Saber Paw Champions, 2009!!!!!

Tyler's hockey team took first place in the Shakopee Saber Paw tournament held this past weekend. He was so excited - especially since last year his team took last place. From last to first - what a year! The boys really played well as a team - passing the puck around and following up to get the rebounds. It was so much fun to watch and cheer them on as they won all three games. They played New Prague in the first game, Eastview in the second game and Rosemount for the championship. After a celebratory dinner at McDonalds (his pick, not mine :) he has been happily showing his trophy to anyone that will look at it!

Tyler and Michael waiting for the puck to drop:


Tyler waiting to cut off the other team:

Go get it Tyler!

They won 9-2!!!!

Waiting for their trophies (Tyler third from left):

Tyler getting his trophy:

Getting the Championship team trophy:

Trophy Lift:
2009 Saber Paw Tourney Champions (Tyler's in the middle):
Tyler with his trophy:

Here's to continued success for their team for the rest of the season!

MN Science at its finest!

It has been a long time since I blogged, so there will be quite a few little updates done today!


Since it was so cold here today we decided to show Tyler and Nicholas what happens when you throw boiling water into extremely cold air. The temperature was -16 degrees at the time we took this video:

The boys thought it was so cool, we did it a couple more times and here's a picture I took of the second time. I think it turned out pretty cool...and yes, it will be on a scrapbook page sometime in the future:

Both Tyler and Nicholas like how the water would freeze and turn to a water crystal fog before it hit the ground! I am glad it is not too often that we can perform these types of experiments in our own backyard.

Last night at 11:00 we got the phone call that Tyler has been waiting all year for: A message from school saying that today would be a two hour delay due to the extremely cold temperatures that were expected. Here's what our backyard thermometer said this morning:
Yep - minus 26 degrees as of 7:36 am in our backyard. Although the boys were excited to have a two hour delay for school, I would prefer not to see these kind of numbers any time soon. Now Tyler is still hoping for a full day off of school, but we'll see - You are still one up on them Aunt Nancy!!! Although there were a lot of MN cities that were colder than us, I still think this was pretty ridiculous!

Hope you are staying warm wherever you are today!

Snow Fun in the cul-de-sac

One day we heard a loud beeping out in the cul-de-sac. When we looked outside we discovered that the neighbor had brought home a front loader from work. He took everyone's snow piles at the end of their driveways and combined them in one big pile in front of his house. The kids have loved playing on the snow hill!

Taking the sleds over to play on the "hill":
The hill is in front of the house straight across the cul-de-sac from us:

Marisa and Nicholas enjoying the snow:

Tyler and the neighbors at the top of the hill (along with the neighbor's Christmas tree):

Tyler is having a good time outside:

As you can see the kids have enjoyed playing outside, (until the weather turned bitterly cold this week). We've gotten some snow falls since these pictures were taken so they should have plenty of other chances to play on the hill.

Pink Family Christmas

On the Saturday after Christmas we went to Mark and Cheryl's for the annual Pink Family Christmas gathering. It was a lot of fun to see everyone as it had been a couple of months since the last wedding.
Here's Ron trying to convince Santa that he's been a good boy this year:
Nicholas went right up to Santa and let him know he was good this year:

Love the leg warmers, Lynn! These along with a lovely stitched "Noel" go back and forth between Lisa and Lynn and this year Lynn received them from Santa!

Grandpa's turn with Santa:

Marisa wouldn't go on Santa's lap, but she was okay if Mom held her:

We had a good time talking with everyone, and playing the dice game...even though I was rotten at it again - glad to know my streak is still intact for not getting any doubles during the second round - I can't believe no one wanted to take my lovely soap making kit!

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas season and we wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Christmas at Grandpa's

We spent Christmas day at Grandpa's house where we were able to spend some time with Aunt Tara and Uncle Brian also.

The kids with Grandpa: Nicholas with Aunt Tara:Daddy and Tyler are boxing on the wii:

Grandpa and Tara play the wii:
Daddy helps Marisa play the wii:

Thanks Uncle Brian:Marisa and Aunt Tara:

When we got home, Tyler was excited to finally play the Rock Band game that we got for Christmas.
My future Rock Star:

Another future rock star?:

Christmas at Grandma's

This year we spent a couple of days before Christmas at Grandma's house. Here are some pictures of all the fun we had with Nancy and Grandma. Thanks for some great times!

Over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house we go:
Tyler and Nicholas are having fun together:
Family picture:
The kids with Grandma and Nancy:
Playing Twister:
The boys were so excited to get a wii that they started hugging each other:
Thanks Grandma for the new blanket:
Santa Baby:
Marisa and Aunt Nancy:
Tyler, Nicholas and Aunt Nancy building forts and mazes in the snow:
Grandma and Nicholas playing the wii -- looks like Nicholas won:

Christmas is coming!

On Thanksgiving weekend we decorated our tree and the this past weekend we took some pictures of the kids to send out with our Christmas cards. I think we got some good shots so now I just have to decide which ones to send. We also had breakfast with Santa on Sunday morning so the kids could tell him what they want this year. Although it took a little coaxing to get Nicholas up near Santa, he was fine once he was there. Marisa was excited to go up there until she realized she would have to get close to him, then she hung onto Mom, but she talked tohim a little bit. They all were able to tell him what they want this year (wii, toy robot, toy guy, remote control helicopter, and dolls). Hopefully Santa was listening!

Nicholas hanging and ornament:

The boys put most of the ornaments on themselves this year and they did a nice job:
Marisa:
Nicholas:
Tyler:
The kids under the tree:

The kids in front of the tree:
Breakfast with Santa:

The kids are really getting into the Christmas spirit and since it snowed yesterday and last night, it is really starting to look like Christmas outside.