colors on ice 2012

Em's 4th year of ice skating is complete. Once again, she looked forward to the one time a week for lessons so that she could see her bff Reise. They are the sweetest friends and are so blessed to experience life together at such a young age and, Lord willing, through out the rest of their lives. They call themselves "sisters" because we are R's godparents.

R's parents were on a trip the week leading up to the show, so we had her for the weekend. It was a wild and crazy weekend and I wipe my brow and am thankful it is over :) not because of R, but because of some interesting events.

On Thursday I woke up completely immobilized because of pain through out every joint in my body. I seriously felt like I had arthritis. I went to my chiropractor and he thought it was odd, but didn't want to do any test until Monday, just to see if it passed. He told me to take it easy...and I laughed, because I knew what kind of weekend I had ahead of me. That evening I had the girls first rehearsal, Friday I had to decorate for a wedding at the church and then it was dress rehearsal for the girls ( so that meant hair and make up=2 hours at least) and then Saturday I needed to be at the church for the wedding and to serve the meal, clean up and head home to get the girls ready for the first show that evening. I woke up Saturday feeling much better. It only took about 5 minutes for me to feel a bit normal. I was so thankful, knowing how busy my day was going to be. By Sunday morning I was feeling like I had never had any pain at all. Whatever it was did pass and I don't feel anything weird today. After talking to my bff Stacie, she suggested it was a Vitamin D deficiency and advised tanning. I upped my Omega-3 vits and have a great tan now and feel so much better. I don't want to take any chances of this happening again or have to deal with arthritis later in life, so I set an appointment with our Homeopathic Doctor Alison and will be getting on a remedy for myself.

Ufda, I have been trying to upload the video of Em's routine, but I am not patient enough, I may have to try again later. But she did very well and is looking forward to next season!

Weird Science

The Next Takenobu?

Micah started the cello this past week. He is very excited to learn a new instrument. He was also excited to find that knowing the piano makes learning cello less intimidating.

I think ima gonna like listening to this new sound in the house.

What's up with Emma?

Well, baby girl is getting fitted for an Schwartz appliance to follow in her big brothers footsteps. She should have her piece on the 22nd of March.

She is getting a bit taller lately and has been thrilled to "finally" wear some of the jeans that have been tucked away for her.

Early January we took her (and Creed) to see a Homeopathic Dr. to see if we could straighten out her lactose intolerance and it worked brilliantly. She and Creed are so much more comfortable. So thankful for those that study the natural resources that God has given us on this Earth.

Emma is excelling in her Piano lessons. She loves playing more and more each day, you can hear it every time she sits down to play, which is many times a day. In February she played for Gold Cup and achieved 2 cups this year. We are so proud of her!

I am enjoying her and this age so much right now. She is such a help to me around the house and longs to be in the kitchen. One Saturday afternoon we just baked and baked and baked some more.
School is going very well for her. Math is her favorite subject and was so excited to begin learning division.

Next week she has her annual Ice Show. Picture to follow.

We are the Champions

What a great group of boys that played with all their hearts together and won!

They have some pretty great coaches too :)

Such a proud kid!

Coach Rob giving a little "victory" speech to the team.

GO FALCONS!

Boys will be Boys

I'm Flyin High

with this man <3

mmm, oh yeah!

Over Crookston, MN

and with these lovies.

Is this really MY house?

We have been waiting for this day for 9 years! Our back room/media room is finally complete!

I took these pictures before Rob put in the light fixtures, but oh well.
Our furniture will be delivered on Tuesday!

half a year...really?!

to recap september-january:

september:

• wrapped up combining
• school started: creed began his first year in pre-school, emma entered miss trittin's 3rd grade class and micah is now in miss trittin's 4th grade class

october:

• beet operation began
• grandpa n grandma cottrell came for a week long visit
• had a nice dry harvest with only 1 week shut down for heat, finished october 17
• rob and i celebrated our birthdays

november:

• micah turned 10
• had a nice tollefson family thanksgiving

december:

• emma turned 9
• creed turned 4
• had a nice tollefson family christmas

january:

• i started the year out rough
• emma started the year out rough
• micah's basketball team up to date is 7-0
• rob and i celebrated our 13th year together
• i cut my 9 inches off my hair
• completing our media room project 9 years in the making

now for some random pictures to highlight events:

m has his annual pizza, football and cake party

e celebrates with her girls

c totally knows now that birthdays are a big deal around here and he hammed it up!

so. much. fun.

lisa and i hosted a "fall splendor" table for the annual Affair of Tables fundraiser.

Highlight: Pomegranates in the mimosas

beautiful shot thanks to my new found love interest-pintrest

snowfall for the new year

m making the 2 point shot

after some major hair drama, the only way to make it better was to cut 9 inches off.

i was ready for the change, that made it an easier decision for me.

rob? not so much.

Air Venture ~ By Micah

Hi, this is Micah blogging, I wanted to tell you about my trip Oshkosh Wisconsin.

We left on July 28th and came back July 31. We made the ten hour drive with dad's cousin Todd and his son Peter. We stayed in some dorms that looked like a prison cell. The beds were comfortable but there was no AC. We went over to Wal-mart to buy some fans, towels and sunscreen.

We walked 18 miles in the 2 days that we were in Air Venture. They had a night show were there were some airplanes that had fireworks they would shoot out when going inverted and while doing all sorts of tricks. One thing I learned was I want to be a pilot.

Here is a picture dad took of me standing by a marine or navy airplane.

I think this painting is cool

Dad took this picture of me by this airplane because this plane is exact same as the wallpaper on his computer.

I'm really grateful that I got to go on this trip because dad is usually really busy.

Rob's 20th High School Reunion

Hosted by Chris and Leah Swenby at their lovely home. About half of their class showed up; it was fun for all of them to catch up.

Haas-MacCullam Wedding~Omaha NE

Such a pretty grotto for this beautifully simple wedding

Emma and Creed were so suprised when they saw their cousins from VA came to the wedding and stayed at the same hotel.

Emma, JoAnna and Lydia

Stephan and Creed

Love this shot!

The Groom watching his Bride coming down

The Bride Naomi, eldest daughter to Rob's sister Val, whom just arrived home from an extended mission from Kyrgyzstan.

presenting Mr. and Mrs Dan MacCullum

the middle two ladies are Naomi's sisters Jessica and Rachel

Beautiful!

Emma's room grows up...

I guess, I don't have a before pic. I searched but didn't find one :(

I repainted her walls and furniture all while Micah was gone to Bible Camp; I think I was trying to stay busy.

It turned out really nice. She is pleased.

Father's Day Flight

Rob's Day was spent doing the things he loves...playing at the playground :)

hanging with his boys

teaching this handsome young man the love of flying...

Doing a pre-flight check

before taking up his precious cargo...

but, I got to admire the physic of my favorite pilot.

Lifetime Vision Center

The place I dropped a wad of $ on these two smiling lovelies today!

E had been telling me for a couple of months that things were starting to not look as clear as they once did; Creed had a screening earlier this year that showed he had a slight weakness with his eyes. He has a stigmatism in his left eye. Hopefully he will grow out of it.

Last week I took them to the dentist and he told C to keep that thumb out of his mouth...and he has! He is growing up so fast! I am proud of the way he sets his mind and does it.

I sure hope we can get him used to his new spectacles, it is hard when there isn't a huge difference with or with out them.

One Summer Saturday

Pictures can be deceiving.

Micah is not this kind of big brother.

They were watering the whole court, to give drink to the dragon flies that have swarmed our back yard. It was so fun and encouraging for the kids to watch them fly down catch a sip of water and fly off noticeably refreshed.

C being very diligent with his duty of watering the court.

During their "break time" they splashed around in the pool.

This was as close as C would get to the cold water.

What happened to my little boy and little girl? They are so big! Their laughs are the same, the play is the same; but their friendship has grown right along with them.