Watch out Grandpa Henry...Here comes the troops!

After church today, We (mom, Jeff, Deb, Noah, Jake, Lydia, Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan) all headed over to Grandpa Henry's house for lunch. The kids had a great time wrestling, which provided entertainment for grandpa. No blood, and only a few tears. After lunch we tried sledding and snowmobiling. The "Kitty Cat" that Jill and I received as a Christmas present in 1974 is up and running again. Not quite the same power it had back then, but the kids enjoyed driving around grandpa's yard. It brought back lots of memories of the hours Jill and I spent driving around our house in town. One on the snowmobile and the other on skies or in the sled behind. Many tanks full of gas were spent on that little machine. (Jake is driving in the picture)
We all cheered on the Vikings at our house, but they could not prevail. Now it is out of their hands. They are at Denver next week and need a win along with a Washington loss. The kids had a great time playing and we look forward to another fun filled evening tomorrow night!

Basketball and Chritmas Programs

We got our first taste of an all day HOOPS basketball tournament. It was a lot of fun, but a LONG day. We headed out aout 7:00 am and returned home at 7:00 pm. The team played well. However, they lost a close game in overtime to Hudson, WI. in the first round. The team came back and beat Rush City in the second game. Prescott, WI was a tough team and really pounded on our guys. This put us in the 5th / 6th place game. The guys pulled out a close one against Somerset to take the 5th place game.
Jake and Lydia commented on how boring the games were, but liked the idea of eating between every game : )

Sunday brought the Kid's Christmas program at Joourney North Church. Noah, of course, would not smile. But Jake and Lydia did a great job of singing! We then headed over to aunt Pat's for the Lindquist Christmas. We decided not to do gifts this year, which was a great idea. So we sat around and ate while the kids played. Lots of good eatin'!

ROCK ON!!!!!

The kids, and Deb too, have been giving Guitar Hero a work out. Lydia can play 'Slow Ride' while walking around the house and not even looking at the tv. Lydia went to a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party tonight. She had a good time and likes to be the social butterfly.
Jake is doing such a great job in school. We are very proud of him. He absolutely LOVES math! His teacher has made him a packet of extra Math problems to work on when he finishes his assignments, and he does these 'extras' whenever he gets the chance. He is working on some multiplication at home and WANTS to keep learning more. I sure wish kids would stay this inquisitive and have that desire to keep learning - by 8th grade, most of the students want to do just enough to get by. Very few WANT to be challenged. - Guess I didn't have a stellar day today. Just cannot believe how the work ethic of students has changed over the years....So keep up the good work Jake!
We are all looking forward to Christmas break... only 7 more school days!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Well it has been almost two weeks since the last entry. Since then we have accumulated quite a bit of snow. Enough to plow the driveway twice! Last weekend we got dumped on, so we did not travel to Noah's basketball tournament. That was a good thing since as the day went on the roads got to be in terrible condition. We even cancelled our church service on Sunday morning. The township finally plowed our road at about 6:00 pm Sunday night - yeah, so we could be on time to school. Then Tuesday night we got a few more inches, and again the roads were horrible. Many cars in the ditch on the way home from Negotiations with the school board.
You may have noticed that there are no pictures lately. Lydia fell while looking at pictures on the camera and bent the shutter pretty bad. I thought I had it fixed, but now the flash doesn't work! We decided to get a new camera and picked one up today (the battery is currently charging). This one is shock proof, water proof (you can take underwater digital pics), freeze proof (ub to 14 degrees), and dust/sand proof. This is our third digital camera in five years, so we will have to see if it can withstand our family!
Noah had his last 4th grade basketball tournament yesterday. They played well against two of the teams, but fell apart in the middle game. Oh well, 5th grade tournaments begin next weekend. He is looking forward to playing with the older guys.
Last night we had a relaxing evening. We are cuddled up on the couch and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. We all had some good laughs, but I forgot about some of the language in it. The kids repeated lines from the movie today, but luckily none of the lines had those 'four-letter words' in them!
We went to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis today for a Christmas Concert. It was a special concert for families featureing the Minnesota Orchestra who just this past week receive a couple Grammy nominations. The concert was great and the kids enjoyed the music and other entertainment. They also enjoy walking around the skyways in downtown Minneapolis. I need to get them down there more often to experience 'City Life'. : )

Journey North

Journey North Church launched yesterday. What an exciting day! After months of planning and practice, Journey North started its official services at Pine Technical College. It will be good to get together on a weekly basis again.
Grandma Judy only has four more days of work left until retirement! She is looking forward to haveing more time to herself - she deserves it!
Noah had three hours of basketball practice tonight and is exhausted. Tomorrow night the boys varsity team is hosting a get together for all boy b-ball players 7-12 and their families. Should be fun!
Jake and Lydia have been dressing the cats in pajamas. Joe Meower doesn't care for that, but Squirt will let them dress him and rock him in Lydia's doll cradle.

Give Thanks

We enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch at Grandma Judy's house yesterday with Grandpa Henry, Jill, Tom, Jordan, and Taylor. We stuffed ourselves and then I relaxed in front of the tv watching football. At one point Deb and all the kids were awake, but the rest of the adults were snoozing! Thanks again dear for keeping track of all the kids! We then ventured over to Papa and Grandma Sue's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Both meals were delicious! Grandma Sue dropped her pot holder in the oven and it caught fire...just a little added excitement for the day. A lot of smoke, but Papa got to the smoke detector and removed the battery before it could go off!
Today, Mom, Jill, and I made our annual Black Friday shopping trip. We left Pine City at 4:00 am and scored many deals! I am almost done with the shopping! It was a crazy day but we survived the crowds! I just got in from putting up the Christmas lights outside. It was chilly, and windy, but it is done!

Falling behind...

Well...I haven't been very good at boggin'. My plan of twice a week fell by the wayside a long time ago, and now it is less than once a week! We all survived conferences week, but we were sure tired by Friday. The Mall of America, along with an electronics recycling company put on a 'turn in your electronics for free' event in Bloomington. I was able to get rid of four old tvs, three computer monitors, two computer towers, a DVD player, a copy machine and two printers! It was a great event, but by noon they had to close it down since they received many more electronics than they ever expected.
We are looking forward to having Thanksgiving with all the relatives this weekend. The kids (and Deb and I) enjoy getting together with our families and hanging out...oh, yeah, and eating too. We also need to get up the Christmas lights on the outside of the house before the snow flies. Mom, Jill, and I will make our annual Day after Thanksgiving Christmas shopping trip. I will post more this weekend anfter I take some more pictures.
We also have a new Guitar Hero - and guitar hog in the house - yep, Deb jams and the kids have to fight her for a chance to play!