What's Up?

Well, here we are. Winter is almost over and we are starting to feel spring in the air. Not that winter was all that bad out here- but it will be nice to be on the beach without wearing a fleece jacket. And it's time to start getting my feet in tiptop shape for my flipflops. We are looking forward to summer mostly because we have had winter longer then most people on earth. We are coming to the end of our third winter in a row and cannot wait to have the hot weather to play in. Logan loves to hang at the beach and asks me just about every day "Mom, are we going to the beach today?" So summer will be filled with lots of beach days for us.
Logan is becoming quite the kid, he loves to be a pirate or superhero, but does so in a sweet way. I asked him the other day what his pirate sword was for and he said "you do this with it" then he hit it on the bench we were sitting on "you play music with it." His favorite song right now is "I kissed a girl" by katie Perry. don't know why, I am guessing its the beat.
Logan will be starting preschool in February and was accepted to the prechool of our choice, its our choice because it is right next to chesney's school, so it will be easy for drop offs. he is very excited to go but knows that he can't go until he "goes poo and wee in the toilet". now that he knows, lets see if we can make it happen.

Chesney wanted to do a "mixed up"day at home, so we did everything different. we all switched names, we had pizza and ice cream for breakfast- and chesney even ate it while sitting on the table and having her bowl on the chair
then pancakes for dinner.
I took this picture about 12 times and could not for the life of me get one with chesney's eyes open. and I can't figure out how to rotate.
My friend, Cindi and her kids came for a visit a few weeks ago from Tasmania. it was great showing her the city and her daughter and chesney loved to see each other and play again. Her 6 month old baby, Jamie, developed croup very suddenly one evening and we ended up taking him to the ER where they gave him some meds, which helped with his breathing and he was much better.

So the next day I took the three other kids to the zoo to give Jamie a quiet day to rest

A hike we did up to a lighthouse. The kids and I are heading down to Tas for a visit in October to see all our friends. can't wait.
I have been doing some running and have a 4km run coming up in september I plan on doing. Then in October I thought I would try my hand at a triathalon, so I will be training for that. It is a breast cancer charity race so it will be a fun race with not to much pressure- perfect for my first one.

I am also looking into going back to school-its about that time in my life to reevaluate my career and look into something else. One thing I have always regretted is not going into nursing- so I am going to go back to school and get my RN degree. wish me luck- I am actually looking forward to studying again.

I have gone on for way to long so I will leave you now- Love to you all- Kelly

Happenings this week

Amelia is starting to take steps more and more frequently. While crawling is her preferred way of getting around, she is attempting 3-5 steps more often. It's so cute to see her toddling! We think she was busy learning to talk and growing teeth, so walking took a backseat. Amelia is up to about 20 understandable words, and can repeat a lot of what we say. She added "love you" to her vocabulary recently. So precious!

Here's a photo of me and the girls on the porch. It seems like I forget to get photos of me with them, so that's something we'll have to work on. The matching dresses were birthday gifts from Aunt Debbie. I hadn't gotten pictures of them in the dresses before. Thanks, Deb!


Chris has a business contact who sent us a mushroom playhouse (www.bazoongi.com/, click on "Play Structures"). It is so cute and the girls really love it!



And Amelia's favorite toy is not anything from Christmas or her birthday. Oh no. This little one loves to play with the remote for the television. We've tried to give her a different remote with no batteries, but she wants the one for the television. Fortunately, we can press a button on it and she can't switch the channel, but she's messed up many a viewing session anyway.


Hope you are all well! I leave for sunny (yet chilly!) San Francisco on Saturday until Tuesday. I'm sure Chris would love some homemade meals delivered and cleaning services during my time away. Or maybe just a phone call to see how he's doing with the kids!

may the best woman win!

I love the olympics! I look forward to them every two years. I don't even care which country wins, you know that these are true athletes competing at something they love. one of the few times the entire world comes together in celebration. Gotta love it. I am especially looking forward to this year because my friend from Tasmania, Donna Macfarlane, is competing in the 3000 meter Steeplechase track and field event. This is the first year women are competing in this event and it is kind of interesting to watch with fixed hurdles and large puddles of water to jump through. you can see a recent race Donna won in Qatar on her website http://www.donnamacfarlane.com/ . So if you happen to be watching and see her race- give a little cheer for her.


I have gotten into a habit of getting into my bed at night, reading books and letting the kids fall asleep there, moving them into their own beds when I go to bed. the upside- I get to crawl into a nice warm bed, the downside- it usually takes a good hour for the kids to settle down and fall asleep. here is one of the nights they actually fell asleep quickly.

I love the birds out here. there are colorful parots and cockatoos everywhere. here are some cockatoos we saw in parking lot.
Chesney had to write a report in school on the possum. she wrote it by herself while at school and received a certificate of merit from her teacher for her fine report writing and a principals award for her good work. She was very proud of herself. Oh, and her hair- she wanted to do something different for school, so this is what she wanted me to do that day.
I have been told that it NEVER snows in Sydney- but a couple of weeks ago it got really cold and this started to fall from the sky. I wouldn't call it snow but rather big balls of slush fell.

love you- Kelly

Vikings Mini Training Camp

Thomas Tapeh

Ryan Running a play
Ryan at Youth camp #28
Sophie and her new friends


Viktor and Ryan

Viktor and Sophie

Watching the practice

Kids w/Ragnor!

Dawn, the kids and I went to Family Night at Mankato for training camp.

They had a little mini football camp for kids on one field and the Viking Cheerleaders held a little cheerleader camp on another field.
I took pix of Ryan during his youth camp and Dawn took pix of Sophie at the cheerleading camp (I don't have them so can't post them yet.) I'll get them from Dawn and post those too.

I took some pix of the kids with other Viking greats...Matt Blair, Chuck Foreman, Viktor (the big headed yellow mascot guy) and Ragnor--the good mascot!
Sophie said three times, "this is the best day ever!" so I think she had fun!

There was a lot to cram into 3 1/2 hours but it was worth it to see those kids so happy.
Games and autographs and youth mini camps and a Viking practice and ending with FireWorks! A good time was had by all.

The highlight was Dawn saying in front of Joey Browner, "hey kids, he looks like your dad!" ohmygosh, it was so funny, the look on Joey Browner's face was like "whaaaat".
I said, "now, Dawn don't be accusing anyone of anything." We clarified that yes, he does resemble their real father! and we had a good chuckle out of it!

After the Viking practice Thomas Tapeh that new Full Back from UM came out and signed autographs for kids...what a nice young fellow!
Ryan and Sophie got so many autographs that day.
Sophie got the cheereleaders autographs and they both got: Stu Voight, Mick Tingelhoff, Joey Browner, Viktor and Ragnor.
in additon, Ryan got Bob Lurtesma, Chuck Foreman, some Viking guy I don't know who and Thomas Tapeh.

I've put the link to the WalMart photo page below.

http://photos.walmart.com/home/t_=16806490;jsessionid=30539D275CAEDF10044C64A5D9D07AB3

let me know if this link doesn't work for you.

Love ya
Auntie Deb