Sunday, December 18, 2011

Oma's Birthday - Holiday Spirit

Oma wanted to snowboard for her 44th Birthday or a day of Geocaching if we had no snow.  And below you can see we were hitting the hills for caches!
Our first find for the day was up the side of the hill full of grass burrs, mud and loose rock. (If you look closely at Gma Marie's pants she is speckled with the burrs)  No one cared as "We were Geocaching" and anything goes!


If he could talk to the animals, walk with the animals ...
Our very own Dr. Dolittle in Gpa Norman.
We were stopped at a road side cache and Gma Marie, Jo and I watched (from inside the car) as these cows in the field were almost running toward Oma, Cole and Gpa.  Gma and I looked at each other and said "Gpa is talking to them".  And sure enough, you could hear Gpa Mooing and those cows were running toward him! They even followed him back to the car, probably would have gotten in with him too.

Cheese!
Again, we always come prepared for birthdays as another match was held by Gma Marie for Oma's birthday wish.
Cheesecake for desert after our Mac n Cheese, Lasagna with salad dinner.
Happy 44 Years, My Dear!

Feed the Birds, Toppins a bag...
Yes, Gpa Norman is still talking to the animals as he took Jo outside with him to call and feed the Jay's peanuts.
He tosses them into the air and the birds will catch them while they fly by.
Jo didn't quite get hers tossed high enough so to the left of this picture you can see two birds landing to grab the nuts.

Cole and Gpa Norman building a robot that Cole received as an early Christmas gift.
Gpa taught Cole quite a bit about the reasons of how & why when building.
Cole finished this up the following day at home.

Our Christmas Tree
Doug has become a little bored  at the house once in a while and has started chewing things up.  We are down to only the nine days of Christmas ornaments on the tree and one string of lights have become two separate strings.  (Thank goodness they were not plugged in).

Santa!
Might be our last picture of the kids sitting with the Jolly Old Man as we had to pay Cole to sit with him this year. (Only one dollar) We gave Jo the same.
Merry Holiday to you and yours!

Friday, December 09, 2011

Family Family

Cousin Derian is now a teenager! I don't know how my brother and sister in-law feel but this makes me feel like time has zipped on by.
Do they look like they could be related?
Happy 13th Birthday Derian!

Cole and his home made AK-47
He said he started making this at school but only the rolled up paper as he said he didn't want to get into trouble with having a gun at school.  So he assembled the gun at home.
Cole also informed me that we are out of "kid" paper now.

Love the imagination Cole and Jo have.

Speaking of paper, here's a little more!

Santa and his reindeer!
Santa and his 21st century slay and flying animals.
Jo pulled all her stuffed animals out that have some sort of horn or antler.
On Billy Goat, On Unicorn, on Cow and a generic reindeer, 
On Giraffe, On Rudolf, On Jo!

The Family Bed is getting smaller!
Especially when we add Doug.

Doug is sleeping with the kids each night and enjoying himself.
I thought this was darn cute as Jo covered him up and he stayed all night.

Out for a walk with Jo and Doug after dinner and Jo was a little tired and apparently still hungry as she stated "I'm hungry" more than a few times.
I finally asked, "I hear your hungry, what would you like me to do about this".  Jo: "We could knock on someones door and ask them for food."
Dang she is too funny.

New Circus room at Bounce!
Trapeze, Cloud Swings and a Hoop are the new additions to her class.

Cole has been participating in Duck Baseball camps.  Conditioning Day.
Keeping the Little Man physical so he does not drive us or anyone else crazy with his extra energy!

First DANCE!
The kids had their very first dance.
Cole came home about  a week before the dance stating.
Cole: I have to go to the dance.
Mom: Why?
Cole: Because a girl asked me to go.
Mom: What does that mean?  Do we give her a ride?
Cole: (loudly) NO!
Mom: Are you to bring her a flower?
Cole: (Loud and embarrassed) NO MOM, Sheesh!
Mom: Well what does it mean that you were asked?
Cole: (shrug) That I have to go to the dance now.
(Whew, I like all those answers)
Thomas, Cole,  Simone & Jo
After the dance I hear this conversation.
Cole: Jo, why do girls walk around in packs, giggling and talking?
Jo: Because we are talking about boys.
Cole: Oh, we don't like it.
(Well at least that has not changed over the years)

Saturday, December 03, 2011

New Family Member!

Well we finally did it!
Our meeting with 4 year old (Duke) at Greenhill.
(Oh, the cone of shame is due to a healing cut on his hind leg)
Though Duke is a good name we thought he should have a BS Family name.
Meet Doug!
 
A tour around the house and Cole took Doug out back and they both RAN!
Our lives have change, and so has Doug's!

Dec? No, November Wrap Up!

Remember Cole and his bass?
Yes, he takes it to school on the bus.
I asked the bus driver if taking it on and off the bus was an issue and she stated, "Cole is so determined to do this, it's not a problem."  And he is! Cole has not made it anyone else's job to help him as he wants to do this alone.  Thank goodness we have a nice bus driver!

Oma and I got a weekend away...What?
Yes, the kids went to Rachelle & Connie's for the weekend and we headed to the coast for some time alone.
Here is where we watched the Ducks loose their second game of the season.  GREAT SEATS!
We never did see the actual beach but what we did do: ordered room service, geocached, hit a great candy store, gambled (Oma likes Spanish black jack now), went to a movie theater for an R rated movie, read books and yea, I guess that was about it.  VERY relaxing time thank you very much.

Private First Class Conkey!
Thanksgiving this year was at our home as Andrew wanted to come.
He flew in on Thanksgiving day so instead of having turkey we had steak and some home made apple crisp (Thank you Gma Marie) and celebrated Andrew's 21st Birthday.
As you see, we like to do things high class around here and he blew out a match to make a wish.

Andrew has tons of family around this area so some stopped by for a visit.
Gma Burel, Peggy, Randy, Julie and Andrew

Thanksgiving Meal!
I think this is the way your suppose to pose with a cooked turkey right?
Small bird as we had a small family gathered.
Todd/Corri/Derian visited for the morning and left Derian for the day so she actually ate two Thanksgiving meals this year.  Lucky girl!

A little post meal wrestling.
The three were still no match for Andrew.

Homework?
Thank goodness Andrew was here to help us all understand how to work one of Derian's math problems.

Civil War!
Andrew and Cole went to the Duck/Beaver game and had a VERY good time!
Cole, Andrew, Julie & Randy
Julie/Randy are seasoned game goers so they came to give the boys a ride.

Fan Cam
Go Ducks took a high resolution photo all the way around the stadium.
This is where Andrew and Cole were sitting.
See them?
Ok, how about now?
Not yet?  I'll zoom in for you.
Now?
Ok, I can see them now!  You?
They weren't quite sitting yet but here they are!
All decked out in green like they should be for this game and smiling!
Great seats too, only 8 rows from the bottom.

(Note to self, take a dang full family photo when Andrew visits next time)
I think this is the only one of the two of us.
I hope he comes back again soon.
It was awesome to have Andrew here.
Love to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sunday, November 13, 2011

November Family Time

Jo moved to an intermediate Circus Arts class which has her on the Silks more and she is loving this.
Left: she is doing her Bat Hang which she then had to do twenty sit ups.  (yes, while she hung there) Right: she is learning more difficult tricks as if the ones she has learned already were not tough enough.

Because we don't want simple instruments at our home....

Cole has started with a Strings group at school.  He had a choice of the Violin, Viola, Cello or Bass.

As you can see he chose the smallest instrument to play so he can carry it on and off the bus with ease.

When he told us what he wanted to play I held my hand high and said "You mean a BASS?"  He followed my question and adjusted my hand height and said "Yes, but they make them smaller for us".

Yes, SOOO much smaller Cole!


  
Walnuts anyone?
Nuts are dry and quite tasty.

Geocaching Hike.
This is how Cole likes to hike with us.
I wonder some times if he will ever start getting embarrassed to dress in full football gear to go out and about when it's not his "game time".  I hope not, as Oma and I sure enjoy their ...
Field of Dreams.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Coach Beiste & Sue Sylvester from the TV show Glee.
Oma made sure to insult everyone at the party at least once.
One person who didn't know Jill actually looked a little put off and finally said to Jill. "I don't know if your being in character or not?"  Love it!

Dawn came over to watch the Duck game and carve pumpkins.
Always a good gooey time!
They turned out GREAT!
 
I told my co-workers I would put a dress on and
come to work in drag.

Some one actually said I looked a little like
Mrs. Doubtfire.

Great, a man dressed as a woman, this gives
me great confidence of who I am.







Little Devil and Pumpkin Head
We had fun creating these outfits this year.
I think the kids appreciate the second hand store a little more this year seeing the quality and creativity we can come up with.
We lit the inside of Cole's head with glow sticks.

Oma was VERY happy with the haul.
I mean the kids were really excited about the load of candy this year!

WAY FUNNY!
Cole DID get a ROCK!

Happy Halloween from the BS Family.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

October Activities

Collage GAME DAY!
Tracy asked Cole to join her for Collage Game Day in the VERY early A.M.
They were able to stand at the side of the stages, right on the front fences and had an awesome view of all the morning activities.
Cole and Tracy are still quite chatty about that morning and I believe she has made a permanent Game Day Junky out of Cole.

Flag Football
Cole's team came a long way this season and all the boys had fun.
(A statement like that usually means they didn't have many wins right?
That would be the correct understanding here as well.)
For the last game Cole made his first catch and advanced the ball a couple yards.  He returned a punt about 25 yards and almost scored a touch down on the play. AWESOME ending to his first season.
(Now Mom has to contemplate tackle football next year as Cole pushes hard with good arguments and the standard begging, dang it...I mean yeah!?)

Circus Arts
Jo is really having a blast with this class and practically runs out the house to get there.  She graduated from the beginning class to the intermediate level and has more time on the Silks each class, which is her favorite part.

Jo learning the Bat Hang which she has now done on her own successfully. Her homework  from this class is 30 sit ups, 30 push ups each day. (Jo has started to do them without a parent reminder, which means this is very important to her.)

We sure love the joy that comes out of her when she is on the Silks!

Sushi - Home Style
Jo has been asking to eat sushi for days, well wait, let me start over here.  Jo asks for sushi all the time and would never turn it down if offered.  However her asking ramped up a bit so we had home-rolled sushi one night.

Of course Karly (daughter from another Mother) was with us and though she does not like sushi she managed to create rolls for herself that she did like.  Hmmm, we might have had a child's mind grow a little bit more.






PUMPKINS
Back out to the pumpkin patch this time to pick our favorite gourd. (and yes, that daughter from the other Mother is with us)
GREAT day and it quickly became too warm for jackets.
We were also joined by the Young Belmont's.
They all look happy...well, two out of three.  One just seems embarrassed that she must pose with the other two.

Walnut Farming
Our tree is very happy this year and quite giving.  So we are trying to be walnut farmers and not just toss them in the yard debris.
Jo and I built three stack-able drying screens.
This bunch of nuts is only one day of collecting, we have MANY more at this point.  Glad we only have one tree.

First Perm
Jo asked to have a perm and after much education about what a perm will mean she still said yes.
WOW!  She is LOVING her hair!
And we LOVE a smiling Jo any day!

Our Strawberry Tree
I didn't think it got warm enough, long enough this summer for our tree to produce any of it's prickly fruit.  There are tons of very small flowers and just as many happy bees but I wanted to show that it did pop a few berries out.

This strawberry has since been picked and given too a friend for her first taste of this fruit.  Yeah!  I love this tree.