a weekend of celebrations!

we had an incredibly busy but wonderful weekend! happy belated birthday to molly-i am the worst at getting cards off on time, but you were thought about alot on saturday! on saturday morning we woke up early and headed down to the ranch. my dad invited us, my mom, nichole came in from chicago, grandma, chris payne's family, and all of sam's friends to come down to the ranch for a day of sam! sam's birthday was saturday also (he and molly share the day). sam would have been 24 this year. although a bit chilly (like 49 degrees) we bundled up and basked in the sun-it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day!

this is a picture of the party deck on the lake and we kept a fire going in the fire pit all day.

we all gathered at connie and skips house in the morning and my kids dyed easter eggs for connie, we then headed up to the lake where my dad and natalie(his wife) prepared salmon, bison burgers and bison brats for lunch. while we ate we shared funny stories of sam that brought smiles to all of our faces. my mom and i put together a collage of all of his past birthdays throughout the years and everyone enjoyed looking at the pictures and sharing memories.bradley is standing at the door to your dreams-you walk through and make a wish....

after lunch we met back at the bison offices and watched a video of the history of the ranch and bison business and then grandpa skip took us all on a tour around the ranch and into the bison fields where they came right up to us...my kids said it was much better than grant's farm!after the tour we all gathered back at the lake, a few of sam's friends went and conquered the jeep and hummer course successfully (without getting stuck) and others rode dirt bikes around the lake. we girls chose to sit around and eat and chat and play with puppies.

stacy and casey

as they were preparing dinner-bison steaks and chicken-my dad and chris built a huge bonfire (it was at least 15 ft tall)in honor of sam. after dinner, and when it was dark, my dad had my mom light the fire, it burned for a while and when it finally fell we all made wishes on the embers that were "flying up to sam" as my dad so kindly said.

the bonfire

Happy Birthday Sam/Uncle Sammy! We love and miss you bunches!

hooray!

this weekend we celebrated the final games of indoor soccer with the playoffs! tristans ended last week, but bradley and lainie had their last games on saturday! in the past they have been on the winningest teams and this year they were not and i thinking it has been a good lesson for both of them in good sportmanship and being humble. they both played really well and both were goalies in their games!

we also celebrated my niece alayna's first birthday with matt and jamie

and chris's family. i can't believe she's already one!

Does it get much cuter?

Snow Day!

i'm pretty sure that this is our third snow day. we are enjoying today though...the snow is so pretty and peaceful! this is what it looked like at about 10:00 this morning.

lainie came outside with me to take coco out and snap a few

shots of the snow falling.

now, a few hours later, there are at least about 6 inches of snow on the ground here at our house and the snow is still falling. chris is 30 minutes away at work and says they have maybe an inch.

notice the snow on the bench and bushes now!

meet the newest member of our family!

lainie is now the proud owner of a chameleon hamster! her name is chloe and although i am not a fan of furry little creatures (or really pets in general) chloe has made me like her. lainie's betta fish died about 2 months ago and lainie decided that she definitely needed another pet, so she chose a hamster. after telling her the story of nichole and sam's hamsters-and how rambo ate amie-she was still set on getting a hamster. she saved her birthday money and bought chloe and all of her belongings. except for chloe running in her wheel all night long (the metal wheels are very loud and squeeky) she has been a joyful addition to our family.

coco and chloe meet!