Build-A-Bear

If Saturday wasn't Hailey's fill of birthday celebration, she got MORE on Sunday when she went to her friend Kayla's birthday party!! Kayla had her party at Build-A-Bear Workshop in the mall. What a GREAT IDEA for a birthday party!!!! All the girls got to pick their own bears out, then go through the process of giving them a heart (& a wish), stuffing them, cleaning them, and then picking out an outfit for them too! They even got to name their bears and get a birth certificate for them! It really was a neat thing to do, and so glad that I stayed to "play" with them! :) Hailey got a little tired in the middle, but still did good. She sure woke up when it was time for cake too! :)

Here are all the girls...getting ready start "making" their bears. And, Hailey with her finished product...."Princess" the bear! (no surprise there, right?!?!)

A Pumpkin Patch Birthday

On Saturday, September 22, our friends Hailey & McKenna Taylor had their birthday party at a local pumpkin patch. Of course we had to go!! And, it was one of the hottest days we have had in a looong time...88 degrees!! While we were there, we had lunch, then went on a hayride and got to stop at the pumpkin patch to pick out our own pumpkins.

The kids on the hayride...

Hailey and Ryan with their pumpkins. Notice the size of Ryan's!!! There were HUNDREDS of pumpkins and he picks the smallest, green one out there!! :)

We had a lot of fun out there...but it was sure time for NAPS when we left!! :)

NOTE...I added pictures below to the "Weekend Recap" entry below too. :)

Pretty Rainbow

Don't get too excited...but we did actually get a few DROPS of rain last night. It wasn't much, but did give us enough to see a beautiful DOUBLE rainbow!! We drove to Target to look for a few Halloween decorations, and the kids could each see a double rainbow out each side of the car. Ryan finally found it on his side, and said "Pretty rainbow. My window down. Take a picture." =D So...I guess I take a few pictures?!?! :) He wanted to go TOUCH it, so we had to explain that we cannot touch them.

Oh...and the boy is right in the middle of "why?" and "what's that?" now. I cannot count how many times I hear "Why Mommy?" and "what's that Mommy?"! It is cute, but we weren't prepared. Hailey never did this!! :)

Little math-wiz in the making

We hope Ryan is taking after Mommy & Daddy with his love for MATH! =D He was helping me in the kitchen putting pieces of watermelon in a bowl for me, and started counting on his own! :) One, two, three.....thirteen, fourteen! I was quite impressed that he could go to 14 by himself with NO HELP and the words were clear and correct.

He did it again last night too going up the steps acting all crazy! :) Good job, little man!

Weekend Recap

It was a busy weekend AGAIN! We all love it that way, and wouldn't have it any other way!!

Friday was pretty normal, and not too crazy. I went scrapbooking for the night, and Chris took the kids to G/G house for the night. They always love spending the night there (and I LOVE waking up and just relaxing a little at home on Saturday morning!!).

Saturday Chris was busy scouting out the land for Elk season. I picked up the kids in the morning after hitting a few stores ALONE. Then we got to make a special stop. We went to get Hailey's (& Ryan's) friend from daycare Kayla to come over and play. We also stopped at McDonald's for lunch too!! The kids LOVED having Kayla over here. It was over 80 degrees outside so they were busy playing outside on the swing set and with toys in the front yard. Ryan was very disgusted when I told him he had to take a nap though!!

After nap time (and Kayla left to go to her soccer game), it was time to go to Hailey T. & McKenna's birthday party at The Little Gym. The kids had a FANTASTIC time running around and playing!! Then we went over to Karl & Jasmine's house for a BBQ/picnic with them. Of course Hailey & Ryan were busy showing off and acting silly! :) We did have a FIRST over there....we got to get ice cream from the "Ice Cream Truck" that drives around their neighborhood. It was fun!! :) (and good!!)

Sunday wasn't as busy. Hailey had Sunday School, church for everyone, then we walked over to Wendy's for lunch! :) The night was pretty relaxing at home. Hailey had a nice meltdown...she needs to have at least one nap during the weekend! Still good times!

Child labor

Okay...so having kids can be helpful at times. When the tired-one ... sorry...Hailey...got home from daycare yesterday she wanted to clean. Oh poor me...I have to find something for her to clean. She LOVES to have Windex and a rag (preferably the pink one) and spray clean whatever she can. After she cleaned the sliding doors (and Ryan got it all dirty again ... she was so upset and I just laughed), I told her she could clean the mirror in the bathroom and the shower doors. I went in the bathroom to see her IN the shower cleaning away!! That is one sparkling shower we have!!! And, about 1/4 bottle of Windex GONE! :)

During this time, Ryan was outside "cleaning" as well...but working on the 4-wheeler with Daddy. It is pretty bad when our kids will say "the 4-wheeler is dirty (or substitute car in there too). we need to wash it!"!! It wasn't even that bad, but that made it necessary to wash! :) It was a fun....and productive...night!

Tonight I might introduce a bucket with a scrub-brush to clean the title floors!! :) j/k

Swimming Update

So, I like this new video function that is available!!

Remember, yesterday was Hailey's first day of preschool in the afternoon with no nap...so we had a few "moments" that showed that she was tired! Even with that, she did GREAT at swimming lessons. I will include a little video of her jumping in the deep water....12 feet deep!!! Yikes! She was told to jump in and then float on her back. She did good..but did better the first time but I missed the jumping in part. :) I was going to include some pictures of her swimming, but they didn't turn out good in there with it being so dark in the building.

Enjoy the video!! Hailey is in the pink with cherries swimming suit if you have problems finding her. :)

The FIRST day of school

Today is the first day of preschool (again) for Hailey. This is her second year at Good Shepherd Preschool and she said it perfectly this morning ... "I am so excited"!!! She will be one of the older kids there this year, and is excited to help the teachers with things and hopefully be a "leader" in the class. She will be SO READY for Kindergarten next year. She is also excited that she has NO NAP today too! :) We will see how swimming lessons go tonight with no nap during the day! :)

Here are a few pictures from the first afternoon at preschool. She was so excited to see her teachers again...big hugs for all of them. Then it was running around the room to see the new toys (and the old ones too). She was happy to be back!!!

Testing this out...

Just thought I would try a new feature on the blog of posting video. We went to a Rubber Ducky race Sunday and here is a little video of Ryan "gettin' down" to the old-time polka band! :) He usually dances much more wildly, but he was busy eating his chips too! :) (don't you love his blue necklace too??!) I hope it works!!

These are my favorite

'Tis the season....the FALL SEASON! Most people know that I LOVE Fall and Halloween (especially decorating for it!). Well, the Halloween candy is out...and Chris loves the Brach's Mellowscreme pumpkins that come out this time of year. So, it was the opening night of the NFL season, so I picked up a bag to celebrate. I knew Hailey would love them, but Ryan...well...he doesn't really have a sweet tooth like Hailey and I do! :) I gave him one, and expected him to spit it out and say "no like this candy. gross." But, instead I got "those pumpkins very, very good. they are my favorite!" I have never hear him say "favorite" before...and how funny to hear it to those! Cute, huh? :)

Then, we put him to bed, and I hear him talking in his crib. I walked in there and I hear "I want two pumpkins." LOL! I told him no more pumpkins tonight and he told me "just 2 pumpkins"!! :) I bet you know what he wanted FIRST THING in the morning!! :)

Looks like the "bed fairy" might need to bring pumpkins instead of M&Ms now!!

She just amazes me...

I took Hailey to swimming again last night (it is on Tuesday AND Thursday nights) and she just amazes me! How can my little 5 year old know how to swim so good already!?!? The "shallow" end of the water is 4 ft deep, so she cannot stand up and she is over there holding onto the side, doing 10-20 bobs right away. Then she is swimming a good 15 -20 feet by herself (with the teacher right there beside her) on her tummy with these straight arms...hands so nice and fingers together...she looked like a professional swimmer!! And then...her head would turn, she took a breath, and back in the water her face would go! After that she was on her back swimming and using great arms again too! She is just so fun to watch...and she listens so well to the teacher and can just do what they ask of her. It really is FUN to see her. OH....and she was jumping in the DEEP water too...off the diving platform! I don't know how deep it is...10 ft or so...I will have to check next week. Crazy deep though, and no fears from her!! Better her than me! :)

Swimming lessons AGAIN!

Back to swimming lessons we go! Hailey started swimming lessons again last night, but it is at a new place. She is going to Rocky College for lessons. They have a HUGE pool, and it seemed so much more formal and higher levels than the other places we have went. I think she will do very good there! She goes on Tuesday AND Thursday nights for September, October and November (if we keep her in all the sessions :)). Ryan of course wanted to go too, but you need to be 4 to attend these. Poor guy! :(

Next week she starts preschool again....she is going to be so tired!!

Cabin time with Papa & Grandma

On Saturday morning, we all headed up to the cabin. We got there in time to have lunch, and find out we were very fortunate to get TONS of wood from our neighbors that was all cut and ready to go! I think we have TWICE the wood we had last year...for free, and for very little work! :) Chris, my dad and my mom worked to stack the wood in the bins and outside the shed while the kids napped. Of course, when the kids woke up, they had to help too!

We spent the rest of Saturday hanging out at the cabin and went for a nice walk (and 4 wheeler rides too) around the other cabins, and found a few deer! :)

Sunday we had a BUSY DAY! After breakfast, we decided to get out and see some of MT and take my parents to a few places. We were only in the car for maybe about a city block, and I said "now if only we knew where our moose was" and Chris slammed on the breaks and said "she is RIGHT THERE!" and she was....right out the window!!!!!! My dad and Chris got out to take pictures, and weren't more than 10 feet from her. Ryan wanted to get out and share his Fruit Loops with the moose! And, he also named the moose...MIKE! :) So now Ryan asks all the time "where is Mike??" :) My dad LOVED seeing the moose...and so did my mom (from inside the car :))

Then we headed off to Wild Bill Lake for some fishing. It was fun...and they caught fish...and my dad loved the scenery! :)

Before and after fishing, we took a few family pictures by the stream. Every year since 1999, Chris and I have taken a picture by the stream. One year I am going to get them all framed together! :) We haven't made the time to do it this year yet, so we took advantage of having my parents there to help with it. Ryan didn't really want to have his picture taken, but still did okay.

We even got a picture of the kids together....

And one of my parents with Hailey and Ryan (Don't you love the background?!?! MT is beautiful!!).

And, then there is Hailey. Not sure what happened to her, but she was in "model-mode" all day! Every rock she saw, she wanted to climb and have a picture taken on it! And, she was posing all the time. It was so cute, but after 15-20 different pictures it started to get old :) Here is a SMALL sampling!

And, I found out where she gets it from!! :) Look at this picture I found on my camera too!

After all that, we drove up the Beartooth Pass, and then back down to the cabin for a late lunch. I was sick...so off to bed I went. My dad and Chris went hiking and fishing (they had GREAT luck too). Then we spent a nice night at the cabin. Lots of laughing courtesy of the kids!! :)

Monday morning my parents had to leave, so we packed up and made it home around lunch time. It was a fun weekend...LOTS done...LOTS of fun...but went waaaay tooooo faaaast! :)

Burn the Point

On Friday, August 31, Grandma and Papa Buckhouse came to town!! Hailey and Ryan were BEYOND excited to see them when we picked them up from daycare. We played a little at home, had supper, and then went to downtown to see the "Burn the Point" parade with A LOT of old cars in it. Papa of course was very excited. Ryan was too....Hailey didn't really care. :) Actually the kids were more excited for just the candy! The parades we have went to in the past have had A LOT of candy, but this one there wasn't too much. Ryan and Hailey were a little disappointed, but did great!

Here is Hailey with her two grandmas....and Ryan with his two papas!

And poor Ryan... "More candy...I want more candy!!!"

We got home, and the kids were having fun JUMPING over the two steps in the living room. We got TONS of laughs...and Papa and Grandma thought it was CRAZY! :)