Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had a very fun day. Kya and I hung out with Maria all morning and ran some errands (Maria is a huge help! I was so thankful to have her along).


Then we met Corey for lunch at Qdoba.
Isn't Kya's shirt adorable?! It says "I'm a McCutie"
Kya sends her thanks to Aunt Megan (our authentic Irish relative) and Uncle Jesse for the shirt.


After lunch we headed to the Bismarck Civic Center to watch the Kenmare High School girl's basketball team play in the state tournament. They won! They play again tomorrow. We will be there cheering them on. Kya loved watching the action and the people at the game. She was a great baby considering she didn't get either of her naps today.

This was my first North Dakota Class B State Basketball game and I am absolutely amazed at the outpouring of support for the teams. Classmates, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, kids, friends, cousins, distant relatives, and alumni from years ago, and random town residents ... hundreds and hundreds of dedicated fans (many of whom traveled to Bismarck) all cheering on "their team." AND did I mention it is $7 a ticket? I'd be lying if I said it didn't choke me up. It's just so sweet to see so many people dedicated and excited for high school kids, especially girls. Does this happen anywhere else? I hope so. I'm excited to see it all again tomorrow. Go Honkers!


After the game we came home to a driveway of wild turkeys! One of the turkeys puffed up in front of Corey's car ... haha funny thing thought he could take on a car. Soon after realizing that the car was much bigger and powerful than they, the turkeys retreated around the propane tank and down the hill (as seen here).
I never know what I will come home to. Tomorrow ... cows? bears? oh my.

Wild Life In & Around the Hager House

The Canadian Geese are back!

Last spring, when we started building the house, the field east of us was full of geese. Over the summer and winter the geese leave, but today the geese returned. I really like the honking ... which is good because there is a lot of it. All day long.


They have great timing – the Kenmare High School girl's basketball team (the Honkers) is playing in the state tournament tomorrow. I think the geese returned just to cheer honk then on. We will be there too. It will be Kya's first basketball game.

The other kind of wild life is a little green toddler that thinks she rules the roost around here. (this is a much cheerier video than the last one, I promise!)



You can thank Corey for the video and Megan for the Irish tunes. :)

House talk: it's go time

Our house moved from "for sale" to "sale pending" in just two weeks. We had ten showings the first week alone. I feel blessed that we had so much positive interest right away – it was actually a lot of fun. We've signed a sales contract and last week our house passed inspection with flying colors ...

... so ...

We're moving ahead with plans to build in the country!

I should probably also mention that I am still pregnant – no baby yet – but it should be soon.

I hope. This is our family of three on our land exploration walk today.

Ok, back to building talk.

The past week we've been finalizing our home plans and we've started to choose thing like flooring, cupboards, and lighting. Oh my, it is so fun, and overwhelming, and exciting. I'm very glad we have the chance to start doing this shopping without dragging a newborn into all the stores. I think she's much better behaved now.

Today we went out to the land with our builder to stake where the boundary of the house will be.

Corey is standing on the corner of what will be our bedroom. The river-bottom field behind him has some spring snow melt on it right now and has become a very popular place for Canadian geese (honkers). It was so cool to see them – there must have been thousands.

My mom took this photo – our house will be up on that bluff. I would guess we're standing somewhere near the kitchen.

If all goes as planned (and we don't get a major snow storm) digging will start this week. Yikes.

Corey and I ... out exploring. We saw deer and pheasants. And lots of deer poop.

The railroad bridge and our pond (just beginning to thaw).

More of our new pet honkers. Seriously, there must be thousands out there.

---

Last weekend we ventured out to the land with my cousin Parker. Somehow I forgot to show off our photos from our walk along the train tracks.

Parker collected "trees" for grandma.

Listening for trains.

I think he likes our walks.

When he got tired Aunt ReNay gave him a ride.

It was so much fun to get fresh air and spend some time outside!