Pine Basin 2011

We recently took our annual trip to the Pine Basin Lodge. As usual, we had a lot of fun!! This was Hank's first time going outside in the snow. I think he loved being outside, but not all of the layers he had on.

My brother borrowed a huge tractor tube with a tarp made especially for it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it. When it wasn't being used on the sledding hill, we hooked it up behind the snowmobile. Here is a picture of me, my cousin Mandy and my sister Deena before we all went on our wild ride. It was so much fun!!

Here is my other cousin Alisha, after her wild ride. She ended up falling off and getting a face full of snow. Our driver wasn't paying attention and made us plow over a bush. It was hilarious!!

My sisters and sister in law hanging out in the kitchen. Everyone always brings way to many snacks and we end up in the kitchen a lot. :)

Grandma Packer always brings crafts for the kids to color and decorate.

We also play a lot of different board games. This is a picture of a mean game of "Mexican Train". Everyone accused Sean of cheating. Hello, he is half Mexican. :) We also played "Boxers or Briefs" and I just have to brag a little, because I won all 3 games.

All of the adults, split into two teams and we played "Minute to Win It". My cousin Mandy put a lot of hard work into it and it was a lot of fun. Sean and I got to compete against each other. We had to start with the cookie on our forehead and work it into our mouths, without using our hands. Sean did beat me, but I still got it in under a minute.

My Uncle and my Sister had to bounce 18 kisses out of this box by shaking their bodies. She won.

This game was called "Hankie Pankie". They had to take all of the tissues (120 count) out of the box, one at a time, using only one hand. My moms box ended up falling on the floor and she lost.

My nieces, Paige and Brandee, had to guess which boxes had 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 kisses and put them in order.

This cute little baby was staring at me from across the room and I had to take a picture. :)

I thought this was one of the harder ones. They had to balance the yard stick on top of the tube and then hang 5 ornaments on each side.

Another hard one. Stacking bolts on top of a plate, while you balance it in your hands.

Stacking cups.

The kids played a crazy game of "Hot Potato". Dewey seemed to always be the first one out.

More sledding.

Dewey laid on his back and went down the hill in this tube. We were laughing because he was so slow. At least he was having fun.

Hallie wouldn't go down from the top. She would walk half way up and then go down. I guess my kids are too much like their mom and are a little to cautious.

Not long before we were ready to leave, I noticed Sean walking in and this is what he looked like. He was riding his snowmobile up high in the trees and forgot he didn't have his helmet on. Poor guy scraped his face up on a tree branch. Although I was a little worried, it was also kinda funny. :) Did I mention how much he loves this picture?

Once again, we had a great time and we are looking forward to next year.

Sledding Fun

Last week, we decided to take advantage of some of the new snow and pull the kids around behind the 4-wheeler out at my parents house. Sean and the kids started out, while I hung out with Hank inside. I think the temperature that day was a whole 10 degrees.
After Hank layed down for a nap, I decided that I needed to join them. I love being pulled around on a sled. That has to be some of my most favorite childhood memories.

We ended up picking up some cousins on the way to the school.

We found a lot of drifts and bumps to go over to make it a little more fun. The kids had a blast and they didn't want to go back home.

I am already hoping for more snow days so we can do this again!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve this year was spent out at my parents house. We didn't do much, just sat around and ate some Chinese food. Hallie and Dewey were excited to come home and open their very first present. Which of course is always pajamas and a new ornament.

I didn't quite plan it, but all of their pajama's had monkey's on them.

Hankie's first Christmas. We LOVE this chubby little baby!!

Christmas morning gets funner every year. It's always fun to watch the excitement on your children's faces.

Dewey opened most of Hank's presents for him this year. Like every other baby, Hank was loving all of the wrapping paper.

After opening all of our presents at home, we stopped by Grandpa and Grandma McBride's. They gave us two big family gifts. We were VERY spoiled!!

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Packer's. Dewey finally got the Pillow Pet he was asking for. I think almost every child in the world got a Pillow Pet for Christmas. Hallie got a pig and Dewey a dog.

We also stopped by Great Grandma Diaz's. Grandpa and Grandma Diaz were in Montana for Christmas, but they more than made up for it when they got back. Have I mentioned how SPOILED my children are!? Now if I just had a bigger house, to fit all of these Christmas presents in!! :)

December

This picture is actually not in December, it is the very end of November when we first got all of our snow. I opened up the front door and snapped these two pictures.

Hank is now sitting in the bath chair and loving his bath's even more.

Hallie had a Christmas program at the first of December. Here she is waiting with her class for their turn to sing. Her school has 5 grades and they all get up and sing a couple of songs.

Hallie is on the back row wearing a pink shirt. Sean and I were laughing, because the girl to the right of Hallie was very dramatic in her actions. She came very close to hitting Hallie in the face a few times.

My kids are always asking me to take their pictures. These are just a few of them hanging out around the house.

One day, after dropping Hallie off at school, I get a phone call saying that she might need me to bring her some Tylenol. I went back to the school and Hallie is sitting on a bench holding her finger by the office. She saw me walk in and just started bawling. When she walked into school that morning, she had smashed her right ring finger between the heavy metal door and the brick on the building. I took her home and she wouldn't let me take the band aid off to even look at it. After I put some make up on(I know, I am a mean mom) I took her to Urgent Care. I didn't really have anywhere to take the boys, so they went with us. Sean did tell me he would come home if he needed too, but I said it shouldn't be a big deal. They took the bandage off and cleaned it up. She had hit her finger so hard that the fat was bulging out. They took an x-ray and decided that she had a hair line fracture. After the x-ray, we went back to another room to get her finger stitched up. Her finger was really hard to numb up and Hallie really started to cry. Hank was asleep, so I was holding him and next thing I know, Dewey is hiding behind my chair just bawling. He was so scared and sad for his sister. It was so sad that I was starting to tear up. After 3 stitches and a lot of bawling, we finally got to go home. It was quite the day!! These are some pictures that I took after the stitches were taken out and it still looked pretty gross.

Two weeks after, Hallie fell on the ice and re-opened her wound. We took her back in to the Dr., but everything was fine. We are now waiting for that lovely purple finger nail to fall off. :)

Hank got a new toy box and Hallie decided to pull him around in it. He thought that was pretty fun.

We had the annual McBride family Christmas party. This is a chair that Jenn's family gave Grandpa. The kids were loving it.

Santa visited and gave all of the Grand kids a gift. Hank's first time on Santa's lap went pretty well.

This might be the first year that Dewey has sat on Santa's lap for a while. He told Santa that he wanted a Pillow Pet.

Here is Dewey and some of his favorite cousins, Aiden and Sayer. They are all the same age and have a lot of fun together.

I tried getting a decent picture of the babies and this is the best I could do. Sari is the oldest, then Hank and then Brianna. We broke the mold this year and had a boy instead of a girl.

Sari was playing with this Coke bottle and Hank kept trying to get it from her.

I thought this was such a funny picture. We kept trying to get Brianna to sit up for a picture and all she wanted to do was suck on her toes.

More pictures of the HUGE chair.

We also had a Packer family party, but I forgot my camera. As usual, December went by way too fast!!