On the blog again!

I am on the blog again! So hang on...I posted quite a few update posts. They date from the present back to the beginning of October. Hoping to stay on top of the blog better in 2010! Enjoy!

Losing some and gaining some!

Kaylee has finally lost her two front teeth. She lost one right before Christmas and then finally lost the other one two days ago. She is having a hard time finding things she can eat without them, but being a good sport about it. Her baby teeth were so tiny it will be interesting to see how big her permanent teeth will be and how it will change her looks.


We have been waiting and waiting for Kolbi to get some teeth. Finally in the last month she has started to get them. The unfortunate part is she is getting four all at once. She is getting her two front teeth and two molars. She has still been a good baby through it all. I had a hard time getting her to smile just the right way to take a picture of them. The other day when I got her out of the bath, she kept giggling while I was getting her dressed...so therefore a great shot of the incoming teeth! YIPPEE!

The next two pictures are just because they are SO Kolbi. She is such a happy girl and fun to have around! Her personality is so cute and she is truly adored by her family.

THE MELTANATOR

January is science fair time! Kyle has had the opportunity to work on his science fair project the last couple of weeks. His experiment was titled, "The Meltanator". During the time he was trying to decide what to do his experiment on, Kevin's mom fell on some ice and broke her ankle. This made Kyle do some thinking and he said he wanted to find out how to melt ice so nobody else would get hurt. (What a thoughtful boy!) So, he decided to do his experiment on, "What melts ice the fastest: mineral rock salt, sand or cat litter?"

He worked very hard to make sure his experiment was done right and was very concise in his measurements. In the end he found that mineral rock salt will melt ice twice as fast as sand or cat litter. Part of his conclusion statement said, "In the cold winter months when you want to melt the ice on your driveway, stock up on mineral rock salt and throw away the sand and cat litter."

We are very proud of the hard work he put into his experiment and also into his board!

New Year's Eve in Washington

The day after Christmas we drove from Shelley to Richland, Washington to spend the rest of the holidays with Kevin's family. The weather was wonderful and we had a great drive there. We were able to spend almost a week there. The weather was predicted to be nice. A couple days after we had been there, it snowed. Not a lot, but enough to have snow in the parking lots.

Grandpa Ross got up early one morning and headed to the auto shop to get some innertubes. He was so excited to take the kids tubing behind the car in the church parking lot. He tied two tubes to the back of the car and pulled us all around. At first Kevin went with the kids, but after he kept pushing them off, they only wanted to ride with Mom. It was really fun and I think it will be a memory the kids will not forget anytime soon.

Kaylee getting ready on one tube and then Kyle and Kambria on the other.

Kambria would giggle the whole time she was sledding!

On New Year's Eve Kevin's sisters (Kim and Kaelynn) and their families came over to Wayne and Dianne's to celebrate. We had scrumptious food (alot of it) and watched funniest videos on TV. It was wonderful to hear everyone laugh and to see the kids play with their cousins. Everyone stayed awake until the new year except for Kolbi. After the ball dropped the kids got pot lids and went outside to bang them on the front porch. We are all hoping for a great 2010!!

Thank you to all of the family for letting us visit during the holidays! We had a wonderful time and love you all!!

Christmas 2009 in Wyoming and Idaho

On the 23rd we left from Casper to travel to Shelley to spend Christmas Eve and Day with my parents. Before we left Casper, we let the kids open up their gifts from us and each other. There was also a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Ross they got to open. It was Wii. They were so excited! We then left during a horrible snow storm and were very thankful to make it to Shelley safely.

The kids slept in until 8:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. It was wonderful. Then they got to make their way downstairs to Grandma and Grandpa Price's living room where Santa left their presents from him. Kolbi was being a little camera shy.

The evening of Christmas to went over to Tawnya's new house and got to visit with Thane and his family. Kyle, Kaylee and Kambria had a great time playing with their cousins and Kolbi had a great time exploring. It was wonderful to see family and visit.

In Jail!

Kolbi loves playing under the table. I think she thinks I can't see her under there. The other day, I just had to snap a picture of her because everytime I knelt down to talk to her, she would give me this look. She looks so forlorn, but refused to come out for a few minutes. It was such a great comic relief to my day! She is a funny girl! (Excuse the look of the table...we are in the process of striping it and restaining it...if we can ever find the time to finish)

Kyle's Christmas concert

The fourth graders put on their Christmas concert in the beginning of December. The songs were from all parts of the world. The kids did a great job singing some difficult songs. Kyle even got to learn how to play the recorder. Unfortunately, we were not in the best location to get good pictures of him. We did manage to get one of him right before the concert. He did a great job!

Christmas Parade

The day after Thanksgiving, Casper always has it's Christmas parade. They block off a few blocks downtown and then hand out free hot chocolate and cookies. It is really fun and actually a bigger parade than I expected. We braved the cold and had a great time!

Here is Kevin and the kids waiting for the parade to start.

The favorite float of the night was a van for a local radio station. My kids giggled for a good 2 minutes after it was passed. They kept saying, "Mom, get a picture of the naked guy!" Funny kids!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Kevin was on call the night before and got home late morning of Thanksgiving. We invited some good friends of ours over for dinner and had a fun time visiting and letting the kids play. Thank you Thatcher family for being our family for the holiday and also thank you for being patient with the "turkey stabbing."

We had everyone write what they were thankful for on a few leaves and then we put it on our "Thankful Tree".

There are so many things for me to be thankful for this year. I have a wonderful husband that works very hard and crazy hours to provide for our family. My kids are beautiful and fun and healthy! Their smiles and laughter are so contagious! Our home keeps us so warm and being a first time homeowner...I absolutely love our home. It is perfect for us!! Casper also seems to be a really good fit for our family right now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the mountains! For some reason mountains have always made me feel secure and I love living by them again! There are so many more things I could list, but most of all I am THANKFUL!!


The day after Thanksgiving, Kevin didn't have to work so he took Kyle and went fishing with his friend Matt Oxford. They left early in the morning and it was COLD!! Kyle caught two fish and Kevin caught one. They brought them home and fileted them. Kevin had a great time cooking them for us. Kyle says he hates fish, but LOVED the fried Trout. It was very yummy! We love living by a great river to fish in!!

Kaylee Halloween Concert

The 2nd grade classes had their choir concert before Halloween. They got to dress up in their Halloween costumes and the songs they sang were all Halloween. It was a great concert and Kaylee had fun singing all of the songs around the house practicing. She loves singing and has a beautiful voice. Her costume was Little Red Riding Hood.

Work on basement and Kyle's room & Martin's Cove

Kevin's parents came here for two weeks from October 14th thru 25th. Wayne and I worked on finishing our basement and making a room for Kyle down there. Dianne was wonderful at watching Kolbi and keeping track of the kids. It was quite the project, but so fun also. We ended up hiring the sheetrock and carpeting done. The end result is so wonderful!! We have a big storage room, playroom and Kyle's room down there now. The kids love their new playroom and Kyle loves having his own space and not having to share a room with Kolbi. I am only taking the time to download pics of the progression of Kyle's room. If you want to see the rest...COME SEE US!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Wayne and Dianne for all of their expertise and help!!

Kyle's closet and built-in desk area waiting for texture to dry!

The end result! Here are three different perspectives of Kyle's room! Of course it has a sports theme!

We took half of a day and took Grandma and Grandpa out to Martin's Cove. It was neat to walk where the pioneers did and the kids had fun spending time with grandparents.

Outside the little cabin where the tour starts.

This is inside the visitors center. It was really inspiring to find our relatives names on the wall of people that were in the handcart companies or rescue companies. We truly are very blessed!