Emily's 7th Birthday

Today Emily turned seven and I cant believe my baby is already seven. Just like with Cody it makes me wounder where has the time gone, seems like just yesterday we were packing up and heading to Cali with our little two month old baby who just had her ears pierced. Today I gave her a long mirror, makeup and high heal shoes and she was so excited. I am very thankful to have the daughter I have, she is one of the most caring kids I have ever came across. If she is watching a show where there is something as simple as a lost cat she gets upset for the cat. This year she has shown how good she is going to be in school, she has never been in trouble and has really enjoyed being on student counsel. As sad as I am to see her grow up it will be fun to see what amazing young lady she will become. Here is a collection of photos over the years for her. The most noticeable difference isn't so much her size but the fact she has hair now.

Cody turns 8

Today is Cody's 8th Birthday and I can not believe he is that old already. It seems like just yesterday I was fighting over what to watch at the hospital room while waiting for Cody to decide to join us. Now I find myself fighting with my son over what to watch. He was talking to Karen tonight and was telling her how him and his "girlfriend" broke up. Now I knew he had a "girlfriend" but this was the first I had heard of them breaking up so of course I had to listen to this story. He goes on to tell her how they decided to just be friends (this girl has been his "girlfriend" sense school started) and now he is just going to be girlfriends with Lilly but he isn't going to learn how to dance. It was the cutest thing but at the same time it made me realize how much he really is growing up and soon stories like this wont be cute, they will be major life problems. My little boy is turning into an amazing young man. He has his struggles with things but he never ever gives up on anything until it gets finished. He is so very kind hearted and he has a smile that lights up the room. I know things wont always be easy as we are heading into our preteen years but I have all the faith in the world that my son will be a caring, kindhearted, handsome gentlemen. Happy Birthday Cody!!!! I am so proud of you every day.

TiK ToK

Once again Emily decided to be a dancer/singer this weekend. Here is her newest show useing the song TiK ToK by Ke$ha

Emily and Basketball

Emily has been wanting to try out basketball for a year now so this year I got her all signed up to do it. We got there and she got her jersey and picked number 32, and its not very often you get to wear a dress while playing basketball. She did really good for her first time playing the game, all though she kept fixing her hair when she was suppose to be hands up to block.
I had to laugh at her shoes, they were lighting up the path for everyone, but she is so proud of her twinkle toes. With the YMCA program its really nice how they make sure everyone gets to play. So one group from the team will play for four minutes and then they will switch out. At the end of the game they line up and give everyone a high five and good game. After the game she said it was so much fun and cant wait to go to practice on Tuesday. Here is a video of her playing, I had a different song but turns out now youtube is blocking music if its not on the approved list, so the song on the list is one of the few that worked with the video. By the way if anyone knows of another site to upload videos to let me know, this will drive me crazy

Sledding

One of the high points of winter in Montana is sledding. Sometimes you will get lucky, have lots of snow and it is really nice out, today was one of those days. We have a high of 39, got about 9 inches of snow the other day with most of it around and best of all the sun was out. We got a call to see if we would like to join a bunch of people down at Pioneer Park so I got the kids bundled up and we went down for the party. While we where there Emily ran into a friend of hers named Angle and after that point those two never left each others side, in fact they held hands to make sure they didn't leave each others side, and they kept holding all the way down. They even tried to use the same sled, however it doesn't work so well when you are on a saucer sled instead of a long one. They had so much fun and spent about two hours going up and down the hill sometimes with the help of a push, sometimes with people,
sometimes alone, sometimes with everyone on different sleds and sometimes a quick bail out so they didn't hit a tree. After those two hours Emily was looking tried and my toes were very cold so we headed home so they could play with friends at the house and drink some very yummy hot chocolate. For a winter day it was as good as it gets.

Ice Fishing

Yesterday my mom called me and asked if we would like to go spend a girls day with her, my sister and her baby. I said sure that sounds like fun and so they came by to pick me up. On the way to the store my mom's husband called and asked if Cody could go ice fishing with him and of course Cody jumped at the chance to go fishing instead of shopping with a bunch of girls. He was so excited to go hang out with some guys. We ran back to my house and got all his cold weather clothes and then dropped him off telling him many times don't get close to the edge of the hole. Tom called to check in many times while we were out and they kept up updated with how the fishing was going. Here is the first picture they texted us, it is of Cody and a friend of Tom's boy. Cody has his pole in the water, the other boy is just drinking hot chocolate. Tom said they would fish a little then run off and go sledding then drink hot chocolate then start all over and fish again. Cody was the only one to get a fish and he was pretty proud of that little guy. He wanted to bring it home so the cats could eat it and he could get Emily to touch it (I'm pretty sure it was more to torment his sister then for the cats to eat) but I talked him into leaving it at grandma's. This is him and his fish. But now that he knows you can fish in winter and summer I might have a little more of a problem, the its to cold for fish it be out excuse wont work anymore.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

This year for Christmas we followed our traditions we have had the last few years. On Christmas Eve we went over to my Dad's house. We all went over to Dads house about 4 and sat around visiting, eating, and oh yeah eating some more. After a little bit we did the presents and of course that's the best part for the kids, Cody however didn't want to put down his cookie to open up the presents. It is hard when your seven knowing which is more important. After we finished up at Dad's the kids and I went looking around at Christmas lights on the way home. This house if you listen really carefully had it's lights in sync with the song Jingle Bells or Santa Clause is coming to town. While we were out we saw Santa fly over Billings and Emily goes "Its Santa, I'm so excited I'm going to cry" then she cried tears of joy. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen, it meant alot to her sense she has been trying to figure out if Santa is real after a little boy told her he isn't. After that it was time to head home and both kids went right to sleep, I'm pretty sure the fact they knew Santa was in town and that they spent a bunch of time that afternoon in the snow helped alot. While the kids were sleep Santa came to put up the stockings. This year I decided to use a TV Santa gave me when I was about 13 or so and get Cody a DVD player, Emily got a CD player that also has spots for jewelry. However it took awhile to put the DVD player toghter, this one has a surge protector on it and it is under the power cord. So when I plugged it in I couldn't get it to turn on and I was starting to get worried when I happen to turn it over and see the switch. Emily tried to get up at 1:37 AM but after about a hour I got her to go back to sleep, Cody then woke up about 4:30 and we just got up at that point. They where both so excited to see what Santa got them. They both got Zue Zue pet hamsters in the stockings so they kids were playing with them then moved on to something else, those things are so real we lost one. Cody's hamster got behind the stove, who would have guessed a toy hamster would be so hard to keep track of. After they checked out the Santa stuff it was time to open our gifts. The kids had so much fun on that part and got lots of cool stuff. Cody loved the blanket that came in a backpack and his K'Nex Lego's. Emily was so excited about her Lou Lou cat, her baby tiger and of course her makeup. Cody got me a jet spa you put your feet in cuz he said my feet hurt alot so it will help (which I thought was very sweet of him) and Emily got me a lava lamp because its pretty and rainbow. After that we got the living room cleaned up and headed over to my Moms house for brunch and dinner. We got there and did presents and then moved on to breakfast. After a little while my brother headed home and my sister and I sat down for a good came of Mario Carts for the Wii (one of the best games I have played on the Wii by the way, if you don't have it and are looking for a game you should check that one out). Once it was dinner time my cousin, his girlfriend and my aunt joined us and we sat down for a prime rib dinner. It was truly one of the best Christmas I have had in a long time, but I am glad it is over and things are back to normal. Hope everyone else had a great Christmas. Here is a collection of the pictures I took over the two days.