Pictures from the last year that I took to blog but they never made it ...

Until now! Yes I have taken many pictures with the intent to blog them and that is as far as they have gone. I figure now is a good time to take a look back over 2009.

WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES IN THIS POST

Spring

Taylor and I would walk by this bird every day last spring. The nest was right off the side of the road (in the gravel) on the way to our mailbox. It was so fun to watch the killdeer act hurt to lure us away from her nest. Can you spot the eggs?

A visit to Zoo Montana!

Below is a bear that we saw in Grand Teton (maybe I need a better camera).

Kelly in front of the Grand Teton Mountains.

Summer

Second bear of the year, this time in Yellowstone, it really is a bear, not a cow. I promise that I am not pulling your leg.
Britnee, Macee & Annie having a fun cousin day!

Taylor (below)

September

Waiting outside the Temple for McKay & Ashley.

Jake, Britnee, Macee, Annie, Taylor

Pictures of the reception in Fairfield, the weather was perfect!

October

Britnee was baptized.

Annie, Britnee, Macee, Taryn

This is what happens when you are baking cookies and you decide to start checking ALL of your friends blogs. Notice the dark, really crunchy, almost burnt batch.

Treats from our Halloween Party

The kids wouldn't even eat the slimy worms, I don't understand why.

Some of the group

Britnee getting ready to perform in her 2nd grade play, she was Sarah Josepha Hale.

Did you make it clear down here? Now you have seen part of our year in pictures. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Look who's 2

I can't believe that my baby is 2. I guess time flies when your having fun!

This takes incredible talent & help from a big brother!

My kids wanted to know what Taylor would look like with glasses, I guess now we know!

This is what we did for Christmas Eve just after Taylor was born. We are so happy to have her as a part of our family!

When I was looking for that picture I saw all of her newborn pictures so I just can't help myself to not add one of these, my precious little girl who is growing up!

Kelly warned me.

Lacee, Kaden & Kolby are visiting me for an entire week! Kelly warned me not to put up the Christmas tree but I told him that we have always put up a tree while our kids were little. So we put it up last night and this happened about an hour ago....

Proper Table Setting

This is how Britnee sets her fathers place at the table.

Now for some random pictures since I again have managed to

avoid blogging for an extended period of time.

These are from 9-13-2009 on our way home from Fairfield

(the pics. are from between Windham and Hobson).

Where else in the world would you find "Hay Bale Sculptures"?

I LOVE MONTANA!!!

You can't see the one below very well but it is hay bales roasting

marshmallows I thought it was cute.

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cow bales.

Here is a picture from the first day of school.

Remember the Easter candy story? Well now Taylor is a

little older and she finds my chocolate.

Time to find a better hiding place!

Confessions of an Inconsistent Blogger

In 2 short days school starts, I can't believe that I let the whole summer go by without blogging.

1. I have over 250 pictures on my camera card, at least 6 sets of the pictures were taken specifically for blogs. The number blogged however is zero.
2. We only took our kids camping for 1 night over the summer, last summer was zero.
3. I thought this would be so cute and funny and I am not coming up with much at all.
4. There are still unpacked boxes in my basement family room (yes it has been over a year)!
5. Meals, dishes, and laundry might have also been slightly inconsistent over the summer.
6. I am currently hiding from my sweet 20 mo. old so that I don't get extra buttons pushed on my computer.

I'm ready for a more regular schedule,but the summer went by too fast. I really like to know what my children are doing, who they are talking to, what they are learning (from their friends), etc; it's hard to let them go (in those ways). Seriously I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I'll post a couple of pictures of our summer.

Fairfield, MT

Proudly known as the Malting Barley Capital of the World!

These grain bins really are big ~ put them on your list to see someday

Below: Mom & Dad with Kolby, Kaden, Dylan, and Taylor

We are so blessed to have a wonderful family!

Unless you were in Choteau, MT for the 4th of July ~ I bet you didn't see this!

Don't you hate it when you go grocery shopping and you get home and find your bananas or pears squished. Well we made it home from Costco without squishing anything. Then we put this on our table and turned our backs. What do you do? It must have looked like a cush place for a tush. I took this picture for a blog post. I guess it finally made it!

Making up for lost time

Memorial day weekend we were planning on going to Lyman for Olivia's (Kelly's sisters daughter) graduation party and then Kelly had an Aunt that passed away so we went to a funeral and then a graduation party. Usually when I get crazy ideas Kelly tells me "NO", when we were almost to Cody I said "Why don't we go down through Yellowstone" and he agreed with me so we took the scenic route with a 17 mo. old who doesn't have much long haul car seat experience. That part was not so fun. In Grand Teton we did see a bear (really far off ~ it looks more like a cow in the pictures so I won't post them). I love scenic drives so I really enjoyed the drive down and back for the most part.

Jake really is in the "family" picture that a stranger so kindly offered to take of us.

Taylor and Britnee enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Colton enjoying the beautiful scenery.



The next weekend (Saturday afternoon) we decided to hit the local beach/Cooney reservoir

It was beautiful all Saturday morning however by the time we got to Cooney

this is what it looked like!

Colton caught a big crawdad but didn't want to get his face too close to it

On Friday June 5th it was the last day of school and Coltons birthday we decided to surprise the kids by taking them to Chico Hot Springs. We had a great time lounging in the pools. Taylor loved it on Friday evening she hardly made a sound for about 2 hours in the pool. However on Saturday she didn't think it was so fun she lasted a whole 10 minutes. When I booked the reservations it was a balmy 80 degrees, we were hoping for 65-75 degrees to enjoy the water in, the closer we got to Friday the more worried we got. The high was supposed to be 48 on Saturday! It was actually a little warmer than that and it wasn't bad except for when you were out of the water. Now you know why I haven't blogged for so long.

Friday when Taylor loved it!

This is what the mountains looked like at Chico but we're tough.

In the midst of all our activities I am trying to grow grass. As you can
see we have been a little bit busy. I hope to update you all again before July!

The price of a (somewhat) peaceful shower

Note to self ~ Put toilet paper up when showering

Hearts and Hands Service Day

I have been the Hearts and Hands coordinator for my local congregation. We have been gathering donations for the last couple of months to donate to various community organizations. I am so grateful to be able to participate in such a wonderful service project. Can you believe that this isn't even everything that the Laurel Ward donated, I am grateful to be around women that are so willing to give of their time and talents, and are willing to share with the entire community!

Hygiene Kits

Twin, lap, & baby quilts ~ receiving blankets & burp cloths

Hats, scarves, gloves, & socks

Backpacks

Food, towels, school & baby supplies

Imagine all this x 15 x all the time women from around Billings will donate to assemble hygiene kits to go to the Women & Family shelter, Men's shelter, layettes to go to the Crisis Pregnancy center, backpacks full of supplies to go to children who wouldn't have them otherwise. That is only a few of the many organizations that will benefit from everyone who is participating in this. The community organizations benefit from the physical donations, we benefit from the JOY that we receive from serving others! Thank you to everyone who helped out. It has been a pleasure for me to see all of the collections coming in (although I have to admit I am glad to have all of that stuff out of my house).