Woodland...

Just love this..just ordered it for Jamies future woodland room...just wanted to tell you... and Etsy.com is such a good place to shop at!

BrightAtHome ( Etsy.com)

Hot springs...

(Påminnelse..använd översättningsknappen längst upp/ner om du föredrar att läsa på svenska..)

Yesterday was a nice sunny morning so I quickly decided to bring the girls to White Sulphur Springs and the hot springs there. We are waiting a heavy winterstorm in the whole region with moist air from the westcoast and artic freezing cold winds from north...(snow and colder now...) This weekend's probably going to be an inside one, so I thought we better go for an adventure before..In the beginning of next week we'll see temperatures way above freezing again!

Anyway, our destination for today was suppose to be an hour or so drive..but unknown roads aside/over Little Belt mountains and road construction made the trip a lot longer...Well, it was a quite scenic road and Jamie slept almost the entire drive. The small town of White Sulphur Springs is nestled in between mountain ranges and I wish I could say it was a pittoresque and charming small village, but I can't. This town has probably been a nice and vivid place 2-3 decades ago, but now, unfortunately like many small towns around, it's in need of restoration. Many buildings and houses are in bad shape and empty stores/restaurants are standing empty... sad but true.

We had lunch at the local Doris cafe, nothing special, but the girls got new energy before it was time to swim. A typical "Montana thing" is to serve homemade and warm cinnamon rools  (just like the swedish ones) but topped with either cream cheese or carmel topping. Very tasty! 

The hot springs pools are located in the middle of the town, by White Sulpur hot springs motel. Very friendly staff and recently they built a new part of the motel where you can get a room for 125 $. The rest of the facility neeeded some TLC, but the pool area was nice. They get all water straight from the hot springs, but it's a little regulated so it doesnt get too hot. We had the opportunity to pick between 105° F or 98° F, which is bodytemp. We tried both but felt it was too hot in the warmest one so we played in the other. Since it's hot it was definately enough with 1.5 h for all of us. We took short brakes and drank alot of water too. The hot water really gets you dehydrated so its important to drink alot! We had a fun time and the girls liked it! This place is really busy in weekends but we were almost alone the whole time.

Summary; I would recommend these hot springs in the winter if you combine it with skiing at Showdown (only 35 min away), or just happens to drive by and make a stop. I definately feel that it's best to go here in the colder months of the year, even though it is a nice scenic drive to get there both from east (Harlowtown) west (Helena) and north (Great Falls).

Wonderful afternoon..

Pics from yesterday! We had a beautiful sunny day and most important nooo wind! Me and the girls were outside almost all afternoon and played in the snow. It was still cold around 10 °F so -12° C but the sun warms nicely. Because of the dry climate and low humidity here it still doesn't feel as cold as home in Sweden with the same minus degrees... IF there's no wind.

After watching the news this morning I must say we have a pretty good winter here in Montana...It seems like the east/northeast parts of the country have alot more problems then we have had.  We still don't have so much snow on the ground but I heard it will come alot more friday...

We also made a quick stop and watched Daddy work. Right now he's mostly feeding older calves. Since they are all outside they get alot of hay! But I must say beeing outside, be able to play a little breathe fresh air must be a better way of life for a cow compared with inside a barn 7 months a year...( even if it gets cold ( just like all other wild animals they get a thick wintercoat), windy ( they can seek protection) or muddy (that can be bad but usually dries out quick) some days)...

Oh..a sunny day like this just makes me wanna go ski!!!

Decor...

More for Natalie's room... Maybe..

Joss&Main

Joss&Main

From Pottery Barn kids.

Snow...

No school...too much snow on the road..Jareds work truck got stuck in the snow... Good we bought groceries and some new toys yesterday!

Filip & Fredrik...har bara en sak att säga..Ni valde fel ranch!! Va fan Arizona..Så klart ni skulle valt Montana!! Ni har fortfarande några veckor på er...

 

  

The lost bike...

Natalie found her bike...
-Mama I want to ride my bike..
-Yes of course..It might be a little slippery on the ice.
- Ok, I can do it..
And she did!

Yesterday morning we had a nice walk/bike ride and we almost felt the spring! It's been a long time since I was able to walk with the stroller..good its old and has wheels for rough terrain.

Today..snowy morning and colder.

Reality...

Survival of the fittest... with some help! Like I wrote earlier, it's calving time at the ranch. Jason (the boss) said that so far this year has been really good, not many calves lost (less than expected, some twins) and more than half are on the ground. The cows that are going to have their calves are constantly supervised outside, and depending on the weather and how the cow's doing when the time comes, they will be put freely inside a barn or stay and give birth outside. With so many cows around there are births going on all the time! Our house isn't close the calving barn, otherwise I could have been watching small miracles almost hourly... And (I guess) being a mom had made me more sensitive because the birth and the newborn calves make me feel the beauty of nature...

Like with all other births, things can go wrong... For the true cattlemen here at the ranch problematic births are something they handle on regular basis. And with all years of experience they have seen and taken care of most all there is to see... I don't know how they actually do with emergency c-sections, but I know they dont have a vet here unless it's really bad..I doubt even then. All calves that are wrong positioned or get stuck or so they pull and almost everytime it ends happily. Jody told me I got to learn that...I'm always willing to learn new things it just hard right now to really take part of the calving when Jamie is so small.. and for now I'm pretty happy to watch from a distance....

My only experience with calves comes from a herd of twinbred heifers (kvigor) one week..and I helped with most things... For heifers it can be alot of problems having twins so I saw a little bit of everything.. At the time I was pregnant myself and I can say if I already felt throwing up sick it didnt help with problematic calving..but you know a man gotta to do what a man gotta do..(or in this case blonde swedish woman...) And even though it's strange and macabre scenes you take part of,  most of the times they end happily and your life just got some new experiences..;-)

Back here at the ranch, me and the girls visited the calving barn and got to see some new cuties! This time I broughy the camera so I give you a few newborns... We also got to see ( I didnt intend to) some calves that didnt make it and were put away all the way back in the barn. Well Natalie was fast back to explore before I saw them, it wasnt so bad with dead calves for her. She knows animal dies (from books and movies) and first question asked was " Mom if  here were dinosaurs around they would eat the calves wouldnt they? ( And no she hasn't seen Jurassic Park...so I don't know where that came from!!)

What I dont think she saw or took notice about was that one of them was missing the whole skin on it's back...And I know thats an old (and well working) trick cattlemen and cowboys use when needed... If one cow loses her calf and another one has twins and not able to care for both/or die so one calf needs a "new" Mom, they cut the skin of the dead calf (as soon as possible) and put the skin on the other calf (in need of a mama) so the cow think its her calf because it smells like hers After a short while the skin can come off and the Mom has a new calf ...sounds a little rough but...simply instincts...

 

Another reality in Montana during winter, is that plans may not happen because of rapidly changing weather conditions... ( In this case wind and snow).. We didn't get to go to the hot springs in White Sulphur Springs yesterday, but we give it a new try another day!
 

 

                                 So nice in the sun for the newborn calves!

 Cutie!

Mmm...

The problem with me baking is my totally lack of self-controll when it comes to NOT eat the cookies I already put in the freezer...or the newly baked straight out of the oven ones... So good with cold milk!

I warn you...something really silly...Especially for being me..

It IS a HUGE difference when you bake with a kitchen aid compared with you hands... perfect dough, perfect cookies, *@*#(@uck even the whipped cream we had the other day was differently perfect. I didn't know that this phenomenom existed..I mean how much difference can it be in the way you whipp cream?  Hmm, maybe I will like baking more now...better add a few more squats and miles to my (going to start) weekly exercise...

Tomorrow's adventure...

Hopefully we get to go here tomorrow ( if not more wind and snow rolls in ...) The kids are off school so me and Jody are planning to go do something kid-friendly! White Sulphur Hot Springs is only an hour drive or so from here, doesn't that seems like something fun and warm to do in the snow? Well I'll tell you tomorrow what these natural hot springs and this Montana small town have to offer!

Spring feelings...

So far I haven't found so much that I like from Gymboree, BUT here are some nice pieces for spring...

(Don't know how to change to the same white background..sorry.)

Plans...

So this semester I've decided to study 50% and the other 50% I am taking out my last parentdays for Jamie. This gives me the opportunity to stay at home a little longer. ( With Natalie I started to teach full time when she was around 15 months.) I dont know how well I'm going to be able to read anything during daytime but we'll see..
I found a course in geology 15hp from the University of Stockholm and it's only a distance/over internet so it works fine for me to do it overseas! Hopefully I feel motivated to learn something new and like I told a friend...I might go out and hunt for gold after my newly earned credits...hehe..
Anyway I think it's good for me to keep my mind a little occupied and not only be a stay at home mom. Some days that almost drives me crazy..( but it was no difference some days with the kids back home ...) I guess all parents that stayed at home with two wild kids know what I'm talking about..♡.

Pics from a cooold morning last week...

This morning...

We made an attempt to climb one of the hills close to the house. It was a little cloudy and grey already when we started so I knew it wouldn't be to long before the snow/rain rolled in. Temperature today was a couple degrees over freezing. We made it half way up, had a quick snack and then back to the car. It wasn't bad just a little wind coming in, but I decided our little walk was over for today. The weather is definately important to pay attention to in Montana, it changes fast and it can be dangerous!!

When the weather is nicer we are gonna walk all the way up! Hopefully our climber Jamie is ready for that challenge later... By the way she is 15 months today!! I can't believe time goes sooo fast!

Star wars...

Today we went to Jackson's birthday party! Master Jody (the real housewife of the ranch☆...) had planned an amazing Star Wars themed party. So many details!!! The kids had a really fun afternoon, especially with the "laserswords" made of waternoodles... (Thanks Jody, btw you could definately be a pro partyplanner...)

In the morning we played outside a lot. It was a beautiful morning with sunshine and clear blue sky! The powerful sun made perfect wet snow so we build a snowman!

We needed a day full of fun activities because last week was pretty tough....It feels like the days were so busy and at the same time not so much to do.. It's a kind of strange and new situation for me...I guess I'll describe more clearly later..Both girls were also a little sick so that didn't make it easier. Jamie has had breathing problems almost everytime she's been sick during her first year, so now I get so scared it will be like that when she shows signs of having a cold... This time she just had high fever one night and a more wet kind of cough so that was a relief. Today both felt pretty good again!

( Today I'll even put up an instaselfie of the mama on her way to the b-day party)

Right now...

My girls are preparing for spring!

Today's DIY, sun chairs with tables. It's really nice in the sun!

Afternoon in Billings!

(Om du inte pallar läsa engelskan, använd översättningsknappen uppe/nere på sidan...)

Saturday we spent the afternoon in Billings. Half the way we had some snow on the road so it took us 1 h 45 min to get there. The drive from here isn't so very exciting or scenic. There are really not so much to see..I know there's a nice recreational area, despite the name Dead man's basin, where many people go swimming in the summer. Hopefully I get positively surprised when it's that time of the year...

Anyway, we had lunch at Cracker Barrel. It's a restaurant with homestyled, mostly traditional country meals. We like it and the kids always eat good. They also have a shop next to the dining area with all kinds of stuff. I know they might be a little more expensive there but I bought a new candle from WoodWick. ( around 20 $ for a medium, so at least cheaper than in Sweden...)

Since we live quite far away from Billings, and we try not to buy all out groceries in Lewistown (55 min from the ranch) we bought a membership at Costco. That's a food store where you buy larger amounts of everyday products and food. It costs 100 $ a year to be a member and if you dont get that back as a bonus (2% cashback) they pay back the difference if you get less than what you paid for the membership. You must be a member to go shop there.( It's like a big Ekohallen.) They actually have a good selection of wines and alot of organic products too! For us beeing a quite small family some packages are just too big so we still have to go to a regular store to buy some things. When it comes to buy groceries we have to think a little different so we always have a lot of food at home. At least buy for 1-2 weeks. I can't say I plan meals that far ahead ( could definately be better at that...) and I usually cooks without recipe..so we just make sure we have a good selection of vegetables, different kinds of meat and all basics at home. That way we can cook whatever we feel for...  All high quality beef we can eat we get straight from the ranch (when it's that time of the year, all of a sudden the freezer is full of nicely wrapped white packages...) it's a part of the job's benefits :-).

I think it's very interesting and a way to see each country's culture to go buy food. No matter where in the world I might be, I always like to go shop for groceries..  And here there are so much to choose between so now I just have to learn which products are good or bad health-and quality wise...! I do have some help from my nativeborn man... I'm gonna write more about products and prices later..today I show pics of a few things I like so far...(and yes I buy non-organic too...)

Billings also has a pretty big shopping mall. Today we ran out of time so we just made a quick stop so I could get my winter boots (we looked for a pair all over town before I finally found a pair in my common size..) and a Valentine outfit for Natalie.

When we go to Billings, we always make sure to stay long enough to go out eat dinner before heading home. That way both girls can fall asleep when we drive. A favourite place to eat is Famous Dave's. I can really recommend this and you can find it nationwide ( I think..) That's a bbq restaurant with good selection of both food and drinks. I like that you have (like many places) many options to get as sides to whatever meat you want...It's easy to keep a meat+veggies diet if you so wish...

Puh..sorry for my long post...and bad english! I just write...so sometimes you get bad grammar and spelling..

Trying to make it cosy...

Sorry I haven't updated for a few days! Will write more tonight...

This afternoon is alot warmer no longer subzero! But we have snowstorm outside so I try to make it a little more cosy inside...

Found a new candle from Wood Wick (Trilogy- Fireside,Redwood, Sandalwood Clove). It smells like a mix between a fire and a hot man... ♡♡♡...

Finally warm toes...

Now they are mine... It took a while to find any winter boots in Billings...Crazy, but after running to several stores that were totally out of warmer boots, Scheels just got 4 new from Sorel . And lucky me they were exactly what I looked for and in my size!

I'm already in love...

Sorel's Tofino CVS in Black.