Baby Demo Week

Over the holidays our friends Rob, Kristie & Delaney came back into town from Boise. Little baby "Demo" celebrated her first birthday at the carousel downtown & then on to Rocky Roccoco's for pizza. Then we had her baptism the next weekend at Assumption Parish. I was asked to be her godmother & feel so lucky. The kids had fun with all the celebrating & we even got Delaney out on her first snowmobile/sled ride in between the festivities.

Riding with Sami & Addi Zandt

Uncle Robbie & Delaney

The birthday girl

She liked it

The Christoff/Byrd families

Sweet girl in her family heirloom baptismal gown

parents & godparents

getting baptized

Jack Hudson Byrd

Introducing Jack Hudson Byrd. He is the second child of my cousin in laws Matt & Stefanie. We finally got over there to see his sweet little face. I think he looks a lot like his big sister Ruby....time will tell. Mom & baby are doing great. Makes me sad we don't live in Spokane any more. Oh well, it will just make us get together when we are in town. Congratulations on handsome, little Jack Hudson & welcome to the Byrd family.

Do you really need your achilles?

Stephan had his achilles repaired yesterday. You may think he recently injured himself. In reality the injury occured when he participated in a "turkey bowl" football game on Thanksgiving with his brothers & cousins. Stephan thought he had strained his lower calf muscle & could rehab it himself. So up until yesterday he has been hobbling around, skiing (twice), and snowmobiling for 6 weeks without his achilles tendon being attached.

Finally he saw a wonderful orthopedic surgeon here in Spokane this past Wednesday. He came in on his day off to repair this injury which is way overdue. He found his tendon had snapped back up under the back of his knee and left a 4-5" gap with nothing there. Hmmmmmm....is all I have to say about that.

My husband is now downstairs "laid up" & the pain is really kicking in. He has some good pain meds to help him along though. Keep him in your thoughts.

New Year 2009 at Priest Lake

We rang in 2009 at our cabin with my parents & our great friends the Todd's. They have twin 5 year olds (Meghan & Bridget) and Emily Jean who is almost 4. We originally had big plans to be back in Montana celebrating with them over there. Plans changed though & it took some convincing to get them up to Priest. We prevailed & got them to stay for 3 days. Stephan & Tim did some late night snowmobiling. They headed back to the cabin after Tim accidentally found himself snowmobiling over water instead of snow. Candi & I went for a ride & saw a moose being rescued from the lake before I ran out of gas in my sled. Everyone enjoyed: all the snow, sledding behind the 4 wheelers, going for snowmobile rides, shoveling snow, laughing, movies, a cozy cabin & lots of food. The weekend brought lots of laughs & great memories with great friends.

Bathing beauties at the lake.

Nighttime snowmobiling with daddy.

All the kids playing in the snow.

The mommies & our kiddos.

The girls getting a tow from the 4 wheeler.

Bridget, Hudson & Meghan sledding behind the 4 wheeler.

The cabin & all the snow

Hudson & Emily

We also caught up with our friends the Pool's. Dad, Stephan, Matt, and a couple other guys went for a great snowmobile ride up to Sundance on Friday. Then we met up with them later that night at Millie's & then on to Hill's.

Deanna, Shannon & I at Hill's Resort

Matt & Stephan "ping ponging" at Hill's

Happy 2009 to everyone & your families. Let this be a year of change & success in new ventures.

Christmas

We had our first Christmas with Hudson. From all accounts he loved it. We had a busy couple of days celebrating Jesus's birthday. We went to my cousins on Christmas eve for a couple hours. We finally got to meet the newest edition to the McCray family.....sweet baby Lilly. Then we were off to my in laws house for an evening with the Byrd family. Santa comes to their house every year & Hudson was very excited. Ravenna stuck like glue to her aunty Angela & Tiffany. We got back to my parents house (our parents only live about a mile apart...we are very lucky) close to midnight. We put the kids down & then we did what all parents do the night before Christmas. Hudson was the first to wake up, thankfully grandpa was already up. He said Hudson just looked at everything for about 10 minutes & then became mesmerized by Santa's 1/2 eaten cookie & orange peel he left. We all finally rolled out of bed & watched with complete enjoyment as my children took in the wonder of Christmas morning. I have a feeling it will be one of their fondest memories from childhood just as it was for me. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with friends & family.

Pre-Christmas Fun

Nana in Montana

Nana (Stephan's mom) came to visit for a couple days. She took the train over from Spokane to visit her mom who lives in Bigfork. Irene went with us to the Conrad Mansion for santa pictures & a tour. Ravenna was not a fan of the big guy in the red suit. Year 2 where she won't look happy in her Santa picture. Hudson had no problem at all. We all ended up taking the train back to Spokane together. We had planned to drive back on Friday for the Christmas holiday & the weather changed our minds. The kids were thrilled to ride the train & I was thrilled to not have to drive over the snowy mountain passes.

Santa pictures at the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell, MT.

Nana loves this Kirtland Cutter mansion.

Hudson & Ravenna with Nana.

Doing the last of our Christmas shopping in downtown Whitefish by sled. Fun!

Cold & snowy day!

The dining car.

Almost "nigh night" time on the train.

The sun was just coming up & we were following the Kootenai River. It was such beautiful scenery with all the snow. A great memory for our kids to take their first train ride with their nana.