Montana #1
Well, we have been in Montana for almost two weeks and have had so many fun adventures! My sister-in-law lives in the woods and the views all around her house are amazing!!They live right by Flathead Lake which- this is the view from their deck. Awesome!!

There are 14 grandkids so meal time is crazy!! All together there are 23 of us. This is the boys table...

and I accidentally deleted the girls table. Oops!!

This is all the kids loaded up to go and play in the lake the first night we arrived. There is lake access on the property.

Our dogs Duke and Turk think they have died and gone to heaven. They have 5 acres of woods and grass to roam on. They ran down to the lake to play with us.

These next few pics are the kids playing in the cold, cold water. The coldness doesn't bother most of them.

This is Ricky's sister Lisa (she lives here), his sister Amy and his mom. Us ladies like to watch and observe the fun. Although, Amy slipped and fell completely in the lake. It was very, very funny!!

One of the funnest things for the kids is the trampoline. They never get sick of jumping-never! This is about the only time that just Brad and Ash have jumped alone. Bradley is trying to copy Ash and do a front flip. Very funny!

Landon, Paityn and Ellie actually getting along for a few short minutes.

My brother-in-law Bill put in this 20 foot bungi swing before we arrived. The kids love it! It feels like you are flying when you are on it because if glides and goes so high.

This is the view from the front of the house. I never get sick of looking at it and often catch myself just looking at how pretty it is up here.

One of our favorite things to do here is to float the Swan River. It is so much fun, but this year was a little different. First of all it was ice cold. I mean it is the coldest water I have ever been in. Second, it rained and hailed on us as we floated along, but it was such a blast!!

The adults aren't in the pic, but the kids are Burke, Brett, Ellie, Haley, Emily, Braxton, and Lindsey. So much fun!

They're Off!!
My parents finally left for their mission about 3 weeks ago. We had great experiences as a family before they left! They have loved being in New York and are enjoying the pageant and all that goes with it. I am so proud of them and excited for all the great things they are doing.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

I have started a tradition that we do a hike each year on the last day of school. This year we did my favorite hike which is to Stewart Falls. It ended up taking way longer than I thought it would, but it was a beautiful day and the kids did great!!This was our first snack break which was only about 20 minutes into our 4 hour round trip experience-yes I said 4 hours.

There is a water tank towards the beginning of the hike and the kids all thought it was pretty neat.

It has been a lot colder this spring then usual so a lot of the trees hadn't bloomed yet, but the mountains were still so beautiful! I love being up here. It is one of my most favorite places one earth!!

We finally made to the falls after a long journey, and more complaining than I thought was necessary. I was very proud of Bradley. He walked almost all the way in which is 2 miles. Needless to say I carried him all the way back and he fell asleep about half way back and slept all the way home!!

This is a spot where the kids decided to slide down over and over. Ashton was in heaven. What could be better than dirt and rocks?

Apparently my kids are not afraid of heights. While I was at the bottom with Brad these three found there way all the way up the rocks to the upper part of the falls and back down again. They were awesome!

Ashton was not about to be left behind and he also made his way up the big hill and back down. I will admit I held my breath a little as I watched them climb without any help, but they did great, and no one got hurt. So much fun!!

Brad was content to stay with me and throw walks in the water-he is only two. It was a rewarding hike, and it wore us all out, but it was worth it!!

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION
Ellie and Ash had their little graduation this year and it was so cute!! Ellie looked so grown up to me which made me sad, but she did a great job. She sang all the songs and did great!! She can hardly wait for kindergarten in August!Ashton was cracking us up. He looked so cute, and his hat kept falling in his eyes. I don't think he sang one note through all the songs, even though I know he knows the words. He just looked around like he didn't know what was going on. He was quite amusing.

Their teacher is Miss Rebecca and she is fabulous!! She does such a good job and I am sad Ash won't be going back to her school. She made it a great year!

This is Ellie and her friend London. They have been best buddies for last few years and loved going to school together. We will miss London when we both move in the next two weeks!

It was good for Ellie and Ash to go tot he same school. It was fun to see them learn on different levels and see what each of them brought home every day.

ASHTON IS FOUR!!
Ashton finally got to celebrate his birthday. He has been waiting and talking about it for months!! Ash is so special and I love him to bits! Ricky has nick named him a walking can of red bull because he has SO much energy, but I love it! Lately he will just start singing, or I will hear him when he is playing. He will sing primary songs or songs he has learned at preschool and it is so sweet!
Ricky surprised Ash and Brad with this on the morning of Ashton's birthday. It was a joyous moment.

He drives it as much as he possibly can. Given his energy level, it is a little scary to have him driving a motorized vehicle but he does pretty good-most of the time!

He loved opening his presents and kept asking if there were more. He also got to go with grandma and grandpa to build a bear with Bradley but I forgot the picture of it.

Ash got his first birthday party this year and you would think it was Christmas he was so excited!! This was our activity with his friends. We played with our big parachute and beach balls. It was fun, but the kids got bored quicker than I thought, but thank goodness for treats!!

All in all Ash had such a good day! His friends were so cute and we had a fun party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADLEY!!
Brad turned 2 in May and he had a great day!! It is hard to believe that my baby is two, but he is such a sweetheart! He is a little light in our family and always makes me smile. One of my favorite things he does lately is hop around the house trying to say "hup to, hup to" like a soldier. It is so cute!!
Aunt Amy gave him this big Elmo cupcake and as you can see he loved it!!!

Brad got to play remote control cars with daddy which he loved!

Nana sent him these fun nemo toys which you can see he was excited about!!

This was perhaps his favorite thing. Bradley got to go with grandma and grandpa to Build a Bear and this is what he made. He carried it around all day and he sleeps with it every night!!

TOOTHLESS???
Well Ash had a bit of an accident on Friday. He fell and broke off the whole bottom half of his tooth up into the nerve. We took him to the dentist who unfortunately pulled the tooth. Ash did so awesome. He didn't cry once at the dentist and was so brave. I was so proud of him!!This is his new smile. I guess he will be toothless for the next two years or more. What do you do? When you have four boys a knocked out tooth here and there is bound to happen.

He is still as cute as ever and full of energy!

March Milestones
March is one of my favorite months. My birthday is this month. My sister Rebecca and I have the same birthday only she is one year older. This was our dessert night to celebrate our birthday's! It was a great birthday this year!Even more exciting this year was that Ricky and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary the day after my birthday. I don't have any wedding pictures on my computer so this one will have to do. It has been a great 10 years and I can honestly say that I love Ricky more than ever and look forward to the next 50 years!

TWO RANDOM PICS
These are just two random pictures I took during the month. This was Bradley enjoying the leftovers from my birthday treat. What could be better than a beater covered with chocolate frosting??I took this of Ellie a few Sunday's ago. This is the first time we have curled her hair since she cut it. It turned out better than I expected and she couldn't stop spinning in her dress!

Jump on It!
At the begining of March we had a big family home evening activity with all of my family at a place caled Jump on It. It is a huge place with wall to wall trampoline's. We have been there once before and we had a blast!! If you have never been you should totally go. We had so much fun bouncing and chasing and competing against each other.

They have an area for the smaller kids so they don't get clobbered by the bigger kids. Ashton had a ball jumping off this platform.

Brad really like it over there because he could play without too much bounce.

They also have a few bounce slides which everyone took full advantage of. This is Burke and Savanna embarking on a joint bounce.

Lily and Ellie went over and over again.

This is Braxton. There is no limit to the tricks you can do here.

Ellie learned all kinds of new things. I think she mastered a front flip which she was ecstatic about!

I have to say the funnest part of the night was watching my dad and the son's in law try to jump from tramp to tramp with only one bounce, and then jump on the wall at the end and turn around and come back. My poor dad was quite at a disadvantage given the age difference. I laughed and laughed watching my dad. He fell so many times and I thought for sure I would pee my pants from laughing so hard!

We had so much fun as a family! I love family home evening! It is an inspired program and truly unifies families.