Before and after an English lesson

So, J and Dayton were hanging out together on our last night in Billings. At first, Dayton was having a great time:






Then J started talking to him about something about analyzing English literature and look what happened to the poor kid--out like a light!












Also, Josh, Mandy, Delaney and Kaitlyn stopped by on Thursday night to say goodbye and I snagged this picture of Josh with Kaitlyn (she goes by Kaity, but I wasn't sure how they spell it...)

Gonna get you!

Our nephew Micah (Jess and Shad's youngest) became a crawling fiend while in Billings. I got down on the floor to take a picture of him crawling (wearing the hat I knit for him) and got this shot:














As you might be able to to tell from the dark background of the picture, the flash went off and I was afraid it had hurt Micah's eyes....but the boy loves flashing lights and kept heading toward me to get me, so I got this adorable shot:















Talk about an adorable face!

Spinning 'round and 'round

The last time we were in Billings, the young James boys received Beyblades spinning tops as gifts. The older boys (Shad, Trevor, J and Josh) played with them after the young ones went to sleep, to the point where one of the tops ("Old Blue" was her name) exploded in a blaze of glory. You can ask Trevor about "Old Blue" and he'll extole her many virtues.

Well, this year the big boys got their own Beyblades. Here are some action shots:










And yes, they're playing using an inverted pot-top as their arena.

On Thursday, we were getting milk at Albertson's and they had a real, genuine-article Beyblade arena on clearance for $2, so the tournament was world-class on Thursday night...no more pot tops for these boys!

Christmas Day

After a sleepy Christmas morning, we got ready for the Christmas open house at Kathy's. Trent's daughters and their families came, Josh and Mandy and the girls came, plus Suzy, Russ and Judy, and all the folks that were around on Christmas Eve.

Here are two pictures of cutie-pie Dayton, who was working on holding his own head up while we were there.


















And here's a nice shot of Kathy and Trent:










P.S. If anyone out there (Jess? Kathy?) has a picture of J and I together during our visit, please email it to me! We don't have any pictures of the two of us this Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Thankfully, our travels went smoothly (all three flights!) and we arrived in Billings around 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve. The party was already in full swing at Kathy's house when we arrived.
Below are some pictures of the older kids with their nose warmers...they humored their Auntie Kahla very kindly.

After opening gifts, we all snuggled down for a long winter's nap. :)