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.

Kids Christmas Concert and a fake Christmas

Today the kids had a Christmas concert at daycare. They were suppose to do something totally different but they had problems with the music so it was all done with just the kids singing. I think they did an amazing job all by them self. Sorry for the bad quality, my hands were shaking and I was trying to stand on a chair so I could see them. The school isn't doing one so I wont be able to show those at all. Then tonight my sister, her boyfriend, my brother and all the kids came over for a early Christmas. My sisters oldest daughter goes to her dads every other year so we do a early one where they exchange gifts to each other. It was so much fun and all the kids got along so well. Its hard to believe how fast they are growing up. Cody got some Bakugan stuff, Emily got a teapot and a puzzle, Bayleigh got the High School Musical movie, Eli got Lego's and Lexi got a cute little outfit. The kids were all very polite and waited for the other kids to finish before they went, all though Emily had a hard time understanding the difference between youngest to oldest and shortest to tallest. When we said youngest first she got excited until she had to wait till almost the end. I surprised Sandy and Jacob with little photo books I made with different pictures from over the years. After that we had some pizza and just hung out while the kids were busy playing in the bed rooms. It was great to hang out with them all and just let the kids play, cant wait till next time when all of the kids will be older and Lexi can join in the fun. Now to just wait till the real Christmas.

My new car

I got myself a Christmas present this year, a new car. I'm so excited it has power locks, windows and a button to pop the trunk. It also has tons of safety features, four doors and in very good condition. I got an amazing deal on it and now I wish summer would hurry up so we could go for a really long drive. It is a 2002 Alero, white with very soft grey seats. Here is what it looks like.

Check out all this room for my kids and for me

Letter to Santa

Today I told the kids after karate we would go see Santa so Emily wanted to wright him a letter. She did it all by herself and I thought it was so cute. Her letter says "Dear Santa I have been very goog this year ask my mom p.s. Santa would you get me the lulu cat pleas!" I just wanted to share before we took it to Santa, she even did all the spelling and sentence her self. After we did some running and took Cody to karate it was off to see Santa and his elf.