IIHF Under-18

Tim and I went to the and the first USA game at the UP Center last week. What a great event to be hosted by Fargo-Moorhead. Tim and the boys spend Friday and Saturday going to games while the girls were away!

one question...

If they had time to build a tower with the dirty dishes... wouldn't they have had time to put them in the dishwasher?

Our daughter...the filmmaker

So this weekend(actually she did it all on Saturday), Katelyn decided she would come up with an idea for a short film, shoot it (with my little point-and-shoot camera that I didn't even know could shoot video), upload it to the computer, learn how to use a video editing program on the computer, and publish it on YouTube. She had some very fabulous actors and actresses to work with...I can just imagine the amounts of bribery and threats that went on before the making of this film!

Check it out on her blog....

Who knew?

I have been reading MckMama's blog for almost a year now. I found it through another blog I read faithfully... Angie Smith's. While reading her blog which details life with her MSC (many small children), I would notice that MckMama (aka Jennifer) would often mention how they lived near the frozen tundra, but all her blog states is that they are from the Midwest.

Her youngest child [they also have three older children age 4, 2 & 1] was a miracle when he was born, but was healthy for his first several months of life. Then a little over a week ago, her baby boy became very sick and has been in the hospital perplexing all the doctors ever since. Thousands and thousands (if not more by now!) have been spreading the word about praying for this very sick little baby named Stellan.

Here is a photo (taken from Jennifer's blog) of Stellan just a couple of days before he got sick...

And here is is just a few days ago...

And tonight, a television station did a news story on this sweet family and their amazing mama and this special little boy... and guess what? They live in Minnesota and Stellan is being cared for at the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Here is the link to Stellan's Story. What a small world. In case you have not heard of her before (but I find that rather hard to believe) meet MckMama.

state hockey fun

We had such a great weekend at the State Hockey Tournament. It was made even better by two exciting wins by the Spuds. Even though they didn't win the championship, we were ALL so proud of them!
In addition to watching plenty of hockey, the kids spent their time swimming, playing knee-hockey, riding shuttles to the games, attending the hockey EXPO, and staying up until 2am to run around the hotel with their friends. I'm sure that the security guards are VERY glad that the weekend is over and we have all checked out. On the way to the championship game the kids thought it was so funny to chant all the new cheers they had learned (some... not so appropriate) from the crowd.

The team came over to our hotel for a reception following Saturday nights' game. There were people filling the main floor and lining the balconies cheering for our Spuds.

Carter and #14, Trent Johnson. Trent was selected as a member of the All-Tournament team, and also was the recipient of the Herb Brooks award this year.

Go Spuds

All six of us are off to the state hockey tournament in St. Paul tomorrow. The Spuds beat Roseau last week to make it into the tournament. This photo is from that game... the boys are watching the players receive medals after their big win. [I also totally stole this pic from Rick Westra... thanks Rick!]

Annie

Katelyn was in Horizon Middle School's production of "Annie" this weekend. The performance was just incredible and we are so proud of her! The kids started practices last fall and spent many nights and weekends putting it all together.

Katelyn was in three different parts of the play... she was a "Hooverville Hobo", a servant at the Warbucks mansion, and a New York City townsperson.

Katelyn is the maid at the top of stairs on the left.And she is the one pushing the baby buggy!

Squirt International

Carter's hockey team played in the big Squirt International hockey tournament in Fargo this weekend. They won the championship for their bracket. Carter had the flu the day before it started and missed the first game, but came back strong and scored two goals this weekend. Congrats bud!

Each player got a door sign for their front door...

A big part of this tournament is pin trading. There were 112 teams and each team has their own pin, so the players (and siblings, and sometimes parents) spend the weekend trading pins with each other.

what we've been up to

Here are some photos from the last month...
Carter and Cooper at the Science Academy put on by Concordia students at their school.Cooper and his friend Riley at their brothers' hockey game.Carter had a tournament in White Bear Lake last weekend. They won the consolation championship and got this cool polar bear trophy and medals. They also won the hot dog eating contest and got a trophy with a hot dog on it!

Carter and Griffin
Kennedy and Kenzie had fun swimming at the hotel and got to go to the new American Girl store at the Mall of America!

***I need to thank Karla and Cindy for the pics since AGAIN I proved to be in the running for worst mother of the year and didn't have a camera along.

sometimes i forget...

to tell my kids how much I appreciate them. This is how they leave their rooms.... EVERY morning. And while I'm at it... I forget to tell my husband how much I appreciate that it has been his job for as long as I can remember to wake the kids up EVERY morning. Whether I'm at the gym, or still in bed(like this morning).

Hey family... your momma appreciates you!

life with Emme...

is so much sweeter.

p.s.... isn't her new pink sweatshirt the cutest?

this room

is less like a dining room, and a LOT more like a locker room.

babes

Kennedy went to the school dance last Friday with her friend Kenzie. They both dressed up in these super cute black dresses and spent most the night... standing by their moms. Huh.

Carter

Our little No. 5 had a tournament for his squirt team last weekend and I put a little slideshow together for the team. I'm having some technical difficulties getting it to load directly to the blog so.....Click here to watch it!

A whole month...

has passed since I last posted. As you can imagine, I've been busy with all of the undertakings required to prepare for Christmas. Not to mention trying to keep up with a business where December is the absolute craziest month... right up UNTIL Christmas. Thankfully... I've been able to spend the last few days away from the craziness. The break was definitely welcome.

Here are some photos from Christmas 2008...

Tim put a rink in our backyard this year... turns out it is kind of a lot of work! Here he is trying to get all the snow off of it!

Kennedy visiting with her cousins on Christmas Eve!