Love and Cheesecake

Yesterday Monica came home and said that Colin (a boy in her class) had told her that he is in love with her and wants to marry her. This brought on a stream of giggles from Monica at the dinner table. Later last night Kyle and Tyler came over while their parents went out. While eating cheesecake, Monica asked Kyle to marry her. Kyle silently ate his cheesecake, so I asked him what he thought about that. He sighed and said "okay."

5 Words of Fame

Monica and her friend Eva were both asked to help with a reading at mass today. In honor of Catholic schools week, students helped with all aspects of the liturgy. Monica practiced her one line "We Pray to the Lord" ALL week! Practice makes perfect, because when it came time for her 5 words, she nailed it!

Monica was matched with a 6th grade buddy, Shannon, for their reading.

Anton was busy all morning helping with an after-church breakfast sponsored by the men's group. He cranked out pancakes like a champ, which we all enjoyed!

This afternoon, Eva came over to play. The three kids were enjoying a round of the marble game when I last checked on them.

Down with the Bruins!

The Huskies beat Pac-10 leader UCLA today!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!

(I think the four of us cheered straight for two hours. Whew, I'm spent!)

Goin' to the zoo

Today we went to Woodland Park Zoo with the Carters. It was great fun, great weather, and lots of animals to see.

The boys pause for a break while we watch the elephants. We had a GREAT view of the elephants. One was right in front of us, doing some sort of elephant-step-aeorobics routine (he even paused for a water break halfway through). Unfortunately my camera seems to be having some lighting issues and most of my photos today turned out very dark and my elephant pictures didn't turn out at all! :(

Monica LOVED seeing the pink flamingos. Because they're pink of course!

This is seriously the weirdest animal on the face of the earth. It's like a half hippo, half cow, half aardvark, half elephant and yeah, just strange. (It's called a tapir by the way)

Snack time!

Four little kids and one big rock!


This must be the monkey cages.

Sleepy lions.

Apparently hippos are one of the most dangerous animals on the planet. These guys, however, looked much more interested in floating around the pool and getting a tan than attacking any humans.

Goofy girls!

Thanks to Nanie and Grandpa K for the zoo membership. We will use it LOTS!

Skiing around St. Helens -- by Anton

Saturday morning I got up way too early in the morning. Well, it was to go skiing so I guess it was just the right time. Chris and Greg came up from the middle of Oregon. Scott, Tim, Alan (Tim's Father-in-law) and I all drove down from Tukwila to meet at what seems to be a logical middle ground... Mt. St. Helens.

We may not look the most beautiful but the day was gorgeous. It was foggy and cold down below but up where we were the tempature was in the 50's. I've never skiied with such a warm wind blowing while the snow was still icy.

On the trail (Kalama Ski Trail above Ape Caves/Cougar Sno-Park)

I'm not sure what Scott is doing in this picture... I think the heat got to his head!

O.K. it got to my head too!

Time to move out... can we make it back in time for Pastor Chris to get his sermon done for tomorrow?

The down hill portion of the trip took all of half an hour so I didn't have time to stop and take more pictures. It was one long icy run down a road well trod by snowmobiles.

Made it!

And we all look happy of course. We had a great day (Thanks Anne for staying with the kids and letting me have a bunch of fun!)

- Anton

A football

Cars aren't the only toys Jack loves. He spends hours playing with this mini-nerf-football. I think he likes the fact that when he throws it up into the air, it will bounce on the ground but in all different directions. He loves to chase it down and tackle it to the ground.

VIP

Monica is VIP this week at school, an event she has been waiting for with such excitement it was like the Second Coming. We made her poster board at home over Christmas break. She chose the pictures and told me what to type for the captions while I did most of the actual assembly. In addition to presenting her poster, she also gets to have a guest at school tomorrow (Nana Barb) and share a piece of her artwork with her class.

Advent/Christmas/Epiphany Program

Monica's school holiday program was postponed due to snow. She FINALLY got to perform "Away in a Manger" with her classmates last Thursday. A big thanks to Grandpa Mike and Nana Barb for making the trip down to see the show!

Waiting nervously before:

Jack in the Box

New Decade

As most of you know I turned 30 last month. Many people asked how I "feel" about being 30. The answer is (basically) no big deal. I lived most of my 20's like most people live their 30s so I figure the next 10 years won't be that different. However, there have been a few humorous moments related to this new decade.

When I went to my hairstylist, and good friend, in mid-December, I told her as dramatically as possible that I'd found some gray hairs around the edge of my forehead and to PLEASE SAVE ME ! She took a look and said, "Yeah, you have like TWO." So we had a good laugh and she threw some dye on them.

Then, somewhere right around my birthday I hurt my back. I think I overdid it on the machines at the fitness center. So last weekend I was lying on the couch, whining about my sore back, when Anton comes in, lies down on the floor and moans, saying his muscles are sore from guess what?... giving the kids horsie rides. What a pair!

Battleship

Tonight I thought it would be fun for Monica and I to play against Anton in Battleship. I figured she could follow along well enough with me. Well, she got the hang of it all right and halfway into the game she fired me as her partner and just wanted to play against her dad by herself. Which was fine with me because then I could just sit back and enjoy my dessert: a moutain dew and vanilla ice cream float (don't knock it 'til you've tried it).
Anton won the game. But then again he always wins at Battleship. He claims he has "trick moves," to which I respond that anyone with a repetoire of trick moves in Battleship is taking nerdiness to a new level.

Big Sister

Sometimes Monica can't stand being around Jack. Every movement he makes annoys her, to which she yells "stop Jack!" or growls in his face or other such pleasantries. Usually this is when SHE is in a bad mood, not necessarily when he is being annoying. At other times, she is dying to play with him, lets him make choices about how they play, and is very motherly towards him. This obviously creates a much more peaceful atmosphere in the house. In this picture she is being particulaly good with him, getting out pens and paper for them to draw together and drawing the outline of a car for him so that he can color it in.
Ah, such a good big sister.
Sometimes.

NYE!

Hooray for New Year's Eve!

We had a ragin' good time at the Carters along with five or six other families. What a way to ring in the new year!

The kids hung out downstairs watching "Cars" before most of them made their way to bed:

Just a few moments until midnight (only 3 kids made it that late, both of ours conked out hours before!)

Party animals, goofy as always:

The next morning... MoMo with Auntie Sara in their cupcake jammies:

Always up for more testosterone-pumped competition, Anton and Nick playing football on the Wii:

Happy 2009 everyone!