Christmas 2009

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Snow fun and Gingerbread time!

Rylie, Rori and Rylie's buddy from school went out last week to have a little fun in the snow!


Rylie decorated a gingerbread house and had a blast. Rori wanted to help. At one point we thought she had stuffed a small round candy up her nose, but it was a false alarm!
Enjoy!

A hunting we will go!

On Saturday, Dec. 5th, we decided to brave the snow and head out to our usual spot to search for the perfect tree. The weather decided to be a little iffy, but 4-wheel drive can work wonders in the snow. We made up into the mountains past York, MT. If you've never been there, you should try it.




It is home to a great park for kids, the York Bar (home of the famous York burgers), and the York 38 special bike ride (which does not take place in the winter). When Rylie was just a few months old, Mark and I went with some friends to YorkFest. Rylie was riding in the stroller in her carseat. We parked it outside the community hall and somehow, she was left in the stroller (she was sleeping and completely warm). I thought Mark had her and he thought I had her, while neither one of us had her. We were both inside the building and she was not. We quickly remedied the matter. Anyway, here are some photos of the adventure. The batteries died on the camera so I to wait to get the after shot of the tree. Merry Christmas!!!

Portable North Pole-Santa sent videos this year!

To Rylie:

To Rori:


Merry Christmas!!!

What have we been up to?

The month of November is flying by. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is around the corner and through the woods already. Rylie was Student of the Month for her Health Enhancement class (aka gym)at school, so she was in the Student of the Month assembly. We were very proud. The marched into the gym for the assembly to "Eye of the Tiger", very funny. They are the Eastgate Tigers, so it was appropriate. Rori is talking and talking and talking. She has imaginary conversations on retired cell phones. She likes to do things herself and is very independent.

Ryle and Rori got new dresses and they are very cute!


Mark just got back from New York for work. He was just outside of New York City and saw a couple of celebrities. He saw Tyra Banks coming out of the company he was auditing and tried to take a photo but was stifled by the company receptionist. He also saw hockey player, Mark Messier. (I don't know who this is, but we saw him on TV last night as well.) He went into Manhattan one day and went to the Metropolitan Museum and Times Square.

Seuss-tastic

Rylie is learning a lot in kindergarten. Her teacher told the class if there is a book they can read all by themselves and they practice, they can bring it to school and read it to the class. Rylie decided to do this and read "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss to her class last week. It is 61 pages long, so it took her two different days to finish it. She took her own pictures of herself and the book!

Halloween fun!

We'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

A Little Space of My Own

Rori seems to love to get into small confined spaces Apparently claustrophobia is not something she suffers from. Take a look at the funny places she likes to be.



We were taking out the cabinets in our kitchen and this is Rori helping.






After we got the new cabinet put in, Rori decided to move in with her banana. You can just see her shoes neatly placed and her stuffed panda in the background of the cabinet. All of the comforts of home!

Fall is fun!

I've been behind posting, so I thought I would catch up a little bit. Rylie is enjoying school but all day kindergarten is very tiring. We live close to the school so we walk there every morning. She is getting so big and mature! She's doing great in school. She's playing soccer and loves it. Her team is the yellow one.

Rori is adjusting to not having Rylie around but asks everyday, "Where Rylie at?" I always tell her she is at school, but she keeps asking. She loves to imitate her big sister and when we drive by the school during the day, she yells "Hi Rylie!"
She wants to do everything Rylie does.

Look Mom!

So, we were getting ready to travel to visit Miles City the Friday before Labor day. I was getting everything loaded and waiting to get Rylie from school and Mark home from work. Rori took the time to look through my nightstand and this was the result:


She of course got it on her shirt, so I had to wash it before we left. She was very proud of her makeup abilities and actually got some of it on her lips. She also tried to apply lipstick to the family photo behind her. Funny monkey!

K is for Kindergarten

Well, Rylie is officially a kindergartener and she loves it. The night before I asked her if she had any questions about it before she went to bed. She told me she couldn't wait to see what it was like and she imagined it was like high school (obviously she's been with mom and grandma at high school a lot). She did great as we walked over to the school and when it was time to leave her, she went right in to the classroom and sat down and didn't look back! It was me who cried on the way back to the house. When she got home the first day she was very tired and went down to bed about 2 hours before she normally would. She couldn't fall asleep and was very frustrated because she couldn't wait to go back to school! I think she will be exhausted tonight! Take a look at the pictures!

5 Alive!

Well, she did it! Rylie turned 5 on July 6th! She has gotten so tall and grown up this summer. She can hardly wait for kindergarten and has learned to ride her bike this summer as well. She had her first "friends party" which was a lot of fun. I'll post more pictures of birthday soon!

My Girls

This week my girls went with Grandma and Grandpa for the whole entire week. This is the first time I have been away from them for any length of time other than a night or so. I have the best children in the world, and yes, I am biased. It is so quiet around my house without them. I don't really know what to do with myself, although I'm sure that I can come up with a few things (weed the garden, laundry, sewing, napping, nothing, cleaning, reading, etc.) I feel so very blessed to have them in my life and love them endlessly. I found myself walking through the toy aisle at the store yesterday even though I had no one to talk about the toys with. Rylie is getting so grown up and smart. She amazes me everyday with everything she knows. Rori is a ball of fire and loves to bug her sister already, but they are still the best of friends. Rylie does a great job of playing with Rori and helping with her. I couldn't have asked Heavenly Father for two better children Love you, Ror and Ry!
Mommy

Only in Montana

Need I say more!?

Crazy month!!!

We've been busy over the last few weeks! The girls and I went to Miles City to visit our family and go to the Bucking Horse Sale while Mark was out of town. Then when Mark got back he participated in a sprint triathalon. He took 19th overall out of about 70+ participants. Then the next Saturday, we all participated in the Governor's Cup races in the snow and rain. Check out the video I made. The next week, we went to Coeur D'Alene, ID for Mark to do an adventure race. He met his buddy there and they kayaked, ran, mountain biked, and orienteered their way through Farragut State Park. It was a beautiful place. We went on the park tour for the girls on the way there so they enjoyed it too. I think that is all the racing we've done so far.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Rodeo Star is Born

Funny Girls!

Rylie's carefully chosen post-church outfit:

View from my window

APRIL 29, 2009
7:50 AM

Rori knows NOSE

The past couple of weeks

I realized I forgot a few photos so I've added a few more. Thanks for checking it out.

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When will it end

Okay, I'm talking about winter here in Montana. It seems like we are on the neverending plan this year for winter. Spring just can't seem to break through. We're hoping for it this week! Rylie tried to go out and be springy this weekend. Thanks for the chalk, Uncle Charles!

My parents came for the weekend from Miles City and Rylie called them along the way to see where they were. She loves to talk on the cell phone. I could only hear her end of the conversation and it went like this:

Rylie: Hi, where are you?
unaudible reply
Rylie: You're in a snowbank? me, saying to Rylie, They're in a snowbank? Rylie shaking her head and whispering, "Not anymore"
Rylie: You're at Three Forks? Okay
me taking the phone at this point
Me: You were in a snowbank?
Mom: No, I told her it was like we were in a snowglobe.
I get it now!

Little Daredevil

Rylie likes to climb on things and jump off of things, so it is no surprise that Rori is following in her footsteps! Rylie brought up her dress up chest and Mark found Rori using it for other things.

The Protester

On President's Day, my parents headed to Helena with a busload of high school kids. My dad was the bus driver and my mom was the chief organizer. Mark and I were additional chaperones, trailing the bus. We met all the other kids at Helena High and headed up to the Capital building to give those legislators a piece of our mind. They are voting on more funding for the Montana Meth Project and so it was a huge showing of kids telling the legislature to say yes to more funding (not say yes to meth). Rylie got a ride on Grandpa's shoulders for part of the march. She even got her own sign. Go Rylie! Her picture ended up on the Montana Meth project website in the photos of the event.