MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and the best in 2011!! We woke up to 3 inches of fresh snow this morning - it is very pretty and always fun to have a white Christmas - everyone is home today - we are hanging out and just enjoying the season! So many things to be thankful for - health, awesome family and friends, the list could go on and on. Hope this finds everyone enjoying their weekend with family and friends!! Love ya all and sending a warm holiday hug your way :)

First Big Snow

This picture is from ICE AGE the movie - we had a Big blizzard yesterday - wind all day long too - and this is how Mike felt after plowing the driveway - it was 30 below wind chill here. Now it's Sunday morning and all activities are cancelled this morning - the wind is calm and the snow is still piled up. But there is traffic moving today - downtown Rock Valley stores didn't even open yesterday - the grocery store closed at 4 - I think that Winter is officially here.

Stay warm and cozy and wish you a very blessed day!

Family Pictures - 2010

Took some pictures by the bridge between Hudson and Fairview SD - last week - I have been sitting here trying to upload them for the last 45 minutes - gave up on some - will maybe post more later - I have some patience but not that much!!!

Love this picture - didn't even know that she took it

Marcus and mom - tried 6 different times to upload the one with Mike and Marcus - quess the computer can't handle that much good looks in one picture :)

Mike and Jamie looking good and tall!

Jamie and mom - mom is feeling shorter all the time!

Fun times and Paco is checking something out - he did good but was getting sick of it at the end!

Awesome Year Wolfpack!!

We couldn't be more proud of all you guys!! Awesome year - 9 wins 2 losses

The Wolfpack season is now over - but was so much fun!!

Game two of play-offs tonight!!

Captains taking the field! - these pictures are from the last home regular season game!

During the BIG win - 41-24 was final score!! Game was against OA - BCIG (Ida Grove)

Seniors walked the field at the end of the game and took pictures with just the seniors!

19 of them in all - AWESOME YEAR GUYS!

Volleyball Tournament Monday Oct.4

Jamie is yes number 5 and one of the two setters for the team - they played Hartley/Melvin/Sanborn first match and won pretty easily 21-6 and 21-8 I think if I remember right!!

Here she is back setting to the girl behind her - they like to run this play :) and it is fun to watch too!!!!!

Must have been a good bump-set-spike - high 5's all around!

Serving - the second match we played George/Little Rock and beat them 21-4 and 21-4

Got 1st in our pool and then went to championship game against Rock Valley!!

Jamie can jump higher than I can even think about getting off the ground - she had a really nice block in this game!!

Coach Barb giving a pep talk!!

Nice blocking ladies!!

This could be the one she blocked - we won the tournament beat Rock Valley 21-2 and then 21-16 was a very fun night of volleyball!!

Great work Wolfpack and thanks to Joy for coming and taking such nice pictures again!!

Homecoming against Unity

Here is the first touchdown 3 minutes into the game on Friday night - thanks to Joy and her awesome picture taking you get a play by play!! Here he comes

diving for the endzone

feel sorry for that guy under there

he made it

and quite excited bout it and rightfully so!!!!

Celebrating - Western won this game 38-21 - was a super fun game to watch and lots of action as always - and NO ONE GOT HURT - YEAH!!!!!

Some Football pics!!!!!

Joy Faber does an awesome job taking pictures every game night - here are some from Friday night's game - This one was at a time-out and yes Marcus is number 20!!

Running off the field

Getting a tackle :)

Here is where he sacked the quarter-back - the next one is him taking the quarterback down - he was pumped after this play!!

Here he is on offense -running the ball

Just liked this picture since their numbers are on their helmets and 10, 20 and 30 were all right there!

Quarterback handing the ball to Marcus

Marcus diving for a first down and yes he made it!!

These next ones are before the game starts - coach pumps them up and they do a little move and run in together

They link arms and move back and forth bout 4 times and then start running - it's pretty cool to watch!

Coach Kooima giving them last minute instructions and just thought it was a neat picture with his hand on Marcus' helmet.

This was during a penalty during the game and deciding with the umpire what they wanted to do.

We are having so much fun with football season and it's going fast already - this week is homecoming against Unity - will also be a good game - kids are having fun with all the extra activities this week.

Opening Duck Season Today!

Mike and Dave De Ruyter had a successful opening day duck hunting today!! After the exciting win for the Wolfpack football team last night, Mike left for Spirit Lake. Dave and him were up extremely early this morning and had fun shooting some ducks!!

They got their limit - even the dog (Mia) has a coat on today - it only got to be 46 degrees today - quite chilly but good hunting weather!!

Church Retreat 2010

Our church retreat was this past weekend at Inspiration Hills - we had a great time and here are some of the activities we were involved in! Jamie and Sawyer are having minnow races here - each have a minnow on their side and you have a straw and help blow your minnow over the finish line! Sawyer is winning - I think Jamie's minnow is fighting her :)

They also had many crafts along - here they are making sand crosses with colored sand (Mike's pickup is in the back of this picture and that is the cabin we stayed in - I really should have taken a nicer picture of it b/c they were really nice and the girls loved it) We had 7 freshman girls in our cabin with Mike and I - they had a loft area and they camped out up there which was awesome since they also had their own bathroom up there too!!

Then there was the volleyball tournament(two teams - some dads and sixth grade girls against the freshman girls)

This is the winning team - not by much though - all three games were very close - these are the girls that were in our cabin as well plus Josie she came later!!

And the 2nd place team - they were very competitive as well - even had some grass stains on those white shirts!!

Then in the evening came the dunk tank - that number six is yes Jamie and yes that is her mother up on the tank - and yes she got me in on her first time up to throw - she must have her dad's arm because there is no way I would have hit the target - I got dunked as least 8 to 10- times and it was quite chilly too - but it was to raise money for Feed My Starving Children so it all went to a great cause.

I would just hold myself so tight cuz you never know when they are going to hit it - Mike didn't try to get me in - just gave the girls money to try and enjoyed watching them get me - I think out of the 6 girls that were there at the time - 3 of them dropped me - I gave Jamie a big hug when I was finished.

Was a very fun weekend and the weather was perfect - we had church out there on Sunday morning and then dinner was served to us and then we came home and took naps in the afternoon!!