Halloween 2018

Abby and Addison decided that they wanted to dress as 50's girls for Halloween this year. Abby and Emmy had poodle skirts that Grandma Susie made for them. Addison was a Pink Lady and Alexa was Minnie Mouse. We always go into their neighborhood in Hickman. There are lots of houses with their lights on and a lot of people go overboard with decorating and making it fun.

Poodle skirt girls

Emmy could keep up with the big girls this year.

Emmy even met one of her dance friends while trick or treating.

Bryce's Allergy Testing

Bryce struggled with his reactive airway issues more than ever this year! During the first part of football season he had such a hard time breathing that he was using his inhaler the max amount of times he could during the day and still having trouble. Dr. David had recommended that we see a pulmonologist from Omaha. He didn't have too many suggestions except that we needed to do allergy testing to find out what his triggers were and he changed his meds some. We decided to wait until after the worst of his allergies in the fall before we took him off of his allergy meds for 2 weeks, which is required to do the testing. He wasn't excited about it at all! He did great and he didn't have any huge reactions to any one thing in particular. Corn dust seems to be a big problem since when they start picking corn is when he really struggles. It was nice to find out results but it didn't really help us solve any problems. He is now going to take a year around allergy/asthma pill and Spiriva which will help with his chronic coughing and shortness of breath.

Building our Forrest

We bought 2 Sugar Maple trees from a friend that had them on his acreage and needed to move them. He has a tree spade so we just paid for him to move them. They are beautiful trees and with them being put in by the tree spade it looks like they have always been there. It is fun to have big trees out the living room window! 

Championship Game

The Jr Titan made it to the championship game again this year. This year they played against Aurora. This team was the first team of the season that they played and that is always a rough game. The first game a lot of people had gotten hurt because you don't hit your teammates as hard as opponents and there was one kid that was huge. All of our guys were nervous to tackle him. The team had worked hard and were ready to take on this team in the championship game. They were more confident, conditioned and wanted this win. 

They played really hard, tackled the man child that had scored on them so many times and came together as a team but at the end they weren't able to pull out a win. It was a hard fought game down to the last seconds. We may not have won but everyone was proud of our team. 

Way to go boys!

Bryce and Caleb with all their amazing coaches.

Caleb wasn't happy about having to take a picture after a lose. He had worked hard on the line and was disappointed. 

Visiting Grammy's Pumpkin Patch

We always love visiting Grammy Hansen's house. This year we cut it a little close to Halloween so the pumpkins were picked but that didn't stop the kids from searching for gourds that may have been missed, climbing in the trees and getting muddy. 

Emmy was a fan of all the dogs!

Abby had fun climbing fences and playing with dogs too!

All the kids had a great time picking out their pumpkins! 

The kids had a great time! Thanks for letting us use your pumpkin patch Grammy!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

It's not very often that Tasha and I get to hangout anymore. So when she asked Emmy and I to go to Vala's with her and Abel, we jumped at the chance! I have only been to Vala's one other time and I don't think Emmy has ever been there or if she did go she was a baby. 

The kids had a great time! It was beautiful weather and we just had the 2 little ones to focus on for the day. They did the trampoline pillows, corn sandbox, the hen house ball toss, trike races etc.

One of their favorite things was the hen house barn that was ball flying chaos! You gather all these ball and can shoot them our of various guns all over this 3 story barn. The sheer craziness of it all made Tasha and I want to drink. Oh course it was these 2 crazy kids favorite place of all.

They are so cute together! Are arranged marriages still a thing???

We had a blast!

Tasha and I have been through a lot together and I love that we can share the good and bad of our lives and be brutally honest about things with each other. Every woman needs a friend like this in their life! Thank goodness Tasha is this person for me! 

The Adventure of Chief

Chief is Caleb's hamster. He is not just any hamster though, he is HUGE! It looks like a cross between a rat and a mouse. Caleb takes great care of him and usually plays with him in his bedroom. This night he decided to play with him on the couch. The hamster was running around on Caleb's lap and then he disappeared into the cushion of the couch. After Caleb frantically searched for a couple minutes he came upstairs yelling for help. This was an all hands on deck type of situation. Bryce put Lucy outside, since she would have loved to help us find him, and eat him! I looked everywhere that I could get my hand into in the couch but didn't have any luck. We could hear him so we tipped the couch hoping he would come out. I put Robb's headlamp on and cut a slit in the bottom of the couch and stuck my head in there. I was really hoping a rodent wouldn't land on my face as I did this. This didn't work. We decided that we needed to cut all the fabric off the bottom of the couch. Still no hamster. At this point I am trying to figure out what we will do. 1.If the hamster dies in the couch we will have to throw it away. 2.Lucy is going to find him and eat him. Both of those options sound terrible. Robb puts the couch down and shakes it around more and picks it up and there is Chief in all his fatness and glory sitting on the carpet like nothing had happened. Well we saved a life that night I guess. Glad he is ok, he faired better than the couch!

Volleyball

Abby played volleyball last year and her same team wanted to stay together and play this year. The coach wanted to bump up to the spirit league though which would mean that they would have practice 2 nights a week and a lot more games. Abby wasn't convinced that she wanted to do that but she really wanted to stay with her same team so she signed up. 

They had practice for 2-3 hours on Wednesday nights. Abby started to really enjoy it and started to practice a lot at home. She really wanted to master her overhand serving. 

In the games it was evident that she was really liking volleyball and was great at moving towards the ball. She still didn't quite master the overhand serving but she worked really hard on it. 

She had a fun team but there really was just too many players! They had almost enough for 2 teams so no one person got very much play time. Her coach was super nice but it was a lot of girls to coach and just because you can play doesn't mean you are great at teaching girls how to do the skills. About half way through the season we got a little frustrated with how much playing time the girls were getting with such a big team. 

We started to look at other options for Abby to play volleyball next year. We talked to her about it and she just wanted to play on a team with her friends. We talked to the other parents and we all decided to let the girls tryout for the NE ONE team for the winter/spring team. 

Abby went to one of those clinics and learned more in those 2 hours than she had learned all year. She had a great time and was excited to tryout and play on a team. Her and the other Norris girls made a team and will start in February.

She finished out the season strong and although they had a rocky start they ended up getting 3rd place overall.

Roca Scary Farms

 This October has been cold and rainy so it has been hard to find a nice day to go to the pumpkin patch. Bryce and Caleb went to a Husker football game on one of the Saturdays so we headed to Roca Scary Farms. We even convinced Robb to come with us this year.

It was still pretty chilly when we got out in the open but it was a fun afternoon. The jumping pillows were one of the girls favorites. 

We had to get some kettle corn and a funnel cake. Yummy!

We had a great time. Roca Scary farms is a fun little gem that is just down the road from us.

October Snowstorm

We had a crazy freak snowstorm in October! We knew we were suppose to get snow flurries but we woke up to a white out! The boys were suppose to be playing their championship football game today but that was cancelled. So we stayed home and watched it snow. The kids and the dog had to play in the snow. Robb pulled Caleb around on the sled behind the 4-wheeler. Bryce and Lucy fought in the snow and Abby and Emmy built a snowman with a little help.

Weekend with Weston

 Mitch and Courtney wanted to have an anniversary date weekend so we got to have Weston stay with us. We dressed up and went to the Stillwater's Ranch trick or treat night. It was the cutest thing ever! They dressed a bunch of the horses up and you got to vote for their favorite horse by putting carrots in the horses trick or treat bags. Weston chose the Harry Potter horse and that was the winner. 

This little pony with a tutu was my personal favorite.

Emmy and Weston had a blast!

This was the horse that won it all. Weston's favorite.

That night we went to a chili feed at the community center. They were having a benefit for a family that lost their dad a couple of months ago from cancer. 

Weston is always good about staying with us. His question this weekend was: Where was he going to sleep? Just like Emmy he likes to sleep with his parents so he was a little nervous about the sleeping arrangements. No worries Weston! I would love to have a sleepover with you and Emmy! These 2 play so well together and have so much fun together. Glad that we live close enough to get them together.