Disneyland

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

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!

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)

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

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!

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!

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!