Basketball/ Siena's 8th Birthday

I think Bishop may have had the "play of the game" on Saturday at basketball. Bishop's team had the ball and a boy was guarding him. He was quite a bit taller than Bishop and he had his arms up to guard him.....so Bishop kept jumping up to give him high fives! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it--or get it on tape--I was laughing too hard!

The boy in blue is the one that was guarding Bishop

Bishop working on his dribbling

Bishop working on giving high fives to the boy who was guarding him! :)

 Bishop has become good buddies with a teammate, Colin, on his team. The coaches are on to them now and will try to separate them during practice and the games. They have more fun running around.....walking around the 3 point line and "playing" together than they do the game!

Bishop and Colin eating their treats after their game

Silly Boys!

After basketball we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, as Luke really wanted to see the Matisee exhibit. Nora fell asleep in the car on the way there, so I stayed in the car to let her nap, while Bishop and Luke went in to see the exhibit.

Saturday night we had Siena's 8th birthday party! I still can't believe she's 8 years old!! It only makes sense though--as Luke and I will be married 6 years this May and she was 2 when she was our flower girl! She is such a sweet and caring young girl! She is so good to Bishop and Nora and she is always taking care of them!

She had plenty of help opening her presents and blowing out her birthday candles! Like I said--she is a sweet, sweet girl--she told Bishop he could blow out a candle and lick the frosting off of it!

Bishop, Siena and Maia

Wow-it was a busy Saturday, but lots of fun!

It was 60 on Sunday so we got outside to go for a walk, ride bikes and play! It felt so good to feel the warm sun on our faces and to see some of the snow melt! We still have plenty of snow to melt in our yard, but we're getting closer! There's snow in the forecast for this week, so we're hoping it misses us!

Family Portrait

Bishop came home from school with this picture last week....can you guess which one Luke is?? Looks like he's following his father's footsteps of being an artist! :)

Mom, Nora, Dad and Bishop

There was a cute story from my Grandpa's funeral. Bishop started getting a little antsy during the service and walked to my dad and then back to me during the service. I told him he couldn't keep going back and forth--that he either had to stay with my dad or sit with me (so he went back to my dad and sat with him during the sermon). The service was JUST about over and he made his way back to sit by Luke and I and he sat on my lap facing me and said "MOM, are you happy?" The timing was impeccable! He followed it up with "Mom, are you happy with me for not going back and forth and sitting with Papa?" At first I was a little taken a back--I wasn't exactly "happy" to be at my Grandpa's funeral......but I was happy that he listened.  :)

Basketball

This is another catch up post from the past couple of weekends. We've had a lot of family time since my Grandpa passed away, which has been great!

We got home from Punta Cana on Friday night and on Saturday morning Bishop had basketball--we went to that and then my parents and the Bormann's came over. We all went out to lunch (Convention Grill), which went pretty well. Just watch out--I learned you don't want to mess with my daughter and my mother while I'm there--I'm pretty protective of those 2! ;)

We then came back to our house and the kids played and we talked about the arrangements for my Grandpa.

Madelyn and Nora with their babies! 

After the funeral Bishop really wanted to go to the park--so Luke, Ryan and I took the kids to the park for a little bit. There was a ton of snow and we weren't all really that prepared, but it was fun to get some fresh air and burn a little energy outside! :)

Nora and Madelyn swinging

 The kids and I spent the night in Owatonna the night of his funeral. On Friday I took the kids to visit my Grandma. She has Alzheimer's, but always loves seeing the kids!! The only good thing about Alzheimer's is she doesn't have to mourn the loss of her husband of 68 years!

Nora modeling Papa's shoes!

Nora reading her book to Great Grandma Marlys!

Hugs for Great Grandma

She LOVES holding her "babies"!!

Such a sweet lady-I love her so much!

Nora wasn't as interested in sitting on her lap--but she did manage to give her a hug!

 My parents came up on Friday to watch the NRHEG girls play in the state tournament.  My mom is an alum of NRHEG.  They played Friday night.....won and played again in the championship game on Saturday afternoon. My parents came and spent the night at our house Friday night.

So--they came to watch Bishop's basketball game on Saturday morning.....along with Shelly and her kids. Ryan had to work, so he wasn't able to make it for Bishop's game.

Jack's absolute favorite person....NANA!

Nora and Madelyn playing together while Bishop played basketball

 After basketball we had lunch at our house and then got ready to go to the NRHEG championship game at 2pm!

 Luke wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home. The kids had a blast at the game....and playing together for part of it. NR girls one and it was fun to watch Carlie Wagner. She'll be going to the UofM next year, so it'll be fun to continue to watch her play.

Bishop watching the game with Papa

Their favorite part of the game--POPCORN!

Madelyn and Shelly=beautiful!

Ha! I had to add this picture--she really was having a good time....

 Uncle Ryan is so good with the kids! He was entertaining all 3 of the big kids for awhile!

My favorite boy and I!

 The NRHEG mascot is a Panther and the older 3 kids were obsessed with him! It was fun!

Punta Cana

I won a contest at work and received a travel voucher for Luke and I! We chose to go to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic March 10-14 (Mon-Fri).

We had quite the eventful start to our trip. Immediately after our plane took off at 7am on Monday morning a man 4 rows in front of us stood up and starting shouting and waving his arms...pointing towards the window. We later found out (and saw) part of the wing was hanging off the wing. We circled for about an hour to burn some fuel and then landed back in MSP. We were met on the tarmac by firetrucks and then towed to the gate. We all got off the plane and waited for instructions on our next flight. We were lucky to be able to get on another plane just 2 gates down from ours that left about an hour after we landed. We arrived in Punta Cana about 3 hours late, but we were happy to arrive safely. The incident made the news and it is under investigation. There were many stories circulating through the plane.....but it sounds like an engine may have failed, which caused the wing to detach.

The red portion is the broken part hanging off the wing-this was taken in the air

This was taken on the ground--you can see the red part and the firetrucks

We were happy to arrive and relax that first night. We weren't able to make dinner reservations for the first night so we had to eat at the buffet, which wasn't what I was expecting.....but it was fine. We stayed at the Riu Palace Punta Cana. The rooms weren't very nice, but everything else was great--the entertainment at night was great--the beach was perfect and the pool was great...with a swim up bar!

My view! It was beautiful!

Before dinner reservations on the 2nd night

There was a nice plaza area where everyone congregated in the evenings, which was fun!

On Wednesday we took an excursion on a Safari. We visited a school, a home, saw how the locals lived, make coffee, chocolate, coconut oil and the way of their life. The highlight was visiting a local beach where the waves came in and we were able to go boogie boarding--it was awesome and I laughed the entire time we were there-it was so fun!

On the Jeep to go on the safari!

Our first stop--a school--this class had grades K-6

Hanging out with a couple school children

Next stop--lunch!

Iguana

Bishop's favorite picture from our trip--an alligator!

Our great guide, Ruddy!

A nice local house

The stove in the kitchen at this house

Their sewing machine--Luke insisted we take this picture for my mom! :)

"The Jungle Man"--with 7 snakes and a tarantula on his eye!

Luke was riding the waves!

The local beach

 Each night at 9:30 there was live entertainment. Some of the shows were better than others--this was one of the better ones....it was a "circus show".

Our last day at the beach.....

Playing a little backgammon!

While we were in Punta Cana my Grandpa's health started to decline. He got a cold and hospice came in to make him more comfortable. It made me so sad not to be able to be there to visit him, but according to my mom the steroids they gave him made him much better by Thursday.  On Thursday my sister and nephew Jack went to visit him, along with my parents. Thursday evening I got a message on my phone to call home.....I had wifi while at the resort, but I had my phone capabilities turned off. I called my mom and learned that my Grandpa had passed away a little after 6:30pm. I was so sad. It was hard being away from home and learning this news. He was 90 years old so it wasn't a huge shock, but I thought I'd be able to get down to visit him when I got home. My Grandpa loved his beer....so I had one in his honor on Thursday night! Cheers to a great man!

A beer in honor of Grandpa!

The Kids

This is a little catch up post on the kids

Nora and her friend, Jack, at school!

On Sunday, March 9th, Bishop sang in church again. We're not supposed to take pictures or videos of the kids while they are singing....so I got this picture before church. He sang about 4 words and then showed more interest in looking around and checking things out! :) It's 4 more words than the last time his class sang....so we're making progress! :)

It was an especially early morning as it was Day Light Savings and we had a work event for Luke the night before--so we didn't get much sleep (and we were at church early to get a good seat to be able to see Bishop sing).

 After church we celebrated at The Egg and I. Bishop loves seeing Bethany there--Luke and I both used to work with Bethany and now she works at The Egg and I on the weekends. Both kids love to ride the horse while we're there!

Playing with their Mike and Ikes

 We've had quite the winter--and as of March 9th we've still had plenty of snow on the ground! Bishop and Luke got out to enjoy it!

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A few updates on the kids:

• Nora calls the Library the Libirdie!  
• Nora woke up this morning and out of nowhere started singing....."Mikkel Donald Had a Farm" (for McDonald's--Bishop calls it Mikkel Donalds)
• Bishop has been such a good listener lately.....he's a little sweetheart
• Nora is definitely "2" and I forgot how hard "2" is! ;)
• Nora still prefers her daddy and Bishop prefers his mommy. So far it's all worked out! :)
• The kids have been fighting more lately--they still care for each other and Nora will often say......"You ok, bud?", but they also will take things from each other and get on each others nerves
• Nora repeats everything.....I have to count to 5 for her a lot to get her to do things (especially getting her in her carseat) and the other day she wanted me to do something and she said "OK, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....)-I had to laugh!

I try to enjoy as many situations as possible, as I know time goes so fast!