Merry Christmas!!!

Good Morning to the birthday girl! Kelly turned 14 yesterday! She got breakfast in bed, then we had a nice visit with Dave's cousins...Here's the outside of our house this Christmas season-I love the candy cane poles!Then we went to play Lazer tag---FYI-NO ONE is playing lazer tag on Christmas eve-we had the place to ourselves and got an extra 10 minutes to play because of the birthday girl!! We had a blast! I can't switch the order of the pictures so the Christmas day ones are backwards....Jenny is enjoying her new scented markers and pattern coloring book

Abbey loves her new i-pod, hat and sweater
Dave is trying to beat Mario...it's not looking good right now!

Kelly likes her hat, bracelet, camera and MY Snuggie-it's ultra plush-I love it Dave got a collection of Peanuts movies

And a shirt-he's fan of the Office

Opening presents

Jenny got a new hat and shirt

I got some new slippers!

Dave plays for blood at Lazer Tag

The girls stop for a quick picture!

Lordy, lordy, look who's 40!

Yesteday, Dave joined the "old" people by turning 40. You should hear his bones creak!
We helped him celebrate by "surprising" him with a trip to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. (We tried to take him on a ride to somewhere special and he figured out we were going there.)
It's not so much of a museum as it is a big kids Chuck E Cheese! Minus the mouse, we played games, Jenny rode a ride, we watched toy planes move around the place and watched an old player piano. There were games and moving activities starting from 1905, some from the 30's, and some very recent games. It was fun!Abbey won a bouncy ball Dave and Kelly played some newer games

Jenny put her hand in a machine, waiting for a spider to come down...this was one of the older games.
We went out to Deluca's for the best pizza in Lansing. It was a fun day!! Happy 40th Dave!

Pictures!!!!!

Finally, pictures!!!

Here's Kelly playing b-ball-she's number 31. She did great! Here's Abbey playing...she's number 4. She playing against her very best friends. It was very hard for her since every time one of her friends would make a basket, she would secretly high five them on the other side of the court!

Here's Abbey trying to talk to her friend Abby and the coaches trying to get them to stop talking!

This is Jenny's Girl Scout troop. We made masks. They did such a good job!! Jenny's in the back tow in a pink shirt Here's Kelly performing for Solo Ensemble. She got a I!!

Halloween! Abbey's a princess, Kelly's a Chef and Jenny's a Hula girl!
After Trick or Treating with the Riekse's

Ready for the Midnight showing of "New Moon"

At the Silver Bells parade with the Riekse's

Fireworks over the capital.


That's all for now! We had a great thanksgiving and are so thankful for wonderful, fun and healthy families.

It's November

Still no pictures but an exciting weekend! Dave got home from a leisure/work trip. He went to Seattle to visit his friend, Doc. They had fun exploring Seattle, Doc and Ann's property, and watching the "lie-downs" Lions lose to the Seahawks. Then he was off to Fargo for a business conference. He got home Friday very tired but he had a good time!

Kelly and Abbey had a lock in at church and then on Saturday, Abbey played basketball and she got three baskets! She is the tallest on her team and she gets those rebounds and puts the ball right back up! She played awesome but her team lost.

Kelly played a solo on her trombone later in the afternoon at the Middle School Solo and Ensemble and she got a one!! She really sounded good! Blue ribbon for her!

Jenny was sick for a bit last week but she has been feeling better and her task this week has been gathering milk pods so we can paint them and make them ornaments!

That's all for now, still no pictures because our printer will not play nice with the computer. We're going to disconnect her and let her play with the kids computer so hopefully, we'll be able to share pics soon.

No pics...just updates

So..we bought a new printer and it doesn't like playing with our computer...hence, no pictures because I'm too lazy to hook up to the camera to the computer to download the pictures-I like sticking in my card and the computer asks me what I want to do with it!

SO...here's what's happening without cute Halloween pictures!

Jenny is currently fighting off a fever/cold. Not sure if it's the dreaded Swiney flu but it's hard to watch any of your kids sick. The fever is running around 101-102 and I'm having to give her both Tylenol and Motrin to bring it down. It's a nasty one! This is day two of her being home. She's in good spirits but when I see her curled up on the couch with a blanket rather than coloring or playing Littlest Pet Shop, I know she's not right.

Kelly is done with Basketball...and she's bummed. She loved the experience, loved playing and loved being with the team and hates that it's done. She will have a "banquet" at the Women's MSU Basketball game on Sunday.

Abbey is having a rough time adjusting to some news about re-arrangement of the school district next year. She will be moving schools-with all her friends-and she's upset about it. I think she's been hearing adults talk and she's worried about things an 11 year should have to worry about. It will be an adjustment that everyone will need to get used to but we'll all survive. She'll be starting basketball this weekend so our bleacher sitting days are not finished yet!

We had a fun Halloween...Kelly was a chef and brought a bowl to put her candy in and got TONS of comments-like "What are you cooking, chef?" Abbey was a beautiful princess, Jenny was a hula girl. We went through our neighborhood, practically filled the bags (There are only 7 kids in the neighborhood so the neighbors give full size candy bars or ziploc bags of candy) and then emptied and went trick or treating with our friends, the Riekse's. It was a fun night!

Dave and I went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra on Monday--what an incredible show! Beautiful Christmas music done with guitar and electric violin. Plus, fire, lazers, moving stage, a little metal music...what could be better. It's a good combo for Dave and I since we have drastically different music tastes.

I'll work on the pictures but I'm not promising anything!

Fall activities

Well, it's been a while since I've posted...but here's what's been going on...

Before school started, Abbey and a friend were Models in a store's fashion show...she looks way too grown up here but she did a great job and had fun and we got a discount!!

The first day of school Abbey and Kelly got on the bus at 7:25a.m. They are both enjoying school and have good teachers. Abbey started playing flute in band this year and Kelly is continuing with Trombone.

Jenny got on the bus an hour later..you can see the cats are wondering what everyone is doing up so early and why they are outside!!

Jenny is loving third grade. Her teacher is Mr. Sewick and she loves him and is having fun.
Kelly is playing basketball on the Beagle 8th grade "B" team. She is number 31. They've lost all their games so far but they are working hard. The "A" team has won all their games so I'm sure Kelly's team will win soon. They just need to work on making all their shots!

Tonight, we are headed to the Homecoming parade that Kelly is in. It's around 6o degrees...thinking about bringing the winter coat!

Hopefully I'll post parade pictures next!

Dana's Lake

Backwards...here's our day on Gurnsey Lake with the Porters and the Batz's. We call it Dana's Lake because I can't remember the name most of the time!!!
Here's all the kids (minus Jenny) at the end of the day...it was warmer in the water than on the shore! Abbey is taking care of the Porter's dog, Gracie.

Dave took a sunset kneeboard ride....isn't that a cool picture?

Rod driving Dave around on the knee board

Dana driving the boat...good job, Dana!

For dinner, we did "Try something New" and did mini burgers...or as Billy Mayes would say "BIG CITY SLIDERS" (miss ya, Billy). We had little burgers and had recipes for all different kinds of toppings. We had a Cobb Salad burger, Southwest, Buffalo Style, and one more. It was fun to try all new toppings...or ALL the toppings as Dave Batz is doing here--the infamous "Garbage Burger"

All the kids did their own variation!

Jenny tried kayaking and loved it but her arms hurt when she was done. The wind was quite strong...but now she has big muscles!

Dave driving the boat in...we've had it for 7 years now!

Rod and Michael on the new tube "Revolution" which turns around as you ride!

The Batz's!!

The boys coming back from a ride around the lake.

This is how the day was...sun would peek out but also have black clouds hovering over us...we had fun despite the black clouds!

Abbey kayaking

Jenny

We had fun! Thanks for the invite, Porters!!

the Big Mac

Guess where we spent the weekend? Looking at Big Mac..the Mackinac Bridge.

On the spur of the moment, we decided to take a trip up to Mackinac Island. The last time we were there was when Kelly was 6 months old. We remembered a lot and had to take some fun pictures in the same spots. It was fun!

We rented bikes and rode 8.2 miles around the island.We stopped to take a few pictures...you're supposed to be able to see the bridge in the background but it was a bit too gray!

The water was amazing to look at, it started out clear at the shore, then turned a little blueish green, then blue, then dark blue...fascinating to watch as you ride!

The is Arch Rock...beautiful!

Jenny ,Kelly and Abbey did some climbing...

Then, we were so hot, we had to get some ice cream!
We really did have a fun time. It was fun to remember being there with Kelly, riding bikes through town with her in a Burley, crying the whole time in town, sounding like a siren! She did better when we got near the water...just like now!!

We stayed in St. Ignace(across the bridge), did fireworks at night and the next day, went to the Mystery Spot. We were used as examples to show weird sensations of a different pull of gravity. Here Jenny is balancing on two legs of a chair...




Kelly and Abbey are standing on a level platform, but Abbey looks taller here (don't tell Kelly!)And Dave climbed up the wall...crazy!
It was a quick trip but one we've been meaning to do for years. We had lots of fun!