Happy Birthday Mary

I hate to take away from Jan's post, but I found this special picture and just had to share it with Mary on her birthday.

Happy 48th Birthday, Mary!

Just wanted to send out a happy birthday to the bebe girl!! My how time does fly. Hope you find the time to enjoy your day!! We will have to celebrate a bit this weekend! Love ya!

Busy, busy

Hey Gang!!
I hope everyone is doing well! It was so great to see those of you I did when I was home. For those of you I didn't see...well, you're loss. Just kidding!! I am bummed I didn't get to see everyone, but hopefully I will get to in the near future. I just thought I would do a quick update on my life. I had a WONDERFUL Christmas break. It was so awesome to have everyone home and I was able to get up to Shelby for a day to see some of my high school friends. January brought me back to Sioux Falls and heading into my final semester as a college student. YIKES! We are wrapping up our interim classes and then we take a break and then start into spring semester. I took a Race and Representation class over interim and it was so interesting. I learned a ton (which is always good) and got a great idea for a documentary I would like to make someday. We also had auditions for our upcoming show a couple weeks ago. It is a play written by one of my theatre professors and it is about the 900 day siege of Leningrad during WWII and centers around a small theatre company. We brought in a director (and translator) from Russia. It has been quite the experience thus far!! I landed the lead, which is so exciting since it is my last show at Augie, but it has been a ton of work! It is a whole new directing style (very Stanislavski-if you don't know what that is, look it up! Word for the day!). I am learning and growing as an actress and it is amazing. Mom, Dad, and Jen will be coming out for one of the shows, so I am also really stoked for that! Other than school and rehearsals, I've been working at the daycare I've been with since last February and trying to find time to chill with friends. It has been a great January and I look forward to the rest of the semester! I hope you all are healthy and happy! Love you all!!!
Molly

Kaitlyn's Birthday

So Kaitlyn turned the big two yesterday. A happy girl, she loved singing happy birthday to herself and can now respond that she is two. However, when asked her name she still says she is Kesiah or Carter with a laugh. I kind of think she is trying to be funny but not quite sure. Anyway, we are blessed to have her. Here are some pics from the year.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

A day after Piper turned 1, my mom turned... well, a little bit older than that. Anyway, hope you have a great day today, Mom, and really enjoy your 51st (woops) birthday. You're the best, love ya!

The Day You Were Born

Day one: on our bed with the Midwives, grandma, brothers and sister, mom and dad.

In the middle somewhere: so glad she decided not to keep the 'stash.

Birthday: one year old, climbing stairs!

It does go so fast! Rileigh is going into highschool next year, and Piper will be 1.

wow.

love you all - m

Happy Birthday, Piper!

It's Piper's first birthday! I wasn't very good at finding just the right picture, but you can't get much better of this image with Unca Aba. The first year went so quickly, and I don't think the coming years will slow down at all. So let's celebrate!

Ultimate Sledding

Just a small showcase of the non-stop action that Christmas in Helena held for those that were up to the challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera running when Mom and Dad decided to take their run down the hill. Definitely more entertaining....and probably hazardous to their bones.

Moore "The Shirts"

The Buyskes looked great in their "The Shirts" so I thought I would post the picture of the Wingerters and the Moores in their Christmas morning garb. It felt really good to finally put "The Shirt" on after a bowl win. Actually, I believe it was the FIRST time any of us younger kids got to put "The Shirt" on after a bowl win. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great start to the year. Hope to see you all again soon. Go Irish.

Happy New Year From the Buyskes!

We all gathered on Christmas Eve to watch Notre Dame Play in the Hawaiian Bowl at Joey's. What kind of Catholic school plays a bowl game on Christmas Eve?? It was an awesome outcome, so we won't complain too much. We had quite the crew for two weeks and enjoyed every minute of it. The kids managed to get some skiing in and even some pretty good sledding. We wish you the best of 2009 and Go Notre Dame!!

Welcome to 2009!

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!!! Sorry we didn't get to see most of you over the holidays, but we had a nice visit to the Bay area with Nate's Dad and brother. I'm not sure where I'm going to fit all the new presents. Santa went a little over board this year.

As you have all likely figured out, I like to keep busy and 2009 is shaping up to be more of the same because we're expecting another member of the family to be joining us in early August. August 3rd to be exact. We're quite excited. I've been feeling pretty puny, but better than I did with Emma, so that's a relief. I think all the distractions I have now help to keep my mind occupied and not concentrating on how yucky I feel.

So we have a lot to celebrate already for 2009 and I hope this year brings all of you the best as well. Love you all!

Happy New Year

Thought I'd share a few pictures from the holidays. We had a very merry Christmas, and enjoyed our visits with everyone in Great Falls, Helena and Missoula. Oh, and the skiing up at Discovery with the Buyskes - that was fantastic. Happy New Year, everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLY!!!

To a wonderful mom of soon to be THREE!  Happy birthday!!  WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!

A Very Merry Christmas

Just thought we could take a little trip down Christmas memory lane. Actually Janine's turkey eating and Jim's nose pickin' are both from Thanksgiving but the great shots of the kiddo cousins are perty dang fun. And going back just a little bit further with the Moore siblings - so wish I could have spent Christmas with the three of them and all of you. Hope it was a good one. Love, Hannah

Baby it's cold outside

It has been darn cold here in Portland...ok. ok. I know that it is colder in Montana (and pretty much all places that you all live) - but it is unusual for Portland. So unusual, in fact, that the whole city has been SHUT DOWN for over a week. Seriously - it's crazy.
Anyhow, we are trying to weather the weather and it's dramatic affects on our businesses :(
Luckily, however, we will be leaving for Montana tomorrow! We can't wait to see family and celebrate Christmas.
I hope that you are all very much enjoying your Christmas eve., being warm, and with family and friends.
We love you all so much.
Briana, Peter, and Sabina
ps. check out Sabina's blog for snow pictures and some cute pictures of our girl

An Ode for the Irish

While the Grizzlies didn't get it done tonight, I am hoping for a better performance from the Saints tomorrow. But there is still that game on December 24th that will keep me glued to the TV. And in light of the Grizzlies poem that my mom put up, I have created a similar ode to the faithful Irish fans in our family. So, enjoy!

The Plight Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas
And all ‘cross the land
The ND faithful were rapt
With their Irish gear in hand

A disappointing season
Had left them at 6 and 6
But an invitation to a bowl
Had given them a chance to fix

Many years of heartbreak
And gray hairs galore
This last game of 2008
Hopefully could make up for that, and more

Riding the arm of Clausen
And Charlie’s weak knees
Floyd should be back
To burn defenders with ease

Allen had a respectable year
And Tate is a rising star
If the defense can step it up
A victory should not be far

The warm weather of Hawaii
Can hopefully inspire
A victory from the Irish
To save a season which was quite dire

Weis nearly lost his job
Those alums had noose in hand
If you can’t win a championship
From coaching you should be banned

And while the Hawaii Bowl isn’t the BCS
It could still hold hope
By ending a ho-hum season
Without a reason to mope

So be tuned to your TVs
Come Christmas Eve
And prove to those ND-haters
That we are not naïve

Sympathy?!

Hey, even you die hard Cat fans have to have a little sympathy for the Griz tonight. Come on Nate, find it in your hard little heart!!! So let's cheer those Carroll Saints on tomorrow - they can get the job done!! Go Saints!!

some christmas cheer

As much as I hate to post on top of that lovely ode to the Griz, as a offspring of MSU grads, I had to. Just wanted to let you all know of some news our family received. Some of you may have seen this already on facebook, but the least technically savvy (read: old) family members, I thought you should be filled in too. Nate was diagnosed with Myotonia Dystrophy which apparently is a (very in comparison) mild form of muscular dystrophy. So it's a very slowly progressive disease that affects your muscles. He went in because his grip strength was bothering him. He wasn't able to play golf because he couldn't grip the clubs hard enough. The neurologist said he won't regain this strength and likely will lose other muscle strength throughout his body, including legs, eyes, and heart. But again, this is likely YEARS down the line. He's feeling fine and taking this surprising well. I'm personally still a little leary of the diagnosis because it's a strictly hereditary disease that one of his parents would have to have and neither of them have symptoms. I have no doubt that he is somehow diseased, though! If this is his diagnosis, it is a little worrisome because it's a dominant trait and so our kids have a 50% chance of having it. But I'm not really sure exactly what the prognosis is. We will be going to see a specialist after the first of the year.

On another note, Emma had her first Christmas program tonight with her daycare class. Only 3 other kids showed up, but it was pretty cute. She's the one second from the left. Emma's friend Ava is the last on the right and she was so hilarious and really got into it! Sorry about the jerky picture. What an amateur! You also can't hear the song very well, but it's the Chipmunks singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!