Pine Wood Derby

Brody started boy scouts this year and he got to participate in his first pine wood derby tonight... He was super excited about the whole event and making his car. Josh let him draw on the wood block the design for his car and then he got to paint it whatever color he wanted after Josh had cut it out and sanded it down... Josh tried to get a little crazy with melting weights and lifting tires - whose pine wood derby car was this? :) They both had a great time making the car and Brody ended up with a 2nd place finish for the night. He started out undefeated but then lost twice to the boy that he had beat at the beginning of the bracket... There's always next year!

Brody and his car...


First race (he won this 2 out of 3 but eventually ended up losing to this car in the championship round...)


Second race (he won, but check out the cute iguana car he was racing against...)


Third Race (he won 2 out of 3)


Racing Brody's car against cousin Kolby's car (Reg had to call and taunt Josh immediately after this race when Kolby's car was the winner - nothing like some friendly competition... :)


2nd place medal...

1st Wrestling tourney of the year!

In addition to Homecoming this weekend, we took off for Brody's first wrestling tournament of the season on Saturday morning... Thank God for Cindy being able to be around - I didn't have to haul all the kids with me when we went and could just enjoy watching Brody! Josh had to fly back to AZ for his grandma's funeral so I was on my own to coach him (scary thought!)... He did great!! 3 pins and an 11-5 win later he had gotten 1st place... He was pretty excited to get his "plank" as he called it - they handed out plaques with their pictures on them for the 1st place winner!






waiting for his plaque..

Arizona Vacation!

Last week we got to head out to Arizona for a visit with Josh's family and a lot of our old friends... It was a fun filled whirl of a few days spending time with everyone! Here are a few of the pictures of our adventures!

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Homecoming...

This past weekend was our Homecoming in Sebeka and the kids had a blast at the dance on Friday night... The program and coronation were first - Beau thought that the girls "shirts" were so beautiful, Bella was enamored with the "princesses" and Brody told me "mommy, Paul has been chosen" after he was crowned king (Paul is his helper in his classroom, so he was very excited that he knew him...) Then it was off to a lot of dancing... They were pretty sweaty and way tired by the time that we got home but had a great time!

Bella dancing with the "princesses"...


Bella and Jasmine


Beau, Aubrey, Kylah

New Ride On Toy...

Seriously - I can't believe how true it is that kids could care less about their own toys and love the boxes, wrapping paper and anything else that they can get into... Our vacuum cleaner was out the other day and since I discovered it had broken down I wasn't super worried about them playing with it... It was an all day toy for all of them - the older ones drug it around and Braxton had fun climbing all over it!

Snow!

We finally got a little snow at the tail end of break and we took advantage of it! Brody had bought a little snowboard with his Christmas money while we were out and about and we hit "poop" hill as soon as we could with a few of the cousins. They had a good time and Brody actually shared his snowboard with everyone! :)

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New Year's Eve

Josh and I decided that we were going to be pretty low key this year for New Year's and we took the family to St. Cloud for the day and night. We got our family pictures done that afternoon, went bowling, caught an early supper and spent some time at the pool before we were in our hotel room with kids sleeping by 9:30... Not too shabby! The kids had a blast and we brought the New Year in with a snore! :)

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Bed hopping!

Bella has been having some issues with bedtime lately and seems to come up 8 million times before she actually goes to sleep... Seriously - I'm not even exaggerating! :) We are past the point of putting her back to bed each time and usually just send her down there on her own. Well, obviously she decided that she needed to cuddle in with her brother instead of plopping back into her own bed...

Paintball wars!

It was a little too chilly for mommy this day, so not a lot of pictures, but all of the kids (including cousins) got paintball guns for Christmas... They were super excited and had to play them! It was so chilly that the paintballs didn't really explode when they hit the kids, they just fell to the ground, which made them reusable! BONUS!!

Braxton and Emma


Daddy helping Brody and Beau with their guns...


Beau

Santa time!

The kids were super excited for Santa this year and really got into getting ready for him to come... They were outside throwing out the oatmeal and glitter combo that Beau brought home from preschool (that guided in the reindeer), strategically placing carrots for the reindeer to eat and getting a plate of cookies ready for Santa. They even went to bed pretty well, shocking for our kids! :) They had a great time opening their presents and when Braxton finally woke up he had a ton of wrapping paper to play with and eat! :)

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Mom's Christmas Card...

This year my mom decided that she wanted a Christmas card with all of her kids and their spouses... Needless to say with the 10 of us, it gets a little crazy! :)

Christmas 2012

We had a wild weekend of Christmasing - boy were we all worn out by the time Monday came along! :) We started Friday night at my mom's house with the Kiser crew, Saturday was for our family and Cindy, Saturday night was supper with my dad, brothers and their families and then Sunday was back to my mom's for the Polman Christmas... With little napping, late nights and lots of excitement I was really impressed with how well the kids did! :)

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Bella's new present!

Bella got a new four wheeler helmet from Grandpa Jerry this year. The boys both have theirs and we decided that we needed one for Bella this year and Josh wanted it to be pink! :) She loves it!! Thanks Grandpa Jerry!

Big Brother...

Brody has turned into such an awesome helper with Braxton - it is adorable to watch! The other night while we were eating, Josh was feeding Braxton and Brody decided that he wanted to do it. He doesn't quite have the clean up swipe that comes at the end of sticking the spoon in the mouth, but he did a pretty good job! :)