November and December 2010

I am officially sick of posting pictures of our year -- I have procrastinated this post for quite some time, but now it's a matter of finishing what I started -- I can't do a year in pictures and leave out the last two months.  And there certainly were some fun memories to remember.

November

Carter turned 10.  We had a sleepover party planned complete with all the right snacks...CocaCola in little bottles, the barrel of cheese balls, Big Texas Cinamon rolls for breakfast, but then Cal and the girls got the stomach flu.  Carter was quite dissappointed we had to put the sleepover on hold, but we improvised and went to Pizza Ranch and County Fair instead.  The boys redeemed all their game tickets for these groovy glasses.  I bagged up the snacks and told the boys we were giving them a sleepover in a bag.  I brought a can opener and they drank their cokes in the car toasting "Carter and the boys".  It turned out O.K.

On to Thanksgiving:

After last Thanksgivings fiasco which you can read about here, I must say I appreciated the big table and letg room at the Fruited Plain Cafe!

Not the best picture of mom, but I had to include a picture of the men at work in their aprons.

Taryn shared parts of her 1st grade Thanksgiving book with us.

Not to be upstaged, Laremy shared a reading as well.

There's something I don't see everyday -- Carter doing dishes -- maybe I need an industrial sized dishwasher.

And to throw in one more sports photo...November also included school basketball for Paige.



December

December began with the annual Christmas Tree Hunt.

We always go to the same tree farm and every year I take pictures of the kids in the same three snowmen.  This year, I guess Paige was too old...I'm down to 2 snowmen.

Christmas Day provided sun and a fresh layer of snow.



 The entire DeJong clan gathered at our home for a Christmas Celebration.  It was a wonderful day.  Except crazy Aunt Jen (that would be me) made everyone take lots of pictures.  It has been a while since the entire group has been together and I wanted to capture it!

 Grandma and the Grandkids and 1 Great-grandchild.

 The whole gang!

 Mom and kids

And just a couple of photos from the Schelhaas Family Christmas...

I'm not even going to try to explain...

Let me explain...

I think I got a little carried away with my Happy New Year post.  I included sooo many pictures that I can no longer get a draft to load so that I can edit it.  So it only goes through October -- I'll be adding November and December in a separate post. 

And I really did start this post on New Years Day.  Now I remember why I don't scrap book or the like.  It takes A LOT of time to sort through a year of pictures, decide which ones to use and download them all.

But I'm glad a did it.  I now have actually put to use some of the thousands of pictures I took this past year.

2010 -- a good year!

Happy New Year

I had hoped to give our Christmas Greetings to all our friends and family via my blog, as I did last year, but well...that just didn't happen.  So let me take a moment to say, I hope you all had a wonderful season, celebrating our Savior's birth.

And now, on this, the first day of 2011, I have decided to take a look back at the past year with pictures from each month.  Since I don't scrap book and don't even print our digital pictures anymore, I figure this is the one place I can maybe successfully document a snapshot of our life.

2010 A Year In Pictures

January

January found us going to basketball tournaments almost every weekend for our 3rd grade son.  It also found Cal and I trying to figure out how to take an "action" photo with our new camera...a task we are yet to master.  Carter's team did really well. 

Carter especially likes trophies!

February

February found us sitting at volleyball tournaments almost every Saturday for our 6th grade daughter. Paige has proclaimed that she would just die if she couldn't play volleyball.  Certainly a love of hers.  Again -- we had so much fun watching her.  I must admit I have discovered my own inner crazy woman when I sit and watch my kids play sports -- I am not sure exactly what possesses me to yell so excitedly from the stands over an elementary school game.

March

Taryn turns 6 with a Barbie/Nail Party!

Goofy Girls!

Hey!  Look at that -- Hannah Montanna got an American Girl Doll for her birthday!



April

Paige turns 12 and we were actually still able to surprise her with a gift...

She got an I-pod Touch which I overheard her tell a friend the day before that her parents would never buy her that... ha!

A few good friends helped Paige celebrate with a sleepover and a picnic in the backyard on an unseasonably warm  April 1st. (Not sure it was warm enough for tank tops -- but whatever!)

May



Middle School Marching Band at the Tulip Fesitval in Orange City.

June

Summer brings more games to watch (and many other things worth photographing)

Softball for Paige...

Baseball for Carter...

What do you suppose they are planning?

Good old-fashioned summer fun for Taryn

Poor Taryn had to sit and watch a LOT of games -- but we allowed her to have some of her own fun with cousin Corrie!

A family shower at The Fruited Plain for Mia, my sister-in-law to be.

Canada Fishing trip.  After a day on the boat -- Carter kept right on fishing.

Not bad Cal.

The rest of the men.

Father's Day -- lucky man, lucky kids!

Nothing says summer like the neighborhood Lemonade stand!

They were ambitious kids...grossing over $20.00 for 4 hours work.  Their angle was to charge .$50 a cup and then when the customer handed them a dollar, they would look at them with all their kid cuteness and ask if they wanted their change.  Those poor customers -- what could they say?

July

Celebrating the 4th at Okoboji!

Uncle Brent giving Paige a taste of her own medicine.

Later in July we had a college friend reunion of sorts -- meeting up with 8 families in the Twin Cities.

They ate only half of the $8 bag of cotton candy!  I think we spent more on food than tickets.

It wasn't a homerun that got her so excited...it was the fact that a boy in our group got on the jumbo screen playing his air guitar ...too cute!

We then headed to a lake cabin for the remainder of the weekend. 

Paige -- the scream heard around the lake!

July also included a week with Grandpa & Grandma in Sioux Center where all three also attended theatre camp.

Paige - Playing the part of Rose in Sleeping Beauty

Carter -- a henchman (rather fitting)

Taryn -- a sweet sheep.



August

A trip to the zoo with G'pa and G'ma and Corrie.

The baby camel got the sippy cup!

Carter takes such good care of his cousin.

This bear just makes me laugh -- so I thought I'd include it.

A camping trip to Lewis & Clark State Park in Yankton, SD

Fishing again.

The good old Palamino!

September

School Starts!

Starting First Grade.

(I make my kids hold up the number of fingers of the grade they are in -- or I will never keep it all straight.)

Starting 4th Grade.

Starting 7th Grade.

A trip to the Apple Orchard with friends.

I'm not sure they are supposed to climb the trees.

Or eat the apples in the field -- but I like to live dangerously.

The kitty was the highlight for Taryn.

Fall also brought football games.

Soaked but happy after winning the championship in a downpour.

And 7th Grade School Volleyball...



October

The highlight of this month was my brother's wedding -- I have so many pictures of this special event (200 to be exact), but I narrowed it down to 18 that I wanted to include here, but I fear I am running out of space.  So I am putting out 5 here and to see more click here.

And I would be remiss if I didn't include a picture of the highlight of Carter's year...

That would be a 15 pound Salmon that Carter caught by himself in the Missouri River. 

It was such a big fish in it's species that he was awarded the Trophy Fish Award from the State.  (Dad's a little jealous!)