It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!!

After the Maczkowicz's left, we spent Sunday getting the house looking like Christmas! We got the tree up (but didn't decorate it until tonight...Monday). We got all the decorations out and up. The kids were excited to get their trees up in their rooms!! :) When I was putting out the snowman village with fake snow, my little photographer went into action. Before I knew it, Hailey had both kittens covered in fake snow, snapping pictures away. She even used some fake holly with berries! Ryan was the "assistant" and loved it. I am sure she got some great pictures, but I like mine more. Look at how she got right down there with the kittens...she has so many choices for what she wants to be when she grows up! :)

The kids did like helping with the ornaments too. It is unreal...we have the tree up and ready to go ... and it isn't December yet. I LOVE IT! :)

Thanksgiving fun

We had such a fun Thanksgiving this year!! On Wednesday night, the Maczkowicz family came to Billings!!! How perfect that Ali is 8 and Alec is 5. The kids were so excited to have friends that got to sleep over for FOUR NIGHTS! And, Teresa and I loved that they all had someone to play with (the poor kittens NEVER got a break though!). We spent Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) at the house. The kids and dads went on a hike on the rims and they LOVED that. Then they played their hearts out before supper. Teresa and I worked on our plan for Friday morning shopping....it was a great match.

Here are the kids on Thanksgiving before eating! :)

Friday morning at 3am the guys left to go look for an elk (no luck unfortunately). Then at 4:15 am the girls left to look for some great deals (and got plenty of them!). We got home at 9am completely exhausted only to find out the kids had JUST gotten up...and were still in jammies and didn't even have breakfast yet! :) Figures! We were able to go to the Holiday parade on Friday night and the kids enjoyed that!

On Saturday we drove to Red Lodge to show them the mountains, the cabin and even the ski resort that just opened the previous day. It was a great time, but we wanted more time up there! We got home to find Brad and Chris home and relaxed at home that night. We had so much fun with them here and hope they can come out again REALLY SOON! :) Thanks so much for coming to stay and play with us, Brad, Teresa, Ali and Alec :)

Stone Soup

Today was a sad day....our last "Stone Soup" party! :( For the last 4 years, we have had Stone Soup. It is our last year of preschool, and thus our last year for Stone Soup. Ryan was SO EXCITED for it this year. He loves things like this. He ate some of the soup and was happy that Daddy and Mommy were both there (I was in MN for work this week, and was able to fly home late last night to make it for Stone Soup!).

Poor guy

Last night Ryan had a tough night. Chris was watching tv in the living room and I was sleeping in our room and we both heard this huge noise and then crying. It was Ryan. He fell out of bed or was sleep walking or something, and hit his eye on the nightstand in his room. He was crying this weird cry and wouldn't calm down at all. It just wasn't like him. After 10 minutes or so, we finally put him back in his bed, and put the light on. YIKES! Nice huge bump by his eye. We weren't sure if we should take him in or not. He finally started to calm down and we got a cold washcloth to put on it and then he went to sleep. We stayed with him for a little while, but then it was okay. We went back to bed and about 10 minutes later he walked into our room (this freaked me out because I was worried he would fall down the steps or something). He comes in and says "Mommy, my head and eye really hurt." I asked if he remembered falling out of bed and he didn't! He was asleep the whole time!!! We let him sleep by us the rest of the night and except for the bruises, he is fine.

But, wouldn't you know it, pictures were 2 days away! :) Figures!

Tooth #4 GONE

Yep, it didn't take that long indeed! The next bottom one came out tonight! She was over at a friends house and came home looking a little different...with a HUGE smile! :) She had her tooth in a baggie. I guess it came out in the bathroom and Hailey came out saying "I am sorry but there is a little blood in your bathroom...I LOST MY TOOTH!" It wasn't a huge mess, and Holly didn't care, but funny that she wasn't home for it. :) Now she looks great!

Updated picture of how she looks with both of them missing now!

Photos by Hailey

Here are a few pictures that Hailey took of the kittens....with my camera. I think I have created a monster...she loves MY CAMERA! Wait...when I want a new one, I can give her this one...hmmm :)

Tooth #3 GONE

It has been awhile, but Hailey FINALLY lost tooth #3 tonight! She was in the car wiggling it and before I knew it ...OUT it came. She lost her two middle front ones a while ago, and now this one is next to the new permanent teeth that came in. She is excited to see if the tooth fairy comes to this house (the tooth fairy only came to the cabin in the past!). I don't think it will be long before the one on the other side comes out too....