Our first snow....2008

Our snowman....which took forever to build and 20 min. later

was knocked down....ahhhhhh, fun times!

Cameron making some snow cocoa!

Enjoying the real stuff!

Ellie making her snowwall.....she and Evan had quite a bit when all was

said and done!

Catching snow flakes.......

This is how much snow we had right as we got home....good thing we could make it home!

You can see how big the flakes were! They showed up on camera! We got home from the Russillo's rockin' Christmas party and it was snowing! We came right in, got our snow clothes on, and played! You just can't waste good snow. It was quite the snow week. We ended up with about a foot of snow and it lasted quite a while. We had lots of fun playing and went sledding once also. Which the kids lloooovvveeeee! We are looking forward to more and more snow! Though my neighbors aren't quite as fond of snow as I am so I have to keep my enthusiasm more quiet...especially while they are shoveling. =) Ellie loved building the snow fort. She added a little each day. Cameron just loved eating it. He had a hard time walking in so much snow. He reminded me of the little brother in A Christmas Story. But everyone loved it and we are ready for more! Sorry, Grandpa! We know snow 'bah humbugs' you, so send it our way! LOL!

Cameron's 2nd Birthday 2008

Ellie eating her donut off the string. See Cam in the background

with the bag?

Cam and his elmo cake....he took the elmo car off right away..

and dug right in! YUM!

Cam and his new trike! Loved the balloons, too!

Because bouncing IS fun!! A game that ends in candy spilling out all over the ground... what could be better than that? Cam's cool riding bloks toy...thanks Frantie and Fruncle!

Hitting the pinata

We had such a great time!!!! We had to stop telling Cam his birthday party was coming up as he really has no concept of 'later' and so thought it was happening each time we mentioned it. Just like his sister, his favorite part of a party is the cake. So, each time we mentioned his birthday he blurted out "cake!". We had equal number of kids Cam's age and Ellie's age. So the games worked well for both. Cam played, but was much more content to just watch everyone else. His favorite was pin-the-star-on-the-Barney. He even liked the blindfold! He also like the eat-the-donut-from-the-string game, but decided it was just better to eat right out of the bag. The pinata was a little confounding to him. He knew there was candy inside. He seemed to understand if it got hit, the candy would fall out. But when he hit it.....it didn't come out! He'd hit it and then just stare at it....presumably waiting for the candy to just start falling. Once it did break up, he got right in there and got his share for sure. It was an exhausting day, but he had a super time! We all did. He is such a great gift from God. We couldn't love him more! Thank you for loving him, and all of us!, and for thinking of him on his special day. Birthdays are the best.

Ellie's Kindergarten Thanksgiving

Turkey with fruit kabobs as the feathers

This is the turkey and teepee Ellie made, along with her homemade bread and butter....note the cut out faux-turkey...um, more gravy please......=) Ellie and best friend Emma. For my high school friends, the twins on the left are Shannon Magpusao's children. The child with the yellow feather in back is Wally Sidenglans's son. Wally is in the background on the far right. Ellie making her kabob

Ellie and Emma

Frosting the best part...dessert!

Ellie's class put on a Thanksgiving feast! The kids made mashed potatoes and gravy, home-made bread and even home-made butter! As the Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian, we made cut out turkeys from faux turkey lunch meat.....that's all I really want to share about that! (stop laughing, Joan, my vegetarian sister-in-law!) All in all, it was a lot of fun. The kids got to choose to be either Pilgrims or Indians. They made pretty elaborate drums and did a little program with singing and dancing. They did a great job!

Pheasant Hunting October 2008

Sooner and a mouth full of feathers

John and Jim

(Hmmm, how do you delete pics from blogs?)

Daddy and Camers

A hunter in training

Story time!

Hi again! Uncle Jim (A.K.A. The Handsome Iler) came up for the annual hunting weekends this month. The kids were so happy to have both he and Sooner back. Jim brought cool fossils for Ellie which she took to share in class. He got lots and lots of reading time in. And they even got some birds! Our traditional wild game dinner for Christmas Eve will include pheasant, duck, caribou and venison this year! Yum!

Halloween 2008

Ellie and Cameron

Ellie making a pumpkin cake with the seeds

the cleaning of the pumpkin...that goodness the kids love it! Camers was a little hesitant at first....then dug right in This was Ellie's idea....pretending to be pumpkins, too!

Mom and Camers

Daddy's little princess....or fairy!

One of the cars was decorated in the 101 dalmations theme.

This was Cruela....a pretty good one!

My brother got the kids these slimy eyeballs that roll down

surfaces. They loved this game! Yuk! Nasty things!

Howdy all! So sorry it's been a while! I have a zillion excuses to give you.....but I'll save time and just get to posting the info! Halloween was perfect! It rained all day (which we desperately need) until 3pm, then stopped until 8pm. So, the church got all the stuff set up and since it ended at 8pm, it worked out perfectly! Only one flaw....our camera went haywire after about 4 pics so we didn't get as many as we wanted! But there are a few to share! Cam loved getting the candy. He caught on very quickly to who to hold out the bucket to! They do a 'trunk-or-treat' in the church parking lot. About 40 cars pick a theme to decorate to and then you go from car to car and get candy. We only got one pic of one theme as our camera died. They are very fun and creative to say the least. As we were out driving, we noticed not many trick or treaters were really out. My mom only got a handful and she normally has a ton. Guess people are going more for the organized activities. It's hard to beat them! They have free food and a ton of activities. Ellie loved the bounce houses the best....especially the obstacle course one. Cam loved his Tigger outfit. He loved holding the tail. But it wasn't too long so he's say "where'd it go?" each time he dropped hold of it and you'd have to hand it back to him. It was awfully cute watching him walk around holding his little Tigger tail! Ellie was a beautiful purple fairy with a fun light up wand. Oh, to be a kid again.......hope you enjoy!