1st taste of summer

This weekend the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! As you can tell from the picture below...spring is here in Billings!! There are even some really nice green spots in the yard! All weekend there were lawnmower going too! Yahoo...spring is here!!

Saturday night the kids were able to spend a lot of time outside...playing in the sandbox and also practicing t-ball, and just goofing off too! :) They really had fun building sandcastles and playing on the swingset too. I had fun taking pictures with the new camera of them just having fun and being kids! :)



Here is Ryan's playing "boys only t-ball" with Chris and then he was laughing so hard when Chris just pushed him down...surprised he didn't wet himself! :)


Hailey is getting a lot better at hitting the ball now...thanks to a little coaching from daddy! :)


If Saturday was a nice "spring" day....Sunday was a nice "SUMMER" day! It was in the mid-70s and ALL SUN!!! Not a cloud in sight, but a little wind. The kids got to spend a few hours outside after church and before naps. They even had a picnic outside for lunch...after they helped clean the table! :) They even got a little sunburn on their arms. Time to take out the sunscreen! :)

The 2nd practice

Hailey had another practice last Friday night. This time they actually got to practice hitting the ball, and were standing on the bases and trying to learn the rules of the game. When Ryan and I finally got to the field, Hailey was playing 1st base!! If there is anyway you are close to us and reading this, you have to attend a game this season!! :) I was laughing so hard at practice! In the middle picture you see the little boy with the bat. Well, one time he hit the ball, ran to 1st, then went and got the ball and handed it to the person covering 1st base!! :) How cute!! :) The kids all did good, and it was fun for everyone.

Pictures :
(1) Hailey taking her turns at hitting the ball.
(2) Covering 1st base.
(3) End of the practice game and saying "good game" to the other team.



And then there is poor little Ryan. All he wants to do is be on the field playing t-ball with Daddy too! He will be MORE THAN READY in 2 years when he can first start playing. We already have to play almost every night in the backyard!! :) And he doesn't want to share his bat with Hailey either. Poor guy...going to be a long season for him.

My new toy

As many of you are aware, I got a new toy a week ago...and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! My new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi have found a new friendship! :) My dad wanted to "see" my new toy...so here it is :

We sure bonded this weekend. Chris and I were outside with the kids just playing and before I knew it....another 120 pictures!! Yikes!!! And the file size of these is almost TWICE my old camera. Pretty soon we will need to update the external hard drive for more space too :)

Oh Ryan

So...we were driving around yesterday and the kids and Chris love finding all the pheasants. Here is a funny conversation with Chris and Ryan :

Ryan : Look Daddy....two horses.

Chris : Good job buddy. Look...a pheasant.

Ryan : No, Daddy, that is a horse.

So...maybe it was funnier for us, but still cute that he thought Chris was calling a HORSE a PHEASANT! :) The pheasant was a little ways beyond the horse. :)

Cute kid :)

Cabin time

We finally got back to the cabin this past weekend (April 4-5-6)...it has been 5 weeks since we were up there!! It was so nice to just relax together as a family and share some special times together. Our time up there is usually very relaxing...so I wanted to share a few of the "normal" things we do up there on any given weekend! :)

First, Ryan LOVES the sausage from the Red Lodge grocery store....so Chris and Ryan got up early on Saturday morning to drive to down to get some for the weekend. I was taking this picture and right when I snapped it he put his fork in it!! :)


After naps on Saturday we took the kids outside to play in the snow. We left Billings on Friday after t-ball practice and it was in the 50s. We got to the cabin to find TONS of snow! Ryan didn't think it was right that there was snow up there "no snow in the spring mommy." Sorry kiddo...the cabin snow lasts a lot longer!! It did feel like we went back to January by being around that much snow again. The kids loved having it there...they were running and jumping all over! :)


After playing outside, you need to come in and have hot cocoa, right?!?! Oh yummy...even with marshmallows this time! :)


Then on Saturday night we even made s'mores by the fire! Hailey loved it...but Ryan just wanted ice cream instead! :)


It was a great weekend at the cabin! :)

T-Ball starts!

Time for Hailey to start T-Ball!! How cute is this picture of Chris taking his little girl to her first practice!?!? Practice is on Fridays at 5:30. I will take pictures of practice this week and post more pictures of that later. Games start the end of April...should be fun!! :)

Circus time

Last Thursday (April 3rd) Hailey and Ryan got to go to the circus (with mom and dad and Grandma and Papa too!). We also went with Ed, Rainya, Hailey T., and McKenna so it was a fun time. The circus was a lot of fun...great acts...lots of laughs...and a good time. The kids got to have popcorn, peanuts, and cotton candy, and even got one of the crazy light-up toys!! :)

Now...I suppose this is where you expect to see pictures. Well, give me a little more time on this one! :) Watch out........I got a new camera!!!!!!!!!! And the circus was the first event I got to "play" with it...so there were a lot of pictures. Just this morning I figured out how to get the pictures from the camera to the computer, but still need to work on resizing them (they are too big to post here in their original size).

UPDATE....finally the pictures from the new camera!!

Here are a few pictures that I took of Hailey when playing with the camera the first night. She is LOVING it too! :) She keeps finding things to model with...and keeps telling me "take a picture of this mommy"! :) I have created a model! :)


Here are the circus pictures now. Hailey got to ride a pony (Ryan didn't want to) and they both got toys (of course!).

Here is just a funny picture of Ryan...a picture of Hailey with her friend Kayla...and one of Ryan acting crazy with popcorn in his mouth! :)


I have hundreds of more pictures from the circus of the acts, but didn't add them right now. I have more to come! :)

Ryan's first movie

On Friday night (March 28), Chris and I took the kids to see "Horton Hears a Who!" movie. It was Ryan's 1st time to the movie theatre (and his last for a little while too :) ). They were all excited to go to the movies!! We even went out to eat before the movie too.

Here they are outside the theatre ->

And, no trip to the movies is complete without POPCORN and CANDY!

When we got into the theatre, it was EMPTY! We couldn't believe it. However, it did fill up before it started. The movie was great...but Ryan just didn't want to sit to watch it all. He went to the bathroom twice before it started and twice during the movie (and we were only there for 2 hours!!). He still did good, but just isn't into sitting for a movie yet! :) Maybe in the fall we will try it again. It was still a fun time for all 4 of us!

Our 1st fire of 2008

On Wednesday, March 26 we got to have our first fire of 2008 in the backyard. It was a nice night, and it was time to say goodbye to the Christmas tree! :) The kids loved it, and wanted to sit out there all night, but we had to get ready for bed. Still fun! :) How fun to have a fire pit in our backyard!!!!

Swimming Lessons - level 3

Hailey finished up her first session of "level 3" swimming lessons in March. She did very good...especially considering there was a HUGE class and not as many instructors as normal. The first night was tough on her (new class, deeper water, teachers expect more, etc), but she kept going and was swimming a lot by the time class was over. Here are a few short videos of her swimming. Not the best video, and not the best swimming she has done, but you get the idea! :)

Here is Hailey's 2nd attempt at diving into the 12 feet deep water. The first attempt when I was recording a kid walked right in front of the camera when she started diving so you cannot see her at all! Figures! :)

No more swimming until July now...at least for lessons. She started t-ball last week so we didn't want her to have too much to do! :)