New Year's Eve

Last night we spent our evening at Matt & Lisa's house. There were 8 families there and it was a lot of fun! There were 2 tables going of Eucre and the ladies played Skip-Bo and then partner-style Dutch Blitz. That was fast, furious and fun! The kids entertained themselves with the new Wii game system, played basketball and games as well. We saw them again around mid-night to watch the ball drop. Probably the most memorable part of the evening was the SNOW that we got during the time we were there! We got 9 inches from about 8pm-1am. It was a tough, slow drive home, only about 3 miles away. We about got stuck twice and then we couldn't even get into our garage... there was just too much snow under the belly of the van. Overall we got 13 inches! It looks beautiful this morning!

Have you made any New Year's resolutions? I quit making them years ago because I can never keep them!

Cocoa

Our puppy has a name! It's Cocoa... as in Hot Cocoa. Tony gave in. : ) The picture in the middle was taken right outside the building at the Humane Society. I wish you could have heard the kids inside the lobby. Quinn kept saying things like "This is so awesome!"... "I can't believe we got a dog"..."Is she ours yet?" Madison was busy listening to all of the directions, noticing the lady who came in, dropped off her dog, and left crying... etc... She was so elated but felt bad for that lady too. The workers just kept smiling and asked "Is this your first dog?"... and sarcastically said, "I don't know... I don't think this puppy is going to get enough attention." Ha!

Tonight Quinn was talking to Nate on the phone and he said suddenly, "Nate, I've got to go!... my dog has the hiccups!"... and then hurriedly hung up to rush into the kitchen and check them out. Isn't that a cute picture of Nate in the lower left corner???

Our first night went well. I didn't hear her yelping until around 7:30 this morning. I've done 3 extra loads of laundry today though but I'm not going to focus on that. These 2 excited little faces is worth all of it!

The pictures in the post below are of the kids at the shelter on Friday... the first day we met her. Notice her droopy ears and then look at her perky ones now. That's what 24 hours of love do to a dog I guess.

Gone to the dogs...

Leah

(Sorry Blogger isn't doing paragraphs tonight)

Introducing.....!

Here is the newest member of our family. We don't have a name for her yet but hopefully we will soon. Tony had to work all day today (and is still gone tonight) but we met him at the Humane Society at 1:30 for his stamp of approval before we signed the papers. We have a couple of EXCITED kids right now! They played with this puppy for 4 hours straight before finally giving her a break. She's had a bath to get all freshened up and has been so much fun this afternoon. We haven't heard her bark yet so we haven't heard her voice. She has a microchip implanted between her shoulder blades so if she gets lost she can be traced back to us. I thought that was pretty cool. That's standard procedure now at the shelter. I'm pretty worried about the house training but so far so good... no accidents in 6 hours. ha! The kids have done a great job of taking her outside every hour basically. Wow... it's kind of like having a baby at home. I can't explain how over-the-top-thrilled they are though. They keep saying, "I can't believe we got a dog!"


Kisses for Madison at the shelter. "Please take me home!"



Quinn typed this next sentence while sitting on my lap just now... ha!

Madison and Quinn were shocked to get a dog. ......................................................................................................

We are dog watching for Duchess this week. She is scared of this wee little puppy... shaking and shivering and this puppy just wants to follow her wherever she goes and desperately wants to play with her. Tigger took one look at the pup and hissed at her. We've got a long ways to go in that department.

OK, more adventures another day. Hopefully we'll have a name by then. The kids and I like "Cocoa" but we're 3:1 on that one and we really would like to be unanimous. We'll see...

We're back home

We finished off our time in Iowa by shopping, eating, watching movies, playing games, eating, sleeping, hanging out, eating, visiting and did I mention we did some eating???

We got home last night and celebrated our own family's Christmas. The kids were thrilled to open up boxes with dog treats and dog toys in it. It took a few seconds to actually sink in... yes, we've (really Tony) have finally given in and we are getting a dog. The 3 of us have wanted one for about 2 years now. It was a lesson in patience and persistence I guess! Ha! The kids and I (and Nate) made a trip to the Humane Society today in the midst of a snow storm (of course it couldn't wait until next week)... and have fallen for a cute puppy, a terrier/beagle/possible blue heeler mix. It was dropped off with a litter of pups in their night deposit box so they don't know much about it. It's about 10 weeks old, orphaned and looking for a "forever home" as they call it. A puppy is the age I definitely did not want but someone from work told me that with a puppy you can make sure they are well trained etc... because you do the training and with an adult dog, you never know what you're going to get. That made some sense to me. (Several years ago she got an adult dog from the shelter and it wasn't a good one at all!). We are going back tomorrow at 1:30 to show the puppy to Tony for the final stamp of approval. We'll see!!! Tune in tomorrow night for more details. Madison and Quinn are giddy with delight. Madison even made me write a note that said, "We are getting a dog" and sign my name to it! ha! She took the note with her to Heather's because she didn't think Heather would believe her without it! She was right.

The rest of the day was spent trying to get my house back in order... amazing how much of a mess it gets with stuff hauled back in from a trip...and nothing done with it last night. Tony worked until 8 tonight. He caught a cold while in Iowa, was up half the night coughing and then all of his December financial data "disappeared" in his computer tonight at work. What a way to get back to the grind. My guess is we won't see much of him this weekend.

OK, I'll try and post about the dog tomorrow!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas morning the kids opened their stockings and then Amy's family opened up their presents from under the tree. Our family played a game of Disney Scene It upstairs (at my insistance, not their's!) and then Tony and the kids went out on the 4-wheeler and rode down by the dam and across the river. We had a beautiful white Chrismas with sunshine today. It was a perfect winter day!

We went out to my mom and dad's (30 minutes away) for our traditional Christmas breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, cinnamon rolls, and fruit. After breakfast it was 12:30 already! We all went down to see my grandma at her assisted-living location and visited with her for an hour and a half or so. It was good to see her. She passed out Christmas cards to the great grand-kids with five $1 bills in them. They were excited about that. We sang Christmas carols for her and got a little rowdy by the end. I think the rest of the residents were ready for the 11 of us to go! ha! Noise and chaos have never bother my grandma though so she enjoyed it.

Finally it was time for the grandkids to open up their presents at G&G's house (or 6&6 as Madison calls them because G'ma's written G's... look like 6'es...). Madison's favorite gift was this flower (see lower left corner picture) that she can hook her ipod up to and it dances with the beat. Quinn's favorite gifts were the inflatable Iowa goal post from Amy & Jeff and the Deal or No Deal game from G&G. I ended up forgetting Uncle Doug's and Aunt Jen's gifts under our tree at home so they have those to look forward to yet.

We stayed at my parent's house until 8:30-9 I think and then drove back to Amy & Jeff's. It was a really nice Christmas. We played phone tag with a few of you, missed some of you by just a few minutes, but thought about each one of our precious family members today. The only way this day could have been better was to have seen and hugged each one of you today. So... special greetings to our immediate families... those of you in Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Kansas, and Arizona that we didn't get to see today, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and will pray for special blessings for you through the New Year!

Joy to the World!
Leah

Christmas Eve

Tonight is Christmas Eve. We spent our day by going out for lunch and to the movies at the mall. Surprisingly the mall wasn't all that busy... although we really weren't shopping. I took Quinn, Mikayla and Haley to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Tony, Jeff, Amy, Madison, Jenna and Grandma went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I have to say I wasn't very excited to see the Chipmunks but it turned out to be a super cute movie. It was so good that Quinn and I decided we would like to own the DVD some day. : )

Madison and Jenna made a strawberry pretzel salad for supper tomorrow night. They did a really good job following a recipe. The hat Madison is wearing is what she bought with some of her Christmas money that she got from B & P. It's a traditional looking stocking cap except that it's Iowa material instead of the traditional red. It even has a pom-pom! She loves it and even wore it to bed!

This late afternoon we enjoyed an early supper at Texas Roadhouse and then went to see the "Santa House" which is a house in Coralville. They have over 100 santas outside... complete with moving scenes and even a TV that was playing Wonderful Life. I have to say it was pretty awesome. They had a nativity scene on the side of their yard with a sign that said something to the effect that "this is what it's all about". It was freezing but worth it.

Tonight the kids put out cookies for Santa and Mikayla wrote a note to him. The older kids have been really good about not "blowing it" for Mikayla and Haley yet. My kids usually have a new pair of PJ's to wear on Christmas eve. Madison informed me that this is the last year that she will be wearing matching PJ's with Quinn. OK, I agree... I probably got one more year out of her than I even expected... but I got them CHEAP after Christmas last year... and she really wore them just for me. ahhhhh. (Haley was in bed... at 6:15pm tonight so missed out on the pictures!).

Tomorrow's the big day. We'll be spending the day at Mom and Dad's and going to visit my grandma in Wellman.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Love, Leah

How we spent our snow day...

We got 5-6 inches of snow last night with terrible winds, drifting snow, and wind chills less than zero so this was our 2nd week in a row to have church cancelled! Christmas Sunday... cancelled!! These pictures show a little of how we spent our day today. The kids never got out of their PJ's. They even went outside with them under their snow pants etc... We played games, played on the computer, watched TV and ate! The kids treated us to some karaoke as well. Grandma and Grandpa braved the roads late this morning and stayed for the afternoon. They said the roads were not in good shape. I do have to say that it was a great day spent snowed in!

Happy 7th Birthday Mikayla!

Greetings from Iowa! Today is Mikayla's 7th birthday and because it's so close to Christmas we have always gotten to be here to help her celebrate and that has been great. Today we went out for lunch at Godfather's Pizza and then putt-putt golfing. She had 3 friends come along with her. We originally were going to have the party in the evening but just as predicted we are in the middle of a snow storm and so moved the party up to noon... a great idea!

Here are SEVEN things to tell you about my niece, Mikayla Jo...
1. Her favorite food is "watermelon icecream" (sherbet).
2. She is in the first grade and her favorite subjects are math and science.
3. She enjoys, ballet, tap and jazz.
4. She asked Santa for a guitar for Christmas.
5. When she grows up she wants to be a teacher like her mom.
6. Hannah Montanna is her favorite character.
7. Her favorite Bible story is about "Jesus dying on the cross because he took the sins away."

Enjoy the pictures!
Love, Leah

Madison's holiday greetings

Click HERE for Madison's holiday greeting, made especially for you!

Quinn's plan for Christmas Eve

I hope you'll be able to read this story that Quinn wrote about Christmas. You'll have to dbl click for sure. After I read it I said, "uhhhh, I think you forgot someone." He looked at me and innocently said, "who?" to which I replied, "Your sister!" Even the picture that he colored has a stocking for Mom, Dad, Quinn and Nate! Poor Madison; she didn't make the Christmas story this year.







Nate's mom, Shari, told me that Nate's Christmas story is much the same. Quinn was added to his family and his sister, Paige, didn't make the cut either. ha! She said at least I got a blender, all she got was fingernail polish. Too funny!

See ya later!

Tonight Madison had (indoor) soccer practice and then we met B&P, Michelle, Archie and Jade for supper at Chili's. Peyton came along too.
On the way to soccer practice Madison and Peyton were all animated about their lunch with Uncle Archie today at school. Lots to tell... which event should I mention here?? OK, the candy. He brought Madison a Snickers bar and gummy bears and tried to give them to her at lunch. Candy is "against the school laws" and so she told him she couldn't take them (what a good student). I guess later when she took off her snow pants in her classroom, she found the candy was hidden inside her snow pants! "How embarrassing!" Now Quinn and Nate on the other hand... happily accepted the forbidden candy at lunch time and hid it in Nate's lunchbox (such boys). It really is much more interesting to hear the girls tell these stories. I bet their lunch stories lasted at least 20 minutes. Peyton now has a good taste of Uncle Archie!!

Michelle and Archie are leaving for their big move to Kansas tomorrow, to Fort Riley. Michelle and Jade have been here since the beginning of October. Archie came about 10 days ago. It's always so hard to say good-bye. We long ago decided that "see ya later" was a much better way to part from family. Madison and Quinn had a few tears... OK, it was more like weeping, sobbing and difficulty catching their breath. Quinn basically bawled all the way home from the restaurant. This all makes me cry too so we were just one big mess! Quinn promptly ran up to his room and 5 minutes later came down for some tape. He had taken the poster on his door, turned it over and wrote "I will always remember you Archie" twice on it and then taped a little wallet sized picture of him on it and taped it back up on his door. He then laid down on his bed and bawled some more. It was just heartbreaking. I tried to put it into perspective but he was having none of it. Madison hugged me and just sobbed too. Unfortunately there have been some long periods of time in between getting to see him .... he's been on 2 tours to Iraq etc... We are hoping to see them again this next summer but that seems forever away for kids. We are going to pray that he doesn't get deployed again before then!!!! Jade has Uncle Tony wrapped around her finger and she had an especially long hug for him. Tonight we prayed for extra special blessings for their family as they start the Kansas chapter in their lives. Our Kansas family will be happy to welcome them to their neck-of-the-woods. They are only about 1-2 hours away I think.

Well, I didn't sleep well last night. Tony had to be in Indy overnight and I was restless with too many things in my mind. I better get to bed tonight!

Love to all, Leah

Work Christmas Dinner

I sure have been doing a lot of partying lately haven't I??

Monday night was our Ladies Christmas Dinner. I'm calling it that because we specifically decided not to invite the men that we work with! HA! It was just going to get too complicated. It's OK... no one got their feelings hurt and we are going to do something special at work (during the day) in January. I work with a GREAT group of women! We drew names back in August when Addi started humming Christmas carols and started demanding our Christmas wish lists. Oh my. We kept it a secret on whose name we had... just to add to the suspense. It was so funny because just an hour before the party Cheryl was printing something out on her printer at work that had to do with her gift (to Addi) and Addi accidentally intercepted it! ...She had kept it a secret for so long! Apparently there was some physical pushing/shoving to try and get to the printing paper (which I'm sure printed in slow motion for Cheryl) and eventually there was rolling on the floor in laughter over this. (I missed it...of course). Anyway, there is NEVER a dull moment with this group. We went to Dandinos and the food was delicious!


L to R: Cheryl, Addi, Randa and Laura

I was Randa's secret angel (I guess I can call it that). She liked her Willow Tree Angel. Aren't those so neat?


Addi was surprised by a few things from Cheryl at least...

Laura had my name and even made 2 trips to The Refinery to get some blueberry coffee and snickerdoodle coffee for me. I love their coffee! Thanks Laura!

I don't care for lobster but some of the ladies got the special... steak and lobster. Doesn't that look good??? And yes, I actually took a picture of food. It's OK.... really.

Small Group Christmas Party

We were snowed in today and apparently we were in a "level 2 emergency" which means travel on the roads only if absolutely necessary. Well, we decided that our small group Christmas party would surely fit into that category. Afterall we had a difficult time scheduling it around 7 busy family schedules! The kids sure change each year for their picture. It's hard to remember when there were no kids... now there is a gaggle of them! The party was at Terry & Karla's new house this year. It's so awesome. It was perfect for a large group of us. The picture of the girls above is of them messing around with their Chat Now phones. After supper we played charades with Christmas subjects. The pictures in the collage below with the kids making funny motions is them acting out a word. Madison got the word "Blitzen" and Quinn had "Frosty the snowman"... they both did really good and our team got them right. I personally hate charades. Thankfully I didn't have to act anything out. : )

There is a two hour delay tomorrow for school already. Madison and Quinn went to spend the night at B&P's house. Archie and Michelle came over at 9:30 to pick them up. Thanks guys! They have plans to go sledding in the morning and apparently there is a huge snowman that Archie has started that needs finishing...and then on to school at 11am.

Here is a better picture of the group of kids. My mom asked in the comments why Angie snuck in the picture. Her little Hope didn't want to be in the picture so Angie is her moral support so we could include her too! : ) The Picasa version of the collage cut Hope, Dylan and Mariah off. : (

Winter

This morning we woke up to 8 1/2 inches of snow. We have more in some of the drifted areas (like the deck). For the 2nd time in 17 years our church was cancelled today. ...Just not enough time for the plows to dig everyone out. We're supposed to have our small group Christmas party at Terry & Karla's tonight. Hopefully everyone will be plowed out by then. Stay warm!

Merry Christmas!

Tonight we celebrated Christmas with Beppe, Pakka, Uncle Archie, Aunt Michelle and Jade. We missed not having Uncle AJ and Aunt Bonnie with us this year. We traditionally celebrate together on Christmas eve. We'll be in Iowa this year and Archie and Michelle will have moved to Fort Riley, Kansas by then. Only a few more days with them... : ( We had a great time with the traditional fondue. We fondued meat in oil and also bread in Alfredo sauce. Yum! We loved watching the kids open up their presents... especially Jade. She would unwrap and box and get all excited say..."A Square!!!" (the shape of the box) ...or "A triangle!!!" (for the rectangles). We wouldn't have needed to put anything inside of them. Quinn was thrilled with a Monopoly game and Nerf gun. Madison got a Webkinz cat and jewelry and the Nintendo-DS game of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Fitting since she's in 5th grade! We got Jade a Dora scooter and it was so cute to watch her help her daddy put it together and then figure out how to work it. She really liked Madison's help for her "motor power". She is 2 1/2 and at such a fun age. We took Madison, Quinn and Jade to Olan Mills to get their pictures taken this afternoon and they all did so great! The pictures are due to be back on Christmas eve but we'll be in Iowa already so I guess we'll get these Christmas pictures when we get back. Oh well.

We got 4-5 inches of snow today... it's starting to look like a winter wonderland!

Silent Night,

Leah

Jade and her new Dora scooter!

Special Ornaments

I know, I know, I know... some of you are just plain sick of checking my blog and seeing that same Christmas program picture. I'm sorry! It's been a busy week and I just haven't had the motivation to blog.... because the week hasn't been filled with anything too exciting. Madison had soccer practice on Tuesday at a gym that was 1/2 hour away so I had no choice but to hang around and wait for it to be over... I was the car pool person that night. I did go and get some groceries though during that time (although I have to go again today). Wednesday night I had a board meeting at church which lasted from 6:30-10 and before that started I spent 45 minutes driving as the car pool person to deliver Madison and a friend to a Sunday School class party. That evening was pretty much gone the second I stepped into the house. On Monday and Thursday the kids spent part of the evenings with Aunt Michelle, Uncle Archie and Jade. Last night Archie had them out in the back yard teaching them how to use a BB gun. The fun never ends when he's in town.

Since I didn't have any pictures to post for you, I took some pictures of some of my favorite ornaments that are on our tree. The collage actually kind of looks like one big picture but they are really nine different snapshots. Location described as you would find them on a clock...

Center: This is a ceramic baby Jesus that I painted as a kid. It hangs on our tree every.single.year.

Noon: A picture ornament of Quinn that he made in preschool.

1pm: Tony was an "airplane junky" as a kid too. This is one of his ornaments from his childhood. You would be surprised (or may be not) at how many airplane ornaments we actually have... that's for another post).

3pm: Madison's bell ornament with loads of glitter, made as a preschooler.

5pm: A backpack and picture to remember Madison' first year as a kindergartner.

6pm: A cookie cutter that we had as kids of Santa. We used it every single year. My mom was ready to retire some of her cutters so I made this into an ornament for our tree.

7pm: This one will shock all but about 3 of you! A group of 4 of us actually went to Oprah's Christmas show one year!!...You know... the one where she usually gives out the big refrigerators, electronics, linens, kitchen items... all of her favorite things?? WELL... this particular year that we went... this one and only Christmas show was on how to emphasize less of the getting... and focus more on the giving. SO, in order to get into the show, we actually had to BRING a gift for a Salvation Army kid that her producers had assigned to us over the phone in order to get into the building. We were given these Christopher Radko (sp?) ornaments under our chairs though. Doesn't that just sound so like our luck...? ha!! Tonya, Lisa, Angie and I have never forgotten the memories behind this ornament! I think Oprah "owes us" another Christmas show don't you??? ha.

9pm: A ornament with glued-on pasta shapes and Madison's picture from preschool.

11pm: This shepherd boy reminds me of Quinn who played a shepherd in his kindergarten play of the Christmas story. He was so cute.

Now let me just say that these are just SOME of my favorite ornaments. I have many, many more but surely I would bore you to tears to put them all up here. Last year I actually took pictures of most of them and then wrote about them, their year, and why they are special and have it saved in my good ol computer. (I know... you can be impressed). I assure you that if you have given us an ornament in the past... it is also one of my very favorites too! If you'll come over and look at my tree, I'll tell you more stories behind each one of our ornaments. How much time do you have?

That's all for now folks.... I would love to see what Christmas is looking like at your house. Send me some pictures or if you have a blog, post them!

Joy to the World,
Leah

Christmas Programs

Christmas All Around


The Christmas Present


Sunday night was the children's Christmas program at church. They did such a good job! They actually presented two small plays. The first one was Christmas All Around... and was the traditional Christmas stories complete with the costumes. The second one was The Christmas Present which was a musical and story telling. Madison sang in a quartet and had a few lines. Quinn had two lines and was all stressed out about them...."I wish I could just go back to being a sheep this year!" (a job reserved for the little-little ones!).


Not too big for Uncle Archie's lap.

We knew Uncle Archie would be coming this weekend but he surprised us by showing up at Quinn's basketball game on Saturday morning. Quinn stopped his play during the game and stood there with his mouth open when he saw him. It was so cute. I wish I would have had my camera!

Snowflakes

Tonight is a cold Friday night. Nate is staying overnight tonight so the boys are busy playing a game downstairs. Madison is staying overnight with B&P and Michelle & Jade. Tony is working. I found these pictures of snowflakes and thought may be you would enjoy them too. Have a good weekend!

These pictures are photos of actual snowflakes that a man by the name of Kenneth Libbrecht took with a photomicroscope and can be viewed at Snow Crystals. Aren't they amazing? It's beyond comprehension to me how no 2 snowflakes are the same. Isn't snow itself a miracle that we overlook every single winter? I guess it is a lesson in the need to just look around ourselves... God's handiwork is everywhere and examples of miracles are regularly occuring incidences...even in the snow!

And Now...

Look below at MAN's attempt at reproducing snow... this is artifical snow. Like the kind they use at ski resorts in times of warmer weather. HA-HA!

Ox Bow Champs

The 5th graders finished their season with an 8-0 record after the tournament championship this afternoon. They won 16-4 after playing East Side. They were pretty excited afterwards! They have a traveling plaque that will have the school's name and year on it and get to keep it at their school for the year.

The top picture is of an excited Madison and Holyn saying good-bye to each other. Madison has a group of really nice friends!

I'm working on the video editing... I just figured out how to get the video into my computer. The editing is slow-going. I might need some more RAM or an external drive or something to speed the process up. Some day you'll get to see the hightlights!

A mother/son picture

We took this of ourselves on the field trip!

"White Christmas" at Amish Acres

This was quite a different Wednesday for us, and a great one at that! School started off with a 2 hour delay due to snow. My guess is that we got 3-4 inches last night. I took a vacation day today because Quinn and I were planning on going to Amish Acres to see the play White Christmas with his class so the 2 hour delay worked OK for us. The kids were outside playing in it and shoveling off the driveway first thing this morning.

The field trip got off to a late start but it still was a great time. We saw an abbreviated version of White Christmas... about an hour long. I would love to see the whole thing. Quinn and I enjoyed it very much. We have really been looking forward to going for several weeks now. He told me on the bus ride there that he really didn't care about the field trip... what he was most happy about was that I got to go with him and that he was looking forward to wrapping our arms together during the play and that he could lay his head down on my shoulder during it. I told him some day he would be bringing a girlfriend to the play and they would be holding hands. He gave me a grossed out look and said "Ewwww!" For now, Mom works. : )

After the play the actors/actresses introduced themselves, said where they were from and entertained questions. Of course nearly every child had his hand raised for a question. Quinn didn't get called on but he wanted to ask the actor from Davenport, IA if he was a hawkeye fan... that would have fit right in there with some of the other questions we heard such as "What is your favorite food?" and "How do you do all of this any way?" We'll just have to assume any good Iowan is a hawkeye fan. ha!

After that we enjoyed a family style dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade bread with apple butter and cookies for dessert. Yum! The place was a buzz with multiple schools there for a sold-out show.

Leading up to the field trip were lessons about etiquette for fine arts performances as well as eating out. The boys were instructed to pull out chairs for the girls/ladies. The picture in the bottom right hand corner in the collage is of Quinn trying to scoot my chair in for me. I had to explain that the ladies actually do the scooting part themselves. The picture at the 6 o'clock position is of Quinn, Nate, their teacher Mrs. Heyse, and good friend Benjamin. The boys looked quite sharp!

So after surviving the ride back in the very last seat on the bus, the field trip was all too quickly over. It was well organized and went smoothly. Days at work go fast... but not this fast!

PS... my Christmas sweater is a bit "loud" for me but Quinn gave it to me for Christmas last year. He remembered it this morning and said it "looks really nice on you!" : )

Ox Bow 24, West Side 5

Tonight was the first game of the 5th grade tournament. It wasn't too hard. : ) I just LOVE not going to games feeling anxious... or even really competitive! ha! Madison scored 6 points and had some good tie-up's for jump balls and a couple of steals. After the game we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper with B&P, Michelle & Jade. Uncle Archie is coming some time this weekend. He is done with his AZ assignment tomorrow I believe. Excitement is beginning to fill the air! : )

Over the weekend Madison was asked "What is the best thing that has happened to you in the last month?" Her answer was that soccer was going to be starting up again after being off for a month. She's a pure soccer girl at heart.

Gingerbread House

Tonight Madison, Quinn and Jade put together the annual gingerbread house. This is a Christmas tradition that they have done with Aunt Michelle for many years now. I'm not even sure how many. I should go back and look through my pictures to see. They had a good time decorating Beppe & Pakka's Christmas tree too. It's really nice to be able to spread some of these traditions out through out the Christmas season. I think the house turned out really good. They keep looking better every year! : )

PS... Blogger is working on the "enlarge picture" problem for all users. When you dbl click on the photo most of us are not able to get pictures to enlarge right now. They are trying to solve it. : )