Pumpkin Carving Time

Ok, I LOVE halloween time. Every year we have such a good time carving pumpkins and this year was no different. Here are the final results!

From left to right, dad's, moms, Dylan's, Colton's and Logan's

Dad's grim reaper pumpkin. He usually makes up his own pattern, but went with one from the book this year.I like doing famous people pumpkins, so here is my Bill Cosby.
Dylan's very scary skull and cross bones. He did this completely on his own this year....good job Dyl!
Colton's witch pumpkin. Mom helped a little but not much....scary Colty!

Logan made this funny face pumpkin with some help from Dad. He really liked cleaning out the pumpkin the best though....and then filling it back up....and cleaning it out again!

Hope you all have a very happy and scary Halloween!!!

Stay tuned for costume party pictures this weekend!

4 Day Weekend

The boys had Thursday and Friday off from school, so we had a busy, fun weekend. The temperatures all week has been close to 60 so most of the snow was melted. We still had enough to go sledding on Thursday though. We found a new sledding hill on the ranch and had a blast. Half way down the hill there is a little ditch that added some extra air. It was fun but I realized that it is getting harder to get up after I crash than it used to be!

On Friday we went to the NILE which is a livestock show that lasts all week. Brian's brother, Jeremy was in a horse trainers challenge and did really well. Then we entered Colton in the stick horse rodeo and he won a trophy for "bull riding". Dylan was a little bummed because he was too old to do it this year, and Logan was too young and he wanted to take a turn too. We finished off the night going to the real rodeo with Holly, Travis, and my parents.

On Saturday we saddled up the horses and went riding. You can see that all the snow is already melted only a week after we had 3 feet! The boys are all getting to be such good riders. We only had one little mishap....Colton got shook off of Peaches. I'm so proud of him though because he shook it off and got right back on. Logan has been watching big brothers ride and thinks he should be able to do it himself now too. He was so cute telling the horse "whoa boy" or hollering at the cows. Anyways, we had a great weekend and just thought I'd share some pictures from it.

Dylan and Colton sledding.

Daddy getting loves from Logan on the top of the hill.
Daddy and Logan ready to shoot down the hill.
Mommy and her boys getting ready for a race to the bottom.
Colton in the stick horse rodeo parade.
Mommy and Logan getting ready to watch Colton in action.
Ride em Colton!
Good job buddy!!
Mommy and Logan on Scout.
Dylan on Chance. Colton on Peaches.

More Snow

Ok, so we measured 36" today around noon. And that is after it has settled quite a lot. Our church was canceled today ( that is the first snow day I have ever taken for church!) We got the boys all bundled up and went out this afternoon. At first they weren't sure what to do because they couldn't get off the path that dad had plowed. But we finally got them to start trekking through the snow out into the yard. We uncovered the slide and had a good time sliding into a pool of snow. Then dad and Colton started making a fort and we had a massive snowball fight until we were all soaked. As much as a pain as this has been to try and travel in, feed cows, and just get around, the snow is awesome and we had a great afternoon. It even stopped snowing while we were out there!

My poor picnic table buried under 36" of snow.

The boys in the driveway.

Dad and Colton peeking out of the fort.
dad and Colton attacking Dylan.
Dylan defending himself from dad and Colton. Logan hanging out above the action on the slide. Since the snow came to the top of his head, he had some trouble trying to get through it!

Going Away Party and ............yes MORE SNOW

Brian's brother Jeremy and his wife (who is also my cousin) Darlene just got a new job and will be moving to Big Timber for the winter months and Big Sky in the summer to manage an outfitting ranch. We are so excited and happy for them and their two wonderful boys, Brayden and Chase. But of course, we are going to miss them like crazy. We decided to have a surprise going away party for them last night and we had a great time. A lot of their friends and family braved the snowy roads to join us. We wish them so much luck and know that they are going to great!

Jeremy, Darlene, Brayden and Chase coming into the church.

After we cleaned up the church and were ready to leave, my sons and my nephews decided to wrestle with me and I'm sure that I lost, but I had fun trying!!

Logan, Brayden, Dylan, Colton, Chase and Justin counting to 100 before I tried to chase them

Yes, that is me under the pile of kids while my grandma helpfully stands by laughing!

We had an auction this morning in Columbus and the roads were not good at all, but thankfully we had no troubles. I measured the snow at 7:00 this morning and there was 18 inches. I just measured again at 4:00 this afternoon and there is 24". .......and it is still snowing hard. Our picnic table is now just a huge lump on our deck.

The snow this morning measuring 18"

Brian measuring the snow at 24" this afternoon.

Even big kids still love the snow. Brian took a flying leap off of our deck and came up looking something like a snowman. The boys are excited to try it too.

OH YEAH...........THIS IS OCTOBER IN MONTANA!!

Well, it has been a while since we have had real Montana weather like we had when I was a kid. This week we had been warned of a winter storm watch, so yesterday I was scrambling to get everything outside winter-ready. (and about froze in the process) We finished at 4:00 and about 10 minutes later it started snowing and hasn't stopped yet. It isn't supposed to until Monday either. We were just getting some of those beautiful fall colors and now tree branches are snapping off! We just measured and have 12 inches so far, and they tell us to expect 2-3 feet by Monday........YIKES!! Anyways, I just wanted to share this pictures with those of you who live in those lovely warm climates! I do love the snow though, we are going sledding tomorrow and the boys couldn't be more excited.

our picnic table buried -measured 12 inches at 2:30

our backyard
our backyard

New Auction Helper

We have had a LOT of auctions in the past month and I had still been carrying Logan in the backpack or stroller for them. But last Saturday we had a small farm sale and he was able to get on the trailer to help dad, grandpa and his brothers. Before the auction even started he was holding things up like the big boys do. He was a good little helper, even trying to sell empty boxes. It was really cute.

Here is Logan holding up some wrenches before the sale even started.

Here is just a quick video of him holding up a stool while Grandpa Rick is selling.