Well as I promised, a slightly newer and quicker post to the blog. I couldn't pass up showing you all some of these moments. We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch. Ben and I have tried to go every year and we took Faith last year too. This year is was muddier than you can imagine because just a week before 22 inches of snow fell over the area.

Halloween was a blast. We had successfully hidden Faith's trick or treat identity until the very day. She was our Harley cutie or biker babe, whatever you prefer. Totally cute and a major success with her Billings biker grandparents. Mammy and Poppy were pretty proud. Faith herself loved the costume and was reluctant to take it off at the end of the day. We're already taking in suggestions for next year, because this will be tough to top. :)

We are now looking forward to the Holidays. Ben and I are in the process of building a house and selling our first home so we will be busy bees. But we hope to get in some good relaxing family time too.


Love you all,
Hil

She is all ready to ride on her "boom boom"

She even has a tattoo.

Harley cuties can't pass up candy.

Great Grandma Bernice and Great Grandpa Bill stopped to have dinner with us.

Our rough and tumble Harley Babe, carrying her puppy.

That is the softer side.

Here we are demonstrating the size of these big orange beasts.

Either that or I am raising a dwarf.

Ben is better at helping her pick the good ones.

A rare picture with Ben and Faith

Hil and Faith pumkin hunting

So as always I have taken my sweet time posting anything to this blog. Hey, it is the old excuse of being completely busy. Summer flew by didn't it? I could have sworn we were just in the month of June. As it is we have been painting the outside of our house since June. We are still painting the kitchen cabinets and I'm sure we started that project in March. But now we have a goal so the projects are going to get finished one way or another.

The goal, you ask? Ben and I have spontaneously decided to have a house built. It should be done sometime around June of 2009, so we better get busy selling this old house out from under us. Now the building a house is the spontaneous decision. We were always planning and selling and buying new next summer. We are just doing it with a little more decision making along the way.

Faith is growing like a weed and saying tons of things. Some of which we understand. She can mimic and remember any word you give her though, so watch your mouth. She is a bossy little thing, I'm told that is my fault. Poor Bear gets the word "no" from all angles and usually for no reason at all. Faith's favorite word this week is "mine". It usually isn't hers when she is referring to it.

More pictures to come, we went pumpkin hunting and Halloween is just around the corner, so I promise to update sooner rather than later.

We love you all.

So Faith and Bear have recently decided to become pretty good friends.

Bear probably likes this less than Faith.

This game is called "Dive Over Dog"

Bear is perfectly fine with this new form of torture.

2nd Cousins Faith and Derek kiss goodbye.
Could kids be any cuter?

Swimming break at Russ and Shelly's house.

Auntie Hillary holding the new addition to Erica's family

Riley Dean Burkhalter

Faith is bossing cousing Cale around.

We are still learning about sharing.

Whew! What a spring.

So we last left off after Faith's first birthday and Easter. Since then there is no stopping our household of activity. Ben started softball season, a must in the Howard family. He is playing on two teams this year, a team he played with last year for the city league and our church team. Sometimes he has so many games in a week I'm not sure he remembers what it is like to be home. Faith and I try to make it to the games that are at reasonable hours and are in reasonable weather.

Faith finally learned to walk the week of Mother's Day. I was beginning to think her legs would never work. Because yes, she was 15 months old by this time. Now that she has learned to walk we of course cannot get her to sit still. Now some children are into everything once they have found their feet. Faith just makes laps. She doesn't really touch anything yet. So that is a relief.

The month of May was a good month for Faith to see the family. Grandma and Grandpa Howard came over for a weekend. We went to the zoo, the men rebuilt the railing on our front porch, and the women got to shop in Hobby Lobby. Good fun. Then my youngest sister graduated from high school. Yes for all of you out there she is quite a bit younger than me since you are doing the math in your head and it is my ten year reunion this year. But congrats to her. Such an exciting accomplishment. During this celebration Faith got to see her aunts, Grandpa Danny and Grandma Darlene, and well tons more people that knew me when I was her age. Weird. It can be summed up in that one word. From there, Faith and I took off to Missoula for Erica's baby shower. Now she is having a little girl so out goes the baby blues and in come the baby pinks. Cale has no idea what he is in for. But he will be the sweetest big brother any little baby girl could ask for.

The last adventure up to this point was the car accident. Faith and I were headed home from the baby shower and ended up finding ourselves careening out of control on I90 and finding ourselves upside down in a ditch just west of Whitehall, MT. This was due to my mom trick of reaching back to hand Faith a sippy cup and moving the other arm a little too much. Once the car was upside down and no longer moving, I released myself from my seatbelt, unhooked Faith and let a passerby pull her out of the car. I in the meantime searched for my cell phone unsuccessfully, grabbed my purse, took the keys out of the ignition, crawled out of the car, called Ben to inform him I had rolled the car, and then totally lost it emotionally. Faith and I walked away from that crash. She has a bruise on her chin and a scrape on the side of her head. I am bruised and battered from head to toe. Neither of us has a major neck injury and we have no broken bones. So you can understand that I am smiling in the picture next to the totalled car. God was watching over us and we made it through.

I think that is all that we could have handled for this spring. Let us hope for a quieter lazy summer. We'll be seeing most of you soon. For those of you that we never see... Happy summer. We love and miss you.

My beautiful PT Cruiser is no more. Faith and I six hours after rolling the car while heading down I90 on our way home from Missoula. God bless seat belts, car seats, and guardian angels.
Auntie Erica celebrating a new baby to be.
The diaper cakes are pretty cool.

The Young family celebrating Cate's graduation from high school.

Yipee!

Faith's first professional haircut.

Trained professionals sure handled this moving target better than I ever did.

This was the first family trip to Zoo Montana. The tiger was by far the most entertaining on this hot day. And awfully photogenic.

Faith and I get ready for the Montana Women's run. She has the car keys, she is ready to roll.

And people worried that the big dog would be a little dangerous for our baby girl.

He is grooming her. Isn't that cute?

Happy Spring

Okay, so by now most of you have just decided that we have stopped with the blog. Not true. However, have any of you realized just how fast a day goes by. I cannot keep up. Since the last update, Faith has of course turned the big 1. She was spoiled rotten.

Shortly after the birthday bash Ben, Faith, and Hillary all came down with the flu and every other respiratory and other bacteria infections we could catch. After five weeks of coughing and antibiotics for the sinus and eye infections, we all seem to be on the mend. Good grief.

St. Patrick's Day passed without anyone getting pinched.

Easter came way too fast this year and you will notice a lack of pictures. The Easter Bunny dropped off a bad attitude for Faith so pictures were few. She sure was cute in her Easter duds though, you can take my word for it.

The weather is getting warmer and soon we will be playing outside. Ben and I are planning on painting the outside of the house very soon. Anyone who enjoys that activity is welcome to join us.

As always, here is wishing all our family and friends happiness and good health.

The Howard Bunch.

Cale and his Easter scrunch smile. This is his classic flirty face.

Faith digs in to her Easter basket. Darlene, I apologize, no picture we have does that dress justice, but it was soooooooo cute.

St. Patrick's Day. Faith shows off her "Dad's Lady Luck" shirt

Happy Little Leprechaun

Birthday Presents!

Party guests are happy and cute as a button.

Faith is enjoying the birthday cake.

Mom's sad attempt at a 3 dimensional cake

Faith is searching for the puppies at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Engaging a sleepy Trapper in play

Cale is chillin with Uncle Ben

You only turn 1 once, but you can never have too many parties.

Faith's first birthday in Billings

She had a second one in Missoula

Happy New Year!

2008 is upon us everyone. Amazing isn't it. This went by a lot slower when we were kids, I'm sure of it.

Christmas was quiet without most of the family, but at least Faith enjoyed her first Christmas at home. Especially since she was working on getting an ear infection at the time so her mood was a bit finicky.

We had Christmas with Mammy and Poppy and New Year's Eve with Grandma and Grandpa. We were all plenty spoiled. Our hope is that everyone elses Christmas and New Year was just as fun.

Best wishes in the New Year. More blogs to come although probably not as often as some would like. And then again, based on my limited blogging abilities, maybe too often for others.

God Bless from Ben, Hil, and Faith.

We are not quite sure about the plot of this story
Is that a horse or a labrador she is riding?

Now that I have unwrapped it, what do I do?

Anybody order an elf?

Faith has no idea why she is unwrapping presents but that paper sure is fun to rip up.

Oh how exciting! They are pajamas with the tag still attached.

Mom and Dad are overcompensating with large grins because Faith doesn't want to.