Little Ski Bum

Emily is our little die hard skiier. We started her last year - she tore it up. This year the first day we went up, we were sure all of our efforts had been in vain. Emi was out of control and couldn't really remember how to stop - it didn't seem to bug her much - she just sat down and crashed everytime she got going a little too fast. After we picked her up for the 20th time Brody decided enough of that, and she relearned how to stop and how to get up all by herself when she fell. Needless to say - Emi didn't have many more crashes. She took right off after that and decided she'd had enough of Shoshone - she was ready for DC.
Everytime we'd go skiing that was all she wanted was to go up Dream Catcher. Finally we caved and took her up top thinking we'd be repeating the first day of the year picking her up over and over again the whole way down. She did great, and skiied Chief Joe's Bowl like a champ!!

Merry Christmas

Our 2008 Christmas Card
Merry Christmas!!

No More Training Wheels

Emi got her first bike for her birthday in April. She loves riding her bike, but putting the bike away was another story. She made sure to park it right behind a car one day, needless to say- no more cute little pink bike. While she was bikeless, she didn't know what to do - she and Sydney's favorite summer pastime is going over to Maddie and Lily's house to ride bikes, Syney and Maddie felt bad for her, so they started helping her ride Lily's other bike that did not have training wheels on it. She figured it out pretty quick. When we finally bought her a new bike she begged Brody to take the training wheels off, we didn't believe she could really ride without them, especially since our other kids were about 10 when they got their training wheels off. So it was a tough sell, especially if you know how well Brody loves putting together/taking apart anything. Once she finally convinced him to take them off, it took a few tries and she was riding her bike all by herself YAY!! It took me until fall to finally get a picture, once I new it was my very last opportunity and the road would soon be covered with ice - you know me - the procrastinator - I finally got my picture!!

Pat's got a new puppy!

There is something about puppies - they are totally irresistable. Pat has a new puppy, named Buck. The girls cannot get enough of him, Emily got to go spend the day at Nanna's last week. She tended the puppy all day - (poor little guy). They now think we should go up to Nanna's constantly so they can check on Buck, they are sure he is growing bigger by the minute and they don't want to miss a thing! The pupy is so cute, and Pat has definitely filled the void of his mother. he even gets up at night to tend him when he hears him crying. The cutest is to see Buck fast asleep on Uncle Pat's chest.

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

When I stop and think of what we have been up to this fall, the only thing that comes to mind is FOOTBALL. I think Brody logged about 30 hours a week on one football field or another. Between coaching the high school football team, and Derek's grid kid team, he was a pretty busy boy. He is sure he has spent more time on the "slanted sod" football field than other person. Needless to say, we attended a LOT of football games. Derek had a great time playing football this year. It is so cute watching little 5th grade boys play real football. They had a really good team. They were a competitive little group of boys. They finished the regular season undefeated. After cruising through the playoffs, they made it to the grid kid championship game. The boys lost - but played really well. Derek played his little heart out. He could hardly move the next few days after the game - What a great experience!!!

-