Thanksgiving in Montana

My dad's sister and her husband flew into Kalispell. I have not seen my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Tim for about four years. They hadn't ever met Jeff or Maddox. Sadly, this is the only picture I got of them. Guess we will just have to get together again with them soon! It was so fun seeing them. We talked and laid around and went to dinner and a movie and ate way too much food! And no that person on the left is not a ghost. It's my sister. Most people who live in Montana are white like her because of no sunshine. (NOTE: Jeff added the last part about you Valissa. Bring it!)Maddox was fascinated by the Christmas tree lights. My mom is vigilantly watching to make sure he doesn't eat one. The finished product. Jeff, Maddox, my mom, and I never made it out to get cut down a Christmas tree. On the way out to the woods Maddox threw up. He had a fever all that night and didn't sleep well. He was not a happy camper and Mom and Dad were really really tired. Life is the pits when your kids are sick...and I only have one!

But a tree was picked out and you can see it was HUGE! The biggest yet! It is so big the cat climbed it and knocked it over. It even has acorns on it, according to my brother, Brian. Most people would call them pine cones.My dad. This is the only picture I have of him. I am terrible at taking pictures of anything important. My dad watched Maddox a lot. We have determined that Maddox got him huge noggin from my dad and my dad's Uncle Melvin. We also determined that Maddox is stubborn just like my dad (and me). My dad tried to get him to go to sleep one day. He spent 1 1/2 hours and said Maddox would be almost asleep and he could tell he was really tired but Maddox won over the sleep and stayed awake the whole time! By the end of our trip Maddox preferred my dad over me!

My cousins from Frenchtown, MT came up to visit one day. Andre brought his fiance Ashley up to visit and meet us too. A true test of love, especially after Jeff made up a nickname for her: Gasley. Apparently we didn't scare her off cuz they are still getting married next month!

Brian, my brother, wearing reindeer antlers. Doesn't he look happy?

My cousin Jarom wore them next.

Jeff was the only person in the whole house who had never ever been hunting before...even I have been and he said he didn't want to go becasue he didn't want to go walk around by himself in the mountain lion infested woods and freeze to death...oh, and he didn't want to wake up early. As a side note, the Fish and Game recently killed 15 mountain lions near our house, one of which took a deer down a few hundred yards away from our house. Scary.

Back to story, so my dad took Jeff out to shoot my rifle-a 25 odd 6-and then Jeff decided he would go hunting, but only if he got to shoot something with horns. In other words, he wants to shoot a bull elk or buck and he wants to be guaranteed! We are going to enlist my brother-in-law's brother, Zanen, who is practically a mountain man, to help him out next year.This is Jett, my sister's baby. Isn't he pretty? The first time I saw him this trip he was wearing a turquoise jumper. His eyes are just so pretty with the longest eye lashes. He loved this fire truck.

So Jett may get his paleness from my sister, but he gets most of his looks from his dad, Zach, right down to the butt chin.I still think he looks a little like Valissa, though, in the eyes.I visited my mom at work and we found a huge box for Maddox to crawl through. Valissa decorated it with all the happy birthday wrapping paper around. He loved it!But loved it even more when he saw Jeff try to crawl through it!

Alice is the new love of Maddox's life. He is so over me. He followed her everywhere! It was so cute and Alice was so patient with him. He would lay on her and hit her with balls, as he is doing now, and she would just lay there.

Maddox and Jett loved to play with each other. Mainly Maddox like to hit Jett with balls.

Or sit on himPoor Jett would just lay there and take it. He wanted so much to be able to defend himself!

But instead he just drooled all over himself. Seriously, I have never ever seen a kid drool this much. You would think he has a mouth full of teeth by now from all the drooling, but there is nothing but gums on him!