Russell's 39th Birthday

Russell's birthday was nice and relaxing.  Church was cancelled due to the bad ice storm, so we all got to stay in jammies and just chill.  The kids helped me make breakfast in bed.  We did french toast with fruit.  Cannon could hardly wait to open presents so we did that right away.  Then Russ just got to read in bed for awhile.  We watched movies and enjoyed spending the day together at home.  For dinner I attempted chicken parmesan.  It was good, but not great like my MIL's.  I guess I'll have to try again.  We ended the night with a yummy cake.  Happy Happy Birthday Russell!

The Maggie Smile

                                                             Ooooooo, just love this girl!

Wrestling Around

Cannon and Hunter like to wrestle and play rough with each other.  They are all boy!

Hanging Out

Audrey likes to hold Maggie.  She is a good helper for me.

Coral also loves to hold Maggie.  These two have adorable smiles!

Cannon loves to just hang out!  He's so silly!

Bridges of Madison County

We went to lunch group this week and they went to a cafe in Winterset, IA.  It is in Madison County, which was made famous from the movie The Bridges of Madison County.  The cafe we went to was even in the movie!  I watched the movie in college but wasn't impressed, I don't even think I finished it.  BUT I was very excited to learn the Madison County is the county right next to us and Winterset is only like a half hour away.

The town of Winterset was really cute and I want to go back and explore some of the shops and things to do there.  They had a beautiful courthouse that Coral insisted was her castle.  The rest of the day she was a princess and wanted to go to her castle.  She even said there was a froggy in the pond!  When Russell came home she told him that he was the prince and that he should take her to the castle.  Where does she come up with this?  Can't wait to go back!

After lunch we stopped at a covered bridge on our way home.  It was really old and really neat!  We walked across it.  The water was frozen below us and Cannon wanted to go ice skating.  I think if it hadn't been 25 degrees we would have stayed longer.

I really want to go to the tourism office and get a map of the area with the other covered bridges.  I think they would be fun to see! 

Future Tiger

I took Hunter to the Boys High School Basketball game on Tuesday night.  It was a good game, and Hunter was impressed with how well they could shoot.  During half-time they had all of the parks and rec. league come out onto the court.  Each team walked out with their coaches and the audience applauded for them.  The announcer called them the "Future Tigers".  It was a great moment where I felt like a part of the community. 

 I wonder if I'll be watching Hunter playing basketball on this court in the future...

2 Months

Maggie had her 2 month check-up yesterday.  She's 2 1/2 months old now, and we feel like she's been a part of our family forever.  She was definitely meant to come to us!

She is now 24 inches (91% percentile)

13 lbs. 7 oz. (81% percentile)

and Head Circumference is 17 which is the 99% percentile

This girl has one big melon!

We sure love her big kissable cheecks and roly poly squishy body!  She's so fun to cuddle and her smiles are the best!

Pinewood Derby

Hunter and Dad working on polishing the axels, the key to victory.

Waiting for the race to begin.  So excited! 

He didn't make it to the finals, but did win the Most Futeristic Car!

He had a lot of fun and is already planning his car for next year!  The Pinewood Derby is such a fun Cub Scout event.  The boys really enjoy making their cars and then watching them race.  This race was set up really well.  Everything was organized and decorated nicely.  After a small glitch with the computer, everything ran smoothly.  For dessert there was "spare tires and motor oil" (mini doughnuts and grape juice).  There was also an area for little kids with a car mat and cars to play with and coloring with car themed pages.  

Way to go Hunter! We are proud of you!

Monster Jam

We went to Monster Jam on Friday night.  It was AWESOME! I've really been wanting to go ever since I took Isaac and Hunter when Audrey was just a baby.  So its been six long years, but it was worth the wait.  This was so fun!  Russ said I might be a little "redneck" but I don't care. Coral is showing her "grumpy" face because the trucks got kinda loud.

 I love it when the monster trucks go flying in the air.  Its so cool!  The girls loved the "puppy" truck.  They played "Who Let The Dogs Out" whenever it was racing and the boys sang along.

Gravedigger is always a hit!

This guy flipped!  He was fine and his truck didn't have any damage.  They had to bring a tractor out to flip it back over.  Coral said "Yeah tractor!"

I'm not sure why I can't get this picture to flip, sorry! I had to add it though to show my big smiling face.  I had a blast! And despite the fact we wouldn't buy them anything extra ($15 for cotton candy with a truck shaped hat) the kids and Russell loved it too.  It was a really fun night! Its so fun to do things together and make memories.

Basketball

Hunter decided to try basketball this year.  He's number 9.  This was from his first game.  He's doing really good, he just needs to work on his offense, defense is great!  Its nice to be in a gym instead of out in the elements to watch him play!

Resolution

I really can't believe that I haven't done anything with this blog for so long.  I used to love to write in it and post my pictures and best of all get comments.  Feedback on the experiences that I was having.  I guess then I got introduced to Facebook and then I only had to write a sentence or two, post a picture and then I'd get INSTANT feedback and a lot more of it.  So I slowly stopped blogging.  I also got busy and behind.  I'd tell myself that being behind didn't matter, but I realy didn't want to lose all of those memories.  So I'd try to catch up.  I loved getting it all down, but by then my few followers weren't following and I lost most of my commentors.  Life got more busy and I just didn't blog.

I'm not really a big New Year's Resolution kind of person, but I'm really feeling like I need to get back into blogging.  My blog is about my family and I really want to remember all the things that are happening in our busy fun life right now.  So my resolution is to make blogging a prioity.  To put down my memories while they are still fresh in my mind.  To not worry about comments.  To just make a record of my family.  These kids grow up so fast and I don't want to miss out.