Brrrrr

Okay....seriously...BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! It is beyond COLD outside right now!! Saturday started the day at 30 outside, but quickly went below zero and it has yet to get above zero again! COLD!! So, needless to say, we stayed inside the house A LOT this weekend!! What did we do!??! Lots of fun stuff...decorating more of the house / windows, the kids got their own Christmas trees up in their rooms, pictures drawn for Santa, lots of games were played, books/magazines looked at, and baking, baking and more baking!! I made the following on Saturday and Sunday : 12 small loaves of pumpkin bread, peanut butter cups, ritz/peanut butter sandwiches, snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkle cookies, A LOT of cut-out cookies and even frosted them too!! The only thing left is to make the molasses cookies and get all this OUT OF THE HOUSE! :) Anyone want some?!??

Here are the kids busy making the cookies....

The kids enjoyed decorating the cutout cookies the most...as you can see in the pictures below. Notice Ryan. Yes, it is anywhere from -10 to -20 outside and he is "hot" and spent the afternoon in pants only...no shirt...no socks. He didn't get that from me! :)

Here is Ryan showing off one of our cookies...the "Christmas Trout". Yes, we have fish cookies...and LOTS of them thanks to Hailey. But, this year we don't have the "Christmas Moose" or the "Christmas Bear." I had the cookie cutters out, but then we forgot about them. :) And the second picture is of Ryan's old rainbow trout. There are so many layers of frosting on that one little fish! It took him 1/2 hour for one fish...and enough frosting for 10 cookies. YUM!

Here is Hailey, hard at work. She is quite the decorator too! She told me she wanted to do it ALL NIGHT LONG...but thankfully we didn't have to do that!! I wasn't ready to be in the kitchen that long :) Her cookies you actually want to save and look at :)

Here is a picture of most of the cookies that we did...YUMMY!! Although it was FREEZING outside, it was nice to stay inside and get the baking done and have help from the kids too!

Ryan turns FOUR!

Ryan is 4. FOUR. Four years old. My baby. Four. How is this possible?!?! FOUR! Yes, I am in denial that my baby boy is four already!

Whether I like it or not, yesterday was Ryan's forth birthday. I think I can speak for him that he had a great day! He started out by picking his breakfast....green eggs and green apple juice. He wanted green muffins and green grapes, but we didn't have those. He must be ready for St. Patrick's day! :) He was excited to bring all his treats to preschool and daycare. It was a fun day...full of sugar! :)

After we picked the kids up after school and daycare, we went to Fuddrucker's for supper and then to Chuck-E-Cheese's for games. The Taylor family met us there too so that was fun for the kids to have someone to play with too!! Of course Ryan and Hailey weren't the only ones playing the games...look at the Pilcher boys all playing skee ball :) (oh..yes...Chris won!)

Ryan likes to ride....


Here are the kids together....do you think McKenna and Ryan were having a good time?? I love the look on their faces...100% fun!


After games, Ryan got to open presents. MORE TOYS! :) Surprise, surprise. But...what do you think was his favorite?? The Leapster? No. The McDonald's toy? No. The play-doh set? Nope. It was......a belt! :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!! We love you so very much!!!

The Polar Express

We had the opportunity to ride on a train on Saturday night. It wasn't any ordinary train either. It was ....

THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!!!!

Yes, we got to go to the NORTH POLE and pick up Santa!!! It was so much fun....for the kids and the adults too!!

Hailey, Ryan, Chris, Kari, Doug, Doran and I left in the afternoon on Saturday to drive to Lewistown, MT. After a quick stop at Pamida (oh the fun!) and a change of clothes for Ryan and Hailey into their pajamas, we made it to the train!!

We were all so excited that Mrs. Claus was waiting for us...and the elves were on the train waiting for us to board too! Finally it was 4:30 and we were allowed to board the train.

After we got settled on the train, it was finally time to start moving!! The kids were very excited to watch the sunset as we moved toward the North Pole. I am not the only one that wanted to take pictures either!!

Then it was time to listen to one of the elves read "The Polar Express" book. The kids went right there and sat so good. Of course Ryan had a few comments during the reading... "I can climb that mountain all by myself" was one to a picture of a mountain :). Then it was time for hot cocoa and cookies! YUMMY but HOT! :) Ryan of course didn't want anything, but Hailey sure enjoyed it :)

The kids started on writing their letters to Santa after that. Both of them worked hard on their letters...

Then...we began to slow down....and looked out the window to see...THE NORTH POLE!! It was on the side that the kids were sitting on. We looked outside and saw the elves coming out of one house, and they ran over to another house. And, guess who came out of that one?!?! YEP...SANTA!! Ryan was waving so fast!! Santa waved back too :) Then, Santa made his way to the train and came aboard. We started on our way back, and it took some time for Santa to make it to our train car. During that time, the kids finished their letters, got a candycane from Mrs. Claus, worked on some puzzles, sang songs, and just had a great time. Then, Santa came!!! He talked to both Hailey and Ryan, and then gave them both a bell like in the story. He even signed our "The Polar Express" book!!

(enlarge the second picture and you can see the North Pole out the window!!!)

We made it back to Lewistown and our journey was over. What a fun 1.5 hours!!! I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to anyone and everyone (it isn't just for the kids ;) ).

Here is our book from the trip, and the box and bell the kids got too.

Merry Christmas!!

Jokes

Sunday night we were driving home, and Ryan decided to tell us a joke. Let me know if he made you laugh :)

Ryan : Knock knock
Us : Who's there?
Ryan : Light bulb
Us (confused on where this was going ) : Light bulb who?
Ryan : Aren't you glad I didn't pick banana??!? ha ha ha

So...a little background if you didn't laugh the first time. Remember the joke that goes :

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Banana
Banana who?
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Banana
Banana who?
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Orange
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say banana.

I guess Ryan was thinking of that and came up with the light bulb joke. 100% pure Ryan!!! Go back...read the joke again...and think of Ryan saying it. Did you laugh this time??! :)

Finally....

.....I posted!!! :) Below you will find A LOT of updates. You can even scroll down into the November posts and see a few new ones, updated pictures in the Stone Soup post and the Big House post, etc. I finally think I am up-to-date again. I wonder how long that will last ;)

Major haircut

Last night the kids got haircuts. Nothing special for Ryan....just nice and short again!! Hailey, on the other hand, got a MAJOR haircut. She got a good 5" cut off!!! It has a slight wedge design (next time I will ask for that to be more defined) to it and looks SUPER CUTE! I will take a picture and update it soon as you need to see it to believe it. She is so proud of her "short hair" and was so excited to get to school to show it off to her friends!! Cute girl :)

Update : I took a few pictures this morning of her hair....cute!!

Shopping, food, and more shopping

The last day that Tim, Kendra, Owen and Mason were here was on Tuesday, December 2. So, Doug, Doran, Tim, Kendra, Owen and Mason all went to pick up Hailey at her school (and get a little tour). There was also a little "sale" going on for the kids to buy presents for their parents and/or siblings so they took her shopping there for us. :) She loved it! Then they went to get Ryan at Toddle Town and then were off to play at the new toy area at the mall and do a little shopping at well. When it was supper time, Chris and I met them at Johnny Carino's for supper. YUMMY! After our tummies were full, we stopped at Costco and Target and then it was time to say good-bye. They were going to come over to our house, but it had been snowing all day and there was ice under the snow...and causing TONS of accidents around town!! So, we had to say good-bye earlier than planned. We didn't want them to go...it was so fun having them here!! We wish they lived closer...or in BILLINGS would be great! but treasure all the time we did get to spend together.

Tim, Kendra, Owen & Mason -- THANK YOU for coming to see us! We absolutely LOVED having you here and wish you could have stayed longer. We appreciate you taking the time off of work and driving all the way here!! (we know that isn't fun...especially when you drive it all in one day with a 4 year old and a 1 year old!!) We hope to see you again soon. Love ya!!

Lego Birthday

Monday was another busy day. Hailey woke up a little sick still, so stayed home in the morning, but was ready for school about 1/2 hour after the bus drove by!! She did stay home until 11:00 and then I was able to take her to school.

Chris and Ryan stayed home and were able to go to Red Lodge with Owen, Tim, and Doug. They went to a few stores in RL, to the cabin, and even got a Christmas tree for Tim & Kendra to take home! They had a good time up there.

They got home and then it was time for supper and to get ready for Ryan's birthday party! We wanted to have his party when TKOM were all here...so they could be at the party and so the extended family could come and see them as well! It was a fun party and it was great to have everyone over to see them and visit for a little bit.

Here is the cake that Doran made for Ryan. Cute and yummy too!!! He got so shy when it was time to say THANK YOU or when they sang Happy Birthday to him, but it was still a fun time. And, of course Ryan didn't want any cake, but ate a good scoop of ice cream!! :)



Ryan had fun "celebrating" his birthday, but cannot wait until he is actually FOUR years old! Only another week, little man.

Our "Practice Christmas"

Sunday, November 30 was our "practice Christmas" since Tim, Kendra, Owen and Mason were here! We started out the morning with sticky cinnamon rolls like we do on Christmas morning. Then we put the Christmas tree up (not a normal thing we do on Christmas morning, but still was getting us in the Christmas spirit!!). The kids had fun with the ornaments of course.

We even got a cute picture of all four of the kids. Notice Mason's "smile"!??! That is what he does when you ask him to smile for the camera! :) Silly, silly boy!!

Then we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's again. The kids played outside, helped the guys with cleaning up and tearing down a tree outside, watched a little "Santa Claus" on tv, helped decorate their tree, and even made a few new ornaments.

Before supper Hailey started getting a little sleepy...and fell asleep! I couldn't believe it. So, we let her sleep through supper. She woke up and was burning up!! So, she got a nice cool bath and then curled up on the couch. She wasn't there long....and she said she didn't feel good and ended up getting sick. Poor thing!!! However, that did help her feel better and she wanted us to still open presents so we started getting that ready. She did open her presents, but just wasn't as excited as she normally would be.

Ryan of course enjoyed his presents and was very excited!! :) The last presents for Hailey, Ryan and Owen were little guns from Cabela's! They were suppose to get them this summer, but TKOM weren't able to come during that time so they got them now instead. Talk about a LOUD room!! :) Hailey was starting to feel better then too...so that helped.

It was a fun day for all of us, but then it was time to get home so Hailey could get some rest (school the next day) and work for me (Chris and Ryan were "off" on Monday too).

Full day of fun

On Saturday, November 29th, the kids had SO MUCH to do!! We started the day playing at our house (Tim, Kendra, Owen and Mason spent the night so that was fun!!). We all got ready and went over to West Park Plaza to see Grandma at Sears. Then...we got to see REAL REINDEER!! The kids loved that!! Then it was time to see SANTA!!! Hailey had no problem with it. Ryan talked big...but then choked when we got there! He stood next to Santa's leg for the picture, but that is about it. Better than nothing I guess ;) Here is a picture of the kids looking at the reindeer and one of Hailey playing "peek-a-boo" with Mason!!


We then went back to Grandma and Papa's house to play and play some more. We even got to decorate our gingerbread houses! It was nice having Owen (& Kendra) in on the fun this year too! Hailey was of course wanting to do it all in patterns...and Ryan was wanting to mess those patterns up to upset his sister! :) They still both were nice looking houses!

(Owen's on the left...Hailey & Ryan's on the right)

After a little quiet time, supper and more crazy playing, we did come back to our house to crash!! Before the kids got into bed, Chris made it home from hunting. The boys had fun seeing the deer antlers. Nice look for you, Owen! :)