Happy Valentines Day!

Just wanted to "shout out" to all our friends and family -- Happy Valentines Day!!! Hope your day is filled with love and happiness, from our house to yours!! Love ya!!! XXO

Birthday Party No. 9

Brianna's birthday fell on a Monday this year, and since the weekend before her birthday was Super Bowl weekend, we decided to have her celebrate and have her party on the weekend after. She invited seven friends from school and wanted to go out for pizza and go ice skating! We invited my mom and my sister, Jenny, and her whole family to go along with us! When we got to Pizza Hut we had quite a large group and ended up with about half the restaurant taken up by us!! We enjoyed pizza and cake and opened presents while we were there! By the time the presents were opened, it was time to go to the ice rink for skating.

Of the ten children we had in our group, only one was a good ice skater -- she plays hockey for the Junior Musketeers team here in Sioux City! Four of them had never been ice skating before and the other five have only gone once before. Amazingly, everyone did great and had a fun time! I think it is fair to say that the party was a "hit" with everyone! Parents came to pick up their children at the end of the evening and three kids came home with us to spend the night. Once we got back to our house, the girls changed into pajamas and played with the Nintendo Wii all night long! We shut everything off just after midnight and they fell asleep and slept until almost 9am the next morning! I was starting to think I was going to have to wake them up because their parents were coming to get them at 10am!! Now Brianna's birthday is officially over until next year... I will probably need that long to "recuperate"!! Ha!Ha!

Brianna and Basketball...

Not much to tell here...

Brianna played basketball on a team through our local YMCA. They started playing their first game the first weekend in December and just had their last game last weekend, February 7th. Score is not kept for these games, but Brianna started out okay... she scored a basket in her first game and was quite happy! She was ecstatic when she scored three baskets in her next game!! After having a couple good games, you can imagine she was disappointed when she wasn't able to make a basket in any of the remaining games. Except for the final game... Grandma (my mom) came to Sioux City to celebrate Brianna's birthday and see her last basketball game. I think Brianna wanted to "impress" Grandma, so she really worked a little harder and was able to make two of her shots!!! She was quite happy! It was a nice little birthday present to herself, not to mention a nice way to end the season! I have posted her basketball picture and the team picture below:

Sorry for the Delay...

Yes... I am finally posting on here again! I am sorry for the delay and have even had some of you asking when I am going to write on here again!!! My problem is that I recently discovered a new addiction that seems to take up my "free time" on the computer... yes, FaceBook!! This site is so amazing! I am getting in touch with old classmates and other people from high school and college! I am even staying in touch more with cousins and other relatives! It really is great to log on there and see what my friends and family have been doing since I was last on there! I actually try to get on there every day to see if I am missing anything!! Since I am a "newbie" to the whole FaceBook thing, it was consuming A LOT of my time... I had to look at everyone's photos and read all their information posted on their "wall"!! Now that I am caught up, it should be easier to check and stay informed on everyone lives!! Ha!Ha! And don't worry, I am not giving up the blogging... but you should check out FaceBook, get your own wall on there... you never know who you might get in touch with!! And if you do, let me know so I can add you to my list of "friends" that I want to stay in touch with!!!

Happy 9th Birthday, Brianna!!

Happy 9th Birthday to Brianna! Where have all the years gone??!! I can't believe my baby girl is already nine years old! WHOA!!!

We took her out for supper... she picked Chili's Restaurant. She even got a scoop of ice cream because it was her birthday... this "scoop" was so big we all had to help her eat it!! She also got an angel food confetti cake at home and we gave her a couple games for her Nintendo Wii that she got at Christmas!! She is on Cloud 9 already, and we still have her party coming up this weekend with her little girlfriends!! Happy Birthday, baby girl!!!

Look Ma!! No Braces!!!

Zach is flying on Cloud 9 today... because he got his braces off!! He had them just short of two years! Now isn't that a pretty smile??!!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, everyone!! Hope your new year is blessed and wonderful!! We also hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve last night!!

CJ and I had to work yesterday, so the kids were home for the better part of the day... just lounging around playing the Wii and Xbox 360 they got for Christmas!! When we got home, we had pizza for supper and got ready to go the the Musketeers hockey game. They were playing the Omaha Lancers, which they do every New Year's Eve. We have never gone to the hockey game on New Year's Eve because we are usually doing the "Family Fun Eve" events all throughout the city. They didn't have that this year -- (something about not having enough sponsors to be able to pull it off or something) so we decided to check out the hockey game! Zach took off to hang out with his friends as soon as we got there, but sure knew where to find us when he needed money for the concession stand!! The Musketeers lost the game 5-2, but it was a fun evening overall! Brianna had a blast! She got to see herself on the Jumbotron twice during the game -- once when she was dancing to the Village People's "YMCA" song, and then she was on again when she was dancing to the chicken dance!!

When the game was over, we dropped Zach off at a friend's house for an overnite party. CJ, Brianna and I went on to WalMart to get a few groceries for the rest of the week. We ran into our neighbor out there and a few people from work, so we didn't get home until almost midnight!! Brianna was upset that she didn't get to see New York drop the ball when midnight hit there, but the neighbors across the street started shooting fireworks off right at the stroke of midnight, so she was content to sit at the window and watch that show for a little while. When that was over, we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve and Brianna fell asleep on the couch about 12:30am. CJ and I were in bed by 1:00am!

Today, we took the Christmas tree and decorations down and are just watching football and eating... a nice relaxing day off!