Justice Bday

Justice had a busy, fun birthday!

We started out with a requested breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. And of course opening a present or two.

For lunch, Mom brought Subway sandwiches and joined him at school.

His class sang to him and he gave out mini-Hershey bars for a treat. Then for a extra special bonus- Mom took him home for the day! Lucky boy!

After everyone got home, it was present time!!!! He was a satisfied boy with money [he is saving for an iPad mini], a Pokemon DVD and a 7 foot fishing pole with some lures. (Is that what they are called?)

His Birthday dinner was ribs, real potatoes, steamed & buttered broccoli and deviled eggs! Yum!

For dessert he asked for what our family calls Brookies. It's brownies and cookies together. I made them into cupcakes (with football wrappers) this time instead of bars. I set them up in a football shape. Oh yah... I am fancy when it comes to cakes! LOL

Happy Birthday Buddy! we sure love you! XOXO

When I was Ten...

Memories when Justice was TEN-
* Loves Football
* Loves Riding his bike especially to Sandy's Donuts
* Favorite colors are red, white and blue. He is his Father's son!
* Enjoys Scouts
* Best Friend- Joshua Stephens
* Loves celebrating Kid Day or anything where he gets money! ;)
* Tubing at the Cooks Cabin
* Student of the Month both school years
* Moved to Montana
* Loves Science Experiments- Egg stand, Bending Water, rock identifying and growing ChiaPets
* Learned to Ski
* Played Basketball- Dad was coach
* Dressing up in Mom's boobs especially to earn money for our new trampoline
* Learned to play the trumpet
* Loves to be reckless and crazy- typical boy!
* Loves to snuggle and get back tickles
* Quite the actor- Dad has had him do several spoof videos. Our favorite is Special Agent Ewing from Pysch
* Lost molars
* Loves to pretend Pokemon and Ninjas with Sisters
* Very servicable
* Went shooting with visiting Family
* Went on a boat ride to see the Gates of the Mountains
* Learned to do Chariot Races in Scouts
* Started baby-sitting younger sisters on occasion
* Won a trophy at the Pinewood Derby

Justice-
You are one neat kid! We are so proud of how smart you are! You are good-natured and want to make life fun! You take care of your family and always try to do what's right. You are more and more like your dad all the time. You look for opportunities to serve others. You are a deep thinker and have some pretty amazing ideas. We are really grateful that you are in our family. Luv ya, Buddy!   XOXO

Ironic Spelling Test

All of my kids are pretty awesome SPELLers!
I actually am embarrassed to admit that I am pretty much a slacker mother when it comes to having them practice for their spelling tests. But somehow they always get them right anyways. What can I say... they are just naturally brilliant! LOL
We ALSO love to find the HUMOR in life. This one was just too hilarious to not share.

This grade on Victoria's Spelling test is a common sight. She got 100% and all of the bonus words correct! Way to go, Sis!
....Now, I just have to teach her how to spell her name! LOL

We seriously still laugh over this IRONIC Spelling Test! So cute!

Egg Fights 2014

One of our favorite Easter Traditions is our annual Egg Fights. It is so funny!

Here's a few closeups of my favorite reactions to the Egg Fight Extravaganza. Some are blurry cuz it's hard to capture funny moments.:

Ok. This one is too funny to not include. This is her SAD face!

Brett's Easter Egg Hunt

Brett always does an Egg Hunt for the kids on Sunday after Church. The night before he hides eggs and treats ALL over the family room. Then he makes the kid pretend NOT to see them until the Hunt begins. Everyone finds things quickly and puts them in a big bowl that we share until it's gone (or we throw up- LOL). He is ONE fun Dad!

Dyeing our Fingers

I could just post this picture and it would probably be a pretty accurate description of this afternoon events.

BUT....
Then what would I do with the other 37 pictures I took. LOL
So here's all the colorful details-

Somehow we miscommunicated and Brett made up ALL the dyes packets we had. He claims that he asked me and I said, "What else are we going to do with them?" Okie Dokie then. There was definitely LOTS of choices at our table this year. LOL

We had a great time decorating our eggs. Don't ask me how we are going to eat with all of them BUT letting everyone have several to decorate is more important! ;)

Here's all our EGG-rific creations:

{Explanation on the pic of Liberty in the collage- and she will deny it ALL if you ask her. LOL Lately she is a little drama queen. So when she starts acting like that I get my camera and start taking pictures of her fits. It's pretty funny! One of her other fits is documented on the collage at our Easter Hunt}

1st Montana Annual Easter Hunt

Due to sickness last year, we were unable to do our annual Easter Hunt. Then, this year being in a tiny apartment, we thought we would have to skip one more year. {Insert sad face here.} BUT- Brett decided that we would do one no matter what. And better yet, we decided to throw our Easter shin-dig out at our new place. Wahoo!

Liberty and I went out a little early to do some hiding. With having so much land, it felt like we hardly hid anything. Mostly because everything was so spread out and partly because I didn't collect anything after Easter last year on clearance and so the number of things to hide was lower than in years past. [Slacker-me!] Even with no house on the property, we found lots of places to hide our treasures. So fun!

This year, we kept our guests to our Work Family. We invited the Andersons who brought their step-dad, Scott. The Paynes had family come visit so we got double-Payne-d. It was awesome! When everyone got there, we gave each kid a crayon and their "list". Then "On your mark, get set, go!"-- Off they went. Everyone seemed to have a great time hunting for Easter Treasures. I was so glad that Brett talked me into it. It's our first official Faith Lane Partay! I'm so excited!

Besides the Hunt, we had a few other fun things to do with our guests. We brought some Carrot PingPong Throwers. It was fun to try to catch the ball. Bubbles for the kids was fun- perfect for lots of space and a slight breeze. We also provided some drinks and cookies for a treat to share. AND Brett got out the Go-Kart. Always a crowd pleaser!

What a fun 1st Montana Easter Hunt!

Arrow of Light Service Project

In order for Justice to earn his Arrow of Light Award the weekend, he needed to complete an "Leave No Trace" Service Project. His Den didn't get around to one so we did it as a family instead. We've meant to clean up around the apartment for weeks now. (But Brett's been traveling and it has either been way windy or icky weather) But it turned out that in light of this morning's crazy events, it was the perfect day for it.
Our whole family helped out Larry & Missy to tidy up the yard. I think we filled about 4 bags with garbage, dead plants and cigarette butts. Now it looks pretty snazzy!

Then the kids discovered that filling the gloves with water was way cool! They are so funny!

Easter Mountain

The Anderson's Church put on a huge Easter Hunt up on Mount Helena today. We decided to go support them. They divided the mountain up in sections by age- and hid 10,000 eggs up there. When the hunt began, my kids pretty much followed the crowd rather than look for eggs so they didn't get many but we still had a good time. It was a beautiful morning and fun to explore up the side of the hill. We also saw the Paynes, the Everetts, the Fifes and the Andersons. We love seeing friends!

Calling the Cops

Apartment life is always interesting and sometimes scary. We cannot tell you how excited we are for this phase of our lives to be over. Our new home can't be built fast enough!
This morning was one of those SCARY apartment moments.
While Brett took the younger kids fishing, Liberty and I slept in. Oh how we LOVE to sleep in! My glorious slumber was rudely interrupted however by streams of foul language and slamming doors coming from upstairs. [I'm pretty sure I've heard the "F" word more in the last month than most of my life combined] I decided to slightly open the blinds so I could keep an eye on things without being detected. I also called Brett and told him to not let the kids walk inside by themselves when they got here. Then I just watched as people came up and down the stairs slamming things around, screaming and swearing at each other. Pretty scary and heartbreaking! At one point I heard a large crash and then people pouring out of the apartment and quickly getting in the truck. A girlfriend of one of the boys pulled up and the dad yelled at her to follow them. Then they all sped away. I stayed inside just in case they came back.
Brett showed up a little while later. He walked Justice inside like I had asked him. On their way in, they discovered broken glass and blood all over the sidewalk. So we called the cops and the owners of the apartment building. Crazy, huh? We talked to the cop for a bit and left them our number before we took off to do our Easter weekend activities.
It turns out one of the crashes I heard was the older boy's fist going through the 4 panes of glass in the window. OUCH! When they all drove away- it was to take him to the hospital.
Unfortunately for our new owners [they bought the place about a month or so ago], the tenants upstairs were supposed to be moved out yesterday. What a mess! Larry & Missy (owners) came over in the afternoon and cleaned up all the glass. Then we spent some time visiting with them and cleaning up around the apartment while they waited for the upstairs tenants to get back and move out.
All in a day of an apartment dweller, right?

Fishing- I mean "Lake Sight Seeing"

Since we live in Montana now, we are determined to be fishermen. LOL

Brett took the kids out to the Canyon Ferry Lake this morning. They were way excited!

They didn't catch anything but they did see some fish that others had caught earlier in the day. They said they were HUGE!!!

The Lake Sight-Seeing was fun though.

5th Grade Band Open House

Justice had a Band Open House this morning. It was fun to check out how a Band Class goes for him. He's pretty talented!

Fam Visit: Sleepover, Snow & So Long

For our Family Fun Finale, we decided to have Ethan and Halle over for a sleepover. The kids wanted to watch a movie and Cheri needed to get some sleep for the drive home. We had a great time! We decided to watch a late night showing of the Croods. The kids think that show is hilarious!

 Do you see any similarities? LOL [BTW- this was NOT on purpose. Too funny!]

In the morning, we woke up to SNOW!!! What an appropriate Helena Farewell! ;) 

Saying So Long, Farewell-
Grandma & Grandpa had to leave after the Staggering Ox on Saturday to get back to see Uncle Daniel get put in the Bishopric. We were so grateful that they would make the trip. And that they got home safely- even if it was 3 o'clock in the morning.
Little Glory ended up not feeling well Sunday morning so her and I stayed home to let her sleep. The Davis' and Shauna left after partaking of the Sacrament. We didn't get to say goodbye but I heard there was lots of group hugs given. LOL Thanks so much for coming, guys and gals. We had a blast! We're serious about having the kids up for a Summer sometime! We would be so happy!
Grandma Karla and Ryler came for a quick lunch and hugs after Church before hitting the road. Thanks so much for the sacrifice to come up. We really appreciate it!
XOXO to everyone for spending time with us and being with Victoria on her special day! Luv ya!

Fam Visit: Gifts from Grandma

Grandma Karla came bearing gifts. The kids LOVE the things she gets them. Thanks Grandma!

Fam Visit: Kick the Cat and Swim Humor

We have had a long, fun weekend. The tiredness must have set in because pretty much everything I have to share about tonight is just plain silly!!! LOL [And probably only to those that were actually there. ;)]






FIRST,  Kick the Cat-
The Seamons Family has a Fam joke about Lana kicking a cat. It always comes up when we get together. LOL This time was no exception.
For some reason there was a cat in the hotel that Cheri and Shauna stayed at. At one point it made it into their room. When they told the front desk, the clerk said something to the effect- "Feel free to kick it out if you don't want it in there." What??? So... that's exactly what Ethan did.
(OK, not really but the pic makes it look like it. LOL We are sooo funny!)









SECOND, Fashion at it's Finest-
We went a couple times to go swimming at the Hotel. This time we came from the baptism, to dinner to swimming. Some of us didn't calculate that into the equation so we look pretty awesome-ly dressed for swimming. LOL

Next, Silly Photo Bomber. The kids love to do silly pictures and Justice almost always photo bombs my shots. This time Cheri had a little payback. Guess it went with the theme for the night.

Then somehow, we just ended up taking pictures of everyone doing Crazy Stunts in the pool. So funny! Here's some of our favs.

What a fun and SILLY way to spend our evening!

Fam Visit: Staggering Ox

We went out to dinner after Victoria's baptism to celebrate her awesomeness. ;) Yum!! {The Payne Family joined us- Thanks guys!}
Hardly anyone was in the restaurant so it was like we had rented the whole place for a private party! Too fun!