Strawberry Mountain

Kindergarten is over!

This is crazy, he just started school, and it's over all ready. If all school years go by this fast, it's going to be a quick ride for me. 

BRIAN'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 2008

BRIAN ON JUNE 3, 2009

END OF YEAR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM!

Below is a small video of Brian's Kindergarten Class end of year program. It was a great deal longer, but I edited it down so it wouldn't be so long. I love watching the kids dance, it's too cute. After this was over, there was a small open house in his class room where they got to show us all the work they did over the course of the year. He was so proud. Some of the things Brian has learned this year are math (of which he is at the top of his class, ((yes, mommy is bragging)), reading (he has started reading chapter books), telling time, which is still hard for him. He has learned to count money, he colors so well it stuns me.

Memorial Day Weekend!

It's Monday night, and the weekend is over.  It's been really nice though.  Rick and I stayed home alone on Friday, and cleaned our house really good.  That did get the weekend off to a good start, because nearly all our chores were done.  We go the kids in bed and played Guitar Hero for awhile then went to bed early ourselves.

Saturday was nice.  No soccer because of the holiday, and so we all slept in.  I got up, made everyone breakfast, and then Brian and I took off to the Dollar Store to get stuff for Leslie's Birthday party next week.  I had thought we had a birthday party that afternoon, but when I got to my friends house, I realized that I had the wrong weekend.  So the kids and I went to the Carousel here in town, and I let them ride it for awhile, then we all got ice cream. 

(in this picture Leslie looks so  much like Brian to me)

Brian and Leslie got cotton candy ice cream, and  I got huckleberry.  After that I let them play outside for awhile and then we headed home. 

I stopped and got them Happy Meals from McDonald's, and we took them home so they could have dinner.  Then we built a big campfire and roasted marshmallows, the kids "hunted for moles" in our garden, and rode their "quads" all over the yard.  Finally, mellow, full and happy, I took them up, gave them showers to get the sticky off and put them into bed.  They barely hit the pillow and they were sleeping.  Don't you love love kids that are so tired they barely make a fuss going to bed?  That's when I know I've done a good job that day.

Sunday we just stayed home, it was rainy and cold all day, so we took long naps with the kids, BBQ'ed steaks for dinner, and just chilled out.

On Saturday, Rick installed the new seats for the kids on the 4-wheelers, and today, Monday we took them out for a ride.  Leslie was behind me, and Brian was behind Rick.  We just took an easy ride up into the Helena National Forrest behind our house, and up to Crystal Creek, and then over to East Helena and back.  It started to rain, so it cut our ride a little shorter than we had planned, but it wiped the kids out.  They did great, and I felt really comfortable with them on the back.  It's as safe as we can make them so that we can take them with us.  Obviously, we will do pretty easy flat rides with them, as I have no intention of doing any hard rocky trails.  That being said, Brian and Leslie LOVED it.  It was great to finally be able to take them with us, and we had a nice day together.  Here are some photo's from today, as well as a small video of McClellan Creek.

Brian and Leslie standing by McClellan Creek

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

This is Leslie's new favorite song.  She learned it at preschool, but we sing it in the shower while we wash her hair, we sing it in the car, we sing it everywhere!  Seriously, she is so cute when she sings it, I need to get it on video. 

Lost Montana Style!

Yesterday was a great day.  We started the day off with a really laid back morning.  Laid back that is except what we couldn't find Brian's soccer shirt, and it was picture day.  After looking all over the house, and I do mean ALL over the house, under the couches, under the futon, in Leslie's closet, under my bed, in the washer and dryer, through all the dirty clothes, under the buffet, we finally found it in Rick's truck, and with enough time to run it through the washer to boot!  After that, we did chill out, have a nice breakfast and then head off to Brian's soccer game (Go Adders!!!).  His team did great by the way, and there are a really nice group of parents this year on our time.  It was our week to bring the snack, so after the game, we passed those out, and then moved on to picture day.  I took some pictures as the photographer got everybody together for the group photo. 

This is the closest one I got to the "Offical Team" photo.

The one below, is the one with the kids screwing around, I couldn't believe they were making hand signs and messing around.

After Soccer, Brian and I went over to my friend's house and bought her little girls toy quad for Leslie.  Then we went to Hardee's for lunch, and went home.  I had told Brian if he ate all of his lunch, I'd take him to DQ for an ice cream cone.  By the time I got him out of Hardee's he was full on into "melt down" mode, from being tired and having too much sugar, so I nixed DQ, and told him we were going home so that he could take a nap.  This of course caused him to scream and cry all the way home.  It's a good thing he was in his car seat or he would have probably been all over the car.  I told him that we would all go back down to town to get a cone when naps were over.  Still, he screamed and cried all the way home which just further served to prove to me that he needed a nap.  I told him I could tell he was tired by the way he was acting, and he yelled at me, "I'm not tireeeeeedd!!!".  I remember yelling that same thing at my mom when I was a kid, and getting so angry when they would say that. 

Funny thing was, when we got home, Brian went right down for a 2 hour nap with no problems at all.  When the kids got up from the nap, we put them in the Tahoe and took them back down and got them a dipped cone from DQ....and came home.  Then the fun started, we let Leslie have her "new" quad, and they went to town, riding them until they died from no batteries.

Dear Mr. President......

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Redneck Fire Alarm

Holy Falling Moose Batman!

Right off of  Boston.com ...

The sky is falling...no no...the moose are falling!

Kayleigh

Not much to say tonight, except I stumbled on a blog called "Kayleigh's Story".  I'm in tears reading it.  This beautiful little girl died yesterday. 

I'm not sure why I clicked today and not before, but I did.  I was reading her story, and my heart is screaming out in pain for her parents.  Kayleigh was born too soon, from the same exact thing that caused me to have two preemies.  Severe pre-eclampsia.  She was born with IGUR, which both my kids had as well. 

But for the grace of god, I still have my precious children and they are healthy, strong and came through their ordeal with no complications to show for it.

I know I'll never be the same.  Having a preemie changes who you are inside.  There is no going back again.  You can recover, you can try not to remember, but when you read something about a preemie, it shoots you right back into the NICU again.  It's a secret club of survivors that I really wish I didn't belong to.  That being said, I'm one of the lucky ones. 

Say a prayer for little Kayleigh and her family tonight.  They need all the thoughts and good wishes they can get.  Godspeed Kayleigh, from all the moms of preemies everywhere.

Magna-Tiles and a Little Boy

Tonight, Brian grabbed me by the hand and pulled me up the stairs to look at his "Clone House".  He worked so hard to build it just right, and was really afraid Leslie would knock it over before I got to see it if I didn't come to look at it tonight.  So, being the dutiful mom that I am, I went up stairs, fully expecting to "oo and ah" over a box or some such thing. 

When I got up to his room, which is in a state of shambles I"m not allowed to touch at the moment, this is what I found.  A very complex "Clone House", I'm assuming from Star Wars the Clone Wars TV show.  He had built it with two stories of Magna-Tiles.  Each section had compartments that housed either his Star Wars Men, or their Cars (all of which are his toy cars from the movie "CARS").  Anyway, I was quite impressed not only by his actual creation, but by the thought he put into it.

He loves the Magna-Tiles, and even though Grandma Cathy doubled up the set this Christmas, the kids still fight over them.  They are the best toys I believe we have ever had.  Not only are they nearly indestructible, they are big enough babies can play with them, but entertaining enough older children can play with them for hours.

My kids have full sets of Lego's and usually use them as accent pieces to go with the Magnatile creations.  Leslie builds intricate walls with her dolls in them. 

Below are a few photo's and a video of Brian and his "Clone House"...be sure to hold out for the end of the video, it's pretty funny, in a juvenile sort of way!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

April Snows!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Easter Kids 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

It's Snowing

Today, it's snowing really hard.  We are sort of trapped in the house by the cold and the snow and the damp wetness outside.  It's really windy outside as well, the snow is swirling about the house in giant huge flakes.

Today will be a day of cleaning house and baking a huge corned beef brisket in the oven.  It's not a day to go outside, and it may be a day to break out the Wii Fit I've been hiding in my room.  The kids will need something to do to keep them active. 

So there you go, not much news but lots of snow.

The Life and Times of Brian!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Brian is turning six this week, or on Thursday more precisely.  Since his birthday is during the week, we celebrated with his party on Sunday, March 22nd.  It was great fun!

The place we picked is called "Big Time Bouncers" and it is here in Helena behind the all important "Walmart".  Seriously, I put that on the invitation, "behind Walmart", I thought it was funny.

BTB is set up in a warehouse.  It is very non-descript, but looks can fool you when it comes to 15 or so small children.  We entered, and were met by the owner.  He helped us get set up, and we were ready to go in a matter of minutes.  He sat the kids down and told them all about the bouncers, most of which they already knew as they as most of the group had been there before.  They were starting to bounce on their little seats with the want of getting on the toys to play.

All I can say is it was a great party!  The kids had so much fun, and the parents were unstressed and chatty.  The little kids (siblings of the big kids) were able to play and have fun as well.

About half way into it, we gathered the children for cake and the much awaited opening of the gifts.

We still have to have Brian's little party on Thursday.  He has decided he want's grilled cheese sandwhiches for his birthday dinner (Can you tell he is my kid?).

I deleted the "End of an Error" post

I deleted this post, because the graphic I posted expired and looked horrible.  I also realized that by having that post my last post on here, people were thinking I was going to stop blogging.  Not true.  I just have been really lazy about it lately, work is super hectic, and I'm so burnt out at night, I can barely manage more than fish-sticks for kids for dinner.

So here is the official scoop.  Blog is staying, I hope to get back to it soon, I have a ton of pictures I need to upload.  If you are on Facebook, catch me there. 

Monica