Kaila's Winter Guard Competition

Kaila had a winter guard competition hosted by her school today. They did a great job and did something no other winter guard has ever done be for. They put lights on their flags!!! There had always been a rule that you could not have anything battery operated on the floor, until recently when they lifted this rule. Kaila didnt tell me they were doing this, so it was a complete surprise to me and the rest of the audience! It was so cool!


This picture is kind of blurry, but the one above it show her with the rifle in the air.










This is a picture of the guard with the lights on their flags. Kind of hard to see since it was bright in the gym, but still looked neat.








Kaila catching her rifle.









At the beginning of the program.

Happy 15th Birthday, Kelli!

Happy 15th Birthday to Kelli Ann! I can't believe that she is 15 already!



She ordered chicken parmagean for dinner and a yellow cake with chocolate icing.








Opening presents.























When I went to the store to pick up the candles, I accidentally picked up a "1" and a "3". Good thing I noticed it before I completed the check out!

2010 Winter Snow Storm

It started to snow here around 2:00 this afternoon. Originally we were in the "dusting to 1 inch" accumulation. That has since changed. After 3 hours we had one inch and it is still coming down pretty hard.

We didnt have school today as it was a planned teacher work day, kids off, but most of the schools south of us canceled yesterday!!




Eddie was outside almost as soon as it started. Kelli went out for a little while when she found out her gymnastic class was canceled for the day.

Kaila went out for a little bit too. It is a wet snow so she kept getting it on her glasses!

Eddie managed to build a snowman, but it was a little lopsided and didnt last long.

He started making the snowball on the deck but it got too heavy and he had to take it off the deck before he couldnt lift it any more!!

Happy 13th Birthday, Eddie!

Eddie turned 13 on January 6th. He was so excited about this birthday that he started to count down for it in November!! The reason for the excitement...he got a cell phone!!

This is the first time in several years that he had to go to school on his birthday! Usually we are still on break. So he had to wait until that evening to open presents!

Another Lego to put together!!!

For his birthday dinner he ordered T bone steaks, baked potatoes and cherry chip cake with vanilla frosting. Hard to believe he is 13!

Christmas 2009

A few pictures for you from Christmas 2009

Eddie got a lego kit to make this front loader from Judy and Marty. It had over 1000 pieces. He put it together in 3 days! He did a good job.






As usual we went to church on Christmas Eve afternoon and then came home and opened presents from Grammy, Pop, Aunts and Uncles.


































Ed and I got the kids a new Wii game, Ultimate Party Challange.










Ethel is all ready for Santa to come!













The kids helped me cut out the sugar cookies. Each child cuts out one gingerbread man and then the rest is their choice of the Christmas cookie cutters.













Unfortunately we still have not decorated the sugar cookies. I guess we will have to do that this week!













Eddie even tried his hand at rolling the dough out and did a good job.













Eddie was a big help with baking most of the cookies with me. He did alot of the scooping, moving around in the oven and taking off of the cookie sheet.

















Shelley came a couple of days before Christmas to spend it with Dustin. How do you like Eds hat? Helps to keep his bald head warm. He now shaves his head every day. Just like Pat!







Cheers to everyone for a very Healthy Happy New Year!

Fred the Elf has Returned

Fred, our mischievous elf has returned for another Christmas season with us. Eddie wrote a couple of notes to Santa asking for him to come back to us. Since Fred is one of Santas best elves he was busy helping Santa and his returned was delayed. But two nights ago, he returned!

The first morning Eddie found him hiding behind the Nesquik in the cupboard.






This morning Fred was hiding again and Eddie had a hard time finding him! He was hiding in the freezer!! He was a little cold when he came out, but he did have a hat on, so at least he is a smart elf!









I took a couple more pictures of the tree with out the kids in front of it so you could see the whole tree. We have tons of ornaments on it and even some that we dont put on it because there is no room. Every year I threaten to get another smaller tree to put up, but I have not done it yet!

Here is the tree in the dark with just the lights on. We did multi colored lights this year.

Christmas Tree Decorating

We put up our tree yesterday and put the lights and garland on it yesterday, but Kelli was not feeling well, so we did the ornaments today. The kids did a good job with them.

Ed always puts the angel on top!

Kelli decorating the tree.

Eddie decorating the tree.

Kaila decorating the tree.