74 posts tagged “ray”

The kids aren't allowed to get up before 6:30 on Christmas Day.  The boys were standing by our beds watching the clock at 6:27. 

Lily is not an early riser and nobody's allowed to wake her up when unnecessary or she's a BEAR!  She was up by about 7:30.

Our plans got crimped a little due to a blizzard.  My grandma stayed out at my aunt & uncle's and they were stuck at their place out of town.  My brother and Amy did brave it and come in the 40 mile drive from the ranch.

We had a superb dinner of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn pie, salad, and double pumpkin cheesecake.  Since Amy's a chef, she baked TONS of goodies that we got to munch on all day.

Before opening presents, Lily sang us several Christmas songs.

Grandpa & Grandma got the boys these chairs to coordinate with their new rooms.

I've been eyeing these boots for a few months.

I've wanted a stove-top egg poacher for several years.  Poached are my favorite type of eggs and my mom always used to make them.  She's been spoiling us with lots of poached eggs at breakfast while we've been living with them but now I'll be able to make my own!

When Ray & I were married, my aunt made us a cookbook composed of recipes that she obtained from everyone who we invited to our wedding.  It was a tremendous treasure.

In honor of our 15 year anniversary in 2010, she revised and updated the cookbook for everyone's Christmas gifts.  The cover is composed of tons of tiny family pictures from several generations and there are other pictures throughout the cookbook.  It truly is a treasure!

I hardly had the chance to take any landscape photos this year so I made calendars from family photos.

The rest of the day was spent doing puzzles and playing cards.

Now, we're packing as we're off on our annual ski trip to Bozeman in the morning.  Our good friends from Jamestown will meet us there as well as 2 families from here and my brother and his girlfriend.  It should be a blast!

 

 

We have a family tradition of making sugar cookies.  My brother and I always made them with my Little Grandma and now my kids make them with my mom.

We went to church at 3:30 where the kids' choir sang a song with the adult choir.  It was fun to sing with my kids.  The church service was just beautiful!

These were taken at church.

We had a wonderful lasagne supper and then opened gifts.

 

Bah Humbug:

1. The Steelers football season is basically over for this year.  They have to give another team a turn ;)  We have so many injured players that it's just pretty hopeless.
2. It causes me great stress to just be mailing my Christmas cards.  I know that's probably odd but I like to have them out at the beginning of Dec.  Dumb computer crash!

Merry Christmas:

1. A friend and I made a shopping trip today to buy Christmas presents for a family whose having a rough December.  It's a single mom of 5 and she crushed her wrist in a 4-wheeling accident so is unable to work.  I have to say it finally got me in the holiday spirit!
2. Our entire house is carpeted!  Well, except for the theater which we don't plan to finish for a year or two.  By the end of Monday, the rest of the flooring will be finished as well as the kitchen counter.  We have 2 working toilets, too!  (I'll post some more pictures soon).
3. We've made plans to go back to Jamestown January 1-3 to move the rest of our furniture.  Could still use some prayers for that house to sell.  Anytime now would be just perfect!!
4. We'll be moving in after we get our things.  There will still be little stuff to do but we can do that while living there.  I finally feel like I can get excited!!
5. My grandma, aunt & uncle, brother & girlfriend, parents, and cousin's family will all be here for Christmas.  I love a big Christmas!  Ray is thrilled to not have to pack up every single present and travel this year.

After a full day at the wrestling tournament, we returned just in time for Lily's birthday party.  My mom was a real sweetie and had everything set up and my brother's girlfriend made a yummy baked macaroni and cheese. 

 There were 11 little girls that came to her kittie themed party.

She wanted the cake to look like Butterscotch and I think it turned out great!  (I did not make it).

After supper, it was time to go swimming.  I had 2 parents tell me their daughters didn't swim well and needed to stay in the shallow end, one of the girls tell me themselves, and one parent stay (I would be one of those at a swim party).  As soon as we opened the door to the pool room, they all ran and jumped in.  Right away one of the girls was paddling frantically and not getting her head above the water (nobody mentioned her not being able to swim).  This is when it occured to me that it probably would've been smart to at least have my swimsuit on in case of emergency.  She was too far from the edge to reach or throw anything to so I was left with no choice but to jump in wearing a long-sleeved sweatshirt, jeans, and socks.  It's a good thing the deep end is only 5 ft. so I can hop with my tippy toes and keep my own head above water or it would've been very difficult with my clothes weighing me down.  I was able to hand the girl off (who wasn't phased by the whole incident) to the other mom who had stayed while I quickly went to change.  I got smart and put my swimsuit on just in case I needed to make another rescue.  Ray found the whole thing quite entertaining.

The girls had a blast in the pool.  It seemed weird having a pool party when it was -10 outside.

This girl is in my choir and her family just bought a house by our new one.  I think they'll be the best of friends!  (We like the parents, too).  They also have a daughter in Jace's class and a baby due this spring.

  They swam for around 45 minutes and then got out for cake and presents.

After 2 hours, I was very happy to have it over!

Below 0 windchill:

1. Last week the temperatures was in the 50's.  Today, it's -5.  Along with the cold came Jace's croup which he thought he was getting over.  It's his first episode since April so it's definitely getting further between attacks.
2. Ray spent all of Sunday spraying the trim so carpet could be installed.  I went yesterday to help remove all the masking and paper.  The residual from the paint sprayer goes a long ways and ended up on a lot of the walls.  The more paper I removed, the more I started crying.  I spent so much time painting that house and there were entire walls and closets that needed redone.  I finally just had to leave!  Turned out that it didn't take as long as I thought it would to fix so it did get done yesterday.
3. To add to my Monday, we got a call from the utility company that since our geothermal heat pump meter wasn't connected last month, our bill was $490!!!!!!!!  They called back 10 minutes later to give us a $150 credit.  That didn't make me feel too much better.

Tropical heatwave:

1. Lily's room is carpeted!  Aside from hanging the light and door, her room is basically finished.  Today, they'll install the carpet in the guest bedroom and master bedroom.
2. My computer has been fixed!  We upgraded to Office 2007 so now I have Outlook back.  I have sure been missing my email addys and calendar!  Thank goodness all the information was still there.
3. My baby is turning 7 this week!  I'm not sure if that's good or bad but we'll have a good time.
4. I just love our church here.  The people are ridiculously kind and I like it!!

Thumbs Down:

1. Our house still hasn't sold yet.  There's a lady who loves it and wants it but her husband doesn't think they need a new house.  Feel free to pray that she changes his mind!
2. I helped Ray grout the main bathroom yesterday.  All I did was wipe off the excess and 3 of my fingers are split.  I won't be doing that again without gloves!

Thumbs Up:

1. This gorgeous weather we've had in November is totally making up for the crummy October.  I can now make it through winter.
2. I have 1 room left to paint in the house before we move in.  We hope to have carpet installed in the next 2 weeks and move in shortly after.  We might have a few things left to finish when we move in but that's ok!
3. Friends from Jamestown are coming this weekend to go hunting on our ranch.  It'll be fun to see them and Jace is totally stoked to see his godbrother that's the same age as him.
4. Chorister Choir sang for a church brunch last Sunday and it was classic (the one time Ray didn't record).  The 2 yr old twin-siblings of one of my singers decided they wanted to be with her.  So, they took turns coming up and standing by her and attempting to sing the song, that they didn't know, very loudly.  It was classic!  I guess I have some future members on my hands.
5. Friends who are willing to take time out of their busy schedules to help me paint.  Not only that, they're willing to do the cutting because I'm so bad at it!
6. My mom making us hot breakfasts every morning.  Today it was french toast and sausage.
7. My brother's new girlfriend.  I think we're going to become fast friends!

Thumbs Down:

1. A woman looked at our house last week and just loved it.  She brought her husband to see it on Monday and he was very quiet except to say one of the bathroom's needed remodeling and they'd already done a lot of that on their current house.  Our realtor is hoping the woman just needed some time to talk her husband into it.  I'm afraid it was a woman who thought she needed a new house and her husband didn't. 
2. I was a crabby patty today.  It's not very often that I'm in a cranky mood all day but this was one of them.  Several little things that put me in the mood. 
3. My great uncle passed away.  He was my step grandpa's brother.  Grandpa died when I was 12 but he lived in town and I spent tons of time with him.  Out of his 3 brothers, this was the one I was closest to.  He and his wife have lived in AZ the past 10 years and had just moved back to MT to be closer to family.  I've made at least 3 trips to Billings and wanted to stop and see them but always had other things to do.  Now, I regret waiting.  I'd also like to go to his funeral tomorrow but it's not going to work out.  He has such a twinkle in his eye.

Thumbs Up:

1. We really are making good progress on the house.  We've started painting the basement even though we don't plan to totally finish the basement right away.  The tile is done in the foyer and Lily's bathroom floor and shower.  Ray's started hanging interior doors and putting on base trim so the carpet installer can come.  2/3 of the kitchen cabinets are done.  I need to get pictures of some of the lights Ray's installed because they are gorgeous!  We're very tentatively hoping to be in around the end of the month.  (No laughing, mom).
2. There's no school tomorrow so Ray's taking the boys hunting.  This will be Cody's first time going as an official "hunter" since passing Hunter's Safety.
3. The 1st quarter is done at school.  Cody really struggled the past few years but is finally taking school more seriously.  There is still room for improvement but he made the Honor Roll so we're very proud.  All his teachers had great things to say.  This is Jace's first year to receive letter grades and he earned all A's and B's.  He's also suddenly taken a huge interest in reading.  He's always hated reading but is now reading 300 page novels!!  Lily is also doing well.  All of the kids' teachers are very impressed with their transition into new schools.  It truly has been amazing and we couldn't have asked for the move to be any smoother.
4. Cody has started Middle School wrestling and his first tournament is Saturday.  Wrestling is such a different environment here.  In Jamestown, Cody was teased a lot for being a wrestler instead of playing hockey or basketball.  Here, wrestling is huge!  Last night, they had a photo shoot for their team poster!!  He's best friend here is also a wrestler and a super, nice kid.
5. Though the weather in October was awful, November is off to a gorgeous start.  It's even supposed to hit 60 tomorrow.

 

Jace is in his 2nd week of flag football.  He played quarterback the first game and first half of the second game.  They lost the 1st game 2 TD's to 1 TD and the 2nd game 2 TD's to 0.  Jace has some really nice passes in the first game.  He played safety on defense and had an interception in each game.

Ray is the assistant coach for his team.

 

 

We miss you and hope to see you soon.