Before I start this, I must say that I forgot my SD card in Hamilton so you must wait for Lauren to send it to me to get pictures put up! I will post them as soon as I get the card back! :)
This year, Christmas was a week long! :) We started off our Christmas break by driving to Billings at 9pm (after watching the Grizzlies lose the National Championship) and not getting there until 2am. The good news about doing it this way is that the kids (and me too!) slept the whole way there. We all slept in a little on Saturday morning and then made our way to our friends, Amber and Steve's house for a little visit. We exchanged gifts and let the kids play with each other for a while and I even got to feel baby Sophie move a little! :) Amber is 35 weeks pregnant so Sophia Emma will be born soon! We are very excited about her arrival!
After leaving Amber's in the late morning, we headed to Lincoln, MT where Chris' mom and her husband now live. We got there in the early evening and the kids were excited! Their bulldog, Fred, also had a great time with the kids. He wanted to play with them and their toys! The kids wanted Gramma Sharon to play games with them the whole time we were there. We also went to the Community Creche and had a very yummy Christmas dinner and of course opened presents. We went to an appetizer contest where Sharon submitted some delicious meatballs and tortilla pinwheels, but for some reason she didn't win even though they were the best things there! Well, it turns out that the judges were the husbands of the other contestants so it was rigged! But while Gramma babysat, we got to go down to the bar and try all of the appetizers out so that was fun. It was a nice relaxing time and a great way to start our vacation. There was a lot of snow while we were there, but do you think that stopped Chris from running? Of course not! He went out every morning even though the temperatures were far below 0 on some of those mornings. Me, I decided to stay in and play games and read a couple of really good books! ;) Thanks Mom and Lon for a fun time in Lincoln! Pictures to come soon!
On Christmas Eve morning, we headed to Hamilton. Usually this trip should take about 2 and a half hours, but it took a little longer with the roads not being in perfect condition. We got there around 11am and I headed straight to the gym. I really needed to get some running in! Kelly was supposed to get in on Christmas Eve morning, but her bus was stuck in Billings for 12 hours and didn't get there until late that night. For dinner that night, my dad took everyone that was there so far out to a really nice dinner at the Victor Steakhouse. When we got home, the kids got to open one present, new pajamas and slippers, and then we got our cookies ready for Santa. We had been tracking Santa on the computer all day and as he was getting closer, the kids decided they better get into bed or Santa wouldn't come because they wouldn't be sleeping! Kelly, Lauren, and Caiden woke up early (6am!) because they were so excited. We told Caiden he could watch a movie while we waited for everyone else to get up and for Kevin, Aleisha, Madison, and my Mom to come to my Dad's house to open presents. Promptly at 8am, the present opening began! Man was it ever crazy! There are now 5 kids and 3 spouses and 4 grandchildren plus my mom and dad. There was a lot of boxes and wrapping paper spread everywhere by the time we were done. The kids got everything they wanted plus some! I got a new shuffle from Chris which I was very surprised and excited about! The rest of the day was spent playing with our new stuff and helping Mom in the kitchen with Christmas dinner. There were 17 people at Christmas dinner which was a lot of fun. After dinner, we played a game where my dad played a song and we had to try and figure out who that song belonged to. It could be a song that reminded him of us or that we had said we really liked, etc. The winner would get $100 so the stakes were high! Well, Chris and I tied! 9 a piece out of 15 songs so we didn't do too bad! We split the money and each got $50 so that was fun. Later that night, we played our first game of blackjack. Gambling is big in our family, but not everyone knows how to play poker so we did blackjack instead. I was only up $6 the first night, but we also played on Friday and Saturday night and I won $15 each of those nights so $36 in all!
The day after Christmas is always spent shopping in Missoula and bowling! Kelly, Kristin, Jav, baby Megan, and I all left early and spent a ton of money at Target, Ross, Old Navy and the Mall. There were a ton of good deals everywhere we went and I got lots of new stuff! After lunch, Chris and the kids came up and we all went bowling, which is the kids' favorite. Chris, the kids and I ate dinner at the China buffet and then headed back to Hamilton for some Wii playing and more blackjack!
Saturday was our anniversary - 6 years! :) We spent most of the day packing up our stuff (we had to UPS 2 boxes home because the kids got so much stuff - it had nothing to do with all of the stuff I bought in Missoula!) :) My friend, Dana, and her husband one of her daughters came over to visit and Dana fixed my hair for church later that night. It was really great catching up with her! Chris and I were going to go to Lolo that night to listen to Chris' uncle's band play, but the roads got pretty bad up Lolo pass so we stayed in and hung out and played more Wii and more blackjack. :) That night, we also had my niece Megan's baptism. It was really neat because we are the Godparents of Megan and the priest that baptized her is the same priest that married us on that same night 6 years ago in that same church. The same time too! It was a beautiful baptism and Father Jack was great, although he confused all of our names! After the baptism, my mom made her famous spaghetti sauce and we all just ate and hung out before playing blackjack, yes again! We were up early the next day and left right at 6am. The kids were tired and slept for over 3 hours right off the bat. We only stopped twice the whole trip and got home in 11 hours. It was a long 11 hours, but the kids did really well considering. And thank GOD for portable DVD players! ;) The trip was short, but so much fun!!! The dogs and cats were excited to see us when we got home and I will tell you, it was very hard getting up this morning for work!
Pictures to come soon!!!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Cookies Anyone?
The week before Christmas, me and my friends, Lacey, Desiree, and Rebecca all got together at Des' house with all of our kids (11 of them!) for a baking party. We all had a great time! We made sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them, we also made monster cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered Ritz crackers with peanut butter, and round pretzels with a melted Hershey's kiss and m & m on the inside. So Yummy! The kids helped for a while, but had much more fun playing with each other and then eating the goodies when they were finished! I'm surprised we got so much made as I was eating a lot of the dough before we could even cook them! :) Thanks for a fun time girls and thanks for letting us use your house Des and get it all dirty for you to clean up! :)
Me, Des, and baby Sabastian
Storm, Chloe, Caiden, and Desiree cutting cookies
Me in an apron...and baking...shocking, I know
Desiree and Rebecca making goodies
Hannah, Ethan, and Caiden Decorating Cookies
Me and Lacey
Me and the kids
Me, Des, and baby Sabastian
Storm, Chloe, Caiden, and Desiree cutting cookies
Me in an apron...and baking...shocking, I know
Desiree and Rebecca making goodies
Hannah, Ethan, and Caiden Decorating Cookies
Me and Lacey
Me and the kids
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Preschool Christmas Program
Friday night was Caiden and Chloe's first ever school Christmas program. We weren't really sure if Chloe was actually going to get up in front of all of those people and sing, but she did a great job! She was a little nervous and had a big red spot under her lip by the end of the night from licking it dry, which is strange, because I used to do the same thing as a kid! Caiden of course had a blast and didn't care one bit who was listening to him! They did "A Cowboy Christmas", "Away in a Manger", "Up on the Housetop", "Jingle Bells", "Holiday Star", and they reenacted "Twas the Night Before Christmas." During "Twas the Night Before Christmas, " when one of the teachers said, "I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter," Santa came through the door saying "HO HO HO" and all of the kids got these looks of astonishment on their faces! It was priceless! They all got a present from Santa and Chloe was pretty glad she didn't have to sit on Santa's lap in order to get it! :) All of the kids were so cute and did a wonderful job. They have wonderful teachers, Rebecca and Gayleen, who worked really hard to put this show together. Afterwards, there were lots of yummy treats to share and then we had to rush home to watch the Grizzlies win their semi-final game against James Madison! :)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Chloe in the Newspaper!
After the Festival of Lights parade last weekend, we went to the community chili feed where Santa came for a visit. Caiden was very excited to see Santa again, but we really didn't know what Chloe was going to do. Right as Chris sat her down on Santa's lap, the newspaper guy came and asked if he could take a picture of her for the paper. She wasn't crying yet, so I said sure, but you won't get her to smile! But at least she wasn't screaming like we expected! :)
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Our Christmas Letter 2008
Here is our letter (okay, book!) for the year. Enjoy!
Hello and Happy Holidays to you and your family! Another year has come and gone. A lot has happened in the past 12 months, so we’ll try to get you up to speed as much as a relatively short Christmas letter will allow.
January, February and March had one thing in common: cold. Apparently, it’s like that every year in South Dakota. Go figure. Shannon celebrated her 28th birthday at Applebee’s on January 21st. Not much else went on for the next couple of months; just waiting for spring to come.
Caiden had his 4th birthday on April 1st. He had a Spiderman party with a bunch of his friends. On the 6th, Shannon and her sister Lauren ran the Autism 5K in Rapid City. They both finished in less than 30 minutes for their fastest 5Ks so far. On the 19th, Chris and Shannon, Shannon’s sister, Kelly and her best friend, Lacey all ran at the Kevin Whirlwind Horse race, the 5K for the girls and the 10K for Chris. Shannon set another 5K personal record and ran it in 27:31 and got 2nd in her age group. Chris also set a personal record and finished 3rd overall and 1st in his age group.
May was the month Chris had been looking forward to all year as he was hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins on May 4th in less than 3 hours and 11 minutes. Mother Nature almost put the kaibash on those plans though, as the Black Hills were hit by the biggest blizzard of the year on the 2nd. A couple of feet of snow fell in Belle Fourche and some places had 5-6 feet. But, the temperature rose quickly after the snow stopped falling and after sneaking around a closed section of interstate in South Dakota, we were able to make it to Fort Collins. Shannon ran a 5K on the 3rd and the kids also ran a ½ mile race that day and got really cool medals. We also visited a petting zoo where Caiden and Chloe got to ride some ponies (Chloe’s favorite animal in the whole world). The night before the marathon we ate dinner with a couple of other runners who Chris had met online. As weird as it sounds, they were very nice and we had a lot of fun. One of them, Dan, had a wife back home in Denver who was expecting their second baby any day. Well, the baby came the next morning while Dan was running the marathon and his wife called Chris’ cell phone to try and get a hold of Dan. Shannon answered and when she saw Dan running toward the finish line she broke the news by yelling “DAN, YOUR SON WAS BORN!!!” It was a good weekend right up until Chris ran the marathon. A lingering cold and stomach issues caught up with him and, although he set a new personal record of 3:18:06, he came up a little over 7 minutes short of Boston. The month ended with Chris’ 30th birthday and Shannon flying to Las Vegas to surprise her mom on her 50th birthday. All four of her siblings were there too and she got see her best friend, Mindy, from high school and they ran a 5K together while Shannon was visiting.
The snow finally went away for good in June. It just rained instead…..a lot. So much that the creek across from our house, which is usually a series of stagnant mud puddles, turned into a raging river and flooded the park and a few houses just down the street from ours. Thankfully, we were high enough that the water didn’t reach our house, but it was closer than we’d like. Chloe’s 3rd birthday just so happened to occur not long before the nearby Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, so we celebrated by having a Disney Princess carbo-loading party at our house the night before the race. Nothing gets you ready to run a marathon like pink princess birthday cake. A bunch of friends came over including another online friend Chris had run with in Missoula the year before. It’s not as weird as it sounds, really. At Deadwood, Shannon ran a half-marathon personal record while Chris ran the full marathon just for the “fun” of it. Later in the month, Chris also ran a 4 mile race, Hayfever, in Belle Fourche. He was the defending champion, but wound up finishing 2nd this time to Belle’s high school cross country star.
Our friends, Amber and Steve, and their kids, Kyle and Abby, came to visit for the 4th of July. We watched the fireworks show, which Caiden loved and Chloe absolutely hated, went to the rrrreeeaaaalllyyy long parade, watched the rodeo, and rode a bunch of carnival rides.
Chris ran another race on the 4th too, the Black Hills Roundup 10K and once again got to meet Rupert from the Survivor TV show. Later in the month, Chris and Lauren drove back to Missoula. Lauren was moving back after having lived with us for almost a year. Chris went back to run the 2nd annual Missoula Marathon. As it turns out, he had been keeping a little secret from everyone ever since his failed attempt to qualify for Boston in Fort Collins. Without telling a soul, he had decided that, as long as the weather wasn’t blazing hot like it had been last year, he was going to try again to qualify. Well, the weather turned out to be nearly perfect for running a marathon and, on July 13th, Chris qualified for Boston by running the Missoula Marathon in 3:09:41, which also got him 15th place overall and 1st place in the men’s 30-34 age group. Shannon’s mom, dad and sisters, Lauren and Kelly, along with Chris’ mom were at the finish line to greet him. Kelly broke the news to Shannon with a frantic phone call. Afterwards, Chris celebrated at the Iron Horse, an old college hangout, with the family and some more running friends from online (seriously, not weird). After returning to Belle Fourche, Shannon and Lacey surprised Chris with a congratulatory party at the park across the street from our house. The local sports guy also wrote an article about Chris’ accomplishment in the Belle Fourche Post and Bee. The month ended with yet another trip to Montana, this time for the whole family as we headed to Hamilton for Shannon’s 10 year high school reunion. We had a fun time in Hamilton visiting with old friends and their families and going to Lake Como.
August was hot, but not nearly as bad as the year before. Shannon ran her second half-marathon of the year and set another personal record at the Leading Ladies Half-marathon. In fact, she ran so much faster than she told Chris she would that he showed up a couple of minutes too late to see her finish. Her time was 2:05:12 and is her fastest time for a half marathon to date. The next weekend, Chris volunteered at the Lean Horse Ultramarathon (50 or 100 miles, depending on how insane you are) in Hot Springs. He camped out at an aid station for 27 hours, giving food and water to runners as they came by. Despite all the pain and misery he witnessed, he’s still convinced that he should run a 50 miler next year.
September brought the start of school, soccer and football. Caiden started his second year of preschool and Chloe her first. Chloe was kind of unsure at first, but she loves preschool now and is the best listener in her class (she doesn’t talk, just listens). Caiden started playing soccer in and under-6 league for the first time. He was also unsure at first, but after we told him it was okay to take the ball from the players on the other team he did great and quickly became his team’s leading scorer. They didn’t win a game all year; their closest one was 6-4 and Caiden scored all 4 of his team’s goals. He LOVED soccer. High school, college and NFL football got started too and Caiden had a blast watching the Belle Fourche Broncs , BHSU Yellowjackets, and pretty much any football game that’s on TV. Chris has him good and brainwashed: Caiden is a loyal Seattle Seahawks fan.
October started off with Shannon running her third half-marathon of the year, which earned her a Black Hills Trifecta award (a gold necklace). She ran the Crazy Horse Half-marathon in Hill City. She also met an online friend the night before the race for dinner, proving that Chris isn’t the only one with “imaginary” computer friends. Kelly moved back to SD and the kids were really excited to have her back here. Now, if we could figure out a way to get everyone to move here….. The first snow fell on the 11th, but was soon followed by temps in the 70s, so it didn’t stick around long. Chris ran a 5K in Rapid City hoping to set a new personal record at that distance but a brutal 50 mph breeze didn’t help matters much. Shannon also tried to run the 5K, but sprained her ankle in the first 30 seconds of the race and couldn’t finish. Caiden dressed up as a Seahawks player (told ya he was brainwashed) and Chloe was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. They each brought home their body weight in candy.
November started off with Chris in Colorado Springs for work. While he was there, another big blizzard hit the Black Hills and dumped another couple of feet of snow and closed the roads for a couple of days. Chris and a co-worker had a close encounter with some black ice on the drive home. The Forest Service vehicle was roughed up pretty good, but they both escaped unscathed. On Thanksgiving, we headed to Rapid City for what has become our family tradition since moving to South Dakota. Chris ran the Turkey Trot 5K in the morning (and finally got his personal record) running it in 18:43, and then we went out to eat dinner so we wouldn’t have to deal with leftovers for a month.
So, December is here again. Caiden and Chloe have a Christmas program coming up at their preschool next week. After spending last Christmas at home, we’ll be heading back to Montana this year. First, we’ll head to Lincoln to see Chris’ mom and stepdad and then on to Hamilton to see Shannon’s family. Of course, Caiden and Chloe can’t wait for Christmas; they are counting down the days. Caiden is now convinced that Santa is watching as he saw Santa at the Forest Service Christmas party where Santa told him that he had been watching Caiden playing his Wii. Maybe we will get some really good behavior out of him until Christmas now!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Love, The Stores Family
Chris, Shannon, Caiden, and Chloe
Hello and Happy Holidays to you and your family! Another year has come and gone. A lot has happened in the past 12 months, so we’ll try to get you up to speed as much as a relatively short Christmas letter will allow.
January, February and March had one thing in common: cold. Apparently, it’s like that every year in South Dakota. Go figure. Shannon celebrated her 28th birthday at Applebee’s on January 21st. Not much else went on for the next couple of months; just waiting for spring to come.
Caiden had his 4th birthday on April 1st. He had a Spiderman party with a bunch of his friends. On the 6th, Shannon and her sister Lauren ran the Autism 5K in Rapid City. They both finished in less than 30 minutes for their fastest 5Ks so far. On the 19th, Chris and Shannon, Shannon’s sister, Kelly and her best friend, Lacey all ran at the Kevin Whirlwind Horse race, the 5K for the girls and the 10K for Chris. Shannon set another 5K personal record and ran it in 27:31 and got 2nd in her age group. Chris also set a personal record and finished 3rd overall and 1st in his age group.
May was the month Chris had been looking forward to all year as he was hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins on May 4th in less than 3 hours and 11 minutes. Mother Nature almost put the kaibash on those plans though, as the Black Hills were hit by the biggest blizzard of the year on the 2nd. A couple of feet of snow fell in Belle Fourche and some places had 5-6 feet. But, the temperature rose quickly after the snow stopped falling and after sneaking around a closed section of interstate in South Dakota, we were able to make it to Fort Collins. Shannon ran a 5K on the 3rd and the kids also ran a ½ mile race that day and got really cool medals. We also visited a petting zoo where Caiden and Chloe got to ride some ponies (Chloe’s favorite animal in the whole world). The night before the marathon we ate dinner with a couple of other runners who Chris had met online. As weird as it sounds, they were very nice and we had a lot of fun. One of them, Dan, had a wife back home in Denver who was expecting their second baby any day. Well, the baby came the next morning while Dan was running the marathon and his wife called Chris’ cell phone to try and get a hold of Dan. Shannon answered and when she saw Dan running toward the finish line she broke the news by yelling “DAN, YOUR SON WAS BORN!!!” It was a good weekend right up until Chris ran the marathon. A lingering cold and stomach issues caught up with him and, although he set a new personal record of 3:18:06, he came up a little over 7 minutes short of Boston. The month ended with Chris’ 30th birthday and Shannon flying to Las Vegas to surprise her mom on her 50th birthday. All four of her siblings were there too and she got see her best friend, Mindy, from high school and they ran a 5K together while Shannon was visiting.
The snow finally went away for good in June. It just rained instead…..a lot. So much that the creek across from our house, which is usually a series of stagnant mud puddles, turned into a raging river and flooded the park and a few houses just down the street from ours. Thankfully, we were high enough that the water didn’t reach our house, but it was closer than we’d like. Chloe’s 3rd birthday just so happened to occur not long before the nearby Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, so we celebrated by having a Disney Princess carbo-loading party at our house the night before the race. Nothing gets you ready to run a marathon like pink princess birthday cake. A bunch of friends came over including another online friend Chris had run with in Missoula the year before. It’s not as weird as it sounds, really. At Deadwood, Shannon ran a half-marathon personal record while Chris ran the full marathon just for the “fun” of it. Later in the month, Chris also ran a 4 mile race, Hayfever, in Belle Fourche. He was the defending champion, but wound up finishing 2nd this time to Belle’s high school cross country star.
Our friends, Amber and Steve, and their kids, Kyle and Abby, came to visit for the 4th of July. We watched the fireworks show, which Caiden loved and Chloe absolutely hated, went to the rrrreeeaaaalllyyy long parade, watched the rodeo, and rode a bunch of carnival rides.
Chris ran another race on the 4th too, the Black Hills Roundup 10K and once again got to meet Rupert from the Survivor TV show. Later in the month, Chris and Lauren drove back to Missoula. Lauren was moving back after having lived with us for almost a year. Chris went back to run the 2nd annual Missoula Marathon. As it turns out, he had been keeping a little secret from everyone ever since his failed attempt to qualify for Boston in Fort Collins. Without telling a soul, he had decided that, as long as the weather wasn’t blazing hot like it had been last year, he was going to try again to qualify. Well, the weather turned out to be nearly perfect for running a marathon and, on July 13th, Chris qualified for Boston by running the Missoula Marathon in 3:09:41, which also got him 15th place overall and 1st place in the men’s 30-34 age group. Shannon’s mom, dad and sisters, Lauren and Kelly, along with Chris’ mom were at the finish line to greet him. Kelly broke the news to Shannon with a frantic phone call. Afterwards, Chris celebrated at the Iron Horse, an old college hangout, with the family and some more running friends from online (seriously, not weird). After returning to Belle Fourche, Shannon and Lacey surprised Chris with a congratulatory party at the park across the street from our house. The local sports guy also wrote an article about Chris’ accomplishment in the Belle Fourche Post and Bee. The month ended with yet another trip to Montana, this time for the whole family as we headed to Hamilton for Shannon’s 10 year high school reunion. We had a fun time in Hamilton visiting with old friends and their families and going to Lake Como.
August was hot, but not nearly as bad as the year before. Shannon ran her second half-marathon of the year and set another personal record at the Leading Ladies Half-marathon. In fact, she ran so much faster than she told Chris she would that he showed up a couple of minutes too late to see her finish. Her time was 2:05:12 and is her fastest time for a half marathon to date. The next weekend, Chris volunteered at the Lean Horse Ultramarathon (50 or 100 miles, depending on how insane you are) in Hot Springs. He camped out at an aid station for 27 hours, giving food and water to runners as they came by. Despite all the pain and misery he witnessed, he’s still convinced that he should run a 50 miler next year.
September brought the start of school, soccer and football. Caiden started his second year of preschool and Chloe her first. Chloe was kind of unsure at first, but she loves preschool now and is the best listener in her class (she doesn’t talk, just listens). Caiden started playing soccer in and under-6 league for the first time. He was also unsure at first, but after we told him it was okay to take the ball from the players on the other team he did great and quickly became his team’s leading scorer. They didn’t win a game all year; their closest one was 6-4 and Caiden scored all 4 of his team’s goals. He LOVED soccer. High school, college and NFL football got started too and Caiden had a blast watching the Belle Fourche Broncs , BHSU Yellowjackets, and pretty much any football game that’s on TV. Chris has him good and brainwashed: Caiden is a loyal Seattle Seahawks fan.
October started off with Shannon running her third half-marathon of the year, which earned her a Black Hills Trifecta award (a gold necklace). She ran the Crazy Horse Half-marathon in Hill City. She also met an online friend the night before the race for dinner, proving that Chris isn’t the only one with “imaginary” computer friends. Kelly moved back to SD and the kids were really excited to have her back here. Now, if we could figure out a way to get everyone to move here….. The first snow fell on the 11th, but was soon followed by temps in the 70s, so it didn’t stick around long. Chris ran a 5K in Rapid City hoping to set a new personal record at that distance but a brutal 50 mph breeze didn’t help matters much. Shannon also tried to run the 5K, but sprained her ankle in the first 30 seconds of the race and couldn’t finish. Caiden dressed up as a Seahawks player (told ya he was brainwashed) and Chloe was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. They each brought home their body weight in candy.
November started off with Chris in Colorado Springs for work. While he was there, another big blizzard hit the Black Hills and dumped another couple of feet of snow and closed the roads for a couple of days. Chris and a co-worker had a close encounter with some black ice on the drive home. The Forest Service vehicle was roughed up pretty good, but they both escaped unscathed. On Thanksgiving, we headed to Rapid City for what has become our family tradition since moving to South Dakota. Chris ran the Turkey Trot 5K in the morning (and finally got his personal record) running it in 18:43, and then we went out to eat dinner so we wouldn’t have to deal with leftovers for a month.
So, December is here again. Caiden and Chloe have a Christmas program coming up at their preschool next week. After spending last Christmas at home, we’ll be heading back to Montana this year. First, we’ll head to Lincoln to see Chris’ mom and stepdad and then on to Hamilton to see Shannon’s family. Of course, Caiden and Chloe can’t wait for Christmas; they are counting down the days. Caiden is now convinced that Santa is watching as he saw Santa at the Forest Service Christmas party where Santa told him that he had been watching Caiden playing his Wii. Maybe we will get some really good behavior out of him until Christmas now!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Love, The Stores Family
Chris, Shannon, Caiden, and Chloe
The Grizzlies are Headed to the Semi-Finals!!!!
The Grizzlies won their quarter-final game against Weber State today with a score of 24-13 so the Stores house is a happy one! We had to buy the game on the Pay-Per-View ESPN channel for $22 so I'm sure glad we won and didn't have to pay to watch them lose. They are now headed to the semi-finals where they will play James Madison in Virgina. They are ranked 1st and Montana is ranked 4th. And yes, we will have to pay $22 again to watch the game. But we all think it's worth it!
Festival of Lights Parade and Chili Feed
Tonight we went to the Festival of Lights parade which is always followed by a community chili feed with music from the Cowboy band and a visit from Santa. The kids were really excited to go to the parade tonight and had a hard time containing themselves as they waited for the floats to come down Main Street. For our small little town, it was a nice little parade. The chili was good and Santa was awesome of course. Today, Chloe got a little braver and sat on his lap and Chris could even walk a few feet away! That is huge for her! The guy from the paper came up and asked us if he could take a picture of her for the paper and of course I said he could, but I told him that she wouldn't smile for him! And she didn't. But I'm sure it will still be cute! :)
Family Pictures at the Park
Thanks to Kelly, we did a little photo shoot at the park in hopes for a good Christmas card picture. I think they all turned out really well! Of course I bribed the kids first and told them they could pick out something at the Dollar Store if they were well behaved for the pictures. :) Isn't that awful?! But it worked! Here are the pictures! Thanks Kelly!
Christmas Decorations
The Day after Thanksgiving (the earliest Chris will allow it!), we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. The kids could hardly contain themselves! They loved putting all of the ornaments on and looking at their baby ornaments. Afterwards, they said they wanted pictures in front of the tree and stockings. They are definitely my kids! :)
Forest Service Christmas Party
On Friday night, we went to the annual Forest Service Christmas Party. We always have a good time at the party. We started with dinner, which was really good, and then everyone brought dessert to share, which were all delicious! They had a Pinata for the kids to get even more sugar and then the kids favorite part, Santa came! He had a treat bag (yes, more sugar!) for each of the kids and Caiden was in awe of the fact that Santa knew that Caiden likes to play the Wii all of the time. So, Caiden now knows that Santa does watch everything he does! Chloe did not want to sit on his lap, but did go up next to him with Chris. Next was the white elephant gift exchange where you just never know what will show up. We started off getting a variety of hot chocolate mix, but that got stolen and we ended up with a 2009 pass to all of the parks and campgrounds in the Hills. So, it was a pretty good trade! It was a great party!
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