RixPix

Disneyland

2010-11-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

As you can see, we took a quick vacation at the beginning of November. We went to California with my parents. It was really a fun trip. Carter was pretty excited about the airplane ride. We spent a night in SanDiego and visited Sea World while we were there. Shamu was everyone's favorite, of course. Then we drove to Anaheim for Disneyland! We had some long days, but the kids did great! Even Jason had a great time. (Can you believe I got him to take a vacation during hunting season?)

Lightning McQueen is number one!

Shyanne was not too pleased with goofy.

Jason and Carter made a sand castle just in time for the waves to sweep it away. The kids were quite captivated with the beach.

Hunting Season 2010

2010-11-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

Jason's nice mule deer buck. He was really excited to find this guy as good mule deer are hard to find around here.

Bull elk harvested at the end of September. Jason is all about archery hunting these days.

Carter loves shooting his .22, this photo is along the Missouri River. We all went for a family hunting trip on opening day. It was fun and the picnic was great. My favorite part of any hunting trip is always the food. Jason, on the other hand, would starve to death and not even notice.

Derby Time!

2010-04-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Our local Cub Scouts had their annual pinewood derby earlier this week. They invited a few "junior racers" to compete in their own race. Carter was really excited to make his car. He worked really hard using large and dangerous power tools to make the perfect body. He waxed the axles and used a little graphite powder and some strategically placed weights to get his car in perfect racing condition. Anyway, after all of Carter's hard work, he had a great race and took 1st place! Jason was really happy to see that the car did well.

We are so happy that spring has finally arrived in Montana! The weather has been great. The kids have been playing outside and having frequent picnics. Shyanne is really changing. She talks all the time. Yesterday I heard her say "That's awesome, Carter!" while they were playing together. I'm pretty excited because her hair is finally getting long enough to do something with. We feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful place with great friends and family not too far away.

2 years old, 2 new feet (of snow that is)

2010-01-31T20:55:00.000-08:00

Shy had a happy little birthday. We spent the day together as a family. No one could have come to share in the excitement since everyone was snowed in. It snowed lots on the big day. We measured 27 inches in our front yard. Snowmobiles were driving down the streets of town. Cars were stuck on main street. I told Jason it looked like we live at a ski resort. Here are a few pictures of the snow and the birthday. Carter and I worked hard to build him his very own igloo. We were just glad to be safe at home rather than out on the roads.

Mostly Happy Holidays

2010-01-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! We had fun times. Carter was one in a herd of reindeer at his preschool program. He was happy to sit on Santa's lap, but Shy wouldn't get close to him. Christmas was fun. Grandma and Grandpa Hadley were here for the fun. Santa brought a kitchen for the kids and other goodies too. Our holidays were soured when our dog, Jake, got hit by a car on December 30th. He made it through, not without another big vet bill. He has a huge gash on his head that is healing now. We did take some photos of him, but I thought they were too disturbing to post. Have a very happy 2010!

I'm pathetic!

2009-10-18T21:39:00.001-07:00

Can you even believe that it is coming up on the end of October and I have only updated my blog once this year... and that was back in January. I'm sorry that I'm so pathetic. Lots of things have been keeping us busy...too many to name, really. We've been back and forth across the state several times visiting both sides of the family. I had my 10 year high school reunion in July. It was fun to catch up with everyone. A little over half of the class was there, so I was impressed with the showing we had. Carter is now 4. He can't wait until next year when he will be "a whole hand." Carter started pre-school in September. He has come home with some pretty awesome halloween songs that they are learning. He loves his teacher, Miss Brooke. Shy is talking more every day. She pretty much tells us what to do now. Everything in the world is "mine" according to Shyanne. She runs a quick sprint out into the street, so I always have to be on my toes. Jason got his elk already, so I'm pumped about that. Now we're hoarding firewood to keep us warm for the upcoming winter chill. We actually have already had our first cold snap. It snowed a few inches a little over a week ago and got into the single digits at night. The leaves on all the trees were still green so they just froze. It kind of stinks because now we won't get any pretty fall colors. Just dead brown leaves. Oh well, there's always next year. Oh yeah, we've also managed to completely re-do our basement (bye bye 70's lounge) and we also had the house painted (bye bye pistachio green). We just had our garage door replaced as our darling dog managed to chew his way through the old one on more than one occasion. Things are looking better around here:)

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

2009-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

Our little girl is already a year old! Time really does fly. We were busy out of town for meetings on the actual day, so we celebrated late. She'll never know. Here are some great cupcake photos. There was a bit of drama when she put the candle out with her finger. oops. She quickly recovered after the first taste!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

2008-12-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

But the fire is so delightful....especially when it is 26 degrees below zero outside like it was Monday night! Today is the first time we've topped the zero mark since last Saturday. It's a balmy 11 degrees outside right now. Needless to say, we've been spending some quality family time indooors lately. Daddy brought an AWESOME Christmas tree home from his last scout campout. I think it is the thickest tree I've ever seen growing in Montana. Plus, it is covered in little pine cones. It looked like it was already decorated before we had hung the first string of lights. The kids are doing great. Shyanne continues to do the caterpillar crawl, who wants a traditional crawler anyway? She has recently started to clap and wave bye, bye. It's adorable. Carter is an endless challenge and an endless joy all bottled into one little body. We hope your holidays are shaping up to be the best!

2008-12-03T14:01:00.003-08:00

Mommy and the kids took a road trip with Nanna and Poppa to visit Aunt A and Uncle Dan over Thanksgiving. It was a long trip in the car both going and coming but we made it somehow. It was so fun to visit. The kids had a chance to catch up. Carter and Claire played together well...there were no major injuries to speak of. We spent Thanksgiving day together just relaxing. The rest of the time we shopped till we dropped. The girls got up and were banging down the doors of Kohls by 4 am on black Friday. Here is a photo of Claire and Shyanne together for the holiday.

Huntin' Buddies

2008-12-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Carter and Daddy went hunting together a few weeks ago and came home with Carter's first deer. He was so excited to tell me about the "momma doe buck" that they got. There unfortunately was a little accident while they were dragging the doe to the truck. If you look in the photo you'll see that Carter fell into the creek. He was wet from mid thigh to his toes, but was still in good spirits. Daddy told Carter that every good hunter falls into the creek now and then.

Happy Family

2008-10-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

We finally had some family photos taken. I think they turned out nice... You never know what might happen when you're trying to take pictures of little kids. We're doing well. We bought a house in July and we're slowly working on fixing it up. Jason is busy at work, but mostly busy thinking of his next spot to hunt. He got a bull elk with his bow in September and just last night brought home an antelope buck. I feel busier than ever although I'm pretty much staying home full time. I'm working very little at the hospital these days. The kids are growing like weeds. Shy is so close to crawling she just hasn't quite figured it out yet. Carter is so busy that he has decided the afternoon nap is a thing of the past, much to mommy's dismay! He loves to build and paint and color and drive and run and the list goes on and on.

Big Boy Bed

2008-03-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Carter is growing up quickly now that he's a big brother. He goes potty on his little toilet all the time now. When he's gotta go he says "mom, I'm peeing." His pants are dry when he wakes up in the morining most of the time. Thanks to Aunt Sandi and Uncle Ross, Carter has a big boy bed now. He slept in it all night long last night. When he woke up he said "that's fun momma." He stayed in bed all night and didn't even roll out.

Blessing Day

2008-03-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Easter sunday was a big day this year. We had visitors from both sides of the family here for Shyanne's blessing. It was fun to see everyone and spend a little time together. Shyanne was the center of attention and performed very well. The blessing was beautiful-- certainly an Easter to remember.

Hunting the elusive egg

2008-03-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

We went to the big town egg hunt. Carter's friends Emma and Ben were there too, in search of some sticky prey. We had a few hang-ups as Carter was frightened by the Easter Bunny and was crying when the hunt began. He got it together just in time and ended up getting some pretty good loot. Later that day the cousins arrived so we put on a family hunt. Carter knew what the hunting was all about the second time around. A fun time was had by all.

target practice

2008-03-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Carter is crazy about guns...I wonder where he got that. we went to the shooting range with daddy the other day. When we got home, dad was cleaning his guns. Carter stole the bolt from one of the guns and set up his own tartet practice. He would "shoot" his gun, then put the gun down and use the binoculars to see where he had hit the target. As you can see from the photo, he was using some pretty big sound effects.

smile!

2008-03-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Shyanne is growing so fast! She started smiling about 10 days ago. She is pretty unpredictable with those smiles though. Of course, she smiles most often at her momma. It is fun to see her starting to interact.

On the Farm

2008-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Last week Jason had an optometry conference and was going away for a few days. Mommy and the kids decided to pack up and visit pappa Jim and nanna T. Carter had a great time riding the tractor with pappa-- just feedin' cows. He liked running in the mud puddles and seeing the little lambs. Mommy and the baby pretty much stayed inside. We had a fun time, but it sure was good to come home and see Daddy again.

2008-02-16T14:26:00.001-08:00

We have arrived!

We have finally arrived on the blogger scene! Our family is going through some adjusting now as we have a new addition. Shyanne Marie arrived January 24th on a beautiful sunny morning. She came quickly which was okay with mommy- and daddy for that matter. Carter is a good big brother. He loves his baby and is very protective at times. At Shyanne's first doctor appointment Carter stomped at some ladies in the waiting room and said "don't touch baby!" If the baby ever fusses he says "help her, momma." Needless to say, we're doing well and excited to share photos of our cute kids.