Oh my a whole month has gone by!

Oh my gosh.... I had no idea that it had been so long. I'm sorry!
Not much has happened but I wanted to share with everyone our new hobby. It's called Geocaching. Joe just goes online to the Geocaching website and finds the coordinates to where they are located. Then we head out with the GPS and find the little treasures. The website says that there are 754,445 caches around the world so this should keep us busy for a while. For example this weekend we went up to my grandparents house in Garrison and on the way home we stopped at a rest stop and headed into the woods and found 2 of them. Then we stopped in Elk River and found 2 more. So now we have found a total of 6 and the kids love this. Some of them are easy and some are going to be a challenge. But it's fun, fun, fun!
If ya look in Hannah's hand that is the container this one was hidden in. If you want something new to do on a Sunday afternoon go get a GPS and check it out: www.geocaching.com

Vacation

2 weeks ago now... we spent Tuesday through Friday at The Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells. The whole experience was exciting and exhausting. We choose to go there because for us it was full of fun for everyone. They had 3 large indoor water parks and a foam ball tree fort activity place. Owen and Avril didn't enjoy the ball playing place because they had these air guns that were extremely loud. But the water parks provided more then enough to keep us all content for the week. And Isaac finally broke out of his shell and enjoyed all the water slides. In previous years he wouldn't even try and this year is just hopped in line and went, no coaxing or anything. We were quite happy to return to normal life though....normal food....normal bed....normal shampoo! :)



Then Valentine's weekend Hannah had an amazing swim meet. She did the 50 freestyle in 53.68 seconds, which was 5 seconds off her previous best time. (Place 14 out of 24) Then on her 50 Back stroke she had a time of 58.13 seconds, which was 1.61 seconds faster then her best time. On that one she placed 9th of 23. This was a total bummer because they give out ribbons for 1st-8th place. I turned into one of "those moms," the moms that somehow become louder then the entire audience! I can't help it-Hannah rocked! And she is officially part of the Sea Devils Team. Her coach put her up to the Bronze level which is officially team however, over the summer she turns 9 so her time standards will be faster so she'll have a lot of work ahead of her.

Owens 1st birthday was a bummer because both Isaac and him had the stomach flu which worked itself through this house all of last week. We also found out over his week long birthday that he doesn't care for cake or being dirty. But sadly in the end my little baby is growing up way too fast.

Ok, so right now I should be doing one of the 2 journals due tomorrow for English. But, instead I decided to do this. Not too much happened over the weekend but it was busy none the less. Joe and I both took on different shifts for the STMA swim meet yesterday. (Only to fulfill our time so we don't have to pay a butt load more for Hannah to be in swimming) Oh well we survived but it was a long day...Joe worked from 8:00 to noon then me from 1:00 to 5:30. Then it was off to bed early so I could get up for Hannah swim meet today. I hate to report that today was just not her day but better luck for her next time. She was between 2 and 15 seconds slower then her best time. It's still exciting to watch anyways. She has her last meet of the season in 2 weeks so I hope to report better then. I will report back in a week or so cuz we are off to the Dells this week.
TA-TA

Not to much is new around here. Um let me think....Oh sure Avril is 3 as of January 29th and of course had a birthday that lasted an entire week. She is growing up far to fast for this mommy along with everyone else in this household. No more diapers, no more nuk, no more help with hardly anything. UGH!
We celebrated by going out to eat on her birthday to AppleBees. It's become a past time for us because they are always willing to sing Happy Birthday and give the birthday person free desert. The kids love the attention from strangers! Then we went to Joe's parents for the traditional dinner, cake, presents and so on. Then on the following Saturday we brought a group of 9 kids to Maple Maze out in Maple Grove. Wow was that fun(yes I had an adult count of 4) but boy can those kids go, go, go. Let's just say we all slept great that night.
I am extremely busy right now with Girl Scout cookies and school seems to be kicking my butt. My only time to do homework is late and I can't seem to concentrait too much by then but, I will make it. I hope.
Pray for my grandma that she makes it though her surgery ok and for Joe that he either keeps or finds a job.
I will leave you all tonight with a picture of what happens to my house when the kids "help" put grocerys away!!

Random Stuff

Hannah is the Musketeer in the Middle

Life just isn't going to slow down enough for me to keep this updated as much as I should. Hannah was in a Hansel & Gretel this past weekend as a dancing cookie. She didn't seem scared at all, actually she seemed to know her parts better then most of the other kids. We are all glad it's over though, practice started way back in September and with Swimming also we have just been running, running, running. Then over the weekend she had to bake her 2 cakes for an Arts & Academics thing at school. The 1st cake she made last Wednesday and then they called school off Thursday and Friday so we figured we had better just eat it. She has decided to be a baker when she grows up and as far as I am concerned she is off to a good start.Tony got a new puppy Drake and he is just too cute. He and Buddy will be great friends but very annoying. They just don't stop playing. Drake grabs onto Buddy's cheek and won't let go but as soon as he does Buddy takes his paw and plows the little guy back to him.

Other then that things are pretty mellow. I finished painting our entire main floor and love love love it!
I am officially in college as of the 13th. I am loving it so far but am finding it a little hard to concentrate on homework. I'll get it done though. I am leaving you all with my favorite pic of the week. And until next time Enjoy!

Owen's Haircut

What a little trooper! Owen got his 2nd ever haircut today and did fabulous. I took out the clippers and went to it. He did great for the 1st 20 or so swipes but, after that he decided to half way cry, half way whine. Pretty pathetic sounding if ya ask me. As you can see he was truly in need of this haircut.

Yet another game of Tag

Aimee Libby and her tagging. See I started something...Joe and I act like kids building forts and such and Aimee just can't stop playing tag. Well I am always up for a quick game. She said the rules were to open your picture file and post the 4th picture. Well here it is. Seems like posting our 1st borns is the trend. Hannah is 4 1/2 here and obviously this was one of her dance pictures. She was only in dance this one year and boy was it cute. Cute sure but worth the money and time....um NO. Now TAG YOUR IT...Alie & Angela.