Love Christmas Time!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, pretty low key! We made to our annual Christmas Eve service. We didn't get home until about 8pm. But then our annual homemade pizza dinner was on!
Family pictures before the pizza making!!!The one gift that gets opened on Christmas Eve in our house, is the pj's! Gotta love 'em!

Colt and his pj's, notice that he can't just smile! He always has to be silly!

Brady and his killer smile!

Bjorn also, always has an awesome smile!

COLT!!!

Daddy did the photography tonight and did a great job!

Pepperoni - the staple for Thorness pizza!

Do you think my boys will like this picture in 5 years?????

Decorating our Trees!

We have chopped two trees the last couple of years, because I have been collecting pretty ornaments at after Christmas sales. I have always wanted more of a theme tree. So I now have enough 'pretties' to decorate the big tree! Brady loving the photo opp!!!

The boys love to decorate the tree and here is Eli doing his part!

Bjorn and Colt in the background, I totally thought I had a pic of Colt! I didn't get one!

The boys and their finished product and I really didn't have to move very many ornaments at all!!! They are growing up! :-(

The living room tree! I tried to add ribbon this year, but really struggled with that one! So this is what I finished with. I will probably change it next year :-)

Tree Time!

Our annual jaunt in the woods to get our trees! I would have to say that this is one of my favorite traditions! We have a spot that we really like to go and find really pretty trees each year! This year we took my parents along on a very cold day, but managed to still have a good time.
Eli sitting and waiting for daddy to come back up the hill with our second tree!

This looks like a good one! I must say that they look a lot more full all covered in snow! :-)

Eric (he loves me for this pic:-)) and dad trying to make our car look as Montana as they can!!!

Dad, mom, the boys and I!

The Thorness clan! Eric loves wearing my hat, crazy guy!

Thanksgiving with the Idyle's!

In between moving, we were able to head over to Bismarck, ND, to spend Thanksgiving at the Idyle's. It was a whirlwind trip, but we were so glad to be able to spend a couple days with them.
At the Idyle house, the girls sit around and drink coffee and do manicures while Uncle Shane makes the whole Thanksgiving meal! Love that tradition! Here are Haley, Shelli and I doing our nails!

Okay so it looks like it was warm, but that wasn't exactly the case. The kids just wanted to sit outside in t-shirts in Nov. in ND! (really it wasn't typical cold)

The men dishing up the delicious feast that was prepared by Uncle Shane!

Uncle Shane teaching Eli how to play the electric guitar! Thank you so much Idyle's, we love you!

We are Moving Again!!!!

Yes we are moving again!!!! Roger and Bon purchased a house here in MT, so we are blessed to able to stay in it. They aren't moving over here until next summer. So our plan is to stay there until we build again!!! Our address will stay the same and phone numbers are the same with the PO box. Will keep you posted on any changes of contact info! We are planning to be out of this house by the 1st of December. Lots to do! :-)

Pumpkin Time!

I finally have something to blog about!!! We left the pumpkin carving until the last minute. Grandma and Grandpa came over for another quick property hunting trip and brought 4 large pumpkins from their garden. The boys were pumped to finally carve pumpkins.
Eli's got the working tongue face!

Colt being creative and making his own design. Didn't want to use a stencil.

Boys concentrating!

Bjorn following his stencil really carefully! Personalities come out in carving at our house!
This is only shot that was taken of Brady, but he started with a stencil and then tore it off rather quickly and cut 2 huge square holes for eyes. Need I mention the personalities that come out??? LOL
So Eli got help from mommy, but he got to poke holes.
Bjorn's ghost pumpkin!
Colt's silly design!

Fun time and now I don't have to look at pumpkins on my porch that are mushy and molding. Only 2 days!!

Check out a Powerful Video from Fresh Life!

Fall has arrived!

This morning we woke up to really cold morning temperatures, but the view is beautiful and the river was steaming! Which is saying something, because that river is not at all warm!!! Still awesome temps during the day, but getting that fall bite to the mornings!!!

Bjorn's 11th!

Bjorn turned 11! He said he had the best birthday ever! We spent the afternoon with church friends playing softball and having a bbq! Then we came home and had cake and ice cream with family. Abby and the girls came up for the weekend, thanks girls!
Bjorn slightly wired before cake, imagine what he was like after cake!

Bjorn enjoying the birthday song!

11 candles plus one for cousin Taylor (it is her birthday too)! The extra candle was Bjorn's idea!

Bjorn got an IPod touch with money from everyone! Any more money that comes in, goes directly to mommy! :-)

Not excited or anything!!!

Birthday boy and girl!!!

Another Amazingly Special Day!

Sunday was another very special day!!! Once every month during the summer our church has a baptismal at the lake! So exciting to see the public stand people make! This time it was another personal exciting day for our family. Eric and Bjorn got baptized!
Part of the church body at Whitefish Lake!

Bjorn praying with 2 of our pastors! The special thing about these 2 pastors is that they are the Jr/Sr high youth pastors. So they will be Bjorn's mentors starting next year! So exciting!

Yay!!!

Eric with Pastor Travis and Pastor Johnny!

Yay!

Eric being congratulated by one of our good friends!! Awesome day!!!

Family Hike to Twin Lakes!

Yesterday we decided to go on a hike up in the Jewell Basin, which is about a 45 min. drive to the base. There are so many different hikes you can take from there. We chose a 5 mile round trip for our crew. Our destination was the Twin Lakes. The boys did great and even Eli made it about 4 miles by himself. So fun to hike with our boys and enjoy the beautiful country we live in!
Beginning of our trek!

Family shot midway through the hike.

Check out the drop down the mountain!

We found the lakes! There really were twin lakes, just got one of them in the pic!

Eli doing a mischievious kungfu move!

Yes the trail made me a little nervous in some spots, but the boys did awesome!

We had to stop and let the boys be "rock climbers"

Pretty mountain landscape!

Bjorn doing some type of a superhero pose!

We stopped to pic some huckleberries on the way down! Eli doesn't have very many huckleberries in his bag, too many in his tummy! Super fun day with our boys!!!