Rusty's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Russ!  As usual his birthday wish consisted of really good food.  I did my best with a full on turkey dinner and three pies for dessert.  A highlight of the night was watching him and Ridge open the present Ridge got for him.  He picked it out himself at the thrift store.  It was a toy firetruck. Shocker, I know.  He quickly grabbed it for Rusty to open first.  He helped him open it, and then jumped off his lap and played with it for the rest of the night.  Just the fact that he allowed it to be wrapped and controlled himself from opening it before the party is evidence that he is growing up.  Mike and Holly and the girls came over and gave Russ a snow shovel.  He had been having some snow shovel envy since Holly had purchased one for them a few weeks earlier.  He was pretty excited about that.  Kyleigh made him a duck tape pillow.  Duck tape is her new favorite art supply.  Katelyn picked out a pair of work pants from the thrift store and was excited to give those to him.  I gave Russ the gift of a new talent.  A NEW UNICYCLE!  I think he should learn to ride it and then do so while juggling his pins I got him for Christmas a few years ago.  There isn't anything wrong having the circus as a backup plan, right?

Random Camel

Randomly, a camel and it's wiseman-like dressed handler showed up at the nursing home across from our church just as we were finishing the 3 hour block.  We went over to say hi.  I guess to be fair, it wasn't totally random, it was Christmas time.

Backtrack-Western Idaho State Fair

Who doesn't love the fair?  This year we visited the petting zoo, saw an old tractor exhibit, visited the 4-H building, saw a shark show, petted some wild animals, had a guy make a rope for us, took a picture with tow mater, and best of all, we milked a cow.  We gave the girls the choice of riding one ride or buying a hair bow.  Kyleigh chose the bow and Katelyn rode the swings all by herself.

Long live the Fair!

Snow Sno-Cones

My friend brought over some sno-cone syrup the day of our first big snow.  How Fun!

Playing Build-a-Bear

For awhile the girls collected a lot of build-a-bear clothes.  They haven't played in quite awhile but I found the three of them playing away on a Saturday morning.  One vote for keeping toys around for awhile.

The Crutches

One of Holly's nieces had crutches awhile ago.  She let Kyleigh play with them and Kyleigh loved it.  One day, about a month ago, Kyleigh found a cork on the road.  For whatever reason it reminded her of the crutches.  She drew up a set of plans and proposed the idea to Rusty that he build her some crutches.  The cork was to be used for the bottom of one of the crutches and we were going to try to find another one for the bottom of the second crutch.  We dismissed the idea with a "maybe we can look at the thrift store."  The very next day we found ourselves at the thrift store and Kyleigh reminded me of our plan.  We asked someone if they had any and they did.  It just so happened it was the right color of ticket so it was half off.  I paid $2.50 for these silly crutches and they have gotten more use than any other toy in our house.  Everyone loves them.  The neighbor kids think we are the coolest ever.  Maybe we are :)

Christmas on the Greenbelt

We spent a few hours on the greenbelt Christmas afternoon trying out the new toys.  The girls started catching on to the roller blades really quickly.  The ripstick is coming along a little bit slower.  However, that could be because Rusty kind of hogged it.  It was freezing cold, but with three blankets, Ridge fell asleep, and we had a great time.