Pumpkin carving night

First and most important, please review the post about access!! I want the blog to be safer, and you will have to sign in once I implement this. If I don't have your email address that you will sign in with (and create an account with), you will NOT be able to view this anymore.

Second.....HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Last night after going out to supper with Doug, Doran, Kari, and Joel Smith, we came home to watch (or listen to) Charlie Brown and carve pumpkins. This year Hailey was ALL ABOUT THE PUMPKINS! She was the first one at the table, and was ready to get the "guts" out of her pumpkin and get to punching the holes in it. She did great!! Nothing was gross to her...her hands were right in the pumpkin...very fun! She did take one little break to color a picture. AND, at supper, wrote her entire name by herself with NO HELP AT ALL and did it fast and it even looked good. Way to go Hailey!!

Ryan wasn't too sure about carving pumpkins! He liked picking up the pumpkins, but didn't want to touch the seeds or guts at all! But, wouldn't you know it, after a few minutes watching everyone else, his hands were in there as well! :) He had fun trying to get the seeds from the bottom of the pumpkin.

They both got to stay up late...it was too much fun! :) They didn't want to go to bed, but their mean mommy made them! :)

We are all looking forward to tonight...should be a fun, sugar-loaded night of trick-or-treating!!

(The first picture of Ryan is Ryan being silly! He had a mini pb cup and then decided to put the wrapper on his nose and said "Me a clown!! Me a clown!!!!" What a stinker!!!)

Halloween cookies

Anyone hungry for C-O-O-K-I-E-S!??!?!

Doran brought over Halloween cookies to decorate on Sunday. The kids always love to decorate cookies!! Hailey told me she has been waiting to do this...and all the other times were just PRACTICE for this one! She has changed A LOT since Easter...she now wants things PERFECT and wants to make things look nice and pretty, etc. It is fun to watch her work! :)

Here are the kids...before the fun started. How funny does Ryan look!??! :)

Ryan's FIRST cookie...a purple pumpkin. Then he wanted to put some sprinkles on it (what kid doesn't!?!?). Well...we looked over to see he put the WHOLE CONTAINER of sprinkles on his ONE cookie! :) After that, Ryan was done decorating!! :) And, Hailey's pumpkin cookies broke in half so she was sharing it with Doran and they were all silly! :) Fun times!!

The Princess & The Monkey

The Princess & The Monkey got quite the workout on Saturday!! :) First...a picture of them when they still liked their costumes! :)

After the picture, we went to Zoo Montana for a fun 2 hours out there! Not only did we get to see the animals, but Hailey and Ryan got to :

• Go trick-or-treating
• See the new little monkeys for the first time
• Decorate cookies
• Make Halloween magnets
• Hailey got her hair painted AGAIN
• Play on the swing sets
• Go bowling with pumpkins
• Play "pin the nose on the witch"
• and of course...sample some candy!!

After 2 hours at the zoo, we ate McDonald's AT McDonald's (a big deal for the kids!!), then home for naps. We woke up and got the costumes back on and went right away to West Park Plaza (small mall where Sears is located) for MORE trick-or-treating. All the stores were out handing out candy, and there were TONS of kids there. Hailey thought it was so neat that Snow White and Cinderella were there too (other little girls dressed up!).

From there, we went right out to Lockwood school to attend ANOTHER Halloween event!! Still in costume, the kids enjoyed their supper of chips, pretzels, milk, and cookies (they didn't want the chili of course) and then went into the gym to decorate pumpkins, decorate a bag to take trick-or-treating (again...MORE CANDY!), and just have FUN! We sneaked by the cookie decorating and the tattoos as it was TIME TO GO HOME!!!

(look at the picture of Hailey's bag she decorated...she wrote he whole last name WITHOUT HELP!!! I was so proud of her!!!)

We were ALL exhausted! We got home, put jammies on, and watched a few minutes of a movie. I think they had fun...but it was a looong day in their costumes! :)

Access will be restricted

This is VERY IMPORTANT!!! On Friday 11/2 I will be restricting access to this site to only people that ask ME to view it. There are a few people that I will add automatically, but if you are questioning if you will continue to have access, send us an email and I will add your email address to the list. You will now have to sign in to read the blog. Sorry for this extra step, but we just feel safer knowing who will be reading this!!

Thanks!!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

On Thursday, October 25 I went with Hailey and her preschool class to a landscaping nursery/pumpkin patch. It was a fun afternoon for everyone!!! :)

First we started in the preschool classroom. Hailey had to show me the spider puppet (just what I needed to see!) and then her "job" was calendar this week, so she was at the front of the class helping figure out what day and date it was. She did great!!!

Then we were off to ride the bus! She decided to be silly and wear MY sunglasses and then of course wanted a picture taken! What a SUPERSTAR!! :)

While at the pumpkin patch, the kids got to play many different games!! From bowling (Hailey got a STRIKE!), to a bean bag game, fishing for candy, even a small maze to find your own pumpkin, and the favorite....searching in the hay for CANDY! FUN and MESSY!!!

What a fun way to spend the day with Hailey!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Elk -- part 2

This post is so not about the kids...but for all the hunters that need to see the elk!! I found out this morning that Brad (our friend from ND and Chris' hunting buddy :) for the week) also got a 4x5 elk yesterday!! Not too bad considering we were just hoping they would SEE elk ... and maybe get one! :) Now we have TWO HUGE ELK to deal with!! The boys are back in Billings, and are over cutting up the meat right now. Should be a fun night for them! :)

Picture of Chris with his elk in the field .... and how he got it OUT of the field!!!

And a picture of Brad with his elk in the field, getting it out, and another one this morning.

Great job guys!!!!!

And a few bonus pictures. Here is their "camp"... Notice the camper in the upper left corner of the picture. Then a picture of the snow they found the first morning.

And a few scenery pictures ... by Brad.

And, how they got there. Chris pulling the camper (see Brad's elk in the back of his truck) and Brad pulling both 4-wheelers).

The Elk

Yesterday was the FIRST day of hunting for elk and deer in Montana, so Chris was out and ready to go! (he was actually out scouting since Thursday too) He is elk hunting all week, but wasn't sure if he would really shoot one even if given the chance since he has access to a special piece of land for elk this year. So, wouldn't you know. at 8:40 AM on the first morning of the season Chris would get a 5 by 5 bull elk!!! I knew it wasn't a good sign when I got a call from his cell phone at noon on Sunday (he has to drive quite a ways to get cell reception!). He was so excited and happy! :) He ended up driving the 3 hours home to get it here, and 3 hours back since it is suppose to get to be 60 degrees outside and didn't want the meat to spoil.

Ryan was SO EXCITED when Chris got home to see the elk. Chris walked in and Ryan said "Daddy, where your elk is??" and was ready to see it. When outside Chris asked Ryan what an elk said and here is Ryan's response (NO HELP by the way...and got TONS of laughing by actually sounding like one!!!)

And a few pictures ... cannot forget those! :)

Picture day

Look at our pretty girl!!! Today Hailey had preschool pictures and she needed a haircut, so I picked her up before preschool and got her hair cut and styled. What a cute little girl she is!! :) (hey..I am the mommy...I can say that!!) After the haircut, she needed lunch (I thought she would have ate at daycare, but didn't) so we stopped at McDonald's (that made her day too!!). Then we talked AGAIN about staying awake all day at preschool and staying active with her class. She said she was ready! :) I snapped this picture while we were waiting in line at McDonald's...will be fun to see how the actual picture turns out!! :)

Update...she did GREAT at preschool and stayed AWAKE all day long!! We were VERY PROUD of her...and she was proud of herself as well. =D

Slippers

It is funny how something so small can make Hailey and Ryan's night!! When I was at Target yesterday, I saw slippers. Knowing that slippers usually sell out fast in the sizes I need (at least that is how I feel it happens), I got a few pair. Chris thought we should give them to Hailey & Ryan last night. Hailey of course loved hers...but she has always liked slippers. Ryan NEVER wore his last year...but I don't know what happened, but he LOVED his Cars slippers!!!!!!!!!! He even wore them to bed. I will have to get a picture of him wearing them so you can tell how BIG they are on him in relation to his little body. :)

Two words...

CUTE KIDS!!!!!!!!! Here are Hailey & Ryan on Saturday at Harvest Fest in downtown Billings. Warning, family, you will be seeing this picture again! :) hint hint :)

I wanna ride in the fire truck!

STOP! DROP! ROLL!!!! October is Fire Safety month, and Hailey's preschool class took a field trip to a fire station on Wednesday and I got to take a 1/2 day of vacation and go with. It was a beautiful day outside, and so fun to be with her and her friends to see the station, the truck, and a few firefighters too. Fun times!! Enjoy the pictures. ;)

First, here is Hailey performing her "job" of the week....DOOR HOLDER! :)

And, pictures at the fire station. First, inside watching a firefighter go down the pole. There is only one pole like this in Billings (all the other fire stations are just one floor so no pole needed). Then pictures outside by the firetruck.

Sleepovers

Hailey can be so shy most days. But, lately, she hasn't been shy about one thing...sleepovers at her house! Last Saturday she started a new session of swimming lessons. She got done, came over to me, and told me..."Mommy, I have a new friend and she wants to sleep over at my house!" Funny thing is...she didn't know this new friend's name! :) I figured we would find out next Saturday.

Then, tonight I took the kids to McDonald's where there is a playland. They were playing while I was getting the food ready, and when it was time to eat, Hailey said to me "Mommy I met a new friend playing!" I thought that was so good of her to actually talk to a new person! Then, the little girl walked by, and Hailey said "Hi! HI!!! You wanna have a sleepover at my house??? Do you wanna have a sleepover at my house, friend???" All of this was really loud and a few tables got a big laugh out of it (including me). I guess I know who initiated the first talk of a sleepover with her new friend at swimming. :)

Pumpkin Fun

Look at what we did on Sunday afternoon -->

Michael's craft store had a special yesterday from 1-5pm for customers to come in and decorate their own craft pumpkins. So, when the kids woke up early from their naps at 2:45, we went right over there! OMG it was a MESS, but as you can tell from the pumpkins, they sure had fun! I think Hailey would have stayed for another hour or two if I would have let her, but Ryan had his limit!! :)

Here are a few pictures of the process...Ryan painting his pumpkin, Hailey working on hers, and then one of Hailey very proudly displaying her pumpkin. It is so fun that hers actually has a face (unlike Ryan's :) ).