Rodney's latest smoker

Rodney got a smoker from a co-worker of mine and cleaned it up. He is quite pleased with the way it turned out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rodney gets "schooled" by the 4-year-old...

Rodney decided to take Xan up on his Wii table tennis and basketball challenges. And lost miserably. Rodney didn't even manage to score a point in the basketball game before he gave up.

Meanwhile, Will is doing very well on his reading, and is about half way through the second Harry Potter book.

Xan reading...

While Will read another chapter in the second Harry Potter book this afternoon, Xan and I spent some time reading the first story in the Dick and Jane book. He did very well. Here is the link to the video on YouTube. It wouldn't upload here for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfr7IQRUuyM

Will's report card...

We are very proud of Will this quarter... he pulled all of his grades up to all A's and one B+. He has worked very hard and it has paid off.

Some photos from today...

Rodney has moved all of his tools and hunting gear in to the shed. Here is what it looks like with a man's touch:

I worked and the boys went to the Ice Flyers game on Friday. Saturday we had about 40 people at our house last night for fight/game night. It was a lot of fun and a good group of people. I didn't take any pictures, but others did, so as soon as I get them, I will post them here. In the meantime, here are a couple of quick snapshots of the boys. Will is reading the second Harry Potter book with a little less strong-arming (he read a chapter on his own today) and Xan is learning how to spell and write his letters. He asked how to spell "I love you" for a picture he made for Will. He formed his letters very well.

And thank you to everyone who gave me money this Christmas... I was able to buy this second-hand bike from a co-worker. It has hardly been used and I have no excuse for not working out no matter how cold, hot or rainy it is. :) Rodney plans to use it, too.

Odds and ends from the past couple of weeks...

There haven't been a lot of photos taken around here lately. We've settled in to a 2011 weekly schedule of school and work and enjoyed MLK day off today. I studied for my classes this week and we all got some stuff done around the house.


Rodney acquired another rusty but still useful smoker from a friend of mine from work - free! At least he has an inexpensive hobby of fixing up old smokers and barbecues.

We also did some organizing around here. The shed out back is now Rodney's tool shed. The remaining scrapbooking stuff out there is on a shelf in the garage. Rodney is in a better mood than usual now that he has a newly carpeted man room he no longer shares with Marble (just exercise equipment) and a tool shed. We'll see if it lasts.

We hosted poker night Friday night (the same day Rodney had his ingrown toe worked on for the second time) and our house had more baby girls in it than it's had for awhile. Tyler brought over 2-month-old Emily and Kanoko and Joe brought over 2-week-old Isabelle. Very cute. Very pink. Julie juggled them both for a moment.




There are still 4 more babies to be born in the ATC group, and my friend Brynn from work. I'm trying not to drink too much local water here.

We had game night at Joe and Kanoko's house last night. The boys stomped the girls, but we're ready for a rematch. It was a lot of fun and Rodney's boss is actually more competitive than I am. can you imagine what he must be like? :)

Xan has been perfecting his Wii putting. He has actually moved on to angled greens. I showed him a few adjustments to accommodate the slopes and he caught one incredibly fast. I was very impressed. Hopefully he will do well in geometry!



Marble is well on the road to recovery (for the time being) and kept warm in a hand-me-down dog fleece during the frigid temperatures this past week. She also enjoyed a peanut butter jar, her favorite treat.



The kids were also thrilled to find themselves in the Pen Air kid newsletter this quarter. (I wonder how THAT was arranged...?) Look at the Picture It page on this link.

More photos with the fam....

A photo I forgot to post before the Christmas photos is the one we took at the Ice Flyers game the same night. It was a fun time.


We had a poker game New Years Day and Joe came over with cigars celebratimg the arrival of Isabelle. New Years Eve was less than fun, really. Marble started stumbling around. Assuming the worst Rodney and I took her to an emergency vet across town. Turned out she only had a bad inner ear infection and needed antibiotics. As you can see, she still tilts her head to the left, but she's back to her old pesky self.

The boys weren't the only ones transfixed by the new handheld electronic games...

Meanwhile, Luke and the boys played football in our Florida room, which now sports "new" carpet. Rodney's boss was installing tile at his house, so we got their old carpet, which was very nice.

And, of course, Peggy and Jill had to take a trip to the beach, despite the chilly temps.

Our third (and final) 2010 Christmas...

Grandma Peggy, Grandpa Paul, Aunt Jill and Luke all arrived at dinner time Thursday, just in time to join us for an Ice Flyers hockey game. After we got home, the kids were so wired, they couldn't sleep, so we opened Christmas gifts instead:
























And, Xan finally got the coveted WWE wrestling set...