Shamrock Run

 

Jami and I did the Shamrock Run in Billings which is like the official kick off the racing season in Billings.  I got her some fun socks to wear too, and she is wearing them you just can't tell since she also felt like she had to wear pants.  The race felt GREAT although a little windy.  I was a little nervous for the run as the winter has been so long I feel like I haven't been able to run as much as I would have liked to. But I surprised myself and did even better than my time last year by 36 seconds so I was happy with that.  I won my age group and got 4th out of all the women overall. It was a 5k (3.1 miles) and my time was  22:15.  Jami did a great job also and ran the whole way.  YAY

 

The race was at 1 pm then I had to hurry home as I was having a party at 3! But it was fun and so was the party.

After Jessica, Keenan, and Eric arrived in montana after the New Year we opened more presents with the cousins. We tried to get a picture of them all with Grampa and Gramma so dad biribed them with suckers


Carter and Avery playing with Avery's new baby.

We tried to get a picture of all the cousins and nobody wanted to sit still very long to do it, much less smile while they were doing it.

Cade and Carter's big birthday party.

Cade and Carter getting ready to blow out the candles at their big birthday party

Cade and Torston Loftsgard bug hunting. we threw well over a hundred little plastic bugs all over the lawn.

Grandma Pat made the kids a great caterpillar cake.

All the kids out bug hunting. We had a great turn out for the party and I think everyone seemed to have a really good time.

Avery and I.

Cade was so excited about is birthday and the party.

The highlight of the party for a Avery was a draw between getting a baby doll and finding a great mud puddle to splash in.

The birthday kids. Cade turned 3 and Carter is now 4! Hard to believe how fast time flies sometimes.

Jami, Chase and Robert.

Everett and Clint

Cade and Avery enjoying a pony ride

Carter was very helpful with the pony rides

My Dad gave four wheeler rides and Aunt Nancy did face painting.

I am helping Avery decorate her bug box.

Cade and Avery painting a pet rock.

Rance's Birthday

Yesterday was Rance's birthday. I practised for a few days with Cade singing Happy Birthday and he had it down pretty good to sing it with me for his Dad. I surprised Rance with an ice cream cake and a few neighbors came over to help eat it. Including Jess and Keenan newly arrived from the Ukraine. Keenan looked pretty cute in Cade's cowboy hat and Cade drug out Rance's old sombrero.

This was the only picture I got of the birthday boy and it is kinda blurry!

Happiness

Sometimes happiness is coming across a little pair of shoes in the middle of the kitchen. I sure love my little boy. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside when I look at his little shoes, shirts, pants, etc. I am so lucky to have such beautiful wonderful HEALTHY babies!

Congrats to Jami today. She finally had her baby boy. 8bs, 13 oz and 21 inches long at 7:14 this morning! Chase Clark Howell welcome to the world little one! Pictures to follow as soon as I can get some!

Jami and Carter's Baby shower

Carter was very excited about all her baby shower gifts and informed us fer baby wasn't done cooking yet. Notice her new haircut, she discovered scissors cut hair recently and this is the fix job.

Jami also got some great gifts and lots of diapers for her baby due in September which is also when Carter's baby is due!

I even attempted a cake!

lazy Sunday

Jessica and her family are officially in Kiev, Ukraine. Mom talked to her yesterday so I posted a picture of Jessica and I when we were in Florence, Italy. Jess and I had a blast in Italy. What a pretty place. She seems so far away already. Although I hardly go to see her for the month she was here because me and my kids were sick for most of her visit. I don't know that I will visit her there with two little kids and all.

The kids and I went over and visited Jami and Carter this morning and then we all went up to Grandma Pat's for lunch. The kids had a high time and Avery just screamed until I finally got her to go to sleep. I had to tkae her into the other room while everyone else ate lunch to nurse her and soothe her. I could hear everyone laughing at Cade and saying I'm sure glad I don't have to take you home. Oh great. Cade decided the best way to eat cottage cheese was to put it in his hair. I don't know why everyone else hasn't figured this out yet. There's worse things. Cottage cheese doesn't stain and it works pretty good as a hair gel when it dries.

Avery is starting to fall into a pretty good sleep pattern at night. Hooray. Enough so that I don't feel like I have to take a nap everyday anymore. Rance is over helping my brother in law Robert fix up his corrals today. So right now the the house is quiet with both kids sleeping. Kind of nice to get a breather. Cade and I finally ate all the Easter candy, not that there was a lot of it, but he still keeps dragging me over to the cupboard wanting "hoc" (chocolate). He gets very upset when I am unable to produce any. So I had to break open a bag of chocolate chips and give him one.

Avery won't take her bottle anymore. Rance was supposed to be working on that today, but he seemed to think working on a corral with Robert is a lot funner than trying to make a hungry mad baby girl drink milk out of a bottle. I'm not sure who ends up more frustrated in the end Rance or Avery. I have also been trying to give her the bottle, but she just thinks I am crazy.

Four more weeks until I go back to work.

Easter

Us girls had to get in one more picture together Easter morning with our babies before Jess, Eric and Keenan head off to Kiev for two years. I am going to miss my sister. She tells me they will have an American address and phone number though. They will have some time to come back to the states but who knows when that will be. How cool to get to be in Europe though. Jess and I loved Italy.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but Corinne on the end with Cade is 23 weeks pregnant and due in July and Jami is due in September. Hooray for more cousins. Corinne is having a boy so I hope Jami has a girl so Avery will have a little buddy out here her size to play with. I am so excited for both of them. It is also fun to know that when Corinne has her baby Avery will be close to six months old and will be close to crawling and sitting up. When Jami has hers Avery should be crawling and Cade will be almost two years old! Really puts things in perspective. I will be sleeping so much better than Jami and Corinne will be! Rance and I managed to get up at seven Easter morning, shower and get both kids out the door by eight oclock for Easter breakfast at my mom and dad's house. I thought that was pretty good. I was hungry and of course Avery decided she wanted her breakfast when everyone else did so I sat and fed her while I listened to everyone else eating breakfast. Mom then held Avery while I ate my cold french toast and eggs, the hash browns were still warm though. After breakfast we sat around and the kids stole toys from each other. We did manage to get a couple of pictures of them all together, but we never could get them to all look at the camera at the same time and smile. Avery soon started crying and Cade tried to bite Keenan's ear so this was the best picture I got.
We had a going away party Saturday night in Huntley for Jess with all the family and an easter egg hunt for the kids which Cade thought was great. He had already made the discovery about brightly colored eggs containing candy and chocolate. He managed to get quite a few thanks to Auntie Linda's frequent reminders to the older kids not to hog up all the eggs. I had to hide them when we got home because that of course was all he wanted and some of the chocolates he didn't like. I was finding little pieces of half chewed up chocolate all over the house. It looked like pieces of you know what.. gross! Cade made out pretty well for Easter he got a bucket and shovels etc, from Landa (babysitter) Grandma Debbie and me and Rance. We should have enough to last halfway through summer!
Avery also had a big day, she took a bottle for the first time. This is very exciting. Now maybe Rance and I can out to dinner with no kids. We haven't done that in...? Or I can go for a hair cut. oh the possibilities!