac and Emma's classes.  It was pretty fun to see all the little kids dressed up.  And some of the adults too!  Isaac was Captain America (here wearing some goofy glasses) and Emma was Rapunzel.  Fun!  If you are ever in Billings for Halloween, the door is open!

Nate is going to a conference this weekend in Houston for the National Myotonic Dystrophy Association with his Dad.  There have been some breakthroughs in research in the recent years and they are going to the conference to hopefully learn more about clinical trial opportunities.  It's exciting to think that there is something that could potentially slow if not stop progression of his disease (still not a cure), but I'm always a little leery of clinical trials.  So any prayers and happy thoughts are welcome!

Speaking of conferences, I was recently in Miami at a conference to present some of my research about patient outcomes after the closure of a comprehensive health program with which I was working.  The research was well received and I'm now working on publishing.  Like a boss.

For our Christmas exchange this year, I wanted to propose we all put whatever money we would have used to get a gift for our cousin, sister, brother, whatever and put towards a nice family donation to a charity of some kind.  To be honest, I LOVE!!! Christmas, but this time of year, I start hyperventilating a little bit thinking about how to organize all the "stuff" that we are going to get.  Not to say I don't love presents and all the wonderful, thoughtful gifts we/I have gotten over the years, but I really feel I have enough "stuff" and would rather see my gift go to someone that could really use some help.  I would also suggest we do a "local" charity - at least something that helps people in Montana.  I know there are people all over the world in need, but I think we can all think of families in our own communities who need help.  Perhaps we could throw around some ideas for charities?  Thoughts?

So that's us.  The kids are fine.  Love seeing everyone's updates on here and hope we can all meet up somewhere down the road - holidays, weddings, 90th birthday celebrations, or just a knock at the door.  Love you all!

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Happy birthday to our beautiful, special new daughter!  We always wanted twelve children and we are getting close!!  It is wonderful to see the beautiful smile that you put on Joey's face!  We hope that you have a wonderful, awesome birthday!!!

Halloween in Utah!

So I firmly believe that anyone that dressed up for Halloween OR that had a little munchkin dress up should share via the blog. I know you are all probably Facebookin' all your cute pics but it's been a little slow going over here for us non-bookers! We went a little old school with Carter as Edward Scissorhands!! The three girls were a witch, waitress, and wacko! I also trended back a ways to 2003 as Darla (the fish killer) in Finding Nemo and Jerry was my cute tourist-though his fat suit was starting to give out by the time we took the picture. :)Hope you all had a great Halloween!!

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy birthday to our special oldest!  We had a blast in Silverdale celebrating an early birthday with Mike last weekend.  We got to check out his new place and the area and had a great time.  His present was some of Joey's pictures that we printed, framed and hung in his living room.  It was fun to help make it look a little "homier"!  You are a very special son, brother, uncle, cousin and friend!  After 17 years it was nice to spend a birthday with you again!!  Have a "spooktacular" day!  We love you, Mikey!  Dad and Mom

Great time in Chicago

Ann and I just spent a wonderful weekend in Chicago with Abe and Desiree. Briana, Peter, and Sabina also flew in from Boulder to bolster the family. No big whoop-de-do city events, just some quality time visiting and enjoying the grandkids. Life is good. Thanks to Abe and Dez for their grand hospitality!

Helena Happenings

Greetings Moore Clan:

Figured it was about time to jump on here and do a little Helena update.

Things are going well.  We enjoyed a beautiful fall with the first snow today.  Ugh.  Bring on the ice and slush.  Apparently it will be melting on Wednesday so hopefully it will be nice on Halloween.

The two kiddos are ready for the holiday.  They had a warm-up this weekend with our old daycare provider's Halloween party.  For actual Halloween, Charlie is going to be Pooh, but for the party she wanted to be Dorothy.  Tyson wanted to be Tigger in prison but I convinced him to only wear one costume.  Ryan's aunt brought a ton of their old costumes so the kids have had a hay-day with it.

Other things are going right along.  Ryan is finishing up the regular football season with Crosstown this weekend.  Then playoffs start.  Hopefully the Bengals can have a strong finish.  He is also starting softball workouts.  Apparently 38 girls signed up and almost all have shown up for the morning workouts.  He's pretty excited to get the season started....in March! :)







Oh and the final bit of news is that there is another Irish bun in the oven!  The two rug-rats will become the three musketeers near the beginning of June!

Love ya'll!
megs and ryan

Ben is 32!

Benjamin James is 32 years old today.  We celebrated his birthday a bit early so he could go to the Cats game this weekend.  Here is hoping it is a fun birthday in Bozeman!!

Love you~

Mom and Dad

Boys in Boise

Just returned from a weekend jaunt to Boise, spending some time with Tom and Jim. We had a lot of great (introverted) time together, including a Boise State game. However, since we were able to score only two tix (leaving Jim at the NYLIC tailgate party), we decided to leave after halftime of game that wasn't going well for BSU. Just our luck, the Broncos came roaring back in the second half in a dominating win. Still, it was all fun. Speaking of second half, my Delta buddy pass couldn't get me out of Boise on Sunday, so Tom was kind enough to chauffeur me back to Helena today. (He was coming here for work.) Thanks to Jimbo for being a great host and to both brothers for lightening my wallet in games of 31 and 99. All in all, good beer, good food (Tom's dinner on Sunday was tasty), and great company!

Game Done!

A few family members (Connie, Jan, John, Ann, Mary, and Dinger) just finished a ferocious competition of Game On! All were winners, but the Great Falls Giants (Connie, Mary, Jim) outscored the Helena Hellcats (Jan, John, Ann). Kudos to the Giants! Total weight-loss exceeded 643 pounds (or maybe less). If you want to take part in the next Game On, starting October 31, let me know.

Mark Your Calendars!!

Hello my wonderful family! Most of you have heard that last week Shane proposed to me and I excitedly accepted. It has been a wonderful and exciting time for us and we are so looking forward to celebrating with our family. We have set a date for Labor Day weekend next year. We will hold the ceremony on August 30th. I know that some of you will not be able to attend because you have previous plans, and we will miss you. Thank you all for accepting Shane in to this family. You are all so wonderful and I love you so much. I am one lucky gal!

Hey, Coach!

Yesterday, the Helena paper carried a story about Ryan. He is now head coach of the Helena High softball team. Best of luck to Ryan and the Bengals!

Happy 27th, Nickolas!

Sorry to post over Jimmy's birthday wishes and I should have done this yesterday for Nick since his birthday is over where he is...but Oh Well!
Nick joined our family 27 years ago after Jimmy jinxed my pregnancy by saying the baby would be born on his birthday.  Of course his birthday was a few days past my due date so I wasn't too pleased!  Nick and Jim spent quite a few birthdays together when they were both much younger!  I hope you both have/had a great celebration of this special day!
Here are a few pictures of Nick in the big sandbox as he calls it~

Love you Nickolas!  and I can't wait until February~

Happy 50th, Jimbo!

Today our youngest brother turns 50! Mom and all the siblings gathered at Mary's house yesterday for barbecued teryaki chicken and pumpkin birthday cake. We also had fine pasta and potato salads, supplied by Connie and Jan. Jim is in fine form -- hardly looks a day over 49. Have a great one back in Boise, bro!

Happy Birthday, Shannon!!!

September 17th means we're only 6 months away from St. Patrick's Day... BUT more importantly it's Shannon's 26th birthday!!!  Happy Birthday to the best sister a brother could have.  Shannon celebrated a little early in Billings/Bozeman last weekend with a Bobcat football win and some time with family and friends.  I'm proud of all you've accomplished in your 26 years and can only imagine what #27 holds for you.  Here's to another year full of fun, health, and decorating a new house!

Love ya.







Madison Jo is sweet 16 today!

Maddie was all smiles even first thing this morning!  She had a full day at school then volleyball practice.  We had a great meal with Grandma as a guest.

Maddie is an awesome daughter, a great sister and a fantastic friend to her many buddies.  She is rockin' her sophomore year at Great Falls Central and is an outside hitter on the varsity volleyball team.  We love you tons MadJo!  Enjoy this day and this milestone year!

Here are a couple more photos and my badass VB player!

 

 

Love you tons!

Mom and Dad