October fun

October was once again a very busy month, it seems as the kids get older we have more and more to do. At the start of the month we went to the corn maze with my Mom, Eli, Sandy and her girls,and I am happy to report we didn't lose any children while in the maze. The kids and I have done the corn maze before but I have to say it is so much more fun when we go with a group of people. We started the fun out by playing on the slides and doing some of the games they have to play
and then we headed into the maze

We had made it to the half way spot and the kids were starting to drag, thankfully Grandma knew how to fix this problem and got all the kids tubes of sugar.It was such a great time, I cant wait for next year to do it again. We also took pictures for Christmas cards this month. I am not sure which ones I want to use but here is a sample of a few I got.




It is hard to believe how big the kids are getting before I know it Cody will be taller then me. We did pumpkins before we headed off to Vegas and they came out so cute. This year I had them clean and cut them all by them self. Cody did a wonderful job, even getting a few of the small spots perfect. Emily's pumpkin came out cute, she did all the poking and then cut where she wanted so her pumpkin is a little free handed. Dave also did a great job on his pumpkin adding his own special touches to the pattern he had. I think they all came out great.




Emily had a girlscout Halloween party last week, all the girls in the troop dressed up for the event and they all looked so cute. We played all kinds of games and the girls all looked like they had fun.



Cody had to leave early to head to boyscouts so he missed part of it. He did a play for boyscouts and had a part in it. Dave said he did amazeing job and it was very cute. After that Dave and I headed to Vegas and the kids got to spend the week with Grandma.

So much to say

Wow its been awhile sense I have updated this, so much has been going on its been crazy. In August we went up to Great Falls for the day, its about a three hour drive so it doesn't leave to much time to enjoy the place but it gave us a chance to see my grandparents and a few other family members.
We also stoped by one of the parks I loved as a kid, Giant Springs. I took the kids there when I came up from California one time so it was fun to take them back now that they are bigger. It is such a pretty park I wish Billings would get one like it.

We then went up to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and learned about how they made it across what is now Montana.


We even had a few minutes to stop at the Veterans Wall to pay our respects to all of our men and women who have been in the military.

Of course we had to stop and look at the falls that are around Great Falls, on the way to one of the falls we got to see some wild life.
That weekend we also went to our daycare, they were having a three year anniversary party in the big gym. It was a blast and was even better when we ran into a friend of mine. My kids and her sisters kids played a little and really had a good time.



After words we headed out to Dads for a BBQ and the kids played the good old classic game of splash out.

We were able to make it to the Home Depot activity for August and the kids made book ends for the project, which were just perfect as they are both into reading chapter books now so they fit in book ends much better then the other kinds. The next weekend we went out to the fair and that was a blast like always. The kids rode every big kid ride they could get on and we rode everyone with them. I am so happy that both the kids and Dave enjoy the big rides, it gives me excuse to get on them.

My sister, the four kids and me headed out one night to look around and it was so much fun, reminded me of when I was a kid and we would all go with our cousins. We also made it out camping one more time, this time we headed out by Columbus and went to a nice little camp ground there. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun. Cody got lots of fishing in and Emily got lots of playing in. My sister and her girls even joined us for a bit which was prefect because then Emily had someone to play with that didn't want to go fishing the whole time. It was going to rain one night so we came home early and hit the water slide park up with my sister and her two girls. I haven't been on a water slide in forever but it was a blast. We all had so much fun, we will have to do it again this winter. Last two weekends were full of races. On Sunday we took the kids to the rubber duck races, we didn't win any of the races


but the kids came home with brand new fishing poles.
I'm going to have to learn how to get the fish off a hook so we can take the kids fishing next summer, on second thought I think Dave needs to learn that so I don't have to touch the fish or hook. Then on the next Sunday we took them to the last day of the horse races, this is where we did much better at the winning part. The kids each got to pick a horse in a few races and we placed a bet on them. We ended up coming home with almost everything we took and the kids had a blast. We had dinner last weekend with a bunch of family including my cousins husband who is getting ready to head overseas for a year. I would like to take a moment to thank him for keeping this country safe for his kids and for mine. If it wasn't for the sacrifices the military men and women and there family's make for us I might be able to sit here and wright with such freedom. We went to my sisters little girl Lexi's birthday party a few weekends ago, it is so hard to believe she is already a year old, where does the time go. The kids also started school this month, I cant believe how big they are getting. They are both in second grade already but so far they are likeing it. They had a big change a few weeks into school and put all the second and third graders into 3 mixed classes, I wasn't very happy with it at first but so far it seems to be working. We will see what the kids report cards look like next month to know for sure. Other then that change the kids seem to be doing very well, Cody is doing amazing with his math and his reading and Emily got a teacher that is really pushing her this year. We are going to have a great school year I just know it. In fact the cat has also decided to head to school for some fun. Cody has decided to do boy scouts again this year so we got him all signed up for that and as soon as I get the patches up I will post up his picture with his shirt, Emily is doing girl scouts again and this year she moved up to being a brownie. It is crazy to see how my little babies are growning up to be such sweet and caring people. This weekend we have been out selling cookies for girl scouts and yesterday we went to Saturday Live. Its a fundraiser for the schools and alot of fun, there was tons of games to play and things to do and the best part was the weather was perfect.




We have been lucky to do a lot of simple things the last couple months like hang out with family, go on walks and whatever other random things we have had time to do. Here is the link to my facebook photo book that has all the fun photos of this summer, it was a blast of the summer and I couldn't have asked for something better.

Camping

The last two weekend have been spent with fun out in nature. Two weeks ago we took Dave and showed him what Montana is all about, the great outdoors. My mom, Tom, the kids and us went out to Cooney Lake and camped the weekend away. There isn't much to say about it we did the normal things, relaxed, played in the water and had lots of yummy smores. It was the first trip of the summer (unless you count that really cold one in June) and it was perfect. There was a ton of people out on the lake so we didn't get the tube to pull behind the boat out, but the kids still got lots of time in the water. Then last weekend Emily and I headed to Girl Scout Camp out by Red Lodge for anther weekend of sun and fun. We went on a hike, made frames, bracelets and of had more smores and banana boats. This year was even better sense they put our troop together so they girls could have fun together. Dave was nice enough to keep Cody for the weekend and they went off to do boy things. Cody was so excited to get to just have a boy's weekend, they went to Chuck E Cheese, the movies and other top secret boy activities. After we got home on Sunday we went over to Mom's house and set up the new pool she got, and I have to say it is a ton of fun. It was even more fun sense my sister's girls and my brothers oldest boy came over to play again. Now as I sit here and type this up I am thinking were should we go camping this weekend....

Parks, Wedding and Hikeing

This weekend was just a perfect summer weekend. We started it off by going to the spray park on Friday after work and enjoyed the sunshine for a little bit. The kids got tired of the spray after a little bit so we decided to go down and feed the ducks at Riverfront park and then do a little walking in the trails. That was a bad idea, the mosquito's were so bad you couldn't go into the grass. Even with the deep forest off they attacked us and ran us out of the woods. By that point it was getting late so we headed home to make dinner and just have a nice relaxing night. On Saturday we had Addie's wedding to go to in Miles City, on the way is Pompey's Pillar something I have always wanted to go to but for some reason never had the time to make it. We did a ton of stairs (if I remember right it was like 201) before Addie's wedding, it was a good thing we had another hour in the car to recool down. Addie's wedding was so nice, she looked amazing and it had a relaxed feeling to it. The actual wedding only lasted about twenty minutes and then it was off to the party, which from what I hear went into the early hours. We decided to come home the same night so we headed out about nine, but before we left we did all the important things. We did the chicken dance, ate a great dinner, slow danced, did the dollar dance and did the who can catch the garter/flower bouquet. The following day we were going to head up to Nie and hike along the stream there but I forgot to take a turn and we ended up in Red Lodge so we headed to Lake Wild Bill instead and hiked around it. We have had so much rain this year that everything is so green which makes it even better. You know I love living in Montana during the summer, ask me again in 6 months if I like it here and I will say no but for the moment it has been the best summer in a very long time.

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday was the 4th of July and what a great day it was. I want to start this out by saying thank you to all the soldiers out there, both past and present, who allow us to be able to celebrate our nations birthday. If it wasn't for the We started the morning out by heading to Laural and watched the parade. I think that might have been the longest parade I have ever seen, but the kids loved it and ended up with so much candy. If we go next year we will have to make sure we bring a bag for the candy. After that we headed over to my Dad's house for a picnic lunch and the kids thought it would be a good idea to run in Dad's sprinklers. We stayed there for a bit just talking and having fun then on the way home my Mom called and invited us over. We got over there and she had water balloons and the pool ready for the kids, so in the suites they went. While the kids were doing that we decided to go get the kids some fireworks and skip the big mess in Laural later. It has been a long time sense I saw my kids on the 4th and it still makes me smile at how amazed they are by the fireworks. The kids and I had the most amazing day and to top it all off Dave got here late last night. Now I am sitting here listening to the birds sing, the sun is coming up all warm and sunny and I am thinking how lucky I am right now and how great life is. Here is a collection of the pictures I got yesterday, I hope you all had just as wonderful of a day as we did.