Today is CJ's birthday and we had a terrific dinner celebration: Mom, John and Ann, Tom, Jim, Fr. Dick and all us Wingys. Much fun was had by all! Happy day, Connie! We love you~

Happy Anniversary

Just a quick Happy 31st Anniversary shoutout to my parents. They'll be celebrating starting on Thursday down in warm Phoenix, AZ while taking in some Spring Training and maybe some NCAA Basketball. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! You guys are the best.

Carter turns 10 today and to celebrate I compiled the awesome filming he did while in Mexico for a little "Party Rockin'"!! I couldn't upload it to the blog but you can watch it on Youtube here: http://youtu.be/iAJxk8JaHJg (Give it a second for the music to start.)
He got some great shots of sea life and fun adventures with the underwater camera he received from Santa. It is a testament to the adventurous kid that Carter is and how he really does keep the party alive in this house. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Prom Night, 2012

Sam's prom was last night and what a night it was...Arabian Night that is. The theme of this year's prom was Arabian Nights so of course Sam dressed the part!

We had some of Sam's friends for dinner and then they were off to the dance. What a fun night for them all!

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Ann Marie Schulte!

Happy 2nd birthday, Charlie! It is hard to believe that you are already two years old! We have loved watching you grow and become such a sweet little girl! We hope you have a fantastic birthday and enjoy your monkeys! We love you! Grampa and Gramma

Show Time!

Hola mi familia! I just wanted to let everyone know that the show "Almost, Maine" has officially opened at Grandstreet Theatre in Helena. If you want to read up on it, here's an article that appeared in the YourTime of the Helena paper: http://helenair.com/entertainment/yourtime/almost-maine-at-grandstreet/article_41a5b2cc-5d27-11e1-9b89-0019bb2963f4.html

The show runs Thurs-Sat at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30. Last show is March 11th. You can go onto Grandstreet's website to check it out or reserve tickets: www.grandstreetheatre.com I hope some of you will be able to make it!! Love you all and I can't wait to see you all this summer!!

Valentine's Day Boxes

The kids are having Valentines Day Box competitions in their classes so we had to rev up a little creativity this year. Carter went with the toilet that sings a little monkey song when you flush it (thanks to his electrician father). Mikayla has her cupcake frosted with a little spackle. And Kesiah has her giant Ipod to rock out to.
Hope all of you have a fabulous Valentines Day!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

From the beaches of Corpus Christi to the 17th and 18th tee at Sawgrass, Dad has been everywhere for his kids and we all love him for it. We wish him a wonderful birthday and an excellent year that will hopeful culminate in a spectacular trip to Ireland.

Happy birthday, Dad! We wish we were there to help you celebrate.

Love you,
Matt, Kelly, Will, Ben, Leo and Mack

Busy Wingy Weekend...

This past weekend was a crazy busy one for the G.F. Wingys. First off Sam was in Missoula for the Thespian Festival with a play he did at GFHS called Private Wars. This is a photo of the cast. They had a fantastic weekend in Missoula. The play made it to the National competition and Sam and two others were awarded outstanding actor awards. Not too shabby for the first time in a production! He had a great time doing this play and is looking forward to the next chance to perform...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...or at least back at the home front, Holy Spirit School had a spaghetti dinner and cake auction. Madison made a cake for the auction and this is what it looked like. It was really a fun experience and it made $40 for the school. That is always a great thing!

Hope this finds all of you doing well with your busy lives. Here in the Falls it is life as usual!Love ya all!!

Happy Birthday, Thomas G

Yesterday (yeah I know, this is belated) was my padre's 53rd birthday. Had a great birthday lunch at Taco Treat - Billings (actually a very good non-GF Taco Treat), dinner at Carino's Italian, and some cake and ice cream back at the house. So here's a Happy Birthday to a great dad and fun co-worker... hope your 54th year is amazing. Love ya.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

It's Mary's birthday today. Interestingly, she was born on this day of the week -- a Sunday. "And the child that is born on the Sabbath Day, Is bonny and blithe and good and gay."

We hope she has a great day. Seems it started out well, for today she won a school raffle of a refurbished pew from the old St. Gerard church.

Yesterday, Ann and I went with Mary and family members to "Pvt. Lives," a play at Great Falls High with Sam in a main role as Silvio. It was well done and entertaining. Just another sample of Mary's fine life. Once again, happy birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Just a quick Happy Birthday shoutout to my mom! On this super snowy Wednesday in Billings, we had a fun dinner and some brownies and ice cream at our place. Happy Birthday to a great mom and an amazing person!

The Gramma Project

Abe and Hannah have embarked upon a quest to chronicle Mom's life in words and pictures. They started planning last fall, involving Jimmy in the process. Abe visited Great Falls in early November and began gathering information. We sorted through lots of photos and documents (she has a lot!), and Abe interviewed Mom for a few hours. Maurika joined in, too. Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos that weekend.

On January 14, Hannah took the reins to keep the project rolling.


Hannah completed the interviews with Mom. Of course, that also meant referring to a lot of photos, as seen here.


Now it's a matter of transcribing, scanning, composing, and editing, with Abe as Editor in Chief. I think it's a great idea, a great project, and I really look forward to the results.

Guam continued...

As you can see, some of the spaces in the cave were a tight fit! Our palm tree Christmas tree. 3 dashing young folks on Christmas Eve. And then Jen, Mike, and me on one of our hikes. It may look like sky in the background, but that's actually the ocean. AWESOME trip!

Here is the link to my BBBS bowl-a-thon site: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/mollybuyske/pirate-bowl Even if it's $5, every donation is GREATLY appreciated.

Guam...and other schtuff

Hello gang!

I hope everyone is recovering from the holidays and getting back into the swing of things. It's taken me a while, but I'm slowly starting to get there. Just wanted to give a little update. My trip to Guam was FANTASTIC!! I had so much fun with Jen and Mike. We went scuba diving, hiking, snorkeling, swimming, and then Jen and I went skydiving (Mike was too chicken) and kayaking. The weather was gorgeous and the island was beautiful. If you get a chance, go. Just don't fly through Japan because they may cancel your flight, forcing you to fly back across the ocean to Honolulu to wait 8 hours for the flight to Guam, making you cross the international dateline 3 times so that when you finally arrive in Guam, you have absolutely no idea what day it is. Just saying, be warned. The top picture is of Jen and I holding our certificates for skydiving. We made it out alive! Of course we HAD to get a picture taken on the beach. Then it's Mike and I hiking Mt. LamLam, which if you measure from the base instead of sea level is actually the tallest mountain in the world. We made it to the top in about 40 minutes. BOOM! And then it's Jen and me on New Year's Eve.

I found out this weekend that I got a small part in the upcoming mainstage show at Grandstreet. It's a comedy called "Almost, Maine". It's a huge cast and should be pretty fun. So if anyone has the last weekend in February or the first 2 weekends in March open, come on over to Helena!

Finally, I am participating in a Bowl-a-thon for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Helena on January 28th. A few of us from the law firm plus our significant others will be on a team. We are accurately dubbed the "Pin and Tonics". I can't remember the link right now but I'll look it up and post it above with some more Guam pictures.

Love you all and I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and health 2012 thus far!

Happy New Year to All!!

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to a wonderful family! We are all so lucky to be intertwined and happy to be together! We were fortunate enough to spend New Year's Eve with Johnny and Annie and another couple who are great friends! We laughed, we played games (Johnny cheated), we had fun! That is what having family around is all about! We hope that all of you had a wonderful closing to 2011 and welcome 2012 with open arms!! Oh the places we will go!

Happy 32nd to Kelly!

Happy birthday to one of the best daughter-in-law's in the world! Who else would go to Disneyworld with a three week old baby and dance in the streets with her oldest son? She is the most loving, most fun, most "smilingest" people that I know! Kelly, we wish you the happiest of birthdays and hope that you have a special day! You deserve it! Wish we were there so Marc could cook for you! Love you much!! Marc and Jan

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Sorry to post over Jan's Christmas news, but I can't let the day go by without wishing Hannah Louise a very happy birthday. One of my favorite memories of Hannah involved her birthday wish for a sleigh ride. Well, we found just such a thing at Big Sky, and we had a wonderful day in the horse-drawn sleigh. I hope her day is just as wonderful today. We love ya lots, Hannah!

Happy New Year to All!!

Christmas was rather quiet at this Buyske household. We were lucky to have Joey home for the weekend and to have the Schultes in town for Christmas Eve. We all went to Mass and then to Schultes for a great spaghetti dinner compliments of Meg and Ryan who cooked Gramma Mugs' sauce - all day! After pj's were on, the kids got to open gifts from Gramma and Grampa! There is nothing like a child's face when they open gifts! Grampa read The Night Before Christmas and off to bed they went. It was a wonderful evening and we thank you, Meg and Ryan, for sharing it with us. Christmas morning, Marc, Joey and I opened gifts and had breakfast. Later we headed to Great Falls for dinner with the Wingerters, Gramma Jeanne and Connie and Bill. It was a delicious dinner and lots of fun visiting and playing games. I ordered both of them for New Years Eve! Thank you for Mary and Jim for opening their home to us and inviting us to dinner! We wish the best of 2012 to all! We are so blest to have our families, our health, our upcoming trip to Ireland! :)

'Twas a happy holiday

Ann and I had a great time at Maurika's home in Missoula. Christmas morning with little children is indeed the epitome of excitement. And Maurika and Mark hosted wonderfully -- great breakfast, lots of fun. This photo shows a lull in the day, with interaction between Mo and Truman, Ann and Piper, Mark and his folks. Shortly after a this, we had a great holiday feast, once again courtesy of M&M. All in all, a wonderful Christmas -- a time when we were able (and obligated) to count the blessings in our stockings.

Merry Christmas

Hello, wonderful family. From Spearfish, SD, the Tom Moore family just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. It's been a very fun time, albeit a quite time compared to Christmases past, here in Spearfish. With all of us in the Moore family celebrating Christmas all across the West (and by West I mean far West, what's up Guam!?), I just wanted to say we wish we could all be together, but it's great that everyone is with family today. Here's to the Merriest of Christmases and a very Happy New Year. Love you all.

Mikayla as the Grinch

Mikayla had a choir concert tonight where she got to ham it up as the GRINCH! She has the perfect attitude for such a role. :) We have an amazing mom at school that does incredible makeup - was so much fun.

Happy Anniversary to Maurika and Mark!

Today is anniversary number eight for the Missoula pair. I hope they're celebrating in fine fashion. Best wishes for good times!

Griz

Needed to repost this after this weekend's games.  As cool as it would have been to have both MT teams in the semis, as the Highlander said, "There can be only one".  At least the Cats have half of the Big Sky title to put in their trophy case.  So they've got that going for them, which is nice.

Borten Family Christmas List

So I just received an email from my Papa reminding me to post our list. Ooops. Sorry.

Here they are:

Sabina (straight from her mouth):
- A working/real stethoscope
- A plain orange bracelet with out googly eyes
- A jewelry box with a turning thing inside
- A story about Rudolph
- A potters wheel
- A raccoon (stuffed animal)

(ideas for Sabina from Peter:
Indigo Children Stories:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0970863365/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
or
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0970863349/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

Briana:
- Something lucky. Something that you think is lucky and would like to share with me :)
- To move to Boulder (this is really the main thing that Peter and I want. So your meditations and prayer to help us on our way would be greatly appreciated. We could also use a bunch of money - so telling everyone you know about Imbue would also work ;) )
- A sweater like the one that Diz wore at Thanksgiving time - pullover, not cardigan. But kelley green or turquoise. Soft soft soft ;)
- A visit from you. I love family visits oh so much
- Pretty much anything from Anthropologie
- A kiln
- Donation to Oxfam

Peter:
Here are a handful of things that have been hanging out in my Amazon cart. any of them would be a wonderful present.
thanks!

Manifesting Change: It Couldn't Be Easier - Mike Dooley - as Audiobook
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1442336439/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom - Rick Hanson Ph.D.; Audio CD
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441887512/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder - As Audiobook
http://www.amazon.com/Mountains-Beyond-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0739307657/ref=tmm_abk_title_0

Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists [Paperback] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044310283X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Innotek Anti-Bark Spray Collar, Citronella

I hope everyone has a wonderful wonderful Christmas. Love you!