Snow Fort

Jay and the kids had fun making a snow fort over the weekend. We had wet snow that is great for packing although not a lot as you can see from all the dirt and leaves in the walls.

Making Cookies & Going Sledding

Sledding is always the best thing to do in the snow. The first real snow we had was last Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Jake didn't have school (teacher in-service) so as soon as Jay got home, we went sledding. We only stayed outside for about an hour (it was 4 degrees) and then we came home and had hot chocolate and played games.

Last week the kids and I made candy cane cookies. They loved rolling the dough and twisting the colors to make the candy cane shape. They were so proud of themselves when the cookies were finished baking that they ate several as soon as they could!

Star Wars

Right before Thanksgiving there was a star wars extravaganza at our public library and Jake couldn't wait to go. He wanted to wear his storm trooper costume so bad! He loved posing with the "actors" for this picture.

Gibson Family Pictures

We went back to Indiana last weekend for the funeral of Jason's grandpa Gibson and as it happened, all the family was able to come in to town for the event. It was a sad occasion but it was great to see everyone. We got some pictures of the gang before we all had to leave again.

A visit to Grandma's house

We went to grandma's house a couple of weekends ago and the kids had a great time. We were able to go to a pumpkin place that had a corn maze, pony rides, feeding animals (deer, goats & turkeys) and mining for gold not to mention the pumpkins, gourds and mums that you could buy. The kid had lots of fun as they ran around playing with their cousins and feeding the animals. Uncle Adam gave the kids rides on the four-wheeler and Olivia made biscuits with grandma. The whole weekend was great and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Plane Ride

Jake and I got to do something pretty awesome today, we went on a small plane ride around the city! We have some friends that own their own plane and they invited us to go up with them. We started out by flying over our apartments then headed to the city. We flew over lake Michigan to see the view of the city from that angle and it was gorgeous! The sky was clear and sunny. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We flew back to the airport after flying by the city a couple of times and Todd (he owns the plane) dropped Natalie (his wife) and I back off and took Jake up by himself. They were gone for about a half hour and Todd let Jake fly the plane. Jake even did a 360! Jake thought it was the coolest thing ever!!! Our whole trip (before Jake and Todd went by themselves) took a couple of hours and it was AWESOME! I have to say that this experience ranks pretty high on my list of coolest things that I've ever done.

Soccer starts

Last Saturday was Jake's first soccer game of the season. It was kinda foggy and the field was pretty wet but they had a great game. Jake is wearing a neon green shirt in the last picture and that just means he played goalie that quarter. That was him throwing in the ball. Today's game was alright. It seemed like a lot of the players kept falling on the ground, which does nothing for steady ball movement towards the goal. But they usually seem to have fun no matter the outcome of the game.