Happy Birthday Elliott Joe

We waited until Sunday to have Elliott's party. He's 2 so it's not like he cares if he gets to celebrate his birthday two days late. The pre-party consisted of Ethan blowing up balloons and Elliott kicking them and throwing them around. I would say it was the best $1.25 I have spent. :)

Once everyone showed up, we got started. The kids loved the balloons! 

Jaymee was nice enough to take pictures for me! Thanks! Our fridge was full of dump trucks filled with dirt cake. They were so cute! Ellett did this once for Dominik, and I was so greatful when she called and reminded me of the idea for Elliott.

Carson and Raigan LOVE "Mer's House".  

The big truck was for the adults, and all the kids got their own cake in a dump truck.  

Elliott was so happy when everyone was singing to him. His smile was plastered to his face for the whole song. 

Ethan was going to help him blow out the candle and Jason thought he should help them both, so we got this picture of them. I love it.  

I'm not sure if Jason thought the cake was nasty, or if someone farted, but either way, Elliott didn't seem to care.  :) 

Cake face! Too cute! 

Raigan was excited to see the Mr. Potato Head from Erica and Carson. She loves hers and wasted no time snatching it to ask her mom to open it. Elliott had so much going on, I don't think he even noticed. 

Brayden was one of the big kids helping, and Elliott was excited to show him the nerf gun! I can hear Elliott saying "AH-AH-AH". 

I couldn't see Elliott from where I was, but Jaymee was able to get a few pictures of him buried amongst the paper and toys.  

After the last gift was open, the kids headed outside and left this behind. Good thing we cleaned the house before hand. 

The weather was beautiful and we all ended up in the back yard. Elliott had a great time with his new soccer ball from Ethan. 

And of course Ethan had a great time playing soccer with his dad.  

Elliott had a great party. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us. Everyone knows this, but time goes so fast. Our boys are growing up and making us old. Lucky for them, we still love them.

busy busy busy

Saturday was our busiest day yet. It started with hockey practice, then after lunch, Ethan had his final soccer game. He played his heart out, even though he was exhausted from skating hard in the morning.

He won this kick. I'm so proud of him for working so hard at everything he does.

Jason was able to come home this weekend, and he kept Elliott occupied during the game. 

Another action shot of Ethan. 

Elliott was showing off his mad skills to the little boy sitting next to us.  

Ethan played goalie for the second half. It looks like he is going down here, but he saved himself. 

The ADM hockey clinic was also this weekend, so after a short rest, we got ready to go back up to the rink. Ethan is very excited about his USA Hockey jersey he got for attending.  

Elliott loves his big brother. He had to get in a shot too. 

After another hour on the ice, we had dinner then went back to the rink to watch the Bulls game. 10:00pm made for some tired kids and some really tired parents, but we had a really fun day.

soccer outtakes

Ethan had his last soccer game this weekend, and while we did get some good pictures, I was encouraged by Jaymee to post some outtake pictures once in a while. I thought since so many posts have been done with soccer pics, I would post some outtakes from his final game. Enjoy!

This picture makes me feel a little uncertain of his focus. "Hmmmmm, I wonder what is for dinner?"

I know you're thinking, "Ethan is SO cute." Well that's nice and all but check out the kid behind him. 

And this........soccer must really get their "stuff" outta place. Seems everyone needed some adjusting. 

Ethan will likely hate me someday for posting this, but I think it's funny, and we all need a good laugh.

the pumpkin patch

I am trying really hard to stay caught up so I can focus on one thing at a time when I write a blog. Note: if you read Erica and Jaymee's blogs, these pictures will be far less exciting to you.  :) 

Tonight, we didn't have anything else going on (we skipped hockey), so I took the boys to get their pumpkins. That was exciting enough for them, but I made it even more exciting. We started at McD's. Eating out is a treat, and they both would have been happy just doing this.

 

Ethan thought we were going to go to the small pumpkin sale at the local church. After seeing how much fun Carson and Raigan had at the pumpkin patch, I wanted to surprise the boys with a real pumpkin patch experience. As soon as Ethan saw it, he started talking about all the things we were going to do and see. When we got out of the car, we could smell the animals. Ethan was not impressed, but it brought back so many memories of the pigs and sheep at my grandparents farm from when I was growing up, I didn't mind at all.

 The first thing they hit was the slide. I'm here to tell ya, that thing zings them down so fast, I barely had time to catch any pictures. Too bad too, they had the biggest smiles on their faces.

 Jaymee said this one didn't go as fast. That's a LIE! Elliott shot out of it so quick and skidded on the board, I thought for sure he would have splinters.

 Even Ethan zipped down it.

 I seriously thought we would be stuck at the slides the whole time, but Elliott finally decided he wanted to ride the cow train. When I put him in, he sat perfectly still, and was so ready to go. I assumed the train would take them around the little track I could see from where I was standing. Next thing I know, they are going back behind the corn field (that would have been good information Jaymee). Thank goodness Ethan went with and was talking and keeping an eye on Elliott.

 Ethan couldn't wait to try these out! Best part, the seat was adjustable and he could reach the peddles. :) He told me on the ride home, "it wasn't too hard until I lost control of my left foot!" The kid cracks me up.

 Elliott wasn't too sure about going into the tee pee at first, but once he figured out the corn was to play in, he wouldn't get out. When I finally got him out, it took him only seconds to run back inside.

 I cannot believe Ethan is almost 4' tall. He's growing up so fast.

 Elliott could have cared less about seeing how tall he is.

 Ethan tried roping some plastic cow heads. Let's call him "Cowboy Hopeless".

 This guy thought I had never seen livestock in my life, and insisted he help Ethan feed the calf. Whatever dude. At least I didn't have to get cow spit on me. Haha.

 Finally, the pumpkins! The pictures are crappy because we had to do everything else first. It was so much fun to be in the field pulling the pumpkins off the vine! Ethan picked some super pumpkins.

 Elliott was pooped! He rode in the wagon all the way back to the car.

 Ethan pulled for a while, but the wagon was heavy, and the pumpkins and Elliott made it even worse.

We definitely had a fabulous time! In Ethan's words "it was the funnest place ever!"

WHOA!

Looks like I need to get caught up. Eeeek.

Last weekend, Jason got to come home for a 4 day weekend! Yay for a federal job with federal holidays.  :)

Hockey is in full swing. Well, getting there. Ethan was on the ice 3 days last week. I still can't get over how much he improves every year. It's incredible. (note: Jaymee lent us the zoom lens for the camera and it's insane! You can get so close from so far away.) Jason was loving the zoom on the camera in the rink. Ethan was practicing his stopping and throwing snow on the cones.

 This is such an awesome picture! Jason was pretty proud of himself.

 And soccer is coming to an end, but currently overlaps with hockey. Last Saturday was a LONG day for Ethan. Hockey practice in the morning and a soccer game that afternoon.

 Jason is proud of this picture too. 

 Ethan was exhausted!

 Saturday night, Jason and I took some time for ourselves. I surprised him by treating him to Billings Best Yogurt (yes it's the best). It is a super fun place to go, and conveniently located right next to the movie theater. We watched Case 39, a scary movie, and the first adult movie we have seen together in quite a long time.

 On Sunday, Jason and Ethan traded in our Playstation 2 for this...........

 Not just any Wii, the black Wii.  :)  We all had a blast playing it, and it's one of the best entertainment investments we have made recently.

 I guess Monday wasn't very exciting. Tuesday, Raigan came over for a while so Jaymee could work. We love having her over. The boys get along so much better when they have someone besides just each other to play with. They all played in the leaves for a long time. They raked them up, threw them around, and then raked them up again. Ahhhhhh, to be little again. Precious.

 Later was soccer practice, so off we went. The littles kept themselves occupied with the slides and a ball they brought with.

 Ethan loves putting his all into his practices.

Elliott and Raigan even used their cuteness to convince Jason to push them on the swings. It was another exhausting day.

Jason spent Wednesday and Thursday at work in Helena, then came home Thursday night. He and I dropped the kids off with Laura (thanks SO much) for the weekend, and headed to Red Lodge. The Nat'l Guard treated us to a Marriage Enrichment course and a free weekend away. Not only did we learn a lot, but we had a great time and met some new people.

This week is back to our current normal. Jason will leave tomorrow for Helena, and we won't see him to Friday night. Ethan has both hockey and soccer again, along with Elliott's birthday coming up this week, we will be busy. At least I have the blog caught up for a few days. Have a great week.

crazy montana weather

Exactly one year ago, we had a HUGE snow storm, it was freezing cold and caused the entire city to run out of pumpkins. It was terrible. In fact, this is the boys on our way to school on Oct 5th last year.

This year, well, it's GORGEOUS! It's been in the 70's everyday, and sunny. The leaves are turning and falling. It is a perfect fall.

Ethan got to play goalie for his first time in soccer on Saturday. He did ok, but he should really stick to forward and defense. He gave it his all though.

He practiced these kicks all week. He was looking forward to this game just so he could put it to use.

Yesterday was another amazing day. The boys and I hung out in the front yard while they played in the leaves. Elliott had so much fun.

And of course, so did Ethan.

Elliott is so funny. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth the whole time.

Throwing the leaves was their favorite part.

After lunch, Ethan went to a fishing birthday party. I asked him if he wanted Elliott and I to go with, and he was really excited that he had a choice and asked if he could just go by himself. *sigh* I have to admit I'm not totally disappointed I won't have to attend too many birthdays with him anymore. Fishing was a big hit. He even caught a fish! 

It was a really great weekend, and the weather is supposed to hold out for this weekend too! Yay!

Our busy month starts tomorrow. This is the time where soccer and hockey overlap. Eeeek. No available evenings for a while. I hope I can keep up.

Have a great week.