Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas!
God bless us, everyone!

LOTS of Snow

So we had our first snow in October, but this week we have our first BIG snow. It all began Sunday afternoon as we were getting out of church. The snow was beautiful coming down and watching it accumulate throughout the day was pretty special since snow only accumulates over night down south. There wasn't a whole lot to play in on Sunday, but MC and Nate were anxious to get out there and play anyway.

MC glided around and pretended she was ice skating.

Nate just liked leaving footprints. :)

We are much better prepared for the snow this time with snow boots and waterproof jackets and gloves. They keep telling me they need snow pants, so they're going to really appreciate Christmas from Nana and Pa. ;)

Albert was checking it out on a potty break.

But this was only the beginning, by Monday morning I was up early checking to see if school was out as about 3 to 4 inches had accumulated by then. But we're not in the south anymore Toto, school was on. MC and Nate can honestly tell their children and grandchildren that they walked up hill in the snow to school. :) By Tuesday, it was really coming down. I would guess we've gotten another 8 to 10 inches today and it is still coming down. This much snow and blizzard-like winds did warrant the schools to close, so MC and Nate got to play in the snow some more and this time there was plenty of it...

MariCagle tried her hardest to make a snowman, she wants to so badly. But this snow is just too powdery. Snow balls just break apart en route to the target so no snowball fights either.

I didn't really make Nate shovel the driveway and sidewalks, he just wanted a go at it when I was finished. I think I made it look easier than it was. :) He really just liked the 'mountains' on either side of the driveway that the shovel made.

My angel making a snow angel.

Now with Brandon being sick, the shoveling has fallen to me. I can't tell you how much snow there is!! I shoveled the driveway once on Monday afternoon and thought no big deal. It was actually quite picturesque. I even got up early Tuesday morning to shovel it again so Brandon would have a clear path on the way to the doctor. But when I went out with the kids, I had to shovel it a second time and let me tell you that it needs it again already and it's only 1pm!!!! So this picture is of our neighbor across the street with his handy dandy snow blower. A wonderful invention that I am officially putting on my wishlist. :)

And I need to say now, that we have wonderful neighbors. Truly great neighbors. Knowing that we didn't have a snow shovel (I only just bought one Monday morning) and that Brandon was sick, our next door neighbor was kind enough to shovel our sidewalks first thing Monday. And Monday afternoon, as I was shoveling the driveway with our brand new shovel, the neighbor with the handy dandy snow blower was kind enough to do half my work for me. And today on my second go round at shoveling the drive, another neighbor pitched in. That's a lot of neighborly kindness isn't it? We are very thankful and feel very blessed to have found this house. There's nothing like kindness to put you in the Christmas spirit!

A Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2009 was filled with food and family, my two favorite things. Our holiday began with what will soon become the routine flight. This was MC and Nate's first experience with layovers. All in all, they did great. It helped that our layover was in a pretty much empty Milwaukee airport so the kids were able to play with their basketball and had free reign at the kiddie playground.

Ready to go! They enjoyed the airline magazine. :)

Can you tell the kids are excited for Christmas to come? They decorated one of Grammy's trees with buckets, goggles and other swim toys that were available. It's always amazing to witness where their imaginations take them.

The kiddos paired off pretty quickly into boys and girls. MC and Quinn enjoyed girlie play with baby dolls and school time. Nate and Hudson were true boys playing transformers and shooting everyone, which the girls did really not appreciate. As they get older it is so fun watching them play and enjoy each other's company. By next year, Payton will be running around with them too. Good times!

Here's all the rugrats. Aren't they all beautiful!?! Five perfect reasons to be thankful!

Husker Basketball

This weekend we continued to acquaint ourselves with our new 'home town.' We took the kids to see a Husker Basketball game. It began with a walk clear across campus that gave us a chance to check it out. There was a Husker football game later that night, so we got a taste of Husker tailgating too. Nate has been going to a basketball clinic once a week and MariCagle looks forward to playing this winter. So the game was a great chance for them to see exactly what basketball is all about. They really enjoyed it. Basketball games move quickly and are only two hours long so the kids were completely entertained, especially when you add popcorn and sodas. :) Check out our pictures from the day....

Checking out this much of campus was new to Brandon too. It was a bit of an exploratory mission for all of us.

Not sure the story behind this tower, but it's just east of the football stadium so lots of tailgating just behind it.

What hams!

This is Lil' Red, one of the two mascots. There's a cute children's story about him that Nate loves. It is a story of good sportsmanship, something for which Husker fans are known.

MC is over 4' now!!

On the way home, we stopped in at a science museum on campus. They have skeletons of mammoths which were actually found throughout Nebraska, hence the large statue outside. We only had a few minutes before they closed. But Nate and MariCagle really enjoyed their first trip to a museum. It was a great weekend!

Halloween is SaWEET!

Halloween was lots of fun. I forget how exciting it is for kids. I was reminded as I watched MariCagle and Nate race from house to house. All for candy! We really enjoyed being able to go house to house. It was reminiscent of my days on Cosby Drive. Nate was a great looking Husker football player. He chose his costume simply so he could have another helmet. Smart boy! MC wanted to be a pink cat so we had to get creative and make it ourselves. It turned out very cute if I say so myself, but of course the angel wearing it made it look good. :) We also enjoyed trick or treating at the children's zoo. It was a sort of dress rehearsal for the big night. All in all it was a great weekend and a super finish to the kids fall break. Now we're just counting down to Thanksgiving and a trip home! Love you all!

Brandon gets all the credit for the pumpkin carving again this year. Nate chose Scooby Doo and MC chose a cat to honor her costume choice.

Ready to go. Hurry up already Mom.

Nate found his scene at the zoo.

MariCagle really loved putting on the make up.

Trick or treat!

We had to pose with our favorite, Scooby. "Rick or reat!"

Check out the moon on Halloween night. We finished just as it started getting dark. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Go Chiefs!

We went to our first NFL football game today. It was MC and Nate's first as well as mine. Our seats were as high as you can get, the Chiefs lost to the Chargers miserably, and we left at half time because of the rain, but we still had a good time. It was quite nostalgic for Brandon as he remembers going to his first Falcons game with his dad; it was Falcons versus the Los Angeles Rams. He remembers getting new cowboy boots on the way to the game that they filled with the 'hot hands' because it was so cold. But back to today....

Upon arrival it was sunny and quite comfortable, but it quickly went to cloudy and much chillier.

Check out the wall behind us. :) We could still see everything quite well and it was certainly loud enough. Nate was actually a little scared by the decibel level of all the pre-game festivities.

The pregame festivities included 4 black hawk helicopters that flew through the stadium. They got close enough that we could see the soldiers aboard waving. Very cool. I wish I had thought to get the camera out earlier, but I was just in such awe.

I wasn't aware that the Chief's mascot was a wolf. Nate enjoys his foam wolf claw. Argh! The kicker on the Chargers team was named Nate. We all got a kick out of that.

MC opted for a pink #1. Go Chiefs.

We love us some hot dogs and they taste even better at a stadium!

We were impressed with the multiple uses of the foam claw on the way home. The kids fashioned a table for their Go Fish game.

It was a fun afternoon! Hope you all enjoyed a great weekend!
XOXOXOXO

MC & Nate's (very first) college football pick 'em

Mari Cagle and Nate are here to provide you with their college football prognostications - for free! Enjoy!

Mari Cagle		MC's pick
Oklahoma vs. Texas-Austin		Texas by 10
USC vs. Notre Dame		USC by 30
South Carolina vs. Alabama		SC by 17
Georgia vs. Vanderbilt		Georgia by 10
Arkansas vs. Florida		Florida by 20
Texas Tech vs. Nebraska		Nebraska by 10
Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech		GT by 3
Nate		Nate's pick
Oklahoma vs. Texas-Austin		Oklahoma by 10
USC vs. Notre Dame		Notre Dame by 6
South Carolina vs. Alabama		Alabama by 20
Georgia vs. Vanderbilt		Georgia by 16
Arkansas vs. Florida		Florida by 10
Texas Tech vs. Nebraska		Nebraska by 16
Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech		GT by 5

Here are Nate's NFL picks for this weekend:

Houston by 10 over Cincinnati

Jacksonville by 14 over St Louis

NY Giants by 15 over New Orleans

Tampa Bay by 17 over Carolina

Oakland by 8 over Philadelphia

Tennessee by 18 over New England

Chicago by 17 over Atlanta

Green Bay by 16 over Detroit

Baltimore by 18 over Minnesota

Pittsburgh by 28 over Cleveland

Kansas City by 26 over Washington

Arizona by 16 over Seattle

NY Jets by 38 over Buffalo

Denver by 27 over San Diego

And now MC's NFL picks:

Cincinnati by 5 over Houston

Jacksonville by 20 over St Louis

NY Giants by 5 over New Orleans

Carolina by 10 over Tampa Bay

Philadelphia by 10 over Oakland

New England by 20 over Tennessee

Atlanta by 23 over Chicago

Green Bay by 30 over Detroit

Minnesota by 20 over Baltimore

Cleveland by 10 over Pittsburgh

Kansas City by 10 over Washington

Arizona by 20 over Seattle

Buffalo by 10 over NY Jets

Denver by 10 over San Diego

Nate's First Field Trip

Nate had his first field trip today. He and his kindergarten class went to a local pumpkin patch. With his first field trip also came his first bus ride. According to the teacher and chaperones on the bus, it was a lively ride. I was lucky enough to get to tag along at the pumpkin patch so I got some fun pictures.

Ready to find his perfect pumpkin.

On the hayride to the pumpkin patch.

Can you spot Nate? He's the handsome lady in the middle. :)

Playing on the playground. He and his buddies were of course playing Star Wars as they climbed and ran around.

Climbing on the hay mountain. Again, they imitated Star Wars in their climbing escapades.

In the pumpkin patch. Nate and his buddies had to go all the way to the back of the patch to get their pumpkins. I think they did it just so they could trek through more mud.

First Snow

We never thought it would come this early, but the kids enjoyed their first snow this morning. It wasn't a lot of snow, but the first they've ever seen so they were very excited. They made snowballs which they launched at Albert and Daddy and MariCagle and Daddy attempted to make a snowman. They didn't play outside too long. I ordered those waterproof jackets, gloves and snow boots a couple days too late! :)

First check out the snow before it was disturbed by the munchkins and Albert's running circles. On a side note, check out the front yard. Brandon and I finished up taking out and trimming all the overgrown bushes and trees. We got the mulch layed down yesterday just in time for the snow.

Here is the attempt at a snow man. Brandon raked as much snow as he could up but he got just as many leaves. It didn't get much further than this stage as it just proved too difficult to get a good ball going.

Nate and Brandon took the high ground to launch a snowball attach on Albert. Albert didn't mind. At the first sign of a snowball he would just take off racing in circles and then come back for more.

MariCagle talked a big game getting her snowball arsenal ready, but when it came time to fight she had turned them into mini snowmen and really didn't appreciate being hit with snow.

Nate was all in it with no regard for how wet or cold he felt. I think his favorite part was definitely hitting Brandon with a snowball. What giggles!

They both tried to catch snow on their tongues. According to them, it tastes yummy.

Now that we've dried off and come in from the cold, we sure do love our new heater!! Happy FALL everyone!