Snow Fun!

We've had snow from the end of October and into March...really, really hoping we don't get anymore in April!!!!!! 

 

We've had to play in the snow around the neighborhood (park or behind the backyard) because we keep forgetting to pick up after Leila before the snowfall!  :) 

 

We found this little fort at the park!

 Our first (and I think only!) snowman of the season!

 

 

Our snow barricade!

We used a rectangular tupperware container

Once it was built and Luke was down for a nap, the girls invited Leevi out for a snowball fight!

Kailee hiding...

We are definitely over the snow!!!!  Actually, I don't mind the snow too much, but I'm so over the cold, and bundling up, and the wet mess tracked into the house!!!!!!!  This is definitely the most snow we've had since we moved here.  It's never more than a few inches, but it just lingers forever...we've had constant snow on the ground all winter!  BUT no snow days from school!!!  We've had one early release and one two hour delay and that didn't come until March AFTER the sun came out and teased us with 50 degree weather for a week!!!

 

Walking to pick Hailey up from school!

Marriage Retreat at Edelweiss

At the beginning of February we went on a marriage retreat at the Edelweiss resort.  It was offered to the "command team" at Leevi's work, so it was fun to be there with our friends.  Moms, Dads, and kids all had "playmates"!  The information at the retreat itself wasn't all that amazing, but they gave us countless hours of free time for family-time and socialization with colleagues out of the office.  The kids were provided free day-care and they had a blast (especially because they were with their buddies)  They even took the big kids to a bounce house place!!!  And Luke did pretty good in the nursery.  On Saturday we were finished with the session around 10am and we didn't have to pick the kids up from the daycare until 4:30!!!!!!!  Everything was paid for; 2 hotel nights, child care, food!!!!  I can't imagine these retreats surviving the government budget cuts, but we will definitely take advantage of them!!!! 

 

The Greens, MacDonalds, and half of the DeCostas (I should add that there are THREE Lukes in this picture)

Lots of pool fun!

He slept some at the pool and

played some

My only fear of vacations is cramming all of us into a hotel room...not so much the cramming part, I guess, as much as the "I hope they don't wake each other up" part.  Hailey had a hard time going to sleep (that's not necessarily unusual even at home) and was frustrated because her nose was stuffy.  She made such a fuss that she woke up Luke...grr!!!!  I finally made a steam room for her in the bathroom...I draped a towel over her head, lined the sink with vicks, and turned the shower and sink on hot!  It'd worked and she settled down as I got Luke back to sleep!

She's the best sleeper in the world...she's a kid that truely enjoys her sleep and is always willing and ready for bed!

Crazy kids!!!  There wasn't a bit of snow on the ground when we arrived on Friday, but it started coming down on Saturday and didn't stop even as we drove home on Sunday. 

Bum-freezes before jumping into the outdoor hottub!

The drive home...

 

We had a great weekend and it was a perfect quick getaway from the daily grind!!!

ProSoc Academy

 I really thought that I had made a second blog post about the girls' soccer training, but I guess I didn't.  These pictures and videos were from their first session Fall/Winter.  They have since started (and about to finish!!!) a second session.  The drills and skills they are working on are truely awesome...stuff that I was never taught until college!  ;)  Lol!  Germans know soccer!!!!!!  The spring training will be weekly clinics, but we will be traveling during most of April for Leevi's block leave before the deployment (Ireland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona) so we won't start something back up until May! 

 

And a funny tidbit...Hailey really likes it BUT dislikes (to put it mildly!) the fact that the coach makes her train with her left foot on drills and such AND Kailee is left footed but can't use her right foot to save her life!!!  ;)

 

"Put me in, Coach!"  It won't be long!!!!

 

The picture above is from the fall; now he plays over on the wrestling mats during the girls' practices.  

Clips of Kailee's scrimmage...

Clips of Hailey's scrimmage...

Clips of Lukester...

Valentine's Day 2013

 

For Valentine's day cards this year we made scratcher cards with secret messages (kai drew pictures).  Of course, I found the idea and how to do it on Pintrest...draw a message, color over it with a white crayon, and then use a mixture of dish soap and acryllic paint.  Fun!!!

 This was my sample to make sure it worked! ;)

 

 

Ok, so I'm only over a month late on this post!!!!  We had a whirlwind of a February with Hailey's birthday, Leevi working crazy hours with his new job, a marriage retreat weekend and a last minute week long trip to Paris/Disneyland AND we blinked and it was March!  I still have all of that fun stuff to blog about, but the more important reason that I'm so behind into the end of March is because we had a tragedy in our family.  My older brother, Douglas, took his life on March 2nd.  Heartbreak has frozen our world, the grief is crushing, but we are getting by.  Prayers of comfort for years will always be welcome.  I'm working on a blog post for him that I hope to have up at some point this week.