I started a new little guy this week so now I have a two-month-old, a six-month-old, a one-year 
old, three 2-year olds, and a 3-year old. These are some photos I took of the new baby with his big sister today. I love taking pictures of my daycare kids for their parents.... it's good practice if I ever decide to take everybody's advice and start a photography business!
It's hard to resist Little Miss K! Her friend Matthew is on her hockey team and has fallen hard for our girl. I think he has been benched since he told the coach, "Tim, I'm in love with your daughter!" Yesterday he left a bracelet he made for her in her cubby at school. Yikes!
The Spuds won a Big One last night against Roseau. We already have our hotel reservations for the State Hockey tournament in March so we are hoping they make it...and win it this year.
On Saturday the boys got to go in the locker room after the game and came out with huge smiles and hockey sticks from their favorite player, Sean Ambrosie!
The boys had so much fun watching the video of their hockey game from this weekend. Of course daddy had to throw in a few pointers about how to improve their game!
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Cooper was preparing for his big debut as goalie this weekend while Carter was studying for his math "time" test. Cooper passed his test right away, so he got to play. Carter's didn't go so smoothly and after he screamed, cried and told us how dumb he thought math was, mom and dad had to have the "No Pass...No Play" chat with him. He wasn't easily convinced that if you don't get good grades in your classes you don't get to play on the team!
We had a busy weekend of hockey with the mid-season jamboree for all three kids. I just threw all the hockey equipment in the washing machine this morning...it was getting pretty stinky after half a season of play. There is no school today and I took the day off, so the kids all got to have sleepovers last night. Our good friends have kids that are the same ages as ours, so we love getting together with them because then everybody has somebody to play with! Last night the girls all stayed at our house and the boys went over to their house. .jpg)
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Kennedy braved the frigid temperatures in her jammies this morning to get her mama the paper!
Cooper's favorite thing to do is play outside. He has really enjoyed our warm winter so far (even though we could use a little more snow.) Today it finally got cold...but not too cold for Cooper. He was outside all by himself this afternoon driving the trike around the cul-de-sac. So funny!
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It was an abs
olute gorgeous day at the lake today...even if it was a little brown. We had a friendly little hockey game on the lake, lots of food, and lots of fun (thanks Uncle Mike and Auntie Sheri!) and finished off the day with some "Catch Phrase" where Katelyn had to give clues to explain the place VIRGIN ISLANDS!
It's Christmas Eve and here are a few photos of the fun we've already had...stay tuned for more!
My sweet daycare kiddos at our Christmas party.
We did Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday and the best gift of the day was the Deal or No Deal game that we played all afternoon! It got pretty intense...there were even a few tears when the $1,000,000 case was opened!
Tim went out to do his Christmas shopping today. Then he came home to do his wr
apping. Here is a cute photo of my gift next to his gift! :) Click to enlarge to get the full effect.
The house is decorated, all the shopping is completed, the gifts are all equal in number and wrapped beneath the tree, the Christmas cards are out, daycare is done for the year and the big family Christmas party was a success, the baking is done (yah right, like I bake), the kids are staying overnight and Grandma and Grandpa's and Tim and I are going out for dinner! Life is good.
The Wild is one of my favorites. They won yesterday. It was 7 to 2 it said on the radio. Marion Gaborik his number is 10.
My favorite team is the Gophers. They're in first place. They haven't lost a game yet and that is good.
The Hurricanes are another favorite of mine because of Matt Cullen. His number was 8 for the Hurricanes.
The Spuds are another favorite of mine because I live in Moorhead. (This is Sean Ambrosie.)
We have been having a lot of "It's not fair!" complaints at our house lately. Yesterday it was because the neighbor girl asked Cooper to play inside her house. (They usually just play outside together so it's a real treat when you get to play inside!) Carter immediately assumed that he should get to go too, but since Cooper had already been outside playing with the neighbor while Carter was inside shooting pucks (as usual) I said he couldn't go this time. It was tantrum city, but because I was busy with daycare kids, I didn't have time to deal with it. So, a few hours later while I was making supper I realized I hadn't seen Carter since he stormed off. I looked all over the house for him and finally had to ask Kennedy if she had seen him. She said, "I dunno, last time I saw him he was crying under the Christmas tree." So I looked under the tree...no Carter. But behind the couch, under the sofa table tucked away in the corner was poor Carter. It stinks when life isn't fair!
I took the day off today...a middle of December mental health day I guess. So when I have rare day off and the kids have school, I like to give them a ride and walk them in to school to get just a glimpse of what they do everyday. I found it so interesting the different ways my kids reacted to this. Once we got in the doors, Carter yelled, "Bye Mom!" over his shoulders and he was off! Cooper and I walked down to his locker, talking the whole way. He got his things out of his bag and showed me his locker and had me help him carry his things into his classroom. He showed me his desk, let me look around, talk to his teacher and asked if I could come back at lunch time. Then when I was leaving he gave me a big hug and yelled (in front of his friends) "I love you mom!" When it was time to walk Kennedy to her class she said, "Mother, you are not coming with me, how embarrassing!"
The kids performed in the Sunday School Christmas program at our church this afternoon. This was Katelyn's last program as it only goes up to sixth grade..she had a speaking part and sang with a group. It was a big discussion at our house this week whether or not Carter and Cooper would be in the program or play in their hockey game which was scheduled for the same time. Cooper even gave up his turn at being goalie this week to be in the program. (He couldn't turn down another
chance to wear his shirt and tie! Notice that Carter chose to wear no tie and his shirt untucked...oh well.)
Grandma Sandi sent the girls these fun dresses this week in the mail. After the program we were treated to a nice dinner at the Speak Easy by Grandma and G
randpa.
It looks like one of our boys is worried that Santa might confuse his stocking with one of his sisters and slip some lip gloss inside! Now he is sure to get only "boy" stuff!
Carter was in the net this weekend for his hockey team. He had 22 saves and let in 5 goals. He says he wants some goalie pads for Christmas. Carter's favorite thing to do is play knee hockey in the living room with dad. He is constantly asking: "Wanna shoot on me dad?"
It is no small task to air out the hockey gear of three children. The "M" signs are by the boys--they are for the Moorhead Spuds and Minnesota Gophers. In case you wanted to catch a game this weekend all three kids play at the youth rink tomorrow...Kennedy at 3:30 and the boys at 3:45!
Since I got a complaint today about my slacking on the blog I thought I'd better post a few updates on what we've been up to! Tim has been teaching the kids how to play Texas Hold 'Em.
Kennedy and the boys have been busy with lots of hockey practices and games. Tonight Kennedy played at the Sports Center and the boys played at the Youth Arena at the same time. Mom went to one game, and dad went to the other. Next weekend we will have to switch because they have games at the same time again. Seems like we have a lot of that in our future.
The kids have a new "check system" behavior plan. Each check carries a consequence .jpg)
and if your checks total more than five by the end of the day.... let's just say it's not a good situation. It seems to be working all right; except for our Thanksgiving trip to the cities when they fought almost constantly. We were treated to Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's and Ryan, Ann and the girls came. Baby # 3 should be here in a few weeks! This weekend we decorated for Christmas and the kids hung up all their ornaments. This year's choices were a Wild hockey puck for Carter, a sparkly guitar for Cooper, a school bus for Kennedy and a watermelon slice for Katelyn. The kids have also been working on their Christmas lists, but I am not going to post them this year since last year they got duplicates of everything. I have done a little Christmas shopping, but am hoping to get a good start on it this week...in addition to hockey practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, church activities on Wednesday and a Spud hockey game on Thursday.
The worst part about the day after Halloween is that after my kiddies are up and off to school I am left to face four huge bags of candy staring at me all day. It takes will power minute after minute to not dig in and eat every last Butterfinger in their stash. Unfortunately, we have so much candy that this struggle could continue for the next few weeks. Should I just let them eat it all so that I can't? Should I throw it all in the garbage so no one has to face the temptation? What's a mother with a bad chocolate habit to do?
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