january fun

On MLK Day, the 18th, Nick went to the roller rink! His DARE program (that he's doing at school) held a free skating party for all DARE students. Nick had never been roller skating before (though he's ice skated several times). I was hoping to get a picture of him skating when I came to pick him up, but he'd already taken his skates off, so I had to settle for these two pictures instead....
He had a good time, though, and said that he and his friend Jordan skated around the rink 21 times before their feet hurt too much to skate anymore!

Nick came down for breakfast one morning last week dressed like this, and it cracked me up! Dinosaur jammie top, way-too-small polar bear jammie bottoms, his plaid robe, moose hat, and monster slippers... too funny! Since then, the hat and slippers have made regular appearances at breakfast-time ~ Nick says they help keep him warm:
On the 23rd, we went to my godson David's 4th birthday party (with a train theme). Of course, Benjamin loved it! The rest of us had a good time, too. :) Here are the two buddies, David and Ben:
The awesome train cake that Karen made:
Steve and Karen watch David open gifts:
Time for cake!
Yum!
Ben enjoyed helping David try out his new toys:
The kids received an amaryllis bulb and flower pot for Christmas. They have been taking good care of it, and it finally bloomed last week. Beautiful!


I can't believe that January is almost over now! Didn't we JUST celebrate New Year's?

the birthday boy and more

On the 12th, Nick and I made our traditional snowman cookies for him to take to school the next day, for birthday treats. This year, though, instead of using orange icing for the carrot noses, we used candy corn. I think the snowmen turned out cute! :) On the 13th, Ben helped me pick out balloons for Nick. There wasn't a big selection of animal balloons, but since Nick likes Nemo, we went with these:
The kids and I went to church on the evening of Nick's birthday, for drama/dinner/handbells. When we got back home, Nick opened his gifts:

Shortly after that, Nick's best friend Jordan stopped by with more gifts!
We invited Jordan and his mom to stay for cake:
This year Nick picked lemon-lime cake, with orange sherbet to go with it, yum! Here's the birthday boy (and the toy spider Jordan gave him to scare his sister with!):


Later on, Nick wanted to play charades. This is him and Ben acting out one of their words:
I always take a picture of the birthday person with each family member:



On the 14th, Nick's school held their winter holiday concert. (It was supposed to be in December, but got postponed due to bad weather.) Here is Nick (with Jordan) before the show:
The 5th graders sing:

For their last song (Feliz Navidad), Nick and a few others played instruments:
On the 15th, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for a belated birthday dinner. My friend Dawn and her friend Larry joined us!

Watching the fish is one of the kids' favorite parts of going to this restaurant:
Dawn gave Nick a walrus Webkinz for his birthday. He loves it! (Thanks, Miss Dawn!!): Waiting for dinner to arrive:
After dinner, we ordered a volcano cake, and the staff sang happy birthday to Nick:
It was a fun evening! :)
On the 16th, Emmalie went snow tubing with a friend at our local ski hill. I couldn't get any photos of her tubing (I would've had to pay admission), but did snap this one before she got started:
Apparently it was foggy on Sat. evening, and when we were leaving for church yesterday, everything was covered with a thick frost. My pictures don't really do it justice ~ the trees were beautiful!



Today the kids are enjoying their day off from school. Happy MLK Day, everyone!

eleven

I'm not really sure how it happened so quickly, but somewhere along the way, my baby boy grew up! Eleven years ago, we welcomed Nicholas Evan into our family:

And our family wouldn't be the same without him. I couldn't ask for a sweeter, kinder son, and Nick also manages to be smart, hilarious, and fun to be with, all at the same time! Happy birthday, Nick!! I hope that you will have a blast being 11!

a new year

It's hard to believe that it's a new year already. Wow. 2010.

We spent New Year's with our friends Steve, Karen, David, Jason, and Tracy. (All except Emm... she spent the night with one of her friends instead.) As always, we had fun celebrating with them! :)

Ben was very excited when Karen said she would show him their new trains: Tracy, David, and Ben:
Ben opens his Christmas gift from Steve, Karen, and David ~ a firetruck! :
The boys didn't have any problem staying up till midnight! Here's Benjamin welcoming 2010 with sparkling grape juice in one hand and a noisemaker in the other:
Nick doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, LOL, but he was having fun like the rest of us:
The girls... Tracy, me, and Karen:
The guys... Jason, Steve, George, David, Nick, and Ben:
On the 2nd, we traveled to Mendota so that George and I could attend Aunt Donna's visitation and funeral. After the visitation, we went to Grandma's, and had a belated Christmas with Mom, Dad, and Christine. Here Grandma looks on while Ben opens a gift:
Nick:
Emmalie:
Aunt Bernice and Dad:
The first week of the new year was a really long one. Besides the funeral, we also dealt with the stomach flu and general feelings of ickiness, a furnace that stopped working on one of the coldest days of the season, and, after it was fixed, another problem with the furnace that caused the filter to melt/burn! It is all fixed and keeping us warm now, though.

We got some new snow on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday the 9th, the boys went out to play in it....

A few of the many icicles hanging off our roof:

Cold, but pretty!:
The snowplow makes a mini sledding hill for us every year. The boys had a blast climbing up it and sliding down:




The start of a new year always makes me think of things I want to accomplish in the coming 12 months. Here are a few of my goals for 2010:

1. Scrap more than I did last year!
2. Write at least weekly, if not daily
3. Finish the book I'm writing
4. Submit more of my writing
5. Respond to emails in a timely fashion ~ something I am not good at!
6. Send more snail mail... cards and letters
7. Get back to the gym
8. Lose weight. Again.
9. Organize all my scrap supplies, something I've needed to do for years now!
10. Put my layouts in the many albums I've bought that are just sitting empty

I could go on and on, LOL, but those are the main ones I'm concentrating on at the moment.

Wishing everyone a very happy 2010! I think we all could use a good year for a change....