Girls Night Out

Last night I was able to go out with a bunch of friends. We went to Applebees for dinner and then bowling. Ten of us ended up going and it was soooooo fun! All the restaurants in town are a joke. They can't find anybody to work so they are always shorthanded and it takes FOREVER! Our waitress was really struggling. My friend Amanda ordered some chili and a dessert but her chili never came. Then they tried to charge her for the chili and a drink and TWO desserts. She had only ordered water to drink. She had to expalin it several times and the waitress finally got it. Then our friend Keisha FINALLY got her dessert which was a hot fudge cake with ice cream...but the cake was FROZEN. REALLY FROZEN. We had a lot of fun laughing about the whole situation and even more fun laughing at Amanda who has the best laugh EVER...snorting and all! :)
Ivan was amazing again and stayed home with the kids and also watched Tiffany's 4 kids becuase her husband was at work. He is the man!
We had so much fun bowling. I'm not sure I have ever bowled more poorly...but it was great. The second game we played we decided to mix things up and have different rules for each frame. We had to bowl granny style, backwards, spin and bowl, bowl on your belly, bowl while holding someones hand and bowl through the tunnel. It was hilarious. Our friend Elizabeth is 37 weeks pregnant and she is the bowling queen! She made us all look bad. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go out last night but am so glad that I did. We have such a fun group of friends here. Give us lots of sugar and keep us out late and it gets pretty crazy! Here's the proof...
It's good to celebrate the little things...and a little bum pinching never hurt anyone. :)



The tunnels..



These ladies really are crazy...and I like it!




Keisha likes to be the center of attention...lol


Belly Bowling...Mandy was super excited when she got a strike!

Miss Shawna

Definitely need to do this again...and again...and again...

COOKIES!

There is not too much to do in Williston because it has been so cold! Most of the time we get together with friends at McDonalds and have lunch and let the kids play on the big indoor playground. Last week my friend Tiffany just brought her 4 kids to our house to hang out. I had bought a cookie kit from a little girl in our ward for a band fundraiser. The sugar cookie dough was in 4 tubs and were different colors...like play dough. We had lots of fun making different things out of the dough and were amazed at how big they got when they baked! The kids (and big kids) played with the cookie dough for a long time and then played with toys while we waited for them to bake. It was way fun! The girls were out of school that day and it was fun to have them come over too. Emma has so much fun playing with these kids. Here are the few pics I took....we were too distracted by the cookies to take too many pictures. :)

Here's Emma...don't know why her eyes are closed.

Cute little Bridger

McKylie showin' off her cookie...

Ready to go in the oven!

New Years Day

We got up early New Years Day and drove 2 hours to Woodruff, Utah where Ivan's brother, Dusty, works on the LDS church ranch. Melissa and Klade and their kids met up with us there. We had the whole family together except for Dave and Kate. Dusty said that they had been feeding elk on the ranch and thought we would like to see. I am a little slow sometimes and thought we would see a few elk in his backyard. I was pretty excited when we pulled into the ranch and saw this...

After everyone got there we put on snow clothes and headed out.



Dusty had a big tractor with a really big trailer on the back. We went and waited while he loaded some hay onto the trailer leaving a path down the middle for us to walk down. We all parked our cars and jumped on the trailer. Ivan had bronchitis and little Levi had a bad cough so they rode in the cab with Uncle Russ. The rest of us braved the 4 degree weather. I truly did not think it felt that cold. I must be climatized or something. We didn't have to drive far before we saw this...






It was AMAZING! It was a beautiful day and I think we all had a good time. Here are a few pics I took of the group on the trailer and a picture of the tractor of course!


Emma was really bundled up for the trip and got a little to cozy and fell right asleep. Grandma did a good job holding her so she wouldn't fall off the trailer! We loader her in the car and she was still VERY asleep. Funny girl.

When we finished we headed back to Dusty and Brandee's house and had some fabulous soup and salad and cinnamon rolls for dessert. We were so glad to get to see lots of the family while we were there. This is something we will always remember. The kids always have so much fun together too!







We also saw a few bald eagles. I love red barns in the snow so I thought I'd take of picture of them too.



That afternoon we drove back to Corinne to stay the night and got up early the next morning to head home to North Dakota.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve we drove up to Corinne. Russ and Janelle and the boys stayed there that night also. Emma was excited to go and open her present from Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Butch. She REALLY wanted a pillow pet and we knew that Grandma had bought her one. She kept talking about it on Christmas and knew that Grandma Cocoa had bought the other kids pillow pets. I finally had to tell her that we had more presents to open in Corinne and she just might get a pillow pet. She was so excited that Grandma Marjie got her just the one she wanted! Now that she has her pillow pet she has seen commercials for the new happy nappers and is sure that is what she needs for her birthday! haha Levi was pretty happy about his penguin pillow pet too! On our drive home Emma let me borrow her pillow pet and I must say I love pillow pets! Ivan enjoyed the pillow pet during his nap in the car as well!





Ivan and I ran to the store to get some munchies and some cereal for the next morning since we had to leave EARLY in the morning to head up to Dusty's house. While we were in Brigham City we went to see my friend Jewel that I worked at the flower shop with. I sure miss that lady! She used to babysit Emma for me on her days off and has a granddaughter that is a year younger than Emma that she watched too. Emma loves Reagan! She talks about her all the time and was so excited when I told her we were going to see her. When we got there they hugged and then held hands as they walked downstairs to go play. We even got to see a puppet show! They are so cute! When we had to leave they just said see ya later aligator to eachother.

Next we headed back to Butch and Marjie's and hung out there all night. It was a pretty happenin' party! haha I think Marjie fell asleep the second she sat down! Emma was just happy to see Daniel and Dalton. It was a nice relaxed new years eve...and I even got a kiss at midnight! :)

Ready to go...

The biggest challenge we faced on vacation was packing everything to come home! My car was completely packed when I drove to Utah and on the way home I had Ivan and his luggage plus lots of christmas presents. Emma got a dress up trunk and Levi got a big giraffe toy and my guitar took up lots of space. Maybe I need a bigger vehicle or less stuff? haha My dad went and bought a tarp and duct tape and the boys went to work. We ended up packing a whole lot of clothes in a suitcase and a big bag and wrapped them together and strapped them to the top of the car. It worked out great!