February

Oh my gosh...I made it back to the blog within two weeks of my last post. I don't think that has happened since Oct or Nov. We are finally getting into a rhythm since becoming a family of 4. When we first arrived home from Russia we jumped right into the holidays then the weather turned awful which has caused many snow days for the kids. Ben wasn't able to work when the roads were bad. Our schedule was always being juggled.

Want to hear something interesting....since Veronika started school, the second week of December, last week was/will be the only full week of school until April. Up until now it was weather issues preventing full school weeks but next week the Roland-Story girls basketball team will play at state so no school on Tuesday, then two early outs the next week, then spring break, then Ryan misses two more days so the Kindergarten teachers can have Kindergarten round-up. Next thing you know, it is APRIL. When I was in school, I am sure we NEVER went 4 months with only one full week of school. Oh well, it is what it is.

LAST WEEKEND Feb 20-21

We headed down to Washington for a birthday party.

Veronika looking oh so cool on the drive down

My cousins little boy celebrated his 1st birthday. What a happy boy. Reminds me a lot of Ryan at that age.

Birthday Boy, Jack!!

I really love this photo. CUTIE Pie!

All cleaned up

Aunt Emilee spent too many hours stuck in an airport. Look what she found, STRAW GLASSES.

The kids had a camp out in Grandpa Randy and Grandma Mardi's living room

Myles and Ryan snuggling into their tent

This weekend Feb 26-28

We had plans to spend time with my extended family this weekend but things didn't work out. I was really bummed because they haven't met Veronika yet BUT that didn't stop us from having fun anyway. We stayed at Ramada Inn - Castoway Resort in Des Moines. Oh boy, talk about two kids that were on cloud nine. I don't even know how many hours they spent in the water.

waterslide

The many "jump styles" of Veronika

Aaawwww, they really can be nice to each other when they want too

Some of our friends came to visit us at the hotel on Saturday morning.
Max, Ryan and Veronika

We took the kids to Stella's for supper. They are known for their shake pouring skills.

Veronika has some AWESOME bedhead

We stopped by Jenn's house to visit before heading back to Story City

Dylan, V, Jack, Ryan and Maddie

Hard to believe, Dylan is almost 5 months old. Doesn't he have the cutest grin.

SLEDDING Sunday

Today was a great day for sledding. Temps in the low 30's and bright shining sun.

Aiden and Ryan

Natalie and Veronika

Family photo time!

2010

2010 has been wonderful. Busy but wonderful. Ryan is used to doing all kinds of fun things as a family but Veronika is not. I find myself thinking....what fun and exciting thing can we share with Veronika this week. It is fun to see how much she loves all these new experiences and having a family to do them with. Ryan likes having a playmate. Here is a glimse of the last 7 weeks.

Inflatables

Ryan and his friends. We do not get to see them very much anymore since most of the kids are in school now. We cherish the time we do get to spend with our friends.

(Natalie, Aubrey, Aiden, Mason, Ryan and Mallory)

Monster Jam

Ben and Ryan had a boys night at Monster Jam. Ryan had a great time. He talked about it for many days after.

Ice Skating
Veronika asked us to go ice skating. We found out why.....she is a great skater! She told us that she skated a lot in Russia. Her children's home sat right on a lake so I assume the kids spent much of their free time during the winter on the ice.

Ryan started out pretty shakey but by the end of the night he found his groove.

Veronika was really good about helping Ryan

V and her friend, Hailey

V and her fellow Russian, Ilona

Ryan and his friend, Aiden

Iowa Energy Basketball Game
Some of our friends invited us to an Iowa Energy basketball game. I was surprised how fun it was. There is a lot of entertainment (besides the actual game) at these basketball games.




Football Day at School
This was probably one of V's favorite days at school so far. Her class had a football party to celebrate the Super Bowl. The kids were suppose to wear their favorite football team clothing. Veronika didn't know what football even was so I helped her pick her favorite team....hehe. The ISU football players visited her classroom. The amazing part, Veronika's name was picked to be a football buddy. Her football player got to eat lunch with her. I guess she talked his ear off. When I picked her up from school, her teacher said "she is as high as a kite!" Yep, it was a great day for her. THANKS ISU FOOTBALL TEAM for making this 10 year olds day.

The players signed her shirt

The Incredible Pizza Place

We went to check out a new family fun place in Des Moines. It offered lots of fun activities to do but it was packed with people. On the verge of craziness.

Ryan driving the bumper cars

V's turn

Playin a little mini golf

Snow, snow and more SNOW!
I am SO SICK OF WINTER. I have no idea how many inches of snow we have had maybe 55 inches.

Our snow adventure at the Travis'

This is one of our biggest snow piles - we got received several more inches of snow after this picture was taken :(

Valentine's Day
I am not a huge Valentine's Day fan, more of a Hallmark Holiday. I did enjoying the family art project though. When I was in elementary school, I remember receiving lots of cards and not much candy but my kids brought home so much candy. It was like Halloween all over again.

The kids (and Ben) making their V-day boxes for school

My super talented kids

Ryan learned this "super cool trick" at school, it wasn't long before they both had it figured out ;)

Nascar - Daytona 500
Ben has been talking about the Daytona 500 for the last month. So Sunday was spent in front of the TV. What a long race, 6 hours.

Everyone watching the end of the race

NEWS CHANNEL 5 Report

Channel 5 covered Camp Hope 2009 and wanted to do an update on Veronika. I agreed. It was fun and turned out to be a pretty good clip. Take a look.....

Veronika and I on TV Hurry because it will gone soon