Happy New Year from Billings!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLY!!

Happy Birthday to the woman who makes life so easy for the special men in her life.  Whether it is whipping together magnificent feasts for dinner or putting together Chevy Silverado birthday cakes for her son, she does it all with love in her heart and a smile on her face.  We love you and thank you!  May today be an easy day for you.  God bless you!

Love, 

Your Five Special Men (and the baby on the way)

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

It's Hannah's birthday today. She and her daughter Mikayla have birthdays so close to Christmas that they sometimes don't get the celebration they deserve. Well, we celebrate Hannah's photographic flair, her community involvement, her wonderful family, and her sparkling smile. We hope you have a great birthday, Hannah Banana! Love you a bunch.

Wingerter Christmas!

Christmas 2012 was a fun filled event at the Wingy house!  Everyone was home including Dee, Jake's girlfriend.  We really enjoyed meeting her and having her spend Christmas with us.

The last photo of all the kids in their letter jackets is so cool.  Maddie was excited to get her jacket and I really like the Central colors amidst all that Bison blue!  And the years...98, 00, 03, 05, 12, and 16.  So many memories in all that time, with many more to come!

Here's wishing you all blessings and peace in 2013~

Best Christmas Ever!

Hey all!  Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday with family and/or friends.  We are enjoying ourselves here in Plano with the Texas Buyskes.  The four boys are a riot (literally) and I can't imagine adding a 5th to the mix.  The big news for me is I asked my girlfriend Erin on Christmas Eve to marry me, and she said yes.  So we are going to be having another Moore wedding in the future.  When we decide on a date and place, we will let everyone know as soon as possible.  I am looking forward to everyone getting a chance to meet her and see how awesome she is.  Take care and have a joy-filled new year!

This is from her sister's wedding in San Antonio in October.

Happy Birthday, Mikayla (yesterday)

Well, we're a day late but certainly no sentiment short. Mikayla became a teenager yesterday, and I'm sure it involved a lot of celebration. I also hope our package got to her on time. Happy (belated) birthday, Mikayla! We look forward to more great accomplishments from you. Much love -- Opa J and Gramma Ann

Spontaneous Gathering!

Wednesday found all six of us in Great Falls due in large part to Tommy's urging for Johnny and I to come to Great Falls.  We all went to lunch with Gramma, Ben, Bill and Jim W.  It was a blast!  Anytime that we all get together it is a good time.  A big thank you out to Tommy and Jimmy for putting together four sets of shelves and cleaning out Gramma's garage.  The rest of us got off scot free with just paying Tommy for the shelving.  It looks GREAT!!  Now to just get Gramma to go through all of the boxes that are marked and throw stuff away.  Good luck with that!  Merry Christmas to all!!

Wingerter update...

I think we have forwarded lists to all concerned parties so I thought we would just update our statuses...if that is a word.  We have been busy; work is busy, reffing stuff is busy, following Maddie is busy...life just seems busy.  Throughout all that busyness we are feeling truly blessed.  Maddie is loving high school life at Central.  the small school seems to fit her right now.  She is playing basketball on the JV team and doing really well.  They have had 3 games and are 2-1.  At Central, families are required to give 30 hours of voluteer work.  Of course for Jim and I that isn't too difficult.  We had our hours done by the end of October.  We are people who really like to be involved (I bet you didn't know that!!) so we are continuing to do what we can.  I just don't think we will be running the scoreboard or keeping book like we did for volleyball!
We attended our first meeting for the booster club in November.  They asked if I had any ideas for fundraisers and, funny, I did!  The president is stepping down after 4 or so years in the position and the next thing I knew they voted for me to replace him.  So crazy!  But it should be fun.
Jim is also in charge of his referee pool this year and imputing all the games (all 1300 of them) into their scheduling program.  So I am definitely not the only crazy person in this house!
Ben is back in the Falls for a while.  He wanted to be here for Christmas so he left Maui a bit early.  No worries I think he already has some possibilities for work lined up for after the first of the year.
Jake will also be home for Christmas.  We are so looking forward to meeting his girlfriend Deanne.  They will be here on Friday.
Nick gets home on Friday also, will be here for Christmas and then he will spend most of January in California gearing up for their deployment in March. 
And we are super excited that Sammy gets to come home too!  He will fly into Billings on Friday and will be able to be here until Jan. 2 when he has to report back to Fort Sam Houston.  He is enjoying the challenge of the Medic course work.  Right now they are working on the paramedic portion and after Christmas he will take the licensing exam to be a nationally certified paramedic.  After that they begin the actual army medic stuff.  Scary thought that this 19 year old could be saving lives in just a few months!
We would love to see any and all who venture to the Falls during the holidays.  Grandma would love to see you all!!  We are having an open house next Sunday, the 23rd, so if you want to come crash our party we would LOVE it!!

Christmas blessings to you all and may God grant PEACE to us all.

Love to you
Mary

ChicagHo Ho Ho

Merry Christmas, everyone, and thanks for posting your lists!

 Diz and I already received the best gift imaginable this year, so our list is short and simple.  Our favorite thing is always a visit from you.  Next favorite is something that you made.  We also like things from Montana, but we live in a very tiny place with no room for any new stuff.  So we like treats - wines and cheeses and teas and coffees and any other treats from you.  Donations to Helena Food Share are also quite appreciated.

We will be headed to San Diego for Christmas, so we won't be able to see any of you unless you would like to join us down there, which you are certainly welcome to do.   Because we won't make it to Montana, we would sure like to see pictures on here of your homes all decorated for Christmas - that means you, Gramma!

We haven't really decorated for Christmas, but here are a few pictures of little John!

Meunier list and updates

Hello all and Merry Christmas and Happy Tidings and All That.  Hope you are all having a wonderful season so far.  I am almost done with everything so bring on the eggnog!  And a little somethin-somethin to wash it down with.  Ha! 

For our list this year, I don't have much to ask for.  We all love doing puzzles or playing games together, so anything along those lines.  I would also love a donation to Billings Catholic Schools or the Alzheimer's Association. 

Life in Billings has settled down quite a bit.  We've finally moved into our new house after the Billings Moores were so gracious to let us stay with them even after our closing date had been pushed back.  Twice.  We had such fun with them, but it was time for us to get going.  I love our new place.  It's so us and very comfy feeling.  Please come visit!

Nate and Emma both started school this year.  Nate is at a program at Rocky Mountain College for computer science and Emma started Kindergarten.  She is LOVING school which is way cool.  Isaac also started a 3-year-old program there and seems to like it.  He's quite the character.  I am still loving my job and am involved in a possible grant program to start a comprehensive medical program for people with dementia and also promote early detection of memory problems.  It's pretty exciting and would be totally awesome if we get the grant.  I also am working on a research study and was invited to present findings at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) annual convention in July, so that will be pretty cool.  I am also going to try and run for the state representative position for the AANP.  So, like always, I am keeping myself busy. 

You all should be receiving our Christmas card soon.  I am posting this at work (!) so I don't have any pictures to post, but I wanted to provide a link from our recent photo shoot with Jana Graham, my favorite photographer.  If you're ever in Billings and want some great pics taken, she's your gal.  Mom and Dad and Maddie happened to be in town the day we shot, so they got in on the action too!  Here's the link.  Click on Meunier and the password is family.  Enjoy! 

http://www.janagrahamphotography.com/client-login/

J & A lists

I should post, since I started this effort. Remember to put up your lists! Ann: donation to Helena Food Share; iTunes or Amazon gift card; Montana Book & Toy Co. gift card, Montana river system map (big); interchangeable screwdriver; Birds and Beasley's gift card; Walt Whitman poetry. John: donation to Lost & Foundation; ceramic knife (like the one Abe and Dez gave me two years ago and Marc gave me last year; I keep breaking them. Damn.); iTunes gift card; funky green ties; groat cakes (just came to mind); a nice bottle of Cabernet; racquet balls; a fiddle; duct tape (black). We hope you all have a great St. Nicholas Day tomorrow!

Christmas lists

Guess I'd better get my 2 cents worth in before it's to late. I don't know how John got so lucky to get me again but here goes.
Donation to the Peace Hospice building fund
Gift card to Penney's, Herbergers, or LL Bean
World peace and family harmony--don't think our family has to worry to much on that score!

Hey, John Rubin!

Ann and I had a great (quick) trip to Chicago. As always, Abe & Dez were great hosts, and the star of the show was their wonderful son, John Rubin. We've discussed what to call him -- "John John,"(JFK?) "JR." (Larry Hagman?) "Peanut," (too late now?), "J. Rubin" (a bit too corporate?), "Ruby" (tough in grade school?) "Jack Ruby" (JFK?) "Little John," (it seems to fit) "John Rubin" (maybe the best fit). I like John John, but I'm just a voice in the wind. This will take some sorting out. I will report, though, he is an even-tempered infant -- alert, thriving, absorbing the world around him, and still quite non-verbal. We found that he's quite capable of soiling Abe's office with one simple explosion. Here's just one photo of many, depicting three generations of Moores -- eyes closed, oblivious to the world around them.

Here's another shot. (Sorry for excluding the mom and grandma from this post; it's just too much fun for the guys.)

TX Buyske Christmas List

Our list is pretty simple this year.  We would love a donation made to the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, South Dakota.  Their mailing address and phone number is

Benedictine Sisters

Sacred Heart Monastery

1005 W. 8th Street

Yankton, SD 57078

605-668-6000

We hope everyone has an awesome holiday season.  We are pumped to be having a contingent of the Buyske Clan coming our way for Christmas.

Marc and Jan's list

Well, since no one seems to be following our fearless leader's wish of putting Christmas lists up - except Joey - so I thought I would put another push out there and say COME ON PEOPLE!!!  Our couple is going to get Griz gear if they don't get something up here pronto!!

My list consists of:  fun potholders with coffee/latte stuff on them.  No fruit or old lady stuff like that, please.  A contribution to the Angel Fund in Helena.  That is it for me.

Marc:  Gift card to Cabelas or Land's End; contribution to Helena Food Share; good paying acting job for Molly

I hope the rest of you will really try to get things up here.  If we aren't going to use the blog and let others know what we would like to do or get lists out somehow then maybe we ought to quit trading names.  It just stresses some people out to not know what to get others.  I don't mean to sound rude during this beautiful season because this is my favorite time of year.  It is so much fun to prepare hearts and minds for the special day of Christmas.  And it is alas fun to buy for others!  There is my post-surgery preaching!  :):):)

Update

Hello wonderful family of mine!!! I hope that everyone is doing well this holiday season. I am enjoying life in Guam.  I spent my Thanksgiving weekend in Chuuk.  It is a small island that is part of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).  This island has a lot of WWII history.  It was a dive trip, so I spent 4 days going on 11 dives and saw 9 different wrecks.  We explored all aspects of these ships---inside and out. It was an awesome experience and something that I don't think I will forget too soon.  I have included some pictures to give a taste of what I saw.

We dove the Fujikawa, Heian, Yamigiri, Shinkoku, Rio, Sankisan, Nippo, Gosei, and Kansho.  The lagoon holds over 60 wrecks that range in depths from snorkeling to well over 200 feet.  These ships were Japanese ships and were anchored inside the lagoon when Allied forces bombed them in February of 1944 in what is known as Hailstorm.  Some of these ships were still anchored at the time they sank.  All of them hold a variety of artifacts, some bones, and awesome interior engine rooms, machine rooms, and a variety of other parts of the ship are still well intact, especially for being close to 70 years old.  A large part in why the ships are still in the shape they are in is because they are protected.  If a diver comes up with any artifact from the ship, they face major reprecussions.  Unfortunately, that is not the same here in Guam, so a lot of the wrecks here have been stripped of their artifacts.  It was awesome to be able to see the variety between the wrecks and the different things each wreck is known for.  I was very impressed, and had an amazing time with a pretty cool group of people.  People fly from all over the world to come to this place.  I ran across a group of people that were from Texas, Colorado, Oregon, as well as from Germany, England and Australia.  It was so cool to see that so many people spend thousands of dollars to come to this small island, and it is just an hour away from Guam.  There are many more pictures, but these are just a few fun shots.  One is of me sitting on an old car inside one of the wrecks, one is an operating table with some femurs, one is of me free diving through one of the wrecks, and the other is my roommate and I attempting a handstand on one of the smoke stacks.

As far as everything else. Things here in Guam are going well. I am staying pretty busy with work, but also finding time to have plenty of fun.  I am slated to move this coming June. I will be heading to Mayport, Florida to do some defense work.  I will hate leaving this island behind, but I am excited about the fact that I will be back in the States and closer (at least closer than Guam) to family. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays in their own special way.  Can't wait to see pictures and hear stories of everyones' Christmas adventures.

Love to you all.
Jen

Joey's List

My list (per John's request) is pretty simple this year:

iTunes Gift Card
Target Gift Card
Donation to Carroll College

That's about it.  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and that this holiday season is blessed and full of cheer.

Frankenturkey

Post Script

Okay ... not a lot of response so far. Here's an important p.s. -- when posting your Christmas wish list, please make it a main post, NOT a comment to an existing post. Putting up a main post makes it a lot easier for folks to see it and to find it later. And above all, post it!

Posting post Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. And you definitely should have, because everyone who's part of this blog has so much to be thankful for. First of all -- family. Second -- each of you has made the effort to find your way in life for the betterment of self and others. Not only family, but your local communities and the world at large. There's a lot of good in that, and the world needs all the good we can give it. Being able to do that is grounds for gratitude. Ann and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Maurika and family. Everyone else in in the immediate family (by accounts over the phone) also had a helluva holiday. Even Abe and Dez with the Frankenturkey. We (and that includes you) are blessed. Now ... as we move on with a song in our hearts, a couple of action items. Number one, post your Christmas lists. Your grandparents and siblings and cousins want to know what you know you want -- even if it's a golden leaf. Number two, post more on this blog. Be part of the Four F Club -- Forget Facebook and Focus on Family. Or another Four F -- Family, Fun, Fotos, and Future. Happy holidays!

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY, WILL!

A very happy birthday to our wonderful first born.  Seven years ago Kelly and I were blessed with a healthy, happy (albeit slightly late) 8lb 14 oz boy.  Now we are still blessed with a wonderful soccer player,

big cousin,

and big brother!

That you for being such a wonderful blessing to us, Willboy!  We love you!

Love,
Mom and Dad

John Rubin update...

CLICK HERE for a few pictures of his first week.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mikey!

Well, I dropped the ball as the mother of the birthday boy!!  I got lots of grief for not posting something for Michael's birthday!  I am sorry, son!  It sounds like you had a great birthday!  Next year maybe you will get a cake on your actual birthday!  This is Mike celebrating last summer with a banana cream pie - his favorite!!  Mama Knows made him a special one and it was good!  Love your laid back attitude and your loving older brother ways!!  You are special!!

John Rubin Moore

 

Yesterday, on Halloween and Mike Buyske's birthday, John Rubin joined our family.  He was born at about 6:30 p.m., weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz, and is 20 inches long.  He is named John after my grandfather and father and Rubin after Desiree's grandfather.  His state is Maryland, which he shares with Jim. Desiree and John are doing very well and we are both quite overwhelmed with emotion.

 

Happy Anniversary!

Sorry to post over Ben's birthday. I think it'll be an annual collision. Abe and Desiree celebrate their fourth anniversary today -- and their first as parents. Just a few more days until their parenthood hits full bloom. Love you two and hope you've been having a great day!

Happy 31st Birthday, Benjamin James!

 

Benjamin James is 31 years old today!  The weekend that Ben was born was opening day of hunting season.  His grandpa Leo and a bunch of friends stopped in Bozeman on their way to their hunting camp.  Grandpa did his best to get Jim to join them...it is really a good thing he didn't go because there might not have been Jake, Nick, Sam or Maddie!

 

So this is Ben's life right now...living in Hawaii, working at a hospital on Maui and seeing sunsets like this~it's tough for sure! 
Enjoy your day Jamin!  I wish I could be there to help you celebrate.  We will have a good glass of wine next time I see you.

Love you tons!
MOM

Christmas Exchange

Hi all!!  I was going to put this up last night but couldn't post over Hannah's beautiful post!  Meg drove me crazy and did the drawing a while ago, and I forgot to post on the blog.  It is done and here is how it goes (Giver is first - receiver is second):

Rika & Family - Maddie
Abe, Des & Bitty - Jake
Hannah & Family - Nick
Bri & Family - Shannon & Birch
Mike - Randa & Family
Matt & Family - Ben
Joey - Hannah and Family
Meg & Family - Rika and Family
Jen - Sam
Molly - Bri and Family
Nate - Mike
Shannon & Birch - Jen
Randa & Family - Matt & Family
Ben - Molly
Jake - Meg and Family
Nick - Joey
Sam - Abe, Des and Bitty
Maddie - Nate


Connie  -  Tom
Bill  -  Jeanine
Jan  -  Mary
Marc  -  Jim W
Johnny  -  Connie
Annie  -  Jimmy
Tommy  -  Johnny
Jeanine  -  Jan
Mary  -  Billy Boy
Jim W.  -  Annie Belle
Jimmy  -  Marc

So there you have it!!  Now everyone needs to get lists, wants, etc. on the blog.  Let's get this Christmas 2012 going!!!

Just a Philpot update

"

Was nice to see those of you that I did for that brief trip up for Grampa O's funeral. While there, Tom mentioned that the blog is getting a little bit slow in recent days. So to motivate people to start doing some posts, I think we should do our "Blog Christmas Cards" with updates and pictures of everyone. I know it is early but maybe we can actually get it done if we start in October. To be a good example of this great idea, here ya go! :) Let's see, Kayla won student body officer with John's great slogan,"Mikayla Philpot; Hard to spell, Easy to vote for!" Was a tight race with all the drama and mudslinging of the presidential one going on (I am barely kidding). But it was a great experience for her - middle school is proving to be pretty fun. Carter's football team made it to the playoffs!! They are currently undefeated and playing the other undefeated team this Saturday. You wouldn't believe how stressful a ten year old football game can be. Well, maybe you sporty families actually can - or maybe you just never let it stress you out. (I could use some tips.) By the way, that picture above of Happy Carter and crying Kaitlyn was because he had just thrown her stick and yet pulls this innocent picture smile as she bawls. Just a funny true to life moment caught on camera. :) Kesiah is loving third grade, she has the best teacher in the school. I am her room mom so we are planning out her lavish Halloween party, it is going to be the best!! She is taking some time off before volleyball to just chill, which is a nice break after 6 months of softball! :) Kaitlyn is doing fabulous in Kindergarten. She is a prompt gal who hates to be late and is tidy and efficient - very unlike her mother. She is also in a great ballet class and they are practicing for their Christmas Carol Ballet in December. Oh, and last week the kids had a couple days off school so I took them to a sports clinic where they take x-rays of your hand and they can predict (quite accurately) the height you will be when you are full grown. It said Mikayla was going to be six feet tall and Carter should be 6'5" or 6'6"!! Crazy tall!! You cousins out there, how tall are you? Does this run in my family and I just never realized? Katie and Kesiah were technically too young to have an accurate assessment, I guess ten years old is the most accurate age to start. No, but really, how tall are ya'll? And Jerry and I are just trucking along. Jerry and Carter just got home from the deer hunt today Buck-less and kinda' bummed but at least they got a cool hike up in the misty mountains. I have been taking lots of pictures lately - pictures for families and school pictures and the like. It is my favorite hobby, if only I had more time. But overall, life is really good. Super busy but good. I don't know how you six kid families managed to get it all done! Again, perhaps you could post some tips! :) Love ya'll!!

City of Trees Marathon-Boise

Well, I wasn't sure if I would run another marathon after Boston.  After my surgery (a month and half ago) I could barely run 4 miles.  But as Tom mentioned it will come back.  I was in Chicago three weeks ago and did a long run and ran the stairs in their condo unit and Desiree asked me what I was training for.  I said "nothing", little did I know.  Found about this race on Friday, registered Saturday and ran a 3:46 Sunday.  I'll take it!

Iceland!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some photos from our trip to Iceland. You'll notice a lot of waterfalls, 'cause there's a bunch of 'em. You can often see people in the pics to give you a sense of scale. We really enjoyed the trip and hope you enjoy this small slice of it.