Happy Birthday Rich!

Today is Rich's 42nd Birthday! This is what he bought himself for his birthday:

Yes, he bought himself an old man hat. He thinks it looks 'blues-ish' and 'cool'. I told him he can't wear it in public, at least not in my presence LOL! Poor guy did get to wear it in the car on the way to dinner last night, but I wouldn't let him wear it in the restaurant.

Thanks Grandmother and Grandpa!

Grandmother and Grandpa Kinney came over to visit us and spend the night last night, and we celebrated Grace's and Rich's birthdays. Since it's (obviously) the year of the American Girl, Grace got some more great AG stuff that she LOVES! She got the nightgown for Kit and the matching one for her, Kit's Holiday Baking set, Kit's Tufted Bedding set, a pretty bracelet and a pink Iowa sweatshirt from Aunt Ana & Uncle Randy. Her cake was really cute too....it had a pic on it of Grace from when she was 2 (and still adorable and sweet :) ). Rich got some Kohl's cash and an Iowa Outback Bowl stein for his collection.

Matt had 2 games today that they got to go to also....the Red Hawks won both games and got a medal, woohoo!

Grace says THANKS Grandmother and Grandpa and wants to ask Grandpa "May I have this dance?" :).

New kid

I volunteer in Grace's kindergarten class for an hour every Wednesday morning. Today I got to meet the new boy, Lennon. He moved from a different school in Ankeny, and has told all of the kids his life story, including the fact that he has a girlfriend back at his old school and the fact that he has 4 cavities. I got to talking to him today (he's really cute and talkative), I asked him if he liked it at Northwest. He said yes, he likes it a lot. Then he said "Have you heard about me?"...like maybe he has a bad 'rep' over at Terrace Elementary or something :). Then he tells me "I've had 20,482 bloody noses!". LOL! I say, wow Lennon that's a lot...in your whole life or just since you moved? He said his whole life. Then he tells me his mom got pulled over this morning by a cop LOL. Oh Lennon....I'm sure your mom is happy that you are a good sharer!

Ben did an assignment Monday that compared him to Martin Luther King, Jr. He said that MLK had one brother and one sister. And then he said that he had 2 brothers, and one vicious sister. Meaning our sweet angel-demon Grace LOLOL!

Grace did an inauguration day drawing of her saying "I want to be President", which is kind of cute! She also drew a kid laying on a stretcher looking injured. She probably knocked the kid out on her way to the top...I wouldn't put it past her.

Icicles

We've had some crazy big icicles coming from our roof. This one is from our house, and the other one is from my mom's house.And a pretty icicle bush in my mom's front yard:

Happy 6th Birthday Gracie Girl!

My baby girl turned 6 yesterday! It's hard to believe she's 6 already. We had a Tinkerbell party at Grandma and Don's Sunday, and she got another coveted American Girl doll. She got Kit for christmas, and for her birthday she got Ruthie, Kit's best friend. She also got lots of AG accessories from Aunt Linda, Grandma, and Aunt Carol. Her best friend Ava's mom made her 2 outfits for her AG's, including shoes!! She's so talented! Thanks to everyone for all the gifts, I know she loves and appreciates them all, although sometimes it's hard to tell in the greedy 6 year old stage :).

For her birthday from us she got a 4 story Barbie house...the sucker is huge! We also got her a few new Barbies and some furniture for it. We're going to have to build on to the house to make her a jumbo sized room, I don't know how much more we can shove in there!

Dummy 1 and Dummy 2

Their words not mine, I swear! Grace & Ben were sitting in the front window tonight on a little stool eating their popsicles, and said "Mom, look we're Dummy 1 and Dummy 2!". Okaaay, you said it, not me!!

Mooooore snow

Yes, we got another couple of inches today...but the worst is going to be tonight when the wind starts and the Blizzard Warning kicks in. Grace made the cutest snowman today after school...she was outside for a long time playing in it. Tucker had a ball out there with her too! I'm glad somebody likes it!

Yesterday I spent an 2 hours cleaning Grace's disastrous room. I swear I just spent my morning doing the same thing not very long ago. I took a garbage bag full of trash and a garbage bag full of toys out of that room and it's still packed full. And this girl has a birthday coming up??!! She said to me "Mom, take a picture of my clean room and put it on the internet!" :).

Grr, snow

Spring can start anytime now, that would be fine with me. Yesterday there was not any snow on the ground. We still have quite a bit of ice, but the snow was pretty much gone. Then last night it just had to dump 7 inches of snow on us. And we're supposed to get more on Monday. At least Lucy loves to play in it!

Grace gets her day on the court

After many tears, screaming fits, and bouts of frustration, Grace decided it was ok if she played basketball today. I didn't even tell her I signed her up until yesterday, because I knew she would freak and not want to play. She was afraid people would be watching her. But last night she said she'd play "if I can wear these shorts, this short-sleeved shirt, have my hair in one ponytail, and bring a water bottle". Ok, fine by me, as long as you get out there and play! She plays in the dreaded Leisure Services league, which is 15 minutes of practice and about 30 minutes of 'game', if you can call it that. It's the old all ten girls moving down the court in a big pack without dribbling, then someone whiffs up a ball and hopes it goes in the hoop kind of game :). Like this:Notice how she's looking at me instead of looking at the ball and the pack of players behind her :). She did have fun though and is looking forward to next week. Oh, and she made a basket too!!

And here are a few of Matt's game today. The Red Hawks won 28-20, yippee!

The Grace's:

Tyler got some playing time!

Tyler got to play in the sophomore game tonight against Indianola. He's what we affectionately call a 'bench warmer' :). But he really plays hard, and he did such a great job tonight! We took the gang down to Indianola to watch him play....Ben played his Nintendo DS, Matt videotaped, and Grace caused trouble by spilling Ben's blue Power Ade all over the bleachers. Good times.

I took 44 pictures of Tyler :)...here are a few.

This is the giant kid who my shortest-guy-on-the-team had to fight for rebounds against. He looked like a linebacker.

American Girl crazed

Grace looovvvveeesss her American Girl doll she got for Christmas. Loves it. She has been dying for the bed...we have searched Target for the generic American Girl doll bed (their brand is Our Generation), but haven't found it yet. We were going to get the armoire for the clothes and accessories too, but instead we made one ourselves! Target had these white storage cabinets for 24.99 this week....we bought some new knobs, some decals and a tension rod and voila! An armoire! Considering the fact that the real AG armoire is $345 and smaller, I'd say we did pretty well!

And this is sort of funny in an egotistical 5 year old way (ha)... When I went to tuck Grace in last night I noticed that she had written on her castle bed:

It says "Prinses Gracie is pritty" . Oh brother!

Basketball camp

Matt went to a basketball camp this week, led by several former college players. It was good for him to run off some holiday poundage :). Here are a couple pics...the tall guy is Pete Eggers from Drake. Matt's in the red shorts.