Orange Belt Test and the Giant Bunny

On Saturday Cody tested for his orange belt in karate. He was nervous but he did a really good job. The class warmed up first then broke up into groups, his group was the orange and white belts. They did some basic kicks and blocks then went into the combos. He got a little mixed up on hands but ended up doing a wonderful job and did his best. I'm so proud of him, not just for getting his belt but for getting up in front of all the people and doing his best. After he tested the other belts went and it was very neat to see how the higher belts did things. The orange plus belts all fight each other and he says he cant wait to learn to fight, we might have just opened a can of warms with that one. Here is a collection of all the photos I took during the test and as you can see there is a wide collection of people, from the old to the young. Almost makes me want to join the class to, but I think I will just stick to kickboxing. Sorry for a repeat of a song, but it seems like a perfect song for karate stuff. After the test we had a birthday party to go to. It was out at the zoo and when its about 10 degrees outside it doesn't leave much to look at. So we went into the indoor part and looked at all the bugs and snakes, Cody loved it all while Emily really only wanted to look at the monkey looking things, the cute little mice and the store. After the zookeeper told about the snakes and mice they went and got a giant bunny. I forgot her name but she weighs in at 15 pounds, I have never seen a bunny that big.
The kids then finished up the party then we went home so they could get ready to have a fun time with the babysitter. It was a very eventful day, but very fun. Now if we could only get one more day in the weekend it would be perfect.

Christmas Hay Ride

Tonight we went on a hay ride the kids school puts on. Now it has been nice and warm, lows in the 30's day time highs in the 50's however on December 1st winter hit so tonight it is 16 and when your riding on the back of a flatbed you got windchill. I was going to forget about it, but the school sent home the reminder with Emily, and lucky for us she can read and tell time so we where able to make it. The kids got all bundled up before we left with heavy jackets, snow boots, heavy gloves and hats, the one thing about winter is it takes awhile to get ready.
We got all nice and warm and headed over for our ride, they are only 15 minute rides so not to long and we sang all kinds of songs on it.
There are some really cool houses along the way that you can see so that is alot of fun. After we finished we went inside were we got hot chocolate and cookies to warm up with. On the way out the kids wanted to go one more time so we headed back for one more lap around the block before heading home. It is a very neat thing the school does and adds a little something to the Christmas season but I think next time I will bring a cup of hot chocolate to hold on to.

Cody's Kirate Class

Cody has been in kirate now for three months and is really enjoying it. He has been doing so well and really growing from it. During his parent teacher confence they told me last year he was a imature first grader, this year he is a mature frist greader and I really put alot of that creidt toward the kirate class. He will be testing for his orange belt on Saturday so he has been practiceing very hard for it. Here is a little video I took from class last night.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year I have alot to be thankfull for. I have two amazeing kids who everyday seem to grow a bigger heart along with bodys. I have an amazeing family who would do anything for me in a blink of a eye without questions. I have a great job that now adays just haveing a job is something to be thankfull no matter if you like it or not. I have the best friends I could ask for, the only thing I would do to change anything about my life is to bring a few of them closer to me. This turkey day we started it out by watching the New York Macy's Day Parade for the first time and the kids told me we have to go see that those bolloons are so big. After that we chilled around the house then went off to my Moms house for the day. My sister and brother and there kids joined us and it was the frist time all five kids got toghter. They all played and had a great time with very little agureing or fighting. When it was time to eat we had so much food, everything you could think of was on our table. It truely was the perfect Thanksgiveing. Here is just a collection of different photos I took from the day. On black friday we went to a few stores, but I learned if you dont get there early its not worth it. So next year if anyone wants to spend the night and babysit... I mean enjoy a night away from your own house... just let me know. We put our tree up on friday and got all the Christmas stuff out to start the Christmas season. I think the kids did a really good job putting them up.


We had breakfest with an aunt and uncle of mine that were passing though town on the way home Satuerday morning and it was so great to see them. We acutally were able to get some talking in even with the five kids at the table. After breakfest Sandy and I spent the day just goofing off and haveing fun. It was so much fun and we ended the day with a vist to Chuck E Cheese, so the kids were all super excited about that. On Sunday we went and finshed some shopeing and ran into my mom. She was nice enough to take my kids for a bit so I could go get there shoping down and then we put up all her lights on her house. Its not very often you can do that in Montana and not have a ton of ice and snow on the ground, but this time it was so nice out. Cody and Emily rode there bikes and cleaned the leaves for Mom while we got the lights up. It was a really amazeing weekend and one I wish could have gone on a few more days.

Winter is comeing

Now that it has started getting cold we havent been doing as much lately. Last weekend we went out to the river to try and get some photos to send in christmas cards. The kids gave me some very cute single ones but the ones toghter are harder. Here is a few of the photos I just loved of the kids. This one I had just finshed telling Cody do not lean back on your sister, they were close to the bank. You can just see in his eye he is thinking should I or shouldn't I. This one was my favorite of the two of them, they just seem so grownup in here. but this one was a close second Here is my faviorte head shot of Cody and a full body of him Here is my faviorte of Emily
and her up close shot

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a wonderfull Halloween. We carved our pumpkins last weekend and while trying to get them cleaned out the cat decided he had to check things out .They came out so cute this year. Yesterday the kids got all dressed up and ready to go trick or treating. Emily was a princess and Cody was batman. We went up to a dealership in town and found the real batman. Then out to my dads work were it was really windy. Next we went to the YMCA to see what was going on there and ran into a friend of our and her girls. After that we went to a few houses, to my moms house and a couple of my friends houses and they both had buckets full of candy. By the time the kids were done Cody had so much sugar his eyes were poping out. We were home by 6:30 so the kids got to hand out candy. They got so excited and would yell "we have a customer" every time someone knocked at the door. This morning Cody asked if we would have anymore customers and was bumed when I said no its now November.

Cheerleading and Home Depot Workshop

This weekend was kind of a laid back weekend. On Saturday morning we took Emily to her cheer leading. They had pictures so they did that first, during the group shot the little girl next to Emily kept putting her pom pom in Emily's face, this is the only photo I was able to get where you could see her. Then went to cheer for a few minutes. After they did the cheering the YMCA had a "tailgate party". They had tables of food and drinks for everyone, so we got some breakfast and headed down to Home Depot where we were meeting my sister and her girls. We got down there and they had a firetruck and a ambulance for the kids to look in. After that we went to do the craft and after lots of hammering we finished with fire station piggy banks. That was about all we did this weekend, Emily had a birthday party and we just chilled around the house.