Ringing in the New Year

We had a wonderful week off after Christmas and despite the lack of snow this year, Brent and the kids were able to spend two days skiing at our favorite resort, Welch Village. They skied on 'fake snow' but still managed to have a great time with a couple friends along.

We also hosted our favorite New Year's tradition with the Herrons and the Chipmans. We enjoyed some delicious food, played a couple games including the kids' favorite, Mafia and we all participated in a ping-pong tournament. It was proclaimed by our family to be our best New Year's yet! We are looking forward to 2012 and the adventures that lay ahead!

(Be sure to read further for the posts for Nov 11 and Dec 11 that I just updated, but post dated.)

Christmas in Pictures

Christmas Eve

The kids COULD NOT WAIT to open the fluffy presents that came from Grammy Su and Grampa that they were just sure contained their Christmas jammies. They were not to be disappointed!

And here is Toby enjoying his Chrismas Eve Present, a new bed with blanket and stuffed bone. He must really love it because the bone was destroyed and had to be thrown away and he continues to tear multiple holes in his comfy bed, which Mom has to keep repairing!

Night out in Minneapolis

Our family favorite place to visit in Minneapolis is the Target building, of course! Here the kids are with Brent in the 'Great Hall'.

Then we visited the Macy's display on the 8th floor of Macy's. Even thought we are disappointed that they have the same display every year, we always enjoy the Santa's Workshop displays and the cute little elves.

Jamie delivering her letter to Santa!

Sidney delivering her letter to Santa!

There is nothing better than sharing one of your favorite things with your favorite people. So, we couldn't wait to take the kids to our favorite Musical of all time: Les Miserables! Over Thanksgiving, we watched the movie Les Mis with them so they would know the story and understand. Then we spent several days in the car listening to the songs and retelling the story.

So, the kids were prepped and ready to enjoy this amazing production. (They even knew when to close their eyes and ears for the parts that were not appropriate! This wasn't much consolation to my friends who couldn't believe I took my kids to 'that play', but to each their own!)

We all loved the night, the musical and most of all being together! Now if we could just get those songs out of our heads - Sid and I have been signing them for weeks!

Secret Santa Party

Sidney has a wonderful class this year with some amazing new friends: Annika, Alexandra, Tiffany, Ella and Lily. Most of these girls she has never been in class with before. At the beginning of December the girls decided to be 'Secret Santas' for each other. So, they drew names our of a hat and planned a get-together at our house to open the gifts and celebrate Christmas. They had a great time, opening presents, doing Christmas crafts, building pyramids, eating hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and GIGGLING!!

Swim Meet

Jamie had another swim meet at the end of November.
She continues to do very well and
LOVES the water and the competition.
Here she is with 3 of her besties and swimming buddies:
Lizzie, Anna W and Anna P.

Here she is ready to dive in the water!

The One That Got Away

This gorgeous Buck graced our back yard right after Thanksgiving, he was a Beauty! According to Brent, by Minnesota standards he is an 8-point. According to our neighbor, he would have been worth about 130 points. I have no idea what that means, but it sounded good and he was impressed.

Too bad he got away!

Giving Thanks

Grandma and Papa Jim were here to share the Thanksgiving Holiday with us. We have a fun morning with the DeLay family with a big breakfast, games and laughter. Later that afternoon, we shared this Thanksgiving feast together and reflected on our bounty, blessings and loved ones. We are truly grateful for them all!

Young Women in Excellence

For Young Women in Excellence, Jamie was highlighted along with the other Young Women in a night of "See what we are Cooking UP!" Jamie shared some of the Value Experiences she has started on under the them of Knowledge. She is cooking fudge here, which was her Value Experience of learning to do something new. For her 10 hour project, she plans to meal plan, shop and cook 10 meals for our family.

Puppy Porter

For her GT class, Sidney was assigned to participate in the school district Inventor's Fair. She searched and searched over many weeks for the perfect project. She decided upon creating a Puppy Porter! Her is her design and creative process in her own words:

Problem: We got a new puppy and we couldn’t walk him very well so we needed something to carry him. So I thought and I wanted to invent something to go on a scoter. That’s how
I got my idea to make the puppy porter.

Purpose: I thought that if I made something to go on the front of the scooter we could take our puppy on walks. Also people who have a small dog that can’t walk they can use it too. It would make walking your dog easier.

Research: My parents and I thought we should make it out of a kind of plastic so we went online to see if there was anything like it. There wasn’t anything like it so that’s what I decided to make. To look to see if my invention had already been invented we looked at Google Patent and looked in an American Girl Doll Catalog and on regular Google. We also looked at Amazon.com , Petsmart.com and Razor.com.We realized that my idea was different enough that we would be able to make it without copying an idea.

Originality: When I looked online I found many things for dogs to ride on bikes. So we thought we could not invent something for a bike, but I thought we could invent something to so that my dog could fit on my scooter. My invention is unique because kids can take it off and put it on the scooter when needed. It is small and light enough to fit on a scooter. The puppy porter has a window for the dog to breathe and look out of.

My Invention: The puppy porter is an easy to use carrier for a small puppy that attaches to a scooter. The porter attaches to the scooter by two screws and two Velcro straps. One the porter is attached to the scooter, the puppy is placed inside through the clear top. The puppy is visible at all times and has a window that can be covered with a netting shade or left open.

Materials: vinyl boards, screws, wing nuts, saw, drill, nails, hinges, flat and corner brackets, latch, netting, Velcro, clear acrylic panel, pipe connector

Estimate cost of the project: $60

Observations:

• My dad assisted me with cutting the boards and drilling the holes

• I liked using the drill to screw in the screws
  

• I had to use my puppy as a measuring standard for the size of the puppy porter

Adjustments:

• I originally planned to make the puppy porter a square, and realized a rectangle was better

• I planned to glue the sides but we found that nailing the sides using brackets would work better

• I was not sure how to attach the puppy porter to the scooter and I experimented with several things before deciding to use a pipe connector and Velcro straps
  

In January, Sidney will take her invention to the District Inventor's Fair, she is excited to display and get judged on her fun invention!!