Christmas

Livia and Makynna before their Christmas program at preschool.

The girls with their "gopher gear" they think they are pretty cool when they get to wear what Johnny wears.

A few shots at Christmas. We were able to make to all of our destinations, but some of our family didn't :(

What's on your calendar?

What's on your calendar? This is a glance at ours...
What fills it?

Gymnastics ~ fills part of Wednesdays on our calendar.

"I LOVE my nymnastics!" "There's MY nymastics, I'm so so cited mama!" Livia has so much fun at gymnastics - front rolls, backwards rolls, hanging on the bar and walking on the beam. With the best part - stamps! On her legs, arms, feet, hands. Taa Daa! It has taught her how to wait in line, listen to instructions, patience and feeling special. It's something that she does with just Mom and in our family, doing something one-on-one isn't a common occurance.

Yes, the leotard is getting a little small - hence the underwear showing. She's just growing up so fast.

Ready for a roll mama?

See the stamps? It's hard getting her to wash them off - or covering them up. She doesn't want to "hide" them.

Makynna enjoys Sparks (Awana) on Wednesdays. We go to our friends' church (Jody and Elliana) for supper and then Makynna and Elliana go to Sparks with Jody (she teaches). They learn bible verses and plays games. She has a blast!

Hockey ~ is pretty much a daily occurance on our calendar. Practice, dryland and games. It has been part of our life since John turned 4 - when I thought he might as well join hockey...nothing else to do in the winter for his age. 11 years later... We have met a lot of great families, visited places in Minnesota we probably wouldn't have and spent some quality time together. The girls have grown up in the rink and Livi wants to play hockey like her "brudder".

Dance ~ fills our Tuesday nights.

Makynna has been in Just for Kix dance, since she was 3. Now, at 27 months Livia has started as well.
Livi is the youngest in her class, they are supposed to start at 2.5 years - but the teacher said that she could try. She would sit and copy Makynna's moves while she practiced and I already had her outfit from Makynna from when she was that age. The pictures below are from the Winter Show in December. Livi, my strong-willed, independent, sometimes subborn daughter would not let me put her hair up and would not wear the headband that they were supposed to wear. I, personally, was worried about her not wanting to dance in front of a crowd so I didn't press the issue. She did very well.

"Liv, one more picture?" **I guess that was a no.**

Livi's first peformance.

Makynna loves dance too! She's loves to be in front of the camera too.

Well that's a glance at what's on our calendar. It may seem busy, but we enjoy it. :) :) :)

Soon, very soon...

I will be updating the blog this weekend - I am soo excited. Might even be a couple of posts...if I'm lucky and the pics download faster. John only has one hockey game this weekend out of town and I decided to stay back. Wahoo...a weekend to catch up on laundry, cleaning, rearranging toys to make room for new, swap out "too small clothes" for ones that actually fit Livi, putting away Christmas decorations and blogging. Wish me luck :)

San Diego Trip..and a couple others

John, before Homecoming Dance - Sophomore year. No pics with his girlfriend, Audra, someone didn't order any :(
A couple pics of John playing football. He ended up getting a concussion and missing about 2 weeks of football and 2 weeks of hockey tryouts...
Zachary, Chelsea's oldest, playing soccer this fall.


The following are from our trip to San Diego. We decided to take John to see a Chargers game in San Diego. We thought it would be fun to do something, just the 3 of us. Other than hockey, most of our activities are centered around the girls. With a great deal on airfare, snagging some pretty sweet seats for a Monday night game and surprising John one week before we left - we all were pretty excited.


We flew into LAX and had to go check out the Hollywood sign, drove around and had supper.
Made our way down to San Diego - about 2 hours south of LA. We stayed right on the bay and could see the ocean right outside our window - so awesome! Below is a picture from our window.

We did a little shopping and had lunch at Seaport Village, there were a lot of neat shops within walking distance of our hotel.
Brad and I - seaport village in the background.
John
Statue by the USS Midway
Brad and John with USS Midway in the background.
Brad and John on top of the USS Midway.
Watching Naval ships coming in, aboard the USS Midway.

We took the tour of the USS Midway and this was in the control room. It was pretty amazing to see everything - from where everyone slept, ate, worked.
John in the captain's chair. :)
John, Brad and at the Chargers/Broncos Monday night game. The game was pretty fun, even though the Chargers didn't win.
LT warming up.
Pre-game spat...
Ok, this pic is for me...

I thought this boys' sign was pretty cute. :)

We did take a day trip to La Jolla, 1/2 hour north of San Diego and did a kayak tour in the ocean/caves. Brad and John did a little "boogie boarding" - those pics will be coming later, we took them on a waterproof disposable and haven't developed them yet.