Back from FL

Just saving space. Details/Pics to follow.

Enjoying the snow!

The boys had President's Day off so I took them cross country skiing at a park by our house. Skiing is very much like riding a bus, once you get up and moving you remember exactly how to do it. We all felt that way and had a nice afternoon. It wasn't too many days later that we had a foot of snow land on our doorstep. Jody got his snowblower up and running and had fun clearing the driveway. Today, Ella asked if I would help her make a snowman while she enjoyed making snow angels. The boys are hoping for a snow day tomorrow due to the fact that we are expecting more snow tonight.

Most Holy Trinity Basketball

The boy's school, Most Holy Trinity, formed a basketball team for the first time in 10 years and Warner was on it. The team was made up of 5th and 6th graders with excellent parent volunteers for coaches. Here is a quote from his coaches:
Warner - Mr. Quick. Always seemed to be in the middle of the play and came up with the key defensive stop in our first round playoff game. Borrowed shoes from Matthew, then stole the ball from his player and relayed it down court to Matthew for the layup!

Holidays 2006

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year, we celebrated in Arizona with the Nieborg clan. We stayed with a good friend of ours, Melissa, and spent most of our time with Oma, Opa, Uncle Bobby, Aunt Treese and the kids. Warner, Willem and Ella had the greatest time with their cousins, they are still talking about it. They were moving into a beautiful new home so Jody was there in time to help with the move. Here is a photo of Mom, Dad, John, his wife, Jody, me, Treesie and Bobby on Christmas Eve. The kids has so much fun spending Christmas Eve and morning with their cousins.

Halloween 2006

It's that time of year again-
Jody decked out the house again this year. He says he likes to do it for the kids but I think he secretly enjoys it too. We had a very nice night to go trick or treating with the kids, they took advantage of it coming home with bags and bags of candy. Once Ella got the hang of ringing the doorbell and saying trick or treat, she wouldn't even wait for the boys, she would take off for the next house. It was so funny. As you can see the boys were dressed as a Pirate, a Monty Python knight and the Little Mermaid.

Ella turns 3

Our baby girl is 3!
We can't get over how fast time has gone- now that Ella turned three and has potty trained like a big girl I feel like she is her own person, no longer our little baby girl. Ella will tell you that she had 2 parties and got lots of presents including Polly Pockets, Princess anything and Dora.

Warner turns 11

I haven't posted for a while so I wanted to catch up on our family events-

First being Warner's 11th birthday in September. We had a party for him at the Waterpark Of America with a few friends then had a family party the next day. He got new skater shoes, books, Heroscape sets and spy gear. Here are a few photos from the festivities.

2006-2007 School Year Begins!

The new school year has begun for the boys and they are so excited, can't you tell? Warner is in 5th grade and Willem is in 2nd grade, how time flies. They are excited for the new year because they get one hour of computer class and Spanish has become part of their schedule.

Willem is a Brown Belt

Willem has worked very hard this summer to get his last black stripe on his Advanced Red Belt in Karate. That work paid off today with his Brown Belt graduation. He and about 50 others earned their belts at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Warner was also invited to participate in the Black Belt graduation ceremony by doing a bo demonstration. That was a huge compliment from his instructor for all of his hard work. Look out for the Nieborg boys, Jody and I are afraid to make them angry. haha

Visit from Cousin Michael

We had special visitors last week, my cousin Kathy and her son Michael, from Iowa. They spent two nights so Kathy and I took the boys to a waterpark one night and the Minnesota Children's Muesum the whole next day. I don't know where they had more fun, but I can tell you that we had some excited kids on our hands both days.

Ella's Big Girl Haircut

I finally decided that Ella's hair is not going to be long, dark and curly just yet. Therefore, I brought her in for a big girl haircut last week. She went from toddler to big girl in about 15 minutes. She loves her new haircut and we love her new attitude. haha She is sassy as can be and we don't know how she got that way. :) Above, Ella's friend came along for moral support.

Happy 4th!

Hi everyone, hope you had all had a good 4th of July.

We had a nice long weekend. Jody and the boys went out to Prior lake and spend the night at Jen's great Aunt/Uncle's cabin on the 3rd. Then they spent the whole day out there on the 4th. Plenty of barbecueing, fun and family hanging around time.

Warner and Will tried their hand at fishing on the 3rd. Both boys caught a few Sunnies using night crawlers and bobbers. Later, Warner started fishing with a lure and caught a nice large mouth bass. That pretty muched hooked him on fishing. He spent the rest of the day trying to catch another one. (He even passed up a chance to go out on the boat for a trip around the lake)
Will had some fun and caught two small sunnies that he put in a bucket and wanted to bring home as pets. After Jen and Ella showed up, he agreed to let them back into the lake.

Jen and Ella came out in the afternoon on the 4th and we all hung out. Ella ran all over the place and especially liked playing at the water's edge. Luckily she didn't want to swim too much as one of us would have had to go in with her and I don't think either of us wanted to. :-D

Like it's always been, it was a great time and the fireworks were awesome. Uncle Tom came up from Iowa with the family and proceeded to put on "a helluva feed" for the group. True to his fashion, the eats included deep fried turkey (super moist), home made onion rings, chips, deep fried breaded mushrooms & burgers and brats, plus a table full of snacks.
Oh yeah, can't forget the coolers and coolers full of beer and soda. Or as these minnesotans call it...pop.

All in all, it was nice weekend. Pretty relaxing and tough to get back to work on the 5th. I forgot to bring a camera, but some pics were taken. If I can get copies, I'll upload them later.

Ok, I've got to go. Talk to you later.