RAYZNCAIN

2009-03-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

Family Pictures at Great-Grandma Miller's house in Glendive.

Grandma James, Nickolas, Matkin and Grandpa James

Grandma James, Nickolas, Great-Grandma Miller, Matkin and Grandpa James

Grandma James, Nickolas, Great-Grandma Miller, Matkin and Karen

Great-Grandma Miller with the boys

Great-Grandma Miller and Matkin

February 2009, Matkin's first trip to Glendive to visit Great-Grandma Miller. We had a nice weekend. Matkin wasn't very happy because he had to get his 2 month shots in Miles City on our way to visit.

2009-03-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

play time--1 month old

2009-03-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Building a Snowman!

Nickolas and Auntie Shelly building a snowman.

He's growing and I don't have to do any work :)

Love the snowman

Isn't he handsome.

While Jarrod was training we spent a couple of weeks in Forsyth with Grandpa and Grandma James and Auntie Shelly. Shelly was nice enough to spend time outside with Nickolas and build a snowman. I want to know what happened to rolling three balls to build up a snowman. I think she was cheating. Nickolas still looks for the snowman when we go back to visit even though it melted three days later.

2009-03-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Snow Fun!!!

Nickolas getting ready to go outside and play in the snow.

Nickolas and Dad playing in the snow and on the slide.

"Too Cold!"

Nickolas didn't want play in the snow because it was too cold. He finally decided being outside in the cold was better than being stuck inside the house. Now he wants to play outside all of the time.

2009-03-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Christmas Pictures with the Family

Auntie Carrie and Uncle Jason with Nick and Matkin

Karen, Matkin, Grandma Cain, Jarrod and Nickolas

Grandma James, Matkin, Karen, Jarrod, Nickolas, Grandpa James and Auntie Shelly

We really enjoyed having all of our family at our house for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! It is always nice to be with family during the holidays.

2009-03-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Nickolas and Matkin in front of the presents. Spoiled boys!!!

Matkin

Nickolas, thought this was great this year.

Nickolas adoring his little brother. How sweet!!!

Cool Dude!

Christmas was very special this year since we were able to welcome Matkin to our home just a week and a half before. We were blessed to have all of our family join us in our home. It made for a wonderful holiday.

Re-cap of 2008

2008-12-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Matkin Andrew born December 15

Matkin and Nick---Our first day at home

His shirt says "Only Child" (crossed out) "Big Brother"
He's a very proud big brother, only a little jealous.

July--the Denver zoo Nick with his cousins
Kaylee and Audrina

Sept--at Jarrod's dad's funeral

Once again we've had quite the year. In February Jarrod went to a class to become a certified Home Inspector. He was gone for about a week, but learned a ton of new information. Then in March he was able to start up his own business. It has been a thriving business that kept him very busy this summer. He has also stayed busy with projects around our 4-plex. We put in a fence, new grass and remodeled our last apartment. In March we also found out that I was pregnant--which meant I was extremely tired for about 3 months. In July we spent a week in Denver for my cousin, Kelly's wedding. We were also able to spend time with Jarrod's family and friends. We also spent time with one of my friends in Gillette on our way back. While in Gillette my friends husband tried to recruit Jarrod to go to work with BNSF, the railroad. After carefull consideration we decided to apply for a conductors position with the railroad.

In September we went to a wedding in Billings. While at the reception we learned of the tragic news that Jarrod's dad had passed away. He was scuba diving, his new found passion, when he had a heart attack. Then we spent a week in Helena making arrangements and spending time with family.

In October he had two interviews one in Gillette and one in Billings. After lots of waiting we found out he was hired. Which is a bittersweet feeling because we moved here to be closer to family and now we are probably going to have to move again. He will be leaving for training on January 4th, then we will probably follow in February.

November flew by with preparing for Thanksgiving, a new baby and Christmas.

In December we added the new addition to our family and then of course Christmas was right around the corner. We were all spoiled for Christmas especially Nickolas. He really enjoyed opening presents this year.

2008-04-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

I know this was clear back from January, but what the heck. For Shelly's 21st birthday we decided to give her a surprise party. She was expecting to go bowling and have a family dinner in Forsyth (boring). Instead we all took a road trip to Rapid City. We found a great motel. It is a Fairfield Inn that is conected to an amazing water park called Watiki indoor water resort. I highly recommend this trip in the winter. They have fantastic rates since it is the off season and it isn't very busy. I wish I would have remembered to take more pictures. Maybe next time, we hope to make this an annual trip.

2008-04-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

It is amazing all the pictures I found on my camera that I had forgot about. These are a few left over from Christmas in Glendive. We love to enjoy Christmas over and over again with all of our family!

Brittany and Nickolas

Teya and Nickolas

Teya and Nickolas

Teya, Carson and Nickolas

Josh and Carson

Christmas with the Cain's

2008-01-30T15:01:00.001-08:00

Jarrod's mom directs the choir at the Presbyterian church, so we went to Christmas Eve services with her and Jarrod's sister and brother-in-law. After church everyone came over to our house to play Wii. Nickolas especially enjoys watching everyone go bowling! (He's grown to love this sport since last year when we would go over to Forsyth and watch Grandpa James bowl on his league nights.)
Jarrod's family came back over on Christmas morning for breakfast and gifts. Needless to say Nickolas is one spoiled boy!

Nickolas with his new "big brother" bear, whom he loves to wrestle and cuddle with.

Auntie Carrie (Jarrod's sister) and Uncle Jason

Nancy (Jarrod's mom), Jason (Carrie's husband), Carrie (Jarrod's sister)
Jarrod, Nickolas, Karen

Christmas with the James'

2008-01-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

My parents and sister came over to Miles City to celebrate Christmas on the Saturday before Christmas. We enjoyed what will soon be a new tradition Overnight Apple French Toast with warm apple syrup. I will have to post the recipie later it is from one of the cookbooks I borrowed from my sister.
Christmas was a lot of fun this year since Nickolas was finally old enough to enjoy it. His only problem was that he wanted to play with all of his new things before opening the next one.

As you can see, no decorations for our tree (this was the safest way to decorate :)

Nickolas made sure to give santa kisses.

This was his favorite part!

Grandpa and Grandma James with Nickolas

2008-01-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately the second weekend in December we had to make a trip down to Logan, Utah. My cousin Cami passed away one month after giving birth to her 4th child. This has been very difficult knowing her very strong husband will be left to care for their 4 children. Cami was always a role-model in my life. She only lived two blocks from my grandparents in Rock Springs, where we visited one or two times a year. I always looked forward to spending time with her. She always had a smile on her face and that is something I will never forget.
When we found out she had passed away, we all made the decision to be down there and pay our respects to both Cami and her family. And being how we enjoy traveling as a family, we loaded up our suburban with Jarrod, Nickolas, Grandpa and Grandma James and Auntie Shelly. We made the best of the trip especially being in the car that long with everyone. We had a chance to stop at the mall and visit with a lady who use to live in Forsyth, that my parents knew from church. While we were there Nickolas found all of the fun games to ride on and play with.

Nickolas riding the rocket ship.

Nickolas with his friend the Lion.

Rapid City 12-03-07

2008-01-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December we made a trip over to Rapid City. Jarrod wanted to check out Menards, a construction/building materials store. Unfortunately, we don't have any here in Montana. We did a little bit of sight seeing while we were there, but there wasn't much open. Keystone/Mount Rushmore looked like a ghost town.

Mount Rushmore (you'd never guess this picture was taken in December)

Nickolas wanted to take this bear home with him!

2008-01-29T13:47:00.000-08:00

2008-01-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

I'm Finally getting to our Christmas Pictures

2008-01-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

Obviously I've been a slacker for the past couple of months. Here are the family pictures we had taken before Christmas. I hope to get the Christmas ones up today or tomorrow.

Lots of Leaves

2007-11-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

Nickolas and I went to Forsyth for the weekend to help dad re-roof the shed. It was a lot of hard work for some of us. Others just played in the leaves and enjoyed grandpa and grandma's nice lawn. Unfortunately, our yard is torn up right now. As it is one of the many projects on our list of to do's around here. Hopefully, next spring we will be laying sod.

Happy Halloween (a little bit late)

2007-11-29T20:43:00.000-08:00

I think we were the talk of the town, apparently parents don't normally dress up around here. We thought it would be fun and every one loved Jarrod's costume he called himself the dragon slayer riding an ostrich. He thought he could go after Nickolas, but I had to keep reminding him that he was a dinosaur not a dragon.

Pumpkin Patch

2007-11-29T20:08:00.000-08:00

It was amazing there isn't much to do in this small town, but we were able to find a pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, we were able to wander through and pick out the ones we wanted. And then when we went to pay for them they put on a little show and launched a couple of them in their homemade catapult. But somehow I managed not to get any pictures of the final products. Oh well, maybe next year.

Uncle Ed's Retirement Party

2007-11-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

We were able to celebrate Uncle Ed's retirement with him in Glendive at the MDU party. While we were there grandma was able to teach Nickolas how to do a somersault. Which, he now loves to do all of the time.

Labor Day Weekend

2007-11-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

We spent Labor Day weekend at the family cabin up by Lewistown. Carrie (Jarrods sister) and her husband Jason were able to join us. We barbecued, played games and spent lots of time on the 4-wheelers. The weather was even perfect. Nickolas tried to teach daddy how to "pop-a-wheelie", but daddy didn't have the muscles to do it on his 4-wheeler :)

Custer County Fair August 2007

2007-11-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

We had lots of fun at the Miles City fair. Nickolas loved riding the train, but wasn't too sure about the carousel. He especially loved all of the lights.

2007-11-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

2007-11-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

2007-11-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

We had lots of fun camping with Grandpa and Grandma James and Auntie Shelly this summer. We went to Jarrod's family cabin up by Lewistown. Dad used his dutch oven cooking skills. Shelly learned to love blowing bubbles all over again. Nickolas kept us all very busy. He loved every minute of it--from sleeping in his new sleeping bag to throwing rocks in the little creek and of course "riding" on the four wheelers.

2007-10-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

I've finally made time to sit down and set up this site. Hopefully I will be able to update it on a regular basis.

Happy 1st Birthday Nickolas!

2007-10-01T12:58:00.000-07:00