Merry Christmas to all

I have been busily packing the day away and thought I would take a break from freaking out over what I would forget to spread some christmas cheer. I hadn't planned on putting up a tree this year, but since we are here until the 24th, I thought we should get one. The kids made some cute snowmen to put on the tree and had fun decorating it.

of course it didn't take long to decorate since it is about the height of Chesney


Chesneys Kindie class put on a performance of the first christmas. Chesney was an angel in to show. the Kids sang about 15 songs and did such a great job. it is quite nice to be able to have prayer in the schools here. all year chesney has participated in scripture classes at school once a week and has really enjoyed that part of her learning.

we celebrated Christmas on sunday and opened some presents with the kids. then we made some roll out sugar cookies and decorated them

It's only fun until someone finds moms hair baked in one of the cookies
Chesney lost her first tooth just this morning. She came into our room at 5:22am and told us that it had finally fallen out. she was a bit nervous about it coming out a week ago because it started to bleed when she bit into something, but she talked to her friends- Natasha, Frejya, and Miya and they told her that they would "help her through this" what great friends chesney has. Chesney aparently is a bit disillusioned about how much the tooth fairy leaves because she is telling me about all the toys she is going to buy with the money she gets. hope she's not too disapointed

Wish us good weather during the flight. we are cutting it a bit close with Christmas to have any delays. Love- Kelly and the gang

Happy Graduation Day

Chesney celebrated her kindergarten graduation ceremony. It was really very sweet. the kids sang songs- including the Australian National Anthem. and recieved a certificate at the end of the ceremony. of course I cried, and Chesney was so proud of herself.

here she is with her best mate, Cooper
And with her teacher, Mrs. Lodge- Chesney is so sad that she will be leaving her next year to have a new teacher in year 1.
Very serious walking into the assembly hall.
And if you think the kids gowns look nice- I ironed each of them myself.

Jeff got a deer!

Hi, all! Here is a deer I shot last weekend in Western Minnesota.

Cookie monster!

Arrggghh! Me like cookie!

(Amelia Cook, 18 months)

last one of Jeremy's wedding....

last picture for the blog--Sheri and her youngest, Dion

Such a lovely family.

I hope you enjoyed the pics

Deb

more pictures of Jeremy's wedding

These great looking kids belong to Eric:
Sidney, Cole and Hailey











These three handsome dudes are Sheri's youngest boys:
Ashon, Trey and Dion...
Dion had the honor of being ring bearer for his
big brother.













This is Derek with his daughter, Cailyn..
Cute aren't they?














this young man, who still should be a pre-teen, is Aaron..the younger of the three older boys. I can't believe he's grown up so fast!!

















and this is Derek; Sheri's oldest boy...what a handsome dude!
Can you see the family resemblance in all of these boys!

Sheri--you did a fantastic job!

Sheri (Norstad's) son's wedding

I recently received some pictures of Sheri's son, Jeremy's wedding and want to share them with you.

This is Jeremy the handsome groom

Stephanie; the beautiful bride

and Brooke, their gorgeous little girl

I'm trying to get the rest of the pictures on to but they keep uploading to the top of this page...grrr...I may just post them in a separate posting.

One down.....many to go!

Well- I got my first triathalon under my belt and I have to say it was pretty fun to do. I was shooting for 25 minutes to do it in and I came in at 23 minutes, so I was very happy with that time. My friends and I stayed at a hotel the night before because we had to be there by 6am and I am glad we did. our hotel room overlooked the transition area and routes of the race and we were able to go out and walk around to get a feel for where things were. It made the next morning much less chaotic and confusing. I am already planning on doing the next level up next year (200 meter swim, 6km bike ride and 2km run) and my two friends plan on doing it with me. the weather was perfect and we were glad we had to start so early because when the last group came in around noon it was hot hot hot.
Here are some pics of the event
Coming out of the transition area for the biking leg of the race

coming in to the finish at the end
Karen, Michelle and me after the race
Proud of there mommy- as I started the running leg of the race, the kids held out there hands for me to high five as I ran past.
The olympic pool the swim was held in
above is the transition area for the bikes. there were over 1000 bikes parked there so you had to be real sure you remembered where you put your bike

The kids became real antsy. so duey took them to a fountain next to the transition area to cool of and have some fun after the race.

It was a great day and one I plan on repeating. my day started off with a wake up text from duey that said "John paul john-wake up. WAKE UP!" (for those of you seinfield fans you are laughing now just as I did when I read the text).

Bahamas

Sorry to mention that it was me that went to the Bahamas. I just have to get use to this Blog thing

Aunt Kristi

Bahama trip

In Sept I went to Florida to visit my goodfriend and we took a 4 day trip the the Bahamas, we also went to the Cruiselines private island Coo Coo Cay. We missed the hurrincanes that where going on at that time. The weather was gorgeous. I also got stung on my arm by a small jellyfish. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures

Triathlon PINK!

This Saturday, who is going to . . .

. . . Swim 100 meters . . .


. . . Bicycle 3 kilometers . . .


. . . and Run 1 kilometer?


Halfway across the world in Sydney, Australia, I want to wish my sister Kelly THE BEST OF LUCK in her first triathlon this weekend. It's called Triathlon Pink, and is an all-female triathlon series benefiting breast cancer research. Here's the website: http://www.triathlonpink.com.au/


Have a great time, Kelly! We can't wait to hear about your experience, and post photos of you running across that finish line! I am so proud of you! I love you and will be thinking about you!
Michelle

Fun at the Carnival

Chesney had her school sport carnival last week at school- what we call in the US "track and field day". Chesney had a fun time participating in the events and then we shared a picnic lunch.

the running race
the egg and spoon race
the skipping race
Training continues- we are getting closer to getting out of diapers- at daycare he goes on the toilet for everything and I send him in underwear. At home he gets a little lax and has more accidents. He has found it to be more fun to stand to do his wee's and refuses to use a foot stool. Soooo...he stands on his tippy toes and just gets his penis over the rim to do his wee's. due to the placement of his hands in this position hand washing is manditory and my toilet has never been cleaned so much.
that hat on his head? that would be chesney's swim cap- logan just loves to wear it all the time.

The kids and I are off to Tasmania for a week to visit friends. it is Chesney's two week school holiday so it is perfect timing for a holiday away. it has been warming up nicely and we are really enjoying being outside and soaking up the sun. this past weekend it got up to 34C which is about 95F. this is only spring so I am wondering what this summer will bring us for heat. we'll find out soon enough. Love ya- Kelly

It's a . . .

Girl!

Mandy had the anatomy ultrasound today and everything looks good. So far we have a healthy 18-week, 5 day, 9 0z baby!

Mandy is feeling better and doesn't have the nausea or headaches anymore. She is right on schedule for a February 19th, 2009 delivery.

We know she looks like a little baby Skeletor, but she is OUR baby Skeletor. We just hope she doesn't decide to move to Castle Graysukull and battle He-Man and Battle Cat.


Justin and Mandy!

fathers brth disco day

Fathers day out here happens in the first weekend in September, not sure why it is different then out there- but my guess is that it must coincide with nice weather for golfing. This year for fathers day we headed out to the zoo- we purchased a family zoo pass a few months and it has more than paid for itself already. here's the happy daddy with his little darlings

when we arrived to the zoo we went to the kids zoo area and just as we got there a mama goat was just about to give birth to twin babies. we watched the whole thing- is was so incredible- chesney was mesmorized.
Dueys birthday was a couple of days ago and Logan picked out for him these super soakers for us to have fun with. should be a fun time in the sun this summer. Chesney decided that what she wanted to give dad for his birthday was "lots of kisses" what a sweety
Chesney's school holds Discos for the kids to attend, the theme of this one was "going wild" chesney decided she wanted to go as a lion. so we made a mane out of yarn, a headband and lots of hot glue.