Happy Birthday RPKII!

Today is Rich's birthday, and he is 44 years old.  So much older than me :)!  Since he is on midnight shifts and Tyler had to work this evening, he decided against going out to eat and just wanted pizza.  I picked him up an extra special birthday apple pie from McDonald's too :).  We have so much cake around here from the party yesterday that noone was interested in cake.  He bought himself a bunch of electronic stuff for his birthday, he's been working on fixing up old turntables and speakers and stuff. 

Ben used some of his birthday money to buy himself an invention kit yesterday....he is so interested in electronics and magnets, which thrills Rich to no end!  He spent forever working on it today, he really likes it.

And a pic of the cute little green pitcher I found at a thrift store for $1.49 last week :).  I love it!

New year, new post!

I'm pathetic and sad, I know.  I KNOW, OK??  But noone has missed anything, I really swear.  My new year's resolution is to blog at least every other day, but I'm warning you, some of the posts will be sadly lacking in fun and activity.  It's January.  In Bismarck, North Dakota.  'Nuff said.  We only leave the house if we have no milk or if one of us is headed to the cabin fever hot spot....Target.  I take kids to school in the morning, pick kids up after school, pick Matt up from bball practice, and come home.  That's the life we lead.  B.O.R.I.N.G.  Matt did start his basketball games 2 weeks ago.  They are a complete rag-tag group of 8th graders....there are several of last years clueless Joe's on matt's team again this year.  Sweet kids, and when you're 6'5" tall in 8th grade you HAVE to have some basketball skillz and talent somewhere inside you, right?  Tucked away in a pocket somewhere?  Well I can just tell you that no, no these tall full-of-potential kids have butter on their hands and blinders on their eyes, because they can't rebound, pass, catch a pass, shoot, or figure out what to do next.  It's painful to watch, really.  Matt on the other hand is playing really well this year!  He got moved up a team and is playing point guard.  He lost quite a bit of weight over the summer and fall and has gotten taller too, so he is quicker this year.  He's never played point guard before so he's still working out the kinks of that position, like picking up your dribble and watching your passes, but he can do it.  They lost 2 and won 2 so far, so cross your fingers that they improve!  No pics yet because Rich makes me videotape the games for him when he's not there and that's a huge pain...it's hard to watch the game and pretty much impossible to take a pic at any point.  I'll bring it next time.
Grace and Ben had a joint birthday party at the Gateway To Science Center in Bismarck today.  They each invited 6 friends and got to roam around in the big rooms and work on the stations for an hour.  Then we went downstairs to eat and open gifts.  The finishing touch was making slime!  The boys loved it...the girls not so much!  One girl almost puked and had to leave the experiment room because she thought it was so disgusting LOL.  I think they all had fun (well, except Paige!).   Two thumbs up for having a birthday party at a place where people can meet you , where the staff pretty much entertains the kids, and you can scoop all the stuff in a bag and be off right at 2 pm!  No mess occurred at my house, at least by us :). 
Next weekend it appears that Grace's friend Zoey is going to upstage us....Grace got invited to Zoey's Sleepover Party.  They meet at Claire's Jewelry store to get their nails done and makeovers.  Then they hop into a limo, which takes them to Zoey's house for the big sleepover.  Grace C.a.N.n.O.t wait!!!  She will be anticipating this one every day until Saturday. 
On tap this week:
Matt bball game Monday at 6 pm
Tuesday Ben dr. appt w/psych.
Wed.  Matt bball pract & confirmation
Thurs:  Matt bball game at 4:15
Friday:  Huh, I'm sure there's something ;)
Saturday:  The super exciting makeover/limo party

So that's it for now.  Sorry I'm so lame with this blog.....once again Facebook has latched on to my addictive personality and made it hard to want to be anywhere else online.  I'll try though :).

 Our darling neighbor Madeline.  I told her mom that she will be a brain surgeon one day :)

Beautiful winter

Kind of an anomaly, isn't it?  We woke up to beautiful frosty trees this morning.  Everything was white...it was so pretty!!

Thanksgiving + Ben's birthday

We went over to Heidi and Joel's house for Thanksgiving this year, despite the terrible weather.  We left a day early so we'd beat the snow....North Dakota is extremely unpredictable from November to, oh, May?  We met Mom and Don there...it was really great to be together!  Heidi cooked her little heart out and everything was excellent.  While we were there we had a little birthday party for Ben. 

Watching the jack rabbit through the downstairs window

Heidi the wonder woman :)...making mashed

potatoes and looking fabulous doing it!

Joel cutting the turkey in his prisoner outfit

We had another birthday party for Ben on his actual birthday date.  He got some great stuff from Grandmother and Grandpa and an ipod shuffle from us...let's hope this one doesn't go down the toilet.

A quick post of pictures

Not a lot going on, but I'll post some recent pics!

                                                    Grace buzzing up to a door...notice
                                                                 she lost a shoe in the 
                                                                            frenzy :)                                         

Tyler's first day of work at Dan's Super Market :)

Tucker enjoying our game of Chutes & Ladders

Sweet girl with her dog

Our good Tucker-dog



Broken arms, pirates and snow

It's been a long time since I updated here!  It seems like Facebook sort of takes control of things these days.  Last Monday, Grace lost her other front tooth and an hour later Matt broke his arm :( .  After spending the night in the hospital, he went to surgery Tuesday morning to have it set.  It was not a pretty break.  That night Ben was in a musical at school, which unfortunately I had to miss because Matt hadn't been discharged from the hospital yet.  Rich went though and he said that Ben did a great job! 

                                                                                             

Last weekend we met Roman, Lynn, Allison, her husband Steve, and daughter Evy for supper at Texas Roadhouse.  Evy is the same age as Grace, and those girls became fast friends!  They were a little shy at first, but after awhile they were making plans left and right...playdates, trick-or-treating, meeting at the American Girl store :), you name it.  Unfortunately they live south of Minneapolis :( .  They really hit it off, and it was so great to see Allison...the two of us used to play together when we were little!

 

Today, unfortunately, it SNOWED!!  We had a blizzard warning last night and today, and ended up with about 3 1/2 inches of snow and terrible winds.  The kids loved it though, and made a snowman the second they got home from school!  Mr. Snowman is wearing Grandpa Kinney's hat and has a Nerf dart for a nose :).

What a great fall weekend!!!

Fall is in full swing in North Dakota!  We had a gorgeous weekend full of sun, cool temps and cousins!  Joel, Eli and Noah came over for the weekend while Heidi visited with her friends for her college homecoming.  We had such a fun time!  The kids adore each other, it's so fun to see them play together.  Saturday Joel and Rich ran to the mall and enjoyed a visit to Yankee Candle (really, they truly love that store LOL!).  When they got home, we ate a quick lunch and went to the pumpkin patch.  I believe that every other person in the greater Bismarck/Mandan area was there also :).  It's a cool place though, and the kids will be picking hay out of their parts for days!  After the pumpkin patch, we came home for a drink & a snack, and went back out to the zoo.  The Dakota Zoo is small, but works out well for little feet who get tired of walking.  We headed back home &  Joel, Rich, Tyler and Matt went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Iowa-Penn St. game.  They only stayed till halftime, then came home for the rest...great victory Hawks!  This morning they headed back home.  Thanks for coming guys, we had a great time!