If you build it..........

THEY WILL COME.......

Well maybe they will come......if it would get cold......so the one year we are on the ball and Chris got the boards up, the tarp ordered and laid out, the goals built, and the skates sharpened we spent the better half of December and January waiting.........it has been one of the warmest winters that I can remember and the first that we have been praying for freezing temps.

We thought about an outdoor hot tub if we could install a heating tank.....

But then finally it came! The below freezing temperatures came, and left, and came and left....and came and left.....So we have been skating and waiting and spraying down, and then skating and waiting and spraying down. Mother Nature is making Chris work for it this year.

But they definitely come in loads when the ice is out there. The kids have had a ball and their skills are improving!

Poppa taking a whirl at Goalie....

Brooke going for a spin.....she likes to give chair rides to the little ones.

She loves to be out there skating, hockey or just sliding.......it is the perfect winter playground.

Brady and Dad facing off....

Dad living the dream.....

The girls snuggling on the ice.

They love night skating under the lights........

school night - what's that? "can we go out and skate" & "10 more minutes"

We recruit any help we can get -funny enough this gets shoveled before our driveway at this point.....

apologies to all their teachers homework time has been officially replaced.

Here is Brooke making up a new sport blade ball........

So cross your fingers for a cold finish to the winter......we need the prayers......forecast for tomorrow almost 50 degrees......boo hoo........

KIAI..........

Our Ninja warrior had one request this winter. Karate. Brady is constantly pretending to be a ninja, more along the lines of the mutant turtle or the Lego ninjago, than the disciplined concentrated type. So we went off searching for Karate classes for five year olds. We spent one morning "viewing" a class at a Karate "Academy", and thank goodness we did. The class had 9 year olds, 40 year olds, 6 year olds, 30 year olds, and they stretched and did slow mental poses for a good 45 minutes straight and as Chris and I caught wind of the quiet concentrated class doing their business and the five year old in the toy corner doing side kicks and yelling He-yah at the top of his lungs while doing a dive roll back to the viewing section, we gave the head nod to each other that we are all set here, this is not for one Brady Munson. We thought perhaps Karate isn't for five year olds we should wait, these "academies" are monthly membership types and not what we were looking for. Luckily a flyer came home in his backpack one day and what do you know a Karate class sign up for 5-7 year olds and its for eight weeks.

JACKPOT!!

And Boy was it ever........."Kiai", I quickly was corrected is the official "grunt" for Karate not the aforementioned "he-yah". And we heard it loud and proud the first night!

KIAI!

This one hour class was the single most amusing thing I have watched in a long time. Brady was in his element he couldn't have been more excited and thrilled to "be told" to act out these moves and yell like he has done a million times at home.

The get up kills me.......

The cherry on top..... his good buddy from young fives was surprisingly also registered for this class......so the sparring begun.

I will make sure I put my camera in action mode next time!

The class has approx 30 kids.....yep....30 I and yes I thought the same thing .....utter Chaos. But kudos to this woman who runs the program she had all 30 kids sitting fully concentrated for an hour straight and yelling Kiai on cue. Shes loud, she yells a lot and they were in utter compliance to her every word.....hmmmmm.......I yell .....I am loud......and in control ......I am not ......must remind this lady to put on a seminar for the parents!

Brady and a few buds from his class!

Here are a few videos of him in action......I tell you what I don't know who is more excited to go next week him or Chris and I. We had so much fun watching him and laughed for an hour straight.

These were a few memorable quotes from the Ninja himself after class on the way out to dinner.

1. That was really the beeeeessssst night of my lllllliiiiiife...... said very dramatically.

2. I am going to sleep in my costume tonight.

3. Do we go to Karate tomorrow

4. While in chipoltle......KIAI..........KIAI........KIAI........KIAI.......

So Jackpot indeed!

Sweetheart Swirl - 2012

Brooke and Dad attended another daddy/daughter dance a few weeks ago, and my most proud moment wasn't when she walked out the door with her dad to dance the night away but rather on our shopping excursion to find "the dress" She of course twisted my arm and requested that we go see what kind of dresses were out there, I complied, shopping for dresses.....I am in. We headed to the mall found some awesome dresses, I told her they had to be age appropriate. She understood. Some she would try on and she would say this is too Nicole and inappropriate (meaning Nicole Scherzinger from X-factor not you coco.) she was making good choices and then she finally found one and fell in love with it. I did as well since it was on the 75% off rack. We took it to the counter and the lady said that will be $45. I looked at the lady and said isn't it 75% off she told me it must have been misplaced on the wrong rack. I saw Brooke's eyes go sad but she just looked at me and said "Mom, that is too much money to spend for one night, even if I used it for dress up" I replied "Yeah I think your right, hon." (insert proud money management mom moment) She was bummed but she agreed it was the right thing to do. The next week she came home with a bag after playing at our next door neighbors house and said "Mom you'll never believe the bargain I found" "Bargain...okay I am all ears" "Ms. Nikki said she had some extra dresses that I could look through to borrow for the dance and one of them looks kinda like the one I wanted to get." "Wow Brooke that was really nice of her, so do you like it" "Yes I love it, and the best part Mom, is it is FREE" (insert second proud accountant mom moment.) So off she went to the dance with her Free borrowed dress from Luci to dance the night away with her dad.

Beautiful and economical.

Brooke and her Date.

Group picture with Luci and Hannah.

This year the dance gave the girls a pearl bracelet.

Welcoming 2012!

Another year is behind us. And I would have to say it was a good year! Kids continually make us proud and can't wait to see what another year brings......We laid low again this year and it seems to work out just great......Chris and I figure we only have about 5-7 more of these where they won't be begging us to be somewhere else with other people so we are taking advantage of it while we can. We had a neighbor family over for a low key night of crab legs and games.....

Brady seemed to understand what the holiday was for this year instead of just another gathering.....he was listening intently all day to his sister bragging that they could stay up until Midnight if they wanted tonight and even watching his 8 year old sister lay down for a nap in preparation for the event......I am sure he was confused as I didn't require him to rest since I didn't even consider him staying up as he is always my early bed time man.....but low and behold we were at some neighbors and noticed it was 10:30 and he was still going BANANAS and we thought - wow he just might make it.....and I could see he wanted to keep up with the older kids as well as his big sister.....

Crab legs for some......Pizza for others.....Tomato....TOEmato......

Okay the kid bubbly was out of hand it was as if these kids would not go on breathing without another cup of the sparkling grape wonder - so between four kids they downed I think 5 bottles.....

So here is my bugs at 11:30 and finally realizing he was going to make it......So as we turned on the orange figure that resembled Dick Clark for the final countdown I had to look away, not because of the extreme orange-nish but to watch my boys face sitting on his dad's lap seriously grinning from ear to ear as he shouted 10....9....8...7...6....5.....4....3....2......1 I MADE IT! It was a sight I will remember!

Earlier in the night there was lots of dancing and gaming happening!

Next year I will just hook up an IV drip for them.....

Getting ready for the countdown!

So happy he was a part of it.....but also so happy he was done with it.....He stayed like this until 10 a.m. the whole Munson household SLEPT until 10 am......A FIRST!!!!