Wonderful Holiday!

Wayne skyping with Kirstin and Pete putting antlers on him

Randy and his White Elephant gift..wears it well!

Wayne opening gifts at home

Kids opening gifts...dogs playing with theirs

Alex, Graham and Connor flying kites at Gma's.

Alex and his twin, Connor, watching basketball

Connor, "Let me help you Graham." 

Playing cards with Great Gma Rita

"Alright!! Jump in the paper!!!"

We will help you Elyse

Elyse, Graham, Alex, Connor

With my holiday break soon over (yes, we return January 2nd...too soon!), I thought I would quickly send out a post sharing some pictures of our Christmas gatherings.  We had a wonderful time at all of the gatherings that we had with family and friends!  Thank you to Randy and Lori for hosting the Kerian Christmas gathering, my mom and dad for hosting the Nadermann Christmas, and Wayne for cooking for our family Christmas as I was not feeling well Christmas eve day.  Everything was perfect, it couldn't have been better, and it was so nice to have Kirstin home!

With the weather being in the 30s and 40s Christmas day, Wayne brought his kites to my parents and the little boys enjoyed flying Wayne's kites, as did Wayne, except there were a lot of power lines around that we had to be careful of.  Connor can now say "Kite" and it is so cute.  He can also say "Lyse" and "Aex" but not "Kim"....come on Sara.....get working on that! 

It was also nice that on Christmas day we got to spend some time with my grandma, the kids' great grandma.  She is a major card player, so she played cards with the kids, chuckling at "What kind of game do you play...this is crazy!"....as Elyse immitates Gma Rita in her older lady voice.  I was very glad to get to chat with her and see her!

Kirstin was not able to be home in time for the Kerian Christmas, but we did skype her in to watch and be there as much as she could.  She, sadly, left to fly back to NC this morning.  It was a very emotional morning for her, as I think she realized how much she misses Iowa (or maybe just sleeping in and never having to cook...yeah...that might be it! :)  Just kidding Kirstin!  We were so glad to have you home!  Your dad is still pretty shook up about you leaving....

I came across some old pictures of Ken that some of his friends had on Facebook while he was at West Point.  It was fun and bittersweet to look at those pictures and show the kids how Ken "really looked".  Kind of warmed my heart for the holiday break, but still miss him endlessly.

We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends over the holidays!  Thanks to our families for a wonderful holiday!

Seeing "Enemy" Once Again...

Elyse shoots....she scores

Boxing out Nikki

team time out....Elyse is "35"

Elyse turn around shot...did make it..

Won't say much about Elyse's basketball game last night against Oelwein except that the officiating DOES make a huge difference!  Wow!  Crestwood never got a break the whole night. 

Elyse did get a little action on the JV, not much as she has to save her quarters, but she did get in and scored a few.  The JV dominated over Oelwein and pulled off a huge victory so that was fun to watch.  Long though as the officials called everything and Oelwein's JV had a few freshman on the team that struggled.  Lots of whistles blowing throughout the game, but super job to the JV. They are still undefeated!

Varsity has gone to 4 and 3 overall, 1 and 2 in conference.  Last night was a rough night as the girls ended up getting called for everything.  I had to turn to my dad and tell him to calm down many times, even though we were all yelling at the officials.  But Elyse was pumped because she knew she would face "Enemy - Nicole".  Those of you who follow this blog know who she is.  Elyse went in the middle of first quarter, all of 2nd quarter, and most of 3rd quarter playing awesome ball, great defense, and shut Nikki down!  I feel comfort saying she had one of her best games defensively thus far.  She ended up having 4 fouls half way through the 3rd quarter, some legit calls, some not.

So although we were winning at half and tied or close at end of 3rd, the varsity team ended up losing.  Can't win them all....but Elyse wanted this one desperately!  Next time...

A Beautiful - Fun - Night at Madrigal



Elyse racing Tiffany on "stick horses" in front of everyone

Elyse middle jester

Elyse, front middle, bidding audience fare well

Molly, Elyse, Alexis

I will admit, I wasn't that excited to go to Madgrical at first.  Wayne and I had been to it a few years ago and it was nice, but let's admit it, also long.  It was in the high school, and they did a super job trying to change it into the time period and Christmasy, but still the high school.  Well, that changed this year as Madrigal was wonderful!  I will admit, I even had a few tears at the end watching Elyse singing up and having fun!  I looked over at Wayne many times, and he was just staring at his "little girl" with a grin on his face.  I wish I could have captured that moment.

This year's performance was held in a building that used to be a catholic church and is now called the Heritage Center.  It was decorated with so many Christmas trees and Christmas lights while all other lights were dimmed.  The atmosphere alone was just nice to relax and be a part of.

Elyse was a jester for the two performances of Madgrical. Wayne and I knew not to make eye contact with her throughout the performance or she would come over with her group of jesters and pick on us.  Needless to say, there were only a few comments directed at us so we were pretty safe the whole night! Wayne tried to pay her off before the night so that he wouldn't have to do anything.  The one time we did go years ago, Wayne had to get up in front of everyone and spell words with his butt.  Tramatized for life!!! :)  She did a wonderful job performancing as the jester, even picking on her cousin Tiffany who happened to be in the audience Sunday evening.  Tiffany had to have a "horse race" like midieval times against Elyse.  It was cute because they used the horses with the heads on a stick.  Elyse's horse ended up going out of control and Tiffany won...very cute! 

The evening ended with Christmas songs that all the audience joined in.  This was exactly what I needed to get me more in the Christmas mood!  And I will say....not sure where she gets it...but Elyse has a beautiful voice.....

Another proud moment to share.  All are invited to next year's Madgrical....

Where do we go tonight??? The "Open Door"....

Playing defense on inbounds

Elyse is guarding this Mammoth!

posting up against "Mammoth"

another big girl from Charles City

Nice Elyse!

Going for 2 in blue

nice elyse!

As everyone else, life is spent building that tolerance back up for the bleacher butt watching basketball games.  Alex has had a little time off and gearing up for his next tournament the 17th.  It will be the team's last one and then they start 7th grade boys basketball at school.  He is so, so, so, so, excited for that!  Last night during half time of the varsity girls game, he was out doing the "dollar a shot"- you pay a dollar, shot a 3 pointer, and get 2 back if you make it.  He made 6 so he was pumped!  Funny how we gave him the dollars to play but we did not reap any of the benefits.  :)  We are anxious for him to start as he is spending lots of time in the gym, practicing with Kyle, and lifting/footwork every day after school at the high school.  He is a trooper!

Elyse's team, varsity, is now 3 and 2 overall.  As mentioned before, they started out strong and then went into a rutt losing to Waverly and then to South Winn.  We won't even comment about the South Winn game except for the fact that Elyse found out how much her coach can yell...and she better have a tough skin....:)  But she continues to do well, as others,  but loving the challenges and the pushes she has been getting. Defense continues to be her favorite.   I don't know where they all came from, but there are some BIG girls in our conference.  Wow!  Two games have been against 6'2" girls - only an inch taller than Elyse but probably 25 pounds more. Hesitate to take it up against them??? Yes, she is! :)

A funny thing did happen last week against the big girl from Waverly.  6'2" big girl and strong!  Elyse went in and was playing hard defense, wasn't even in 30 seconds, and got called for intention foul for pushing too much and "grabbing the girls' jersey".  Her coach was furious as the officials and told her to keep doing it!  She had a look on her face like "What the heck just happened?".  Luckily the girl missed her two free throws, but they did get the ball back.  Elyse walked in the door and we all started laughing.  She quickly ran down to email her Lightning coach to tell him what happened.  He responding with some funny comments and then told her to remember she isn't "down south" playing any more!  :)  Too funny!

She did get to play a few minutes of JV last night for the first time  (just part of 2 quarters) to get as much play time as she can (they can play 6 quarters a night), which she enjoyed because she was back playing with her "original team" and "besties"  of sophomores!  She's still not sure where she fits in exactly, but she's staying positive....and "enjoying the journey", as her Lightning coach would say!  :)