It is a messy process but I guess Avery has to learn to feed herself at some point. She is pretty determined to do it. It is just so much less mess if I do it!

Cade is loving hot chocolate on these cold days. Here he is giving me a cheers.

Nothing like a little pot and pan entertainment while I clean up the kitchen.

A white Christmas

Christmas eve we went down to my parents house for dinner with them, Jami, Robert and family and Dad's good friends Billy and Gail Williams. We stopped for tea and fudge at my Aunt Nancy's house before we went down and had a good time visiting.
We let the kids open some presents. Mostly Cade opened up Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and was ready to quit opening presents and play with them and Avery played with the wrapping paper.
They made a pretty good haul. They both got a nice outfit and lots of toys!

Christmas morning we stayed home and ate breakfast before we opened presents. Rance and I decided we ought to since in a couple of years we will have to open presents first and then eat breakfast or the kids will be driving us crazy! Cade got these great Johnny tractor slippers from Landa and family. His favorite present is a gun from his Dad that makes shooting noises when you pull the trigger. He wore out the batteries by dinnertime.


Avery really liked the little doll I got her and Cade managed to lose it within a couple of hours. We are still looking for it. Rance is going to go thru the garbage tomorrow if it doesn't turn up soon. Mom and Dad and Jami and kids came up for dinner again. All in all a very laid back and relaxing Christmas. Dee and Larry were going to come down, but due to snow and road conditions they decided not to and we decided not to venture out to visit anyone. Cade and Carter had a ball playing together and she didn't want to go home very bad.

Cade wore his goggles in the tub and didn't want to take them off just yet.

Avery never would take a pacifier as a baby, but now she likes to run around with one. It still doesn't work as a pacifier when she is cranky.

Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree put up with just over a week left till Christmas. Rance went out and found this great little Charlie brown tree on Wednesday. We decorated it Thursday night and it fell over on Friday morning. It is back up, hopefully to stay until we decide to take it down after Christmas.


Cade had a great time helping decorate. Although most of the ornaments were too heavy for the tree and kept falling off. I finished up the rest of my Christmas shopping today and got everything all wrapped up. Cade has been pretty good with the presents he was pretty upset when I wouldn't let him open any.

A cold day outside!

Cade wanted to go out this morning to "help Dad" so we bundled him up and out he went for about 15 minutes. I thought that was pretty good considering how cold it is outside. So when he came in I made him some hot chocolate and he decided he needed to take a bath in the sink and drink his hot chocolate. Sounds like a good idea to me! A nice warm bath, a cup of hot chocolate.. if only! He does look pretty comfy.

Yet another safari adventure only this time with his chaps and his vest on. He has been watching the NFR with Rance. Cade thinks all the cowboys are pretty neat.

Avery the lounge lizard

Avery thought this quite amusing to lay back and then sit up on the boppy pillow.

Grandpa Harlen comes to visit

Harlen's brother Harold was roping in Gillette the weekend after Thanksgiving so Harlen came down Thanksgiving night and spent with us. He left Friday to go to Gillette and we went down Saturday for a quick overnight stay to see Rance's uncle Harold and Aunt Susan. We had a good time and got to have a dinner out with adults Saturday night. Although the best part was when the kids were sleeping in the pickup with their dad and I got to have some kid free time with adults. Good conversation and good food. Harlen came back up and stayed Sunday night before heading back to Ronan on Monday.

Here is a picture of the kids playing with their Grandpa before he heads back to the western part of the state.

Christmas Cookies

Gretchen held a cookie exchange again this year. I made this little Santa cookies. Rance told me they look more like reindeer to him. Whatever cookies are cookies and they were pretty easy to do. I even let Cade help a little. They didn't look quite like the pictures in the recipe book but I don't really look like Martha Stewart either.

Here is Cade and Rance sampling the cookies while Cade plays cowboy in his safari explorer hat.

Santa's Little Helpers

I am slowly getting all of the Christmas stuff drug out. I have yet to convince Rance to get us a tree to put up. He must be feeling a little Grinchy this year. He wants it to be snowy out, not too soon, not too cold etc before we go and put one up. Cade and Avery were excited when I found the Christmas hats. I couldn't get a picture where they were both wearing a hat but I got a really good one of each of them.

What a handsome little man!

Avery looks like she is doing some kind of Mexican dance!

Avery was looking especially cute with her little pony tail this morning while we were playing and waiting for her brother to wake up. I couldn't resist taking her picture. It is a little hard to see her pony tail but it is there and her hair isn't all wild like it usually is!

Avery can be quite snuggly sometimes. She likes to sleep snuggled up to someone best. I wish the light was better in this picture but I was afraid if I put the blinds down to block the sun she would wake up and I know better than to wake a sleeping Avery!

Cade was a little cross because Avery wanted to play with his barn animals too and he didn't like where she was putting all the animals!

Cade really likes this play hat and goggles. The gun, pajamas and bear(?) really round out the outfit. He is ready for adventure and all kinds of action.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's house. She makes

so much food if you go away less than stuffed it is your own fault. Jami, Robert and kids were there as well as Clint and Everett (Corinne had to work) and Grandma Betty. We took some pictures for our Christmas cards and had fun watching the kids play. As it was also my birthday Mom put the candles in the pumpkin pie. Everything was very yummy. We came home and put the kids down for a nap they were worn out from all the excitement and food. I had to cook a turkey in the evening so that we had lots of turkey leftovers at home for soup, sandwiches and whatever else. It just isnt' the same if you don't get all of the leftovers.

Here is Clint with his blue eyed boy. Everett is getting so big. he weighs more than Avery by at least four pounds already!

Cade was fascinated by the washing machine today and so Avery, Cade and I watched the washing machine go through an entire cycle. Avery and I didn't find it as interesting as Cade did, but we hung in there with him. Cade even wanted to do it again, but I had to draw the line. On to new things!

Here we go again!

Avery is discovering what fun a roll of toliet paper can be and just when I had Cade safely over that! She is so determined to keep up with her brother. She also recently figured out how to stand up without pulling herself up on anything. Cade likes to make fun of how Avery walks. It is very funny to watch his imitation of Avery walking.

Cade and Avery

Cade and Avery have matching coats and I thought they looked pretty darn cute in their camo so I had to get a picture for the blog. Avery had us all up very early this morning, 4:30 ish. Yuck. So she took two pretty good naps today and Cade took a four hour nap. Made for a nice day. I got a lot of laundry done. Rance got some outside work done. All in all a nice weekend. Yesterday was early Thanksgiving with some family as my Aunt Linda and Uncle Dick had some family passing thru so that was fun, of course Rance was busy watching Cat-Griz so he skipped out and it was during my kids naptime so they were a little crabby, but I had fun visiting with everyone, then when I got home I left the kids sleeping in the car while I cleaned the kitchen and swept floors.

Avery

Avery had some serious bed head and her Dad couldn't resist taking a picture of her looking so cute. Check out her wild hair!

Avery has discovered the tupperware drawer and does a very good job of strewing all of the bowls and lids all over the kitchen floor. This is great because it keeps her occupied while I try to get something done, then I take thirty or so seconds and throw everything back in the drawer when we are done.

Just playing around.

Tickle Avery!

Cade likes to play tickle Avery. He will tickle her all the while shouting "Mom tickle Avery, Dad tickle Avery, Tickle Avery. He thinks it is a great game and Avery just giggles until she is tired of the game.

Crazy Hats and Crazy Hair

Avery had some wild hair after getting some of her dinner in it. She is very bsuy these days walking and crawling all over the place after everyone. She is so proud of her new abilities.
Cade thought this container made a great hat and wore it all evening.

She's a walker!

Avery has really wanted to walk for quite some time now and finally she is! She has really liked the little bit of independence she gained from being able to crawl, but still really wanted to walk. Today she was in the room with me while I was putting away clothes and the next thing I knew I was watching her walk across the room. So I took her out to the living room and she started walking back and forth between Rance and I. She is still a little unsteady but is gaining confidence. Now she can really take some good spills.. yikes! She walked clear across the living room several times today.

What a beautiful day it was outside today. We took the kids out this afternoon and had some fun. We think we figured out where we are going to plant our garden next summer and discussed some more plans for what we would like to do to the yard when we have more money.

Bathtime even funner!

Avery sits up well enough now that her and Cade can be in the bath tub together! He thought it was pretty all right and she loved it.

At last, a pony tail!

I went outside with Avery to show Rance her pony tail and couldn't resist a quick shot of the two kitties sleeping happily on their hay bales. I was excited to get Avery's hair into a very small pony tail on top of her head.

Catching Up

My computer recently was consumed by an evil bot and so I neglected my blog for awhile until the bot could be properly disposed of. A bot is some type of computer virus in case you didn't know. Look how grown up my little boy looks in his jammies!

Avery is quite proud of herself these days as she is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up. She had a doctor appointment recently. She weighs 15 lbs and 15 oz and is 28 inches tall. She is in the tenth percentile for her weight and the 75th for height. Tall and skinny just like her brother and her Dad!

Halloween

We dressed the kids up as little skunks this year..they were our little stinkers. Notice Avery's tail in the picture with her Dad

Cade was impressed with the whole getting candy process. He wasn't very big on saying trick or treat, but he wanted that candy!

He really hated getting his hair painted, so we ended up skipping any face paint.