I'm a Big Kid Now!

Kasey moved to his big bed during a trip to the MN lakes when he was 18 months old.  Mommy welcomed the new stage of life for her big guy.  No time to be sad... she had another little dude just down the hall in his crib.  Karsten turned two... Amy STILL wasn't ready to get rid of the crib.  We compromised and moved Karsten's toddler bed into his room, but Amy refused to take down the crib.  She finally realized he was Not going back into the crib.  I think Karsten got through to her after waking up 15 days in a row shouting to the world that "I Sleep in my BIG Bed!"  Serioulsy, those are his first words Every Day!

 Thank goodness the kids were so willing to help work on breaking the crib down.  They were great at measuring and using the screwdrivers.  Good supervisors too!

 Well, Amy is seriously sad there are no more 'babies' in the home, but she does Love the new set up in Karsten's room and ~ as you can see from the wall ~ "as long as we are living, My Baby You Will Be!"

Final Two CSU Home Games

Our last two home games were held on Nov 10th and Nov 24th and boy were they different!  We noted that the Nov 10th game coincided with pheasant opener in Colorado.  So, we decided to make a weekend of it! 

Our family and Jim and Sarah decided to grab a hotel up in Fort Collins for the weeekend.  We arrived to the hotel on Friday night with a Papa Murphys Pizza and hopes of rooms next door to each other.  We got settled in our rooms, ate and got the kids ready for bed.  We thought we were incredibly smart bringing a baby monitor to the hotel.  Since our rooms were next door to each other... we would put one part in each hotel room.  After we layed the boys down, we headed to Jim's room.  Amy listenend to the monitor smiling.  She heard Karsten cry... then Kasey say "no, Karsten.  Don't cry.  We need to go to sleep".  It was so cute! Until... the next thing she heard was a deep male voice.  Amy threw the receiver down and ran out of the room towards our room.  Standing outside was a nice young man asking Kasey "Well, where is your mommy?"  Evidently, we didn't bank on the fact that the kids would be able to open the door to head outside to go find us! Whoops! Thank God we heard it happening and were able to react so quickly!

Jim, Sarah and Kris were planning on searching for pheasants on Sat and Sun morning; which left Amy and the boys in the hotel for a fun morning swim!  Rosemary and Amy decided since they meet for coffee every Saturday, that this would be no different.  Rosemary grabbed some beloved lattes and headed to the hotel with her beautiful girls to enjoy breakfast and the pool.  The kids had a blast as you can tell!

The kids enjoying some pool time...

...and some hot tub fun.

The hunting crew got back after enjoying their morning walk and showered up for tailgating.  We got the cars loaded and headed to the stadium.  The closer we got... the colder and snowier it was.  By the time we arrived at the stadium we took a vote and all decided to tailgate from our hotel room (and swim!) and return for the game closer to 5pm.  It was one of our most unusual tailgates, but I think had one of the highest attendance factors of the season.  Evidently, when you throw a pool into the mix during tailgating... there is no passing up that opportunity!

A new way to tailgate ~ WARM!

The kids found a way to enjoy the tailgate too
New fun game is Hungry Hungry Hippos
(anyone else remember playing this on an iPad as a kid? ~oh wait)

Hot tub time

and some more pool time

Game was even Great! We Beat UNLV!

How do you stay warm?

Step 1 - Get a big group

Step 2 - Huddle together

The last game of the season was right after Thanksgiving and we were All Thankful that the weather was so nice!  We all bundled up and at one point were down to T-shirts... that is before going back to our winter coats and hats for the 5pm game.  Amy was not happy with the 5pm games this year, but we have already heard a rumor of earlier game times in 2013! (YAY!)

Alisa and Kris cooking chili for the last game

The weather even cooperated today

Where are you taking us Camden?

Who says the kids can't be entertained? iPhones are Great!

Karsten showing his Ram pride in front of the Aggie 'A'

This game was a close one, but the Rammies were able to pull out a Big "W" for the win!  That left the Rams with a 4-8 overall record for the year.  Not the best, but we were pretty proud of our team this year!  Amy was just excited they beat CU this season and are in hopes of a rematch with NDSU in the near future!

Karsten cheering the Ram's on to a last second win

The Lambda Chi's with our college Chef, Billy & his 2 sons

Karsten, Amy and Cassie enjoying a "sell out" crowd

Trip to the Brewery

Recently, we decided to take a last minute trip to the Coors Brewery with Uncle David.  It was a very refreshing beverage and great company too.

 We even found a cool new piece of art outside. Kids thought it was pretty fun too!

Thanksgiving

Amy had an organized plan to get ready for Thanksgiving.  She was going to get off work a bit early on Wed afternoon and head home to bake pies, clean the house and do as much prep as she could the night before the big feast.  We had Gma and Gpa Cannode and Uncle David coming for dinner and she wanted to be able to spend time with them instead of worrying about prepping food.  Great Idea, right!?!

Yep - that did Not happen.  Instead, Amy got off work early and enjoyed a nice happy hour with her Hubby, Jim, Rosemary and Angie.  Happy Hour was followed by Amy heading to PF Changs for some girl chat and dinner.  By the time she got home (which was only 7pm)... she was so tired and not at all willing to make a pie.  Instead, she went to bed early and planned on sneaking around the next morning.  She woke up at 4am, snuck downstairs and started cleaning.  After an hour of cleaning, she heard some pitter patter of footy pajamas and found little Karsten sneaking down the stairs.  Karsten has been getting up at 5am regularly lately (which we are less than thrilled about).  Today, Amy was thrilled for some one on one time with her little one.  They cuddled for a bit and then she asked if he wanted to help cook.  He was excited.  His big brother always takes over during cooking so this was perfect to have Just Karsten to help.  They started out putting a chair next to the island and making a green been casserole.  Karsten thought he was doing such a great job that he decided he wanted some for breakfast! Sure, it was before 6am, but who is Amy to turn down a child requesting veggies.

After the casserole was done, they started making the pumpkin pie.  Karsten was great at stirring up our dessert.  As he was helping pour the evaporated milk into the batter, he looked up at Amy with sleepy yet excited eyes and said "Mommy, This is So Fun!"  Her heart melted and she decided this might just become a New tradition... Get up at 4am and see which child decides to get up to help! Lets see how long that lasts before they decide sleeping in sounds so much better!

Look! It's Mickey Mouse!!

Soon, the whole family was up and it was time for the Macy's Day Parade.  The kids were excited for two reasons.  First, they are now old enough to enjoy watching the parade and Second, they kept comparing it to the Ballon Fiesta we had recently attended.  They loved all the shapes.  Karsten was excited about Mickey and Kasey of course had us rewind the TV a couple times to show him Buzz Lightyear 'one more time.'

Goofin' around with Gpa!

Finally, it was time.  Our guests were arriving and dinner was almost done.  We had a great time chatting while the food cooked and were all excited when it was ready.  We even had some helpers in the kitchen and don't forget about the wish bone!

On your mark, get set, PULL!

After dinner, we did our Traditional Holiday Walk before having pie.  It was a bit colder than we had hoped so it was a shorter walk, but at least we were out together as a family exercising... all while dreaming about pumkin, strawberry or apple pie.

At the end of the day, we thought about all the things we have to be thankful for.  Amazing Family (near and far), Kiddos that melt our hearts, Careers that we Truly Enjoy (crazy, we know) and Friends that will do anything for us.  We are truly blessed and can't imagine life any different.

RWVA Appleseed Event

Carey Ryerson currently works at Magpul (makes gun accessories).  Through his company, he found out about a pretty cool two day event.  It is a Marksmenship training course that includes plenty of history.  Thankfully, George and Pat were wanting some cuddle time with the kiddos so we had a sitter lined up each day and headed out to refine our skills.

We loved that each day started out with the Pledge of Allegience (I can't believe our kids will never say that in school, but don't get me started on that point).  After a safety lesson from the team, we put up a target and shot ten rounds at it to see where our starting point was.  None of us were amazing, but we all felt ok about our shots.  Then, we learned different techniques throughout the next two days to improve our current skillsets. 

Amy trying out the kneeling position

Carey and Sarah using sitting position and Jim in prone position

Kris using his 30-06 at 300 yards

A couple that Shoots together... Stays together

One cool part about this group is that it is put on by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association (RWVA) and they are Huge on American History.  In between shooting events, they would tell us historic stories about how our country fought the British and gained the rights each of us are priveledged with today.  I have always heard about the men who fought and recognized several of the stories from history lessons as a kid, but was impressed to hear about the women who made such an impact on our country too!  There was a woman who dressed up as a man so she could fight for her country, a woman who had her house invaded by the British and captured/killed them to defend her family.  So many people stood up for what they believed in and it made me very proud to be an American.

For two days we shot at 25 yard targets with our 22 rifles in different positions, but also got to take a shot at long range shooting (200 and 300 yard shots) with our 30-06 rifle.  At the end of the training, there was a Marksmanship test we all took.  We had several different rounds of shooting during our test.  The first was ten rounds at the largest target in a standing position (the least stable position learned).  Then we had two timed events.  The first was going into a kneeling/sitting position where we shot two rounds, changed the clip and shot 8 more rounds (in 55 seconds).  Then, we went from a standing into a prone position and shot two rounds, changed the clip and shot an additional 8 rounds (in 65 seconds).  Finally, we had ten shots at the tiniest targets in prone position, but could take up to 5 minutes for that one.  Amy was incredibly happy with her score as she had no idea with how she would match up and Kris felt pretty good with what he had learned and how he improved his score throughout the day. We were all excited about what we had learned and even talked about doing another event when it was offered again!