59 posts tagged “games”

The kids aren't allowed to get up before 6:30 on Christmas Day.  The boys were standing by our beds watching the clock at 6:27. 

Lily is not an early riser and nobody's allowed to wake her up when unnecessary or she's a BEAR!  She was up by about 7:30.

Our plans got crimped a little due to a blizzard.  My grandma stayed out at my aunt & uncle's and they were stuck at their place out of town.  My brother and Amy did brave it and come in the 40 mile drive from the ranch.

We had a superb dinner of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn pie, salad, and double pumpkin cheesecake.  Since Amy's a chef, she baked TONS of goodies that we got to munch on all day.

Before opening presents, Lily sang us several Christmas songs.

Grandpa & Grandma got the boys these chairs to coordinate with their new rooms.

I've been eyeing these boots for a few months.

I've wanted a stove-top egg poacher for several years.  Poached are my favorite type of eggs and my mom always used to make them.  She's been spoiling us with lots of poached eggs at breakfast while we've been living with them but now I'll be able to make my own!

When Ray & I were married, my aunt made us a cookbook composed of recipes that she obtained from everyone who we invited to our wedding.  It was a tremendous treasure.

In honor of our 15 year anniversary in 2010, she revised and updated the cookbook for everyone's Christmas gifts.  The cover is composed of tons of tiny family pictures from several generations and there are other pictures throughout the cookbook.  It truly is a treasure!

I hardly had the chance to take any landscape photos this year so I made calendars from family photos.

The rest of the day was spent doing puzzles and playing cards.

Now, we're packing as we're off on our annual ski trip to Bozeman in the morning.  Our good friends from Jamestown will meet us there as well as 2 families from here and my brother and his girlfriend.  It should be a blast!

 

 

Cody had a wrestling tournament yesterday so we took the whole family along.  Cody had his best meet of the season winning all 4 of his matches to earn 1st place. 

Lily brought along her new Nintendo DS and 2 games for it that she got for her birthday.  First, she dropped one of the stylus pens beside the bleachers and it rolled underneath.  There was just enough room to get an arm through and see where the stylus was located but it had rolled out of reach.  Ray made several attempts to retrieve it without any success.  He consulted with another dad and they decided to borrow one of the wrestler's crutches.  Then, they wrapped tape around the end of the crutch so the stylus would stick to it so they could pull it out.  This is Jace, Lily, and the other dad making the last attempt to get the stylus.

It worked!

Lily met some other sisters at the meet who also had DS's and they were playing with them together.  When Ray and I went to the concessions, she decided to run and join us while leaving her DS with her 2 new friends.  When we returned, the girls were gone and the game was missing from Lily's DS.  Lily asked the girls who claimed to know nothing about it and then Ray talked to one of the parents who checked their daughter's things but didn't find it.  Personally, I think they should've checked the girl's pockets!  I guess Lily learned a valuable lesson.  I hope she takes better care of her DS in the future.

 

My baby girl turns 7 today and for her birthday she got strep throat!  Poor thing.  She was complaining of a bad sore throat when I picked her up from school yesterday.  Tylenol has helped with the pain and now we've got some antibiotics so she should be better soon.  Thankfully, her big party isn't until Saturday.

We had a family dinner tonight with a special Banana Coconut Cake that was a recipe of my Little Grandma's.  We'd never tried it before but it was quite good! 

Jace wanted to use some of his own money to get her a present so bought her this cute, stuffed dog.

 

 

Aside from the 29 inch walleye my brother caught, the fishing was a total bust this weekend.  That's pretty typical for August.  So, the kids entertained themselves trying to catch one of the many rabbits around the cabin.  Cody made a trap and put a slice of bread in it since we didn't have any carrots or lettuce.

There was a rabbit in the trap twice but they didn't get the rope pulled fast enough either time.  Then, they decided to move the trap closer to the long grass.

Cody spent hours watching the rabbits which is incredible for him.  They finally got a big rabbit trapped but he managed to get himself out before they got there.

My brother and I taught the kids how to play the dice game Zonk (also called 10,000).  We used to play with my Little Grandma but really haven't since she died to we had to look up the rules.  The kids absolutely love it and it's something we can all play together.  We've also got my brother playing Squeak.

 

 

Things I Dislike:

1.  Yesterday morning, Lily fell backwards off our bed and hit her head really hard. I still had her go to swim lessons thinking it would take her mind off things.  She did fairly well until the last 5 minutes when she got out.  She was nauseous.  When we got to the house, she curled up on the bed under a blanket and said she just wanted to go to sleep.  That's when alarm bells started going off in my head so off to the ER we went.   She threw up when we were in the ER and then really perked up. The Dr. said sometimes the adrenaline from an injury makes someone nauseous and tired but he didn't think it was a concussion. Whew!
2. Cody had a horrible migraine yesterday.  I don't know when he'll learn to watch for the early signs so he can take medicine early enough to head them off.  He ended up throwing up twice, slept from 5:30-9:00 on the bathroom floor, and then Ray moved him to bed.  He's still sleeping.
3. Movie companies taking kids' toys and making movies about them that are not appropriate for the kids who play with the toys!  "Transformers 2"

Things I Like:

1. I think we'll be ordering our cabinets next week.  We're almost done with the design.  They're the Maple Glaze ones.  http://www.pinnaclehomeproducts.com/Cabinets_c_1.html
2. We've also got most of our light fixtures chosen and hope to order them next week.
3. Today is the Town & Country Festival in town.  We'll be taking in the parade, free lunch, games, and other entertainment.
4. Three days until we see our neighbors from back in Jamestown!!
5. The theater in town just reopened after being closed for a year.  Now, if they could get a PG movie that would be great.
6. Spending a 99 degree day at the pool with friends.    
7. Jace made Cody's All Star soccer team!  He'll be a sub but he's still doing awesome considering most of the kids are 11 or 12 and he's just 9.   
8. I had my first hair cut & color here yesterday.  It's scary for me to go to someone new.  I just about fainted when she told me the price.  It was $60.  In Jamestown, I paid $120!!                                                                                      

 

It's been 4 1/2 months in the making but moving day has quickly arrived.  It's been a crazy week packing and spending time with friends.  On Friday, Cody and I had a golfing excursion with his good friend and his mom.  It was my first time out for the season and it was so nice to be golfing again!  Saturday evening, we played pinochle with Gndsgang.  I'm happy to say that the girls went out on top creaming the guys in all 3 games!  (We were due). 

Sunday was my last time singing with the AWE group at church.  The scheduled accompanist was a no show so we had 20 minutes to practice 8 songs with another accompanist who'd never seen some of the music.  I was so nervous about it that I hardly had time to be sad about it being my last day but things did go well and our family was remembered in the prayers.  We signed with a new realtor so prayers are welcomed on that front.  There were 3 soccer games during the afternoon and we were blessed with temps in the 80's plus a small rain shower.  Lily scored 3 goals. Cody scored one goal on a corner kick but his team lost right at the end 3-4.  Jace has had a fantastic season and finished strong.  His team won 7-3 with Jace making 4 of the goals, 2 of which were from half field!  I believe his team went undefeated.

We went to supper last night at Paradiso with Bluebird and family.  She gave the family a nice card and then one for me.  Of course, it made me cry.  The good news is we're letting the boys play with their competitive soccer teams for one tournament in Bismarck this weekend.  So, we'll see all of our closest friends in just 5 days which makes leaving much easier. 

I wasn't very excited about moving to Jamestown, ND, when we graduated from college.  ND was the state we always made fun of growing up on the MT/ND border.  However, I have grown to love ND and the people who live in it.  Our time here has been filled with memories that we'll cherish forever:  having 3 children, making wonderful friends, growing spiritually, directing 3 musical groups which I never thought I'd do, becoming a SAHM, Ray climbing the corporate ladder faster than anyone thought possible, and having our children attend Catholic school.  It's hard to say what we'll miss most about Jamestown (it won't be the blizzards) but I do know that this is definitely not goodbye.  There is too much here for us not to visit often and we'll be counting on our friends to come visit us, too! 

Montana, we're coming home!

The kids got done with school at noon on Friday.  It was a hard day.  We left right away for the lake.  You may remember that the lake had gotten very low the past several years but was starting to come up.  Well, it was up 25 ft. from this time last year and is supposed to come up another 8 ft!  I think that will make it higher than when we first started going there.  It's awesome!

For a Memorial weekend, we were treated to fairly nice weather Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was Cody's 12th birthday.

 

 

In addition to the rollerblades, Cody got some money from his siblings and uncle and a rebound soccer net from my parents.  After opening gifts, Ray, my dad, my brother, and the boys went out fishing.  The girls stayed back and played squeak and went shopping in town.

The guys had some good fishing success and brought in 9 walleye and saugers so we had enough for supper. 

 

 

Sunday, the guys went out fishing again.  Not long after they'd left, we got a call that my dad's truck had broken down.  I went and picked them up and we hauled the truck to town and then the boat back to the cabin.  Then, the guys used my Yukon to go fishing and they came back with 19 walleyes!! 

Lily helped grandma cook and they even made a german chocolate cake to celebrate our anniversary which is today - 14 years!

We have some new neighbors from Sidney at the lake.  It happens to be one of my old babysitters and her family.  She has 2 teenagers and a son who's Jace's age!!  I am totally psyched that we haven't even moved and he's already got a friend there.  They really hit it off.

 

My BFF from h.s. was also there with her boyfriend.  He's got a 4 yr old daughter so Lily and her played a lot and then Cody played with her son whose a year behind him in school.  Uncle Ray played his first game of Blongo Ball.

And we saw our very first fox den with at least 4 little foxes!

Saturday night, we had a going away party for the kids.  We rented a place in town called the Bunker and my friend's husband DJ'd for us.  The first 1/2 hour, the 6th grade girls were in one spot,

the boys were in one spot, the 3rd graders were playing tag, the kindergarteners were doing a craft project or being shy, and others were eating. So, I had our DJ, Gndsgang's husband, play the YMCA and the Hokey Pokey.  That finally got the kids dancing. Some kids played foozball, some watched TV, some cooled off on the deck, some ate, and others just goofed around! There were a total of 40 kids there and the party lasted 2 hours. This is how everyone felt at the end of the party.

Jace got a game for his DS, Lily the HSM3 movie, and Cody an mp3 player.

I was very sad that Cody decided his mp3 player was more exciting than dyeing eggs :(  Jace had been in the hot tub and was still in his swimsuit.

 

 

 

 

We went to church and then had dinner at the South 40.  The rest of the day was spent out at the lot trying to plot the house.

I think we got it figured out but we're still have major issues with the kitchen design.  I seriously need a professional!  We also bought our appliances.  You have to love small towns.  They blew away the prices at Lowe's and we didn't have to give them any money.  They just put sold signs on the ones we wanted and we can come get them when we're ready!  We got all stainless steel:  french door fridge, gas cooktop (yes, I caved), electric oven with microwave on top, and a dishwasher.  Now, we just need a house to put them in!  We're waiting for the appraisal and abstract and then digging can commence.

Thumbs Down:

1. My shoulders are starting to act up again because I'm not in a good position when using my laptop.  I was afraid of that.
2. Ray is driving me nuts on our new lot.  We've made 2 offers that were rejected.  Our realtor thinks there's no hurry because nobody else is looking at it and he's leaving town until the 21st so suggests we just wait.  Honestly, the sellers are not going to come crawling back to us with a counteroffer in the meantime so let's just get it over with!  (Patience is not one of my virtues).
3. Two weeks tomorrow since our house was listed and still not one showing.  I know the weather's not helping.

Thumbs Up:

1. Normally, a blizzard would be on my Thumbs Down list but not today.  It's so bad that Ray couldn't get to work so we slept in and then he made pancakes.  The interstate is closed, schools, the mall, restaurants, etc.  So, Gndsgang and family are coming over.  We're getting pizza, the kids are going to watch movies, and the adults are going to play pinochle.  The snow started yesterday with huge flakes for this area.  View from the back.

View from the front.

This photo was taken from our sliding glass door today.  Our fence is 4 ft.  Rascal can probably just walk over the top now.  Keep in mind we're supposed to get 60 mph wind gusts this afternoon.

2.  Finding more old friends on Facebook.

3.  DWTS starting up again last night.