Skiing!

So much has happened since the last time I was able to blog. We've had an incredible week spent with family and have really enjoyed it. The biggest news we have to share is that we now have two ski instructors in our family. Dave and Zach have been busy working out at Snowstar to get their hours in. The benefits of this are many. For one thing, next year they will get 10 free passes for friends or family to come out and ski. Zach is excited about that and Dave is taking the other option which is a free family pass for all of us. That right there is pretty much the reason he wanted to do it and makes it worth it for us since we are turning into quite the skiing family. They also get access to the ski instructor school to store all of our equipment and to sit and relax in there too. It has worked out really well this week to send one of the middles out there with Dave and Zach and know that they have a place to come and warm up when they get cold or tired of skiing.

Zach was excited to get his new orange coat. Every instructor needs one and they had this on hand. Dave had to order his.

Alexis had her turn to go out today. She has really taken to skiing. Her friend, Andy Larsen has been teaching her to do jumps and she is quite the little dare devil. Today, Dave sent me this picture.
I wasn't sure at first what it was, but learned it's a rail. There's a little ramp that leads up to it, then she slides across it and goes down the other side. Dave was pretty surprised, as I am, that she doing things like this and jumping, etc. I'm thinking a helmet is in her future...

Snow Monkey

The funny thing is she actually thought she could go outside like this.

Christmas Concert

On Thursday was the K-2 holiday concert at Walcott School. Treys class went first. He was really well behaved and sang just like he was supposed to.

Group shot. This is two Kindergarten classes.

Then, after the first graders, it was Lexi's turn.

She was excited they got to sing Silent Night and Up On the Housetop.

Lexi's class also sang a song about a pinata. Leah was really excited about that one. She stood on my lap and squealed the whole time while pointing at it.

I was really proud of all the kids this year. They were really well behaved and it was a cute concert.

Our Weekend

Dave was invited to the Brittens house this weekend to hunt. He hasn't hunted in a couple of years due to lack of land and even when they had land they never saw any deer. Pretty frustrating. This was opening weekend of shotgun season and, quite frankly, he wasn't too confident in his ability to hunt anymore. But my brother-in-law lives in south central Iowa where they have more deer than here and he has a group of buddies that always hunt this weekend together so they invited Dave along. He left on Friday while I was helping with the preschool Christmas Program. That night, Zach had a small group party in Bettendorf so I begged both grandmas to help with transportation since I was alone. Thanks Grandma and Nana!

Sat. morning at 8 I got a text. Shot 7 times, 0 hits. Oh my. Not a great start. I texted back something like bummer and promptly fell back asleep. I had taken the phone to bed with me thinking he might want to keep me posted-good thing I did. At 9 I heard T. and A. in the kitchen, they had just gotten up and then I heard Leah rooting around in her bed. I can't remember the last time we all slept to 9:00! I should keep the three youngest up until 10 at night more often. They were all watching Little House and playing together so nicely that I didn't realize it was getting so late.

So mid-day on Sat. I get another text. Just shot 2. I was a little confused so my 'YOU shot 2?' cleared it right up. He indeed had shot two deer! But the one just grazed it and she got away. But later in the day he was able to get another one so his total for sat. was 2 and he was excited. It's nice to be able to feel successful and something after not hardly seeing one for years. The total for the group of 5 guys was 10 deer! I couldn't believe it. Way to go Dave!!

Then last night, we went to Davenport to look at Christmas lights. We almost never do this with our kids so it was a special treat. My parents wanted to go with us so we loaded up the Excursion. Zach got to sit in the front with Grandpa, Trey got to sit in the middle with Grandma and Leah, and Lexi got to sit in the back with me and Amariss who was a last minute addition. Her parents had a Christmas party to attend and lost their babysitter so she came with us. She was hysterical. She'll be two this month and everytime we passed a nativity scene she said There's baby Jesus! She sang the ABC song and Jingle Bells and I can't believe her voculary. Leah said Pretty! about a hundred times and screamed with delight about all the lights. The best house by far was Candy Cane Corner. They have thousands of lights and their own radio station which plays music that the lights are choreographed to. It's awesome!

Today was the Christmas Program at church. I got everyone up and out of the house by 7 so Zach could get to church and practice. The youth band did the first service (actually both) and they were totally awesome. Much improved from the last time I heard them. Zach does great with his bass guitar. Then in second service the kids did their little program and that was cute too.

Later on, I learned that Dave shot another one and so did someone else so they had a total of 12 deer to show for it, that is amazing. Currently, I am waiting for Dave to get home. He called when he started and said it was starting to get icy so I'm just waiting and praying for him to get home safely.

Update: He's home! Safe and sound. No worries.

Little Dancer

Last Sunday, Alexis had her Christmas dance show. It was at West High School and was actually a fund raiser for the Special Olympics. She and her cousin, Shelby are in the same class.

She was so cute! They got to use actual pom pons this time and were so excited about it.

Shelby! And look at the cute ruffled shirt in the front row. I loved that shirt.Afterwards she got to snuggle up to Rudolph for a minute. He kind of matches her shirt!

She said she had lots of fun and she really enjoyed getting to sit and watch the other classes after she was done. They don't always get to see the other classes perform.

Mousecapades

The Huntleys have lots and lots (and lots) of mouse stories. What happened today was a first though.

We have recently been hearing little scratching noises under or behind our stove. Dave will set traps right next to the stove and in the morning we'll either have a mouse or get rid of the traps so noone gets hurt.

So last night Dave set the two traps in the usual places. This morning I found one untouched and couldn't see the other one so I figured We got him! On closer inspection though, I realized there was no mouse...and no trap either. So what ensued was a little game of cat and mouse. (I couldn't help myself:) I figured it was just under the stove but after lots of rumaging around with flashlights and children thinking they were being helpful but really just being in the way because this whole time they still have to get to school, and finally pulling out the drawer of the stove and moving the stove and really not finding the mouse....we were finally just really stumped. I mean really, where could it have gone? But not finding it really wasn't an option because the ramifications of that would be ten times worse.

So when we finally found it under the refridgerator, wedged under so that Dave had to tip it back to pull the thing out (which Zach got to do), we were amazed that it could have travelled so far since he was caught in the trap sideways with his whole back in the thing.

Amazing. It almost makes me want to think highly of the things. But then...not really...not so much.

Turkey Trotters

The Turkey Trot has become a tradition for our family. I am so thankful to my friend Heather for introducing me to it 6 years ago. This is a race, on Thanksgiving Day, that she had done for many years and asked if I wanted to join her. I was excited to try so for 4 years we met and walked (fast!) together and chatted about, well, everything, but it always included plans for the holiday and was fun adult girl time for us. Last year I was so disappointed because they moved and I lost my trotting buddy. But...I was able to call my sister Tracy and asked (begged:) her to join me. She did! And we had a great time. So this year we recruited more trotters. After some last minute juggling (she had some sick kids) we ended up with Hannah, Tracy, Emily and Sadie, me and Zach (who also trotted last year). It's an interesting picture taken by Lexi. Thanks Lexi!

I almost forgot. Zach got a slower time then he wanted to. It's a good learning experience to go out and run without training and then not do as well as you think you should. We were both glad that he learned this at this time and not before his first track meet.

Hannah ran with us for awhile and then decided half way through to take off and beat us by about 7 minutes. Go Hannah! Emily stayed with us until the last four blocks and then sprinted to the end. I made my goal of jogging the whole time and sprinting at the last half block to see if I could. Next time I'll take off a little sooner to see if I can do even better. Tracy made her goal of jogging the entire time without walking, even at the end when she was very tired. Yea, go Tracy! We finished in one hour and 2 minutes. We'll see what we can do next year!