Never enough time...

Well it's been about 3 weeks since I last posted anything and for good reason! Basketball season is here and I have been refing games almost every day which keeps me on the run and also takes time I would normally use to grade papers, do lesson plans, etc. So needless to say things are a little hectic and I'm feeling swamped! But I just had to get on here today to let everyone know we're still here and have had some nice "moments" in between all the crazyness. We went down to Hollywood to visit our wonderful friends the Sophies for about 5 days leading up to Thanksgiving and had a really nice time. We don't get to see them but maybe 2 or 3 times a year so it was nice to have that much time off school to just relax down there and enjoy not only the great company but the gorgeous weather! Our camera crapped out on us about 2 months ago and we finally got a new one in the post Thanksgiving day sales so I'll post some new pictures soon. Our internet at home has been out as we are switching providers which will finally happen I believe on Thursday. So once that is up and running I'll get the new pictures up. Let's see we went and got our Christmas tree Saturday night after one of my games and Kylie REALLY got into the holiday spirit! She was so focused on decorating and it was just soo cute (and honestly a little annoying as she kept pestering us about decorating EVERYTHING until it was all done). We wanted to do it in spurts and she just wanted to go, go, go until it was up to her standard! Also on Saturday we participated in the St. Cloud Christmas parade which is really a big deal here. Kylie rode on the Harony Pop Warner float with the other cheer leaders and football players as I walked along side handing out candy. She did get down and walk some of the way helping hand out candy as well but she didn't last the whole 2+ miles. It was kinda hard to get in the spirit though since it was so hot! I couldn't believe I was sweating in a Christmas parade!!! Nate & Desi that little tidbit was for you, hope you're enjoying that lovely Michigan winter! Finally last night we had a nice night at home as it was my one night off this week! We had a nice little Family Home Evening lesson on how the candy cane is a reminder of the Christ. For those of you who haven't seen that before it's great for kids! The cane is in the shape of a shepards staff and you share a scripture referencing Christ as our shepard. It is hard like a rock so you read a reference about Christ being the rock. Finally the colors white and red represent his purity and blood so you share scriptures that dicuss his pureness and his blood which was shed for us. Then we had ice cream and layed down together as a family to watch Alvin & the Chipmunks. Well I gotta run, tons of work to do but I'll post photos later this week! We love you all and hope you're having a joyous Holiday Season!
PS: Thanks to Brenda and Dale for getting Amber some much needed time out without the girls this weekend. It's tough this time of year with all the games I'm working for me to take her out or even just watch the girls so she can get out. She really enjoyed it!

More photos

These are from Key West and our 2nd stop (last day) at Disney's island.

The view from the famous Key West Conch Train as we returned to our ship.

We just had to get the I pee in pools shot and she loved it!!! (Disregard the other shirts!)

Kylie in the water at Disney's Castaway Kay.

Reagan playing in the sand at Castaway Cay.

Kylie posing on her mat in the lagoon at Castaway.

More photos

So nothing exciting to talk about this week other than the start of Basketball season. I had my first games last week and not only look forward to the check but the excercise as well. I decided to start taking advantage of the fact that I work at a place with a full gym and weight room and so today I'm starting to lift for the first time in years! I need to get into shape and hopefully with reffing several games a week and lifting 3 times a week it will happen. All my jeans are getting tight so I know I need it. Amber is the only one in our house whose clothes should be getting tight. Well here are some more photos from our trip. These are of the beach on Disney's private island.


Getting off the ship, Max was there to help hand out towels.

Mommie & Kylie turned Reagan into a sand mermaid while Daddy was snorkeling in the lagoon.

Here's the final result!

Our.......

Oh well!

Well the big game didn't work out the way we would have liked but it's hard to win when everyone at the game knows what you're going to run on offense! It was a very frustrating loss as the kids played hard but in my opinion were hampered by lousy play calling. We ran the ball on at least 90% of our downs even when we were down by 3 with less than 3 minutes to go and needing to drive down the entire field and score for the win. We continued running the ball up the middle of the field (clock management?????). Anyways we needless to say did not drive down the field and score but lost by 3 points. OH WELL! Boy do we miss our friends the Andersons in so many ways!!!
What happens on Halloween when you're on a Disney Cruise with 3 women??? You get sucked into being part of a fairy family! Here are some pictures from Halloween for your viewing pleasure and guys I don't need to hear it, I already know. What's a Dad to do??? I've got a strangle hold on my last shread of masculinity and promise not to let all the estrogen surrounding me kill it. It's time to get Kylie into sports!!!!


At least I got black wings & a tutu...right????

Tonights the night!!!

Tonight is the infamous Harmony versus St. Cloud High School Football game. For those of you not familiar with this game it is a huge in town and district rivalry. These 2 schools, players, fans, etc really do not like each other at all! Just to let you know how big it is this is the only game they presell tickets to the students for, as they anticipate a sell out. Also last night as we were getting home from the Magic game at almost midnight I saw that the big bright stadium lights were still on! There was a girls soccer game earlier that evening which would have been over by 9pm so I thought unless somebody was doing last minute prep work on the field they forgot to shut off the lights. So I went by and saw not a soul or car anywhere near the stadium and called our principal on her cell phone (again almost midnight!). In a tired voice she tells me they are leaving them on all night in an effort to ward off any would be pranksters or vandals from the rival school!!!! Yeah this will be some affair! Oh and I forgot to mention they are undefeated in district play and we have one loss so this game is for the district championship as well!!!! We are really looking forward to a big night and some fun tomorrow with our wonderful friends the Hoffs. We're going to go to the Festival of the masters art show at Downtown Disney then have a sleep over Saturday! We hope you all have a great weekend and here are some more cruise photos for your enjoyment. These are from the Mayan ruins we visited in Cozumel.

The girls loved climbing on the ruins, that they were allowed to, but this surprised us as Kylie is usually afraid of heights. She just all of a sudden went over started climbing and kept going until she got to the top. Now as she was carefully working her way down I will admit she kept saying "Oh I shouldn't have done this".

We saw several iguanas but this was the first one and Kylie actually saw it and pointed out to us!
This was the main structure at this site. GO MAGIC!!!!

Bad news comes in pairs or is it triples??? And of course more photos

Well besides the reality sinking in that we will have an extremely Pro-choice Democrat/ultra-liberal/socialist...president I got hit with another bit of upsetting news when I first got to school today. For those of you who are familliar with HHS you'll undestand the loss... Our beloved principal Mrs. Pace is leaving to be the Counties deputy Superintendent over all middle and high schools. This is not only a huge loss for the school as she is amazing but for me as she is one of the main reasons (besides being so close to home) I wanted to come here. She's sticking around until they find a replacement and there's no word on who that will be. She assured me that all would be ok and she'd find somebody who shared her amazing vision...We'll see. Well of course here's 5 more photos for your' viewing pleasure. After playing all day on there island we got bikes and rode across the island to a lookout tower where you could climb up to see the entire island and the ship off in the distance. Well you can see the before and after photos, they were tuckered out! I zoomed in on the ship from the tower and that's what the middle photo is.

Cruise photos

Splashing in the puddles outside the ship. After our first night we stopped at Disney's Private Bahemian island and had a great day but as we were getting ready to head back from the beach to the ship it started to pour and did so for about 10-15 minutes. Once we got back to the boat it was no longer raining and there were big puddles on the dock which we naturally couldn't resist splashing and playing in!
Kylie posing by the big artwork hanging at the top of the atrium.

The girls at the tea party with Alice and the mad hatter. Don't worry, Disney gave everyone Apple juice in their tea pots!

Reagan with Stitch at the dance party.

Reagan & I doing the Strawberry slide or some crazy cha cha slide type dance during the character dance party.

More cruise dance photos

Kylie having fun at the character dance party
The girls dancing with Donald! They had a big character dance party one day which the girls just loved!

Reagan made a friend on the dance floor.

Kylie and another twirl move. Check out Reagans moves off to the side.

And surprise...another spinning dance move. Love the tongue!!!

Our girls love to dance!

These are more cruise shots. It only lets me post 5 at a time for some strange reason! These are from a family dance party we went to on the formal night. Kylie and Reagan just love to dance!
They get it from their momma! Not to bad for being 4 months away from the due date eh! Dats my babys' mamma!!!!!!!!

They both love to spin with dresses on so you can imagine there moves this night incorporated many spins!

Father daughter dance

Some more cruise photos for you're viewing pleasure

Shark attack in Cozumel!
So Cute!!!

Daddy, Minnie & Kylie

Reagan is ready for the drill but looks a little concerned this may be for real! Those life boats aren't as nice and NO CHARACTERS...OH NO!

Kylie will brave the seas!

More photos

Reagan & Daddy finishing dinner after Mommy had to take sissy who was literally falling asleep at the table back to the room. I'll post those photos of exhausted Kylie later, they're hilarious! Princess Minnie and us.

Kylie in one of her favorite places onboard, the Mickey pool!

Reagan in the Mickey pool. This is actually on of his ears (the pool is actually 3 pools designed as Mickeys face with a slide that Kylie loved!).

Belle & the girls.

Cruise photos

Here are a few random pictures mostly from dinners.