Well my friend Mary has Tagged me. Yes, It's like the kid's game, except we "big kids" play with computers, it involves a lot less running and you never know when you might be tagged. Anyway, for this tag. I had to go to my 6th photo folder and choose the 6th photo. I went to the June folder of last year and found this photo of Ben. It's a bit blurry, but it really does capture his smile perfectly. I am totally in love with that smile. Ben loves life, he is silly and free spirited. This photo is so him. Now to pass my tag along.... Jen,Kristina, Trish, Rachel
Ok ladies, we want to see your 6th photo. Thanks for playing with me.

For those of you who have known me for awhile, you know that I have a little obsession with Plastic, specifically Tupperware. I was invited to a Tupperware party this evening. The boys went to Hockey practice and Nadia came with me. Talk about reinforcing gender roles! Oh well, it's never to early to teach the importance of good quality kitchen items.

What a fun and crazy weekend. We left Ames at about 2 pm on Friday afternoon. We arrived in Dubuque at about 5pm that evening. We had just enough time to check into our hotel room, eat a sandwhich and head to the Rink for the opening ceremonies of this Year's Iowa Games. The opening ceremonies include a parade of athletes and coaches, and of course the best part is the indoor fireworks.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with games. Each team played 2 games each day....if you did the math the 8 games. Each game is about 1 hour, 8 hours.... We usually arrive at the rink about a 3/4 to 1/2 and hour before each game and it takes about another 15-20 mins. to undress after each game. That totals about another 8 hours. Yes, That is about 16 hours spent in the hockey rink. I was very thankful that our hotel was attached to the rink, so Nadia and I could arrive at game time and not spend so many hours at the rink.

Most of the teams attending the games were fairly evenly matched, which made the games very exciting. Ethan's team showed huge improvements. In fact, they ended with a record of 1 win and 3 losses. They ended the tournament in 4th place, so did not qualify for a medal. A little disappointing for the kids, but they really played hard.

Ben's team ended the Tournament with the Gold Medal, but not without a battle to the finish. They won both their games on Saturday, which made them a little over confident in their game Sunday Morning. They lost that game 6-1. Our final game of the day was a battle to the very end for the Gold. The final score was 2-1 for Ames. Both teams played fantastic, especially the Goalies. Ben scored the game winning goal. How awesome it that! Now, to remind him that he plays a team sport and maybe he should look to pass a little more often.

Ben ended the tournament with 4 goals and 3 assists.

We left Dubuque at 5 pm and arrived back in Ames at 8 pm. What a crazy weekend.

Here's my layout for the sketch challenge that I hosted. I am really happy with how it turned out.

It's official, Nadia is a big girl! Today we moved her out of the crib and into a real bed. The bed is a hand-me down from Mike and Leah, if you look closely you can see a John Deere sticker peeking out from behind her pillows. The beautiful quilt and pillows are from Oma. Oma spent hours making them and we are very thankful for them. Nadia loves her big girl bed, now I hope she will stay in it all night.

You read that correctly, Here is Iowa we woke to temperatures of -19.3 to be exact. For all you Canadian readers, That's -28 Celsius. That's Winnipeg cold! School was canceled because it was too dangerous. Do they cancel school in Winnipeg?

We had a nice day at home. The kids played and I worked on some scrapbook pages.
I will post them soon.

I apologize for the poor photo quality. We are having some camera issues again. Our "good" camera has already been fixed once and it still does not focus correctly. We have sent it back to be fixed again. This photo was taken with our "old camera", the light was poor, but I did not want to miss the moment.

Guess what is on my Birthday list! Yep, I want a camera!

Rosalie

I am hosting a new monthly sketch challenge on the Visual Designs By Chris Forum
Chris has created some coordinating cutter files. Head over to the forum, to check it out. Please


Rosalie

We visited the Reptile Gardens in South Dakota in the summer of 2007. Here's my little one's touching snakes and alligators YUCK!!

Supplies:
A2Z patterned paper
Worldwin cardstock
Chris's Durnan's alligator file
2Peas Mr. Giggles font

Enjoy, Rosalie

Just wanted to share this photo of our house buried under the snow piles. I don't know how much we have gotten in the past week, but my guess would be 8-10 inches. We are suppose to get more tonight.

Wow! How did life get so crazy. Today was my first day back at Dmacc, I am not really looking forward to a regular commitment. I was enjoying my vacation time way to much! This semester, I am teaching 2 classes and taking 1. I have taught both classes before, so they should not be too much work. I decided to sign up for an online Sports Nutrition class for my Continuing Education credits. I am taking it through DMACC, I qualified for a discount, and my good friend is teaching it, so how could I pass it up. It just means a little extra work.

Today we were blessed with several more inches of snow. The wind is supposed to start blowing and create blizzard like conditions into tomorrow morning. School let out early, but it was perfect outside, so we decided to go sledding for a little while.

Oh, I forgot to mention that between DMACC and early dimissal, Nadia and I brought cupcakes to Ethan's school for his Birthday.

The boys are at Hockey practice; Nadia and I are going to bed early tonight.

Yesterday was Ethan's big day. He turned 7 this year. His Birthday is so close to Christmas, but he doesn't seem to mind at all. He invited 4 friends over for a small party. They played hockey in the driveway with Andrew officiating, basically making sure no one took a stick to the head. We had cake and ice cream, then a few presents and a few minutes to play snowboarding on the PS2. Ethan has decided that he really wants a snowboard, I bought him a snowboard cake instead.

From here to there and back, sort of describes today.
We started today with 6 or more inches of snow. Of course we did not get up early enough to shovel it before we had to be in Des Moines for Ethan's Hockey game. The road to DM was 1/2 covered with snow, which caused us to be a little worried about the rest of the day. Ethan's team is improving every time they play, today they tied with the DM team 4-4. Ethan had a really great break away, but was stopped before he reached the goal. After Ethan's game we headed to Iowa City for Ben's hockey. Interstate 80 was basically clear of snow and driving was pretty normal with a few questionable spots. We arrived in IC about 3 hours early. We spent 2 hours at the Iowa Children's museum. The kids really enjoyed it, well worth the money. Ethan's choice for supper was Chili's. Everyone enjoyed their food and Ethan was treated to a huge Birthday sundae. Ben's won his game 6-4 against the IC team . Ben scored 1 goal and had 1 assist. We piled back into the car at 8pm and arrived home at 10pm. Andrew is currently shoveling the driveway and I am heading off to bed.

Well,the kids and I have decided to give this a Whirl (Andrew is not interested in any other commitments). We were challenged by our friends, Brian and Amy Worrel, to take a photo everyday for the whole year. They completed 2008 and had lots of fun documenting their life. I have been updating this blog for a whole year, so we will see how we do with the photos. I have included a link to all my photos on the right side of my blog. Happy 2009!

Today we were supposed to head north for 2 hockey games, instead everything was canceled due to a nice layer of ice. Most parking lots resemble a skating. Ben was very disappointed, but we filled our day with Friends, Family and Food. We went out for lunch with our small group. Hickory Park is always good for a good meal. Rosalie headed (South) to Des Moines for a shopping trip with her Mom and sisters. Spending money was provided by Dad, with one stipulation, we had to spend it on ourselves. That is more difficult than you think.... I bought a Fleece for $5 at JC Penny and asked Dad for permission to save the rest to pay for a new Scrapbook which I had order last week. My request was granted. Thanks Dad! For dinner we invited our friends Brian and Amy over for Pizza. They are a great couple. The kids love them and they love the kids. We had a very nice Sunday.

By the way.... We just found out that school has been delayed for 2 hours. It must be the ice on the parking lots. That's good for us, since we have not be getting up until 8:30 am during break. We have a little more time tomorrow morning.