Oliver's new hiding place

He's hiding under the reclining part of the couch. Josh was doing something that scared him and before I knew it he was laying under there. It was funny.

Taylor's Birthday

(I had the picture rotated before I downloaded it, but it downloaded sideways. I can't figure out how to do it.)

He got a new 20 G shot gun for hunting pheasants this fall with his dad. He passed hunter safety class on Friday and has been telling me everything he needs to do. I think he really paid attention. Josh also made him a prime rib dinner with king crab legs. Kaitie made him a chocolate chip cookie cake and decorated it all by herself. She did a great job. We put relight candles on and he couldn't figure out what was going on. Some of the candles relit like 5 times, it was hilarious. we finally let him in on the joke. All in all I think he had a fun day and now I have a whole year to prepare myself for a teenager next year!!

Kaitie's room

This summer we have been busy painting the house. Here are the colors Kaitie picked out for her room. It's bright! The colors, neon green and blue

Taylor getting on the bus for his first day of middle school.....yes, that's right my baby is in 6th grade and is in middle school. He gets on the bus at 7:27 am every day and gets home at 4 pm. So far I think he is enjoying middle school.

SWIM BIKE RUN

I now have a triathlete living in my home! Today Kaitie participated in the first ever kids triathalon here in SF. She did great!! although she didn't really rnjoy the swimming part though. She is much stronger at running and biking this is her waiting in line to get started.


had to get all the gear on for the biking part

starting the running
finally the finish line!

This is Jared Shoemaker. He is #1 triathelete in the USA and #6 in the world. He did the triathelon at the Bejing olympics

I'm not sure if she will do it again anytime soon, unless she can practice the swimming part. that is the part that wore her out. I guess we need to get access to a pool..hummmm maybe the next project for the back yard? or a membership to the wellness center with the olympic size pool would be better.

Girls on the Run

Kaitie is in "Girls on the Run" a program to help girls live healthy lives, et have a good time while exercising. This is the second year she has participated. She is finishing her 5K run. She ran it in 32 min and 27 sec. Pretty good, better than I can do.

Taylor needed black dress pants for his play coming up soon. I ended up getting him a suit intead it was only 10 bucks more. He really likes it, this is a picture of him right when he got home from school. I think he likes it.

remodeling

Dressing up

It's dress like your dad day at school, I think Taylor is a spittin' image!!

Pinewood derby

It's time for Pine Wood Durby again. This is Taylor's last year to participate. He is using the Dremal, he us using my sunglasses as saftey goggles.

The Cruise

We left Cozumel after being there for about 8 hours. It was a perfect amount of time. We had a good time. Ate at a resturant, that was awsome.

Our next port stop was Cozumel Mexico, where we made it to Mr. Sancho's beach. It was pretty relaxing. I used 30 sun block, and it worked, I didn't even get any color. I was bummed. oh well, I guess I didn't burned and be miserable for the rest of the vacation. This pic is a bunch of Frito Lay employees and their spouses.

We ate key lime pie at the key lime pie factory that was featured on the food network. it was an awsome piece of pie. You could even get a piece on a stick dipped in chocolate.




Our first port was in Key West, We only did some suvonier shopping there, didn't get the chance to get to a beach or anything. We ported on a navy base, so we had to show our ID's to get back on base, it took forever to get the whole shuttle to get through.


Here is our room it was pretty small, and we were on the very bottom of the ship. It was probably a good thing, because there wasn't much for motion down there.


It started off before we left port that some of the top guys from Frito Lay came from Dallas to congratulate the midwest region on their accomplisments of winning the Herman Lay award. This is a pic with Randy Melville the VP of Frito Lay. He was such a nice guy and offered a lot of advice to the guys. He even thanked all of the spouses for all the support we show to our Frito Lay employees.

Back to Life

Now that my Semester break and Christmas break are done, I have to start back to school once again starting tomorrow. I should be getting things all in order instead of updating my blog, which I could have done yesterday. I still have to go get my millions of books for the nursing program! I actually can't wait to get started and start learning new things about the nursing field. I only have three semesters left and I will be a full fledged RN (Reject Nurse)!!!!I can see the light.

After Christmas Celebration!

Even the adults got in some play time at the Guitar Hero!! That was a blast to play. I'm glad that Austin and Patti brought it with them.
Holden I don't think really cared about opening his gifts as this was a toy already at Grandpa Toms!!

Doesn't Taylor look happy with all those Reeses?!!!! He got all these from his Aunt Krissy!! I don't think he could have gotten a better gift.

Playing after the presants are opened!!

We got a Wii from Santa. Got a pic of Josh playing and the kids watching him, They look so enthused don't they?

Christmas still

Taylor and Kaitlyn wanted to do the decorating this year of the Christmas tree, so I let them, I think they did a great job.

Christmas

Josh arranged for Chester Cheetah to vistit the sick kids at one of the local hospitals here is Sioux Falls. Taylor and Kaitlyn also helped pass out the chester cheetah stuffed animals to the kids. Chester also gave the nurses a bag of Cheetos for all their hard work!

Christmas

Christmas Band Concert

Taylor had his first Christmas band concert. Here you can hear for yourself!!