Acacia's Christmas Concert '07

Well, you sure will not find this at a public school here in Madison - but Acacia performed in her schools Christmas Concert this year. Thanks to Emme's new camera with a zoom - we have photos!

More hockey and horses

After one season of hockey and horse back riding the results are amazing! If you recall from earlier in the blog the first day of hockey and horse back riding compared to this entry. Acacia still totally loves horse back riding but Chris is not so thrilled with hockey. He really likes to skate but the concept of hockey is not winning him over. He really does not want to have anything to do with the hockey stick. In fact, he wants to learn how to ride a horses ... We will see. I hope you can view the two below movies. Enjoy!

Bye to my Fuzzy One...

I knew it had to happen and I was sure hoping it would have been easier ... We had to say good bye to my fuzzy one, little miss Nita. Her hind legs were failing her and with all the snow and ice we've had it was just making her life pretty sad. It is VERY weird being in the house without a dog. Between Ross and Nita we've had at least one dog in the house for over 15 years.

Snow ..... and more snow ...

Sooo, we've been getting a bit of snow lately. This is the most snow this early we've seen in the 11 years we've lived here. It came up on us so early this year we were unable to get any Christmas decorations on the house. Oh well. Guess we will have to make up for it on the inside of the house! Hope everyone is staying warm!

Lost the front tooth!

It's been a long time coming, but she finally lost the front tooth. For whatever reason, she was terribly embarrassed and wept uncontrollably ... But, the tooth fairy brought double the money for this front tooth. Acacia has informed us that the tooth fairy is really "your mom and dad ..." but that Santa and the Easter Bunny are in fact real.

Promega Christmas Party '07

For those paying attention, I've worn the same 2 black dresses to the Promega Christmas party every year for the past ... several years. This year, amongst the chaos that is our daily lives, we all went shopping so I could get the thumbs up or down from Randy (and the kids). Here is what we all agreed on. The party was fun but uneventful this year. We played craps but just never found the right groove. Normally between the two of us we win enough to purchase at least 10+ raffle tickets. This year we won enough for about 4. It snowed the entire day and 350 of the 600 expected guests did not show up for the party and we still did not win. Oh well. It was still fun and I am still ready to hit the real tables in Vegas ... some day.

Ben and Nikki hung with us at the craps table. They did not have the best luck either.

Our craps dealer (Dave) was an old co-worker of mine from my days with Athletics. If I ever go to Vegas, I am taking Dave with me!



The grand prize this year was a trip for two to Paris ... thus the tower ..

More Horseback riding '07

Here we have Acacia and her pony, Danielle.

And, here is a video clip from her 2nd lesson. She is learning how to post. Much more difficult then you would think ....

Thanksgiving '07

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving a little differently. Since our house is kind of a mess (new carpet going in) cooking a big meal was just not something either of really wanted to do. I received an email from the church asking for people to volunteer to "host a table" at the church for internationals to come and celebrate and American Thanksgiving. The night before Thanksgiving we brought to the church a table cloth, place settings for 8 and some table decorations and we set our table. Thanksgiving day, we arrived and slapped on name tags and then greeted internationals and invited them to sit at our table until it was full. This only took asking 3 as 2 were married with children. After everyone was seated (over 300) Randy and I went to the food tables and got the food. We had everything you would expect ... turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin, apple and pecan pie .... you get the idea! Other members of the church donated all the food, cooked it and then cleaned up. All we had to do was take our 8 dirty place settings home and toss them in the dish washer. It was GREAT!! Everyone kept thanking us for "hosting" but really we are the ones that are grateful! We got a great meal and met some neat families and were able to expose them to an American Thanksgiving and the possibility of a relationship with Jesus. It was really a great experience. All our guests ended up being from China so they communicated very well ... with each other. Seriously, we were able to communicate just fine. Here are a couple photos of our group and our table. Hope everyone had a great T-Day!

Halloween '07

Our camera is in the shop and I had a loaner that I could not figure out how to use. But, we did get a couple photos of the night. We ended up at the Kaji's. When it was all said and done we had 4 gallon zip lock baggies filled with candy! mmmm ... that should last a while! Acacia got so much loot that her plastic pumpkin bucket handle broke!

First day of Ice Hockey

Here is a little video clip of Chris' first day of ice hockey. Chris is in the white jersey ... number 5 with a black helmet on. His friend Alex is in a darker jersey (number 4) and Alex's dad, Matt is in the red sweatshirt taking the checks!! I am TOTALLY amazed at how well Chris did on the ice given it was his first time!! You might have to click play twice. Enjoy!



Here are a few photos too.

The other pumpkin patches '07

You can't just go to one pumpkin patch .... I think when it was all said and done we hit a total of 4 this year. We even did two in one day. We also did the Enchanted Forest with Rachel and Braden. This ended with a horse wagon ride in which Chris made himself right at home. Click the link to see the slide show of all the activities.

Slide show of Pumpkin Patches'07

The First Pumpkin Patch '07

As usually, we will hit about 4-5 different fall festivals and this was the first. We have never been to this place but heard it was great. It is called Peck's. Not to be confused with Heck's which is within 5 miles of Peck's on the same county road. We made arrangements to meet up with some friends at Peck's. I lost my cell service once we got into farm land and was unable to call them. We arrived at Peck's and could not find them. After at least 20+ minutes of searching for them I begged (and paid) to use Peck's phone. I called the friends only to find out they were "right out front, selecting a pumpkin ..." We confirmed that we were both at Peck's and not Heck's. I hung up the phone and went to find them. Still, no luck. As it turns out, there are two Peck's and a Heck's all within 10 miles of each other. Once we finally caught up with them we were able to take advantage of the haunted house, massive animal farm, jumper/bouncer things, and all the other fall festival stuff one would expect to find at one of these places. Then we had lunch and went to the other Peck's for even more fun. Train rides and covered wagon rides. This place also had the most amazing pheasant. It looked more like a parrot with all the colors it had. Amazing. More festival photos to come ....

Horse riding '07

We've talked about it all summer. Today we went to a different horse farm and meet Sharon. As it turns out, Sharon is my chiropractors mother in law! Sharon has horses and teaches riding. Acacia got to groom and ride a pony names Danielle. We will most likely start lessons the first of Nov.

Apple picking '07

Our first outing this fall .. picking apples. Eplegaarden is right down the road from us. I know Emme and Nono have been with us once and Auntie Valerie has also been here. It was just me and the kids this time. We picked apples, raspberries and grapes. We went on a haunted adventure and a kiddie corn maze. Also a cool wagon ride. We all had a great time and I made them do the work.
Click the link to see all the fun.

Slide show of Apple Picking '07

Sept / Oct '07

So, it's been a little while since I updated you all. Life is still crazy and non stop. Here is a little summary. Auntie Valerie came for a quick visit and brought us Grandma and Grandpa's oat dining room table and 8 chairs! The visit was not a surprise but the delivery of the table sure was! Once we get our house back together (it did not sell and will drop off the market 10/17/07) we will have that table set up in the sunroom so we can actually feed more then 4 people at a time at the same table!! Val's visit was really nice and low key. It was very cool to have her around and actually not be running all over doing stuff. Here is a photo of Auntie Valerie reading to the kids. Remember you can click on any photo to see it larger.

Acacia is back into fall soccer and doing just fine. But, this session she just does not seem to have the "on fire" attitude she did over the past year. Even her coach is asking me what is going on. Sure wish I knew. But, she does still enjoy playing and wants to continue.

Next, Randy decided Chris needed an outlet ... so Chris is now signed up for ice hockey. Twice a week for 45 minutes. He will be learning how to skate and they are telling us it's better he learn with full gear. He now has hockey skates, shin guards, "breezer" hockey pants, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey gloves, a helmet and full mask. His first time on the ice will be Monday 10/15/07 and he will also receive a hockey jersey then. Once he is fully suited up we will take a photo. In the meantime, this is all he will let us put on him.