Mike's birthday

Mike had a "big" birthday in June but has been talking of an even bigger birthday and celebration for next year.  His parents did not come up to celebrate as some or all of us were gone every weekend in June.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Wow!  I found this as a draft from 2010.  Look at how tiny and cute David is!  I love his two little teeth in the bottom picture.

Attention-Getter

My husband has decided that he has not been getting enough attention so on top of his emergency room trip the other night, he sliced his wrist and had to get stitches Monday at work. I would think there are other ways to get attention...by doing it this way, he has become a pin cushion. Poor guy!

Mike's Birthday

We needed more candles than I could fit on Mike's blueberry cheesecake for his birthday so I just put a few on it. He's still full of hot air. :)




His parents came up Saturday to visit and also took us out to eat. They left for home Sunday after church.

Visitors

Mike's parents are up visiting for his birthday. They stopped by and left some stuff and visited. We had blueberry cheesecake with lots of candles. Poor David...when Mike blew out the candles, he started to cry. He wanted to blow them out so I had to re-light one for him when he got his piece, which made him happy.


After all of that, we headed to town. We met Mike's parents and they took us out to eat. We went to the pool for a while after that. Later on this morning, we will have church, a lunch, and then they will head home while I take Tracy and Emily to a picnic in Roseau for their Bible Bee group. I am hoping to squeeze a nap in before youth group tonight! :)

David Walking

David has been taking lots of steps since September 20, when he took the first two to Mike. Here is a clip of how he has progressed since then.

Itasca State Park

We finally made it to the state park with the youngest two kids.

David at the base of the tower. Because of the HUGE amount of people and limit of six on the tower at a time, I didn't even bother trying to take him up. Had he been awake, I would have considered it.
Laura climbed all the way up.


David at one of the pine trees.


Crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi River...






Trying again...

Mike's Birthday

Mike got two pairs of pants and Whoppers for his birthday.

I made him a cake, forgetting we had ordered a strawberry cheesecake blizzard cake for his birthday. I put a bunch of candles on, not counting, and found out later that I had put 43 of the 45 on. (I should have just opened another box since it was so close...)


CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!!!!!

Sharing his birthday with Facebook friends...

Group Christmas 2009 Picture

Here's a picture of the whole group that got together from my side of the family. I did not edit out the red eyes. :)

17 Years and Counting

We celebrated our anniversary yesterday. Mike brought home flowers for me, and a meal was made for us by a friend.

Three and Four Generations

Denise, Shelly, and David

Denise, Darrell, and David

Judi, Jim, and David

Jim, Mike, and David

Ray and David

Ray, Judi, Mike, and David

Ula's Memory Quilt

My mom, Mary, Tracy, and Keren all had a hand in making a memory quilt for Ula out of old clothes that were very special to her. She was able to tell us what each piece of material came from, and the smile of delight in the third picture tells it all...

Pinata

Becky C. and Becky M. made a paper mache pinata for the kids, and it was quite a highlight of the weekend. Each of the children took a turn at giving it a whack to make candy, stickers, pencils, erasers, and other fun things fall out of it.



Once Aaron's turn came, Jeff had to make it a little more difficult for him...

...hmm...no wonder he couldn't give it a good whack! :)



Grandma had to show Bailey and Laura how to whack it. I just love that smile on Bailey's face.

Soccer

Here's Jason on the field.


Our soccer season went well even though it was a wild time. You would not think that three hours three times a week in the evening plus games a couple times a week some weeks would really make that much of a difference in a schedule, but it does (did.)

I found myself having to figure out really quick suppers (if any at all) plus a snack for in the car on the way to/from games and after the practices since the kids were always starving. I obviously didn't do as well as I thought I did because when we got our monthly bills I noticed a LOT of fast-food bills and bills from "Holiday" purchasing more than just gas.

I did do better with the water bottles this year though. I don't think I bought any unplanned water purchases. We froze ice in Juicy Juice jugs and smaller bottles we picked up and kept them ready to go in the freezer. We'd just have to grab them, fill them with water the rest of the way, and run. I think we did have around 15 to keep on top of things though. :)

Here's a blurry picture of Jason in the car; I liked his smile in this picture.

Tracy and Aaron each got goals in games, and Jason had a couple chances. I liked the one goal of Aaron's, which I call the "karate-chop" goal. The ball came flying in from the corner, and he just kind of kicked it sideways into the net. It totally looked to me like he was just trying to push it away from himself, not intentionally making a goal. He got "yelled" at from his coach for that move because he didn't trap the ball first, but in another game when a similar chance came, his coach said he should have done the karate-chop kick again. I really had to laugh when Tracy told that to me!!!!!

Aaron's in the car, trying to ignore the camera on the way to a game.



The wrap-up games went well. I was banned from playing since they didn't want to deliver a baby, but Mike made two goals against the senior team. The parents won against both the juniors and the seniors. I think this is the first year I've known the parents to beat the seniors. After those two games we had potluck snacks. Lots of people liked the blueberry muffin bread I made, and one lady took most of the rest of the loaf of regular bread I had made home. We got traded some bars, apples, and cookies in exchange. I only brought healthy stuff this year so it was leftover. :)

Tracy on the field; she did an excellent job of forward this year and made several good moves and passes.


Mike and his team on the sideline.



We played against two other teams at our fields and their fields. One town is 1 1/2 hours away and the other is 1 3/4 hours away. During the tournaments, the senior team got second place and the juniors got third place. Next year Emily gets to be on the team if we're doing soccer again and she wants to play.