Happy Birthday to our 18 year old red headed boy Tyler!!

 The birthday boy!!

 Noah picking the charms out of his cereal :)

 Trouble 1 and Trouble 2

Ben made a video camera with boxes :)

 Tyler says Thank You Grandmother and Grandpa for my new sweater!  He wore it to school today :)

Tyler turned 18 years old on Saturday!!  We didn't have much time to do anything with him though, because he had to work from 2-9.  We told him we'd go out for his bday meal another time.  Joel and the boys came over, and so did Grandpa Jim.  It was fun!  The kids were itchin' to get outside to play and since itwas 43 degrees, it was a go!!!  43 is like spring to us!  They had fun on the mounds of snow in our front yard and found a nice little hill to sled down into the driveway.  They attempted a couple snowmen but got distracted from that pretty quickly.  They got hot and had to take off their hats...they were seriously sweating under them, it was really nice out. 
We came back inside and watched a couple of movies & played.  Grace has had a cough all weekend and by Saturday had a temp as well.  She looked pretty puny.  Not a good time to be sick and share your germs with your cousins!  She stayed home from school today, but was much better. 

Poor, poor Tucker.  Getting his hair fixed is really humiliatiing to a guy.

Eli had a few wiggly teeth I tried to bribe him into letting me pull.  One was barely hanging on so I told him if he let me wiggle it I'd get him an Icee and a Fun Dip at the gas station :).  He was hesitant, but in the end let me at it.  1 second later, it was out :)!  He decided that was all for this visit...maybe next time we'll try the other wigglers.

Snow time

Matt and Grace had a little brother/sister bonding time playing in the snow today.  Actually, Matt was supposed to be shoveling the driveway.  They had fun until Grace came inside crying that Matt kept throwing snowballs at her face. :/

Girl Scout cookies...mmmmm!

Fun mail today!

We got good mail today!  Grandma Cathy sent us some fun valentine's day treats!  Besides candy, we got an Applebee's card and some fun craft kits.  Grace and Ben had fun making sticker hearts, teddy bear sucker covers, and bead necklaces.  And Grandma even sent me her Kohl's cash, I love it!  Thanks for the good mail Grandma!

Matt's basketball game

Matt's team played a great game today against Mandan!  Unfortunately they lost it in the 4th quarter, after leading the whole game, but they played really well.  Matt played great....he hustled on defense and only had one turnover as point guard.  He also scored 5 points! 

And I know you Iowa and Illinois people got a LOT of snow in the past few days, but here is a couple pics of ours.  It's getting simply ridiculous.

The kids started working on their valentines for school already.  Grace the over-achiever wanted to get hers done the second the name list came home from school :). 

I think that Grandpa Jim and Joel & the boys are heading over this weekend, as long as the weather is ok.  It would be nice if it would NOT snow and NOT be cold for ONE weekend.  Well, of course, now that I look I think we're supposed to get snow Saturday and Sunday.  Jeeze.

Ben wanted me to show you the drawing he's working on.  It's from the game Angry Birds....he's making a 4 sided picture :).

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 :)