More skating

Yeah, another skating post. The kids skated for 5 hours this weekend. We went to 2 sessions on Saturday and they went to lessons on Sunday night. These photos are all from Saturday. Lexy spent most of her time dancing in the center of the ice, while Isaac was working on skating laps and laps backwards.

Here is Lexy practicing her spirals.

She loves to grab her skate and hold it up while she glides across the ice.

Both of them are certain that they are faster that the other. It seems like every time we go for open skating they have to race. It usual ends up with one of them quitting because the other one cheated. Here they are lined up and ready to go.

Isaac is always zipping around so fast that it is hard to get a good picture of him. I finally caught him standing still.
Not that I could show you on this blog but we were able on Saturday to video chat with all of the kids grandparents to show them the kids skating. The ice arena has fee WiFi. If you are interested, let me know and load up the latest Yahoo! Messenger.

A nice little snow fall

We woke up this morning to some fresh new snow. About a foot. Isaac got out the snow shovel to clean off the driveway (on his own), a few minutes later he came back in. The subdivision caretakers had sent him in and told him that they would finish it for him. He then hooked up with David for some sledding on Dr. Aaron's hill.

Here are some pictures from the doors. I didn't have my snow boots on yet.

This is out the front door, looking at Jamie and Stacy's house.

On the deck in the back, the grills look pretty sad with that much snow on them.

Lot's of folks here crying for some spring. This winter has been pretty brutal for them. Not much compared to a Logan, Ut winter. We are doing just fine ourselves. Isaac could us some more snow if you were to ask him.

Skating Dress

Lexy got a new skating dress...!!!

She loves it. We are super excited for her to skate in Louisville next month. She will be doing an individual competition. She will be skating in the Basic 3 class. They all skate to the same music for each class. Her class is skating to "The Adams Family" theme song. She knows it as the "Days of the Week" song. We'll keep you posted on the progress of the practice and competition.

Thanks Grandma for buying the dress...!!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Brad

Today is my baby brothers birthday... He's twenty something. Yeah, I am way older. Anyway, we wanted to make him a video birthday card for is birthday. By the time we got home after Cub Scouts (which was after skating), and grabbed something for dinner (and some milk), Lexy was asleep. She is in the video, very dark, very softly spoken in the end. Isaac has the giggles, it took like 37 takes to get a good one out of him, so it runs like a bloopers reel. I hope he likes it.

Here is the video link.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE BRAD...!!!

Disney On Ice

We took the kids to Disney On Ice - 100 Years of Magic this weekend. They loved it..!! Who would have thought, mixing Disney and ice skating, two of the things that Isaac and Lexy do the most.

They had a bunch of good stories in the show. Lexy was starry eyed over all the Princesses. Isaac was really in to the Pinocchio routine. They had Nemo, Mulan, Lion King, Aladdin, and It's a Small World. Stitch kept showing up and trying to get into the show as well. The skaters were better that I thought that they would be. There where plenty of double axle jumps, great lifts, spins, and even some back flips (that is what Isaac like the most.)

It was hard to get pictures where we were sitting. The spotlights off of the ice made such a glow that you can't see who in on the ice.

They had some good pyrotechnics.

Monstro the whale ate Pinocchio and Geppetto.Lots of characters on the ice.

In the end most of the characters came out to say goodbye.

It was fun to watch how much the kids enjoyed the show. Amy and I were reminded that our little man is still a kid and loves the Disney stories.

Our Kids - Skate Feb 2010

The kids are getting quite good at skating... I know that we have had a lot of skating related posts lately, but that is what we have been doing. In the last 2 weeks Lexy has skated 10 days. She LOVES it. Isaac really seemed to turn a corner with the hockey stuff on Sunday during his lesson. He borrowed some red hockey gloves.1 And got a new (used) stick that is big enough for him. It's a little too long, nothing my saw and some tape can't fix.

I put together this video to showcase how they did on the last session of lesson this round. I was test day.


I had a little trouble with this video, it wouldn't load up for me. I lost a bunch of Lexy video. I still have the raw video, it just didn't end up on this video.

1 - We have ordered hockey gloves off of eBay twice in the last month. Neither set came. "Oh we sold those". Since when did eBay become and crap hole. I thought that it was "I have something and want to sell it." The key being " I HAVE SOMETHING!!!"

That is Lexy's Bag

We have started embroidering the kids names on stuff. It doesn't really cost that much. (<$10) We started with their backpacks. We had them done in St. George in August. Then when Isaac's back pack was stolen at the Washington Redskins game, we bought him a new one and found out that the owners of Tyler Mountain Raceway opened a shop in Poca, WV called Monogram Plus. Worked out pretty good.

So we got Lexy's name put on her Zuca bag... She is doing soooo well with her skating. She has improved so much over the last 6 weeks worth of lessons. She is up to three days a week now. She has regular Basic 5 lessons on Sunday evenings, Syncro on Monday evenings, and one on one lessons on Wednesdays. She is working on a program to compete in Louisville, Ky in March. She loves it. I just about have a video ready to post of her and Isaac showing off their skating skills.

Aunt Lynnie

Amy's sister Lyn came to visit. She is on her way to a conference in Baltimore, MD. She got in on Saturday night and we have made her conform to our life. We haven't really done anything different. We slept in, we made breakfast, we when shopping (at WalMart too), had some craft time, and went to skating lessons. She did enjoy watching the kids skate.

Here they are on Saturday night, Amy wouldn't even get off the phone with her classmate for the picture. She has been studying the whole time too...

This is the girls watching the kids skate. Lyn decided to be goofy, I told her, "That is how you will be remembered." So, here ya go...

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Aunt Lyn is the one that makes all the bows that Lexy wears and we share with the other little girls. She and her friend have a website where they sell the bows.

It must be a best friend thing...

Emma came over to the house on Saturday morning so excited to show Lexy that she had lost a tooth. When she told Lexy, Lexy said, "So did I..."

They both smiled to show each other... And the screaming a jumping began...What a fun thing for these best friends to share.

Smiles are changing

What a cute picture of Lexy...
Except that she has a fat lip. The poor girl had a sore tooth yesterday and this morning her whole lip was swollen. And, the tooth still hurt. She went to school anyway (late 'cause there was a two hour delay). The tooth that was hurting is the one that was discolored from when she bumped it 3 years ago.

Yeah, that one...

Amy called and got her an appointment with our WONDERFUL dentist. He is soooo cool. The nicest guy, explains things very well, not too busy to listen to what your questions or concerns are, the kind of guy that would be fun to hang out with after work.

He took one peak and said, "Yep, that tooth is abscessed and needs to come out." He took an X-ray to make sure (Oh yeah, their X-rays are soooo cool too, they have a wireless digital X-ray setup. The X-ray shows up on the screen in like 3 seconds.) He showed both of us and explained what was going on. He showed us the permanent teeth that were pushing down and the dark spot where the "little bugs" were that made the tooth hurt. He got her fit in a little pink mask and sunglasses and he when to work.

Here she is ready to go...

A few minutes later... ...two thumbs up and the tooth was gone.

She doesn't remember the shots, the pliers or the pulling. She just remembers feeling "noodley". The gas did its job.

And the tooth is gone.

Here is Lexy's new smile.
She still has the swollen lip for now, but the tooth is gone.

The dentist told us that the permanent tooth will be in around the end of summer. We'll post a picture of her new smile again when the swelling is down.

Some Winter Pictures

I went up to Cumberland, Ohio yesterday for a Village Council meeting. They have a little more snow than Charleston, WV. I wish I would have had more time and a better camera, but these pictures aren't too bad for a camera-phone while driving 65 MPH.Kinda pretty...

When we had the first snow here before Christmas that was 10" or a foot, there must have been 10 snowmen in our neighborhood. I wanted to take pictures of them, but with the power out I didn't get around to it. The snow this weekend was enough that our neighbors The Haden's made another great snowman. Here is a quick pic of it.

Birthday Parties

The kids both got invited to birthday parties on Saturday. Isaac went to Paul Frampton III's at Grand Prix. And, Lexy went to Emma's party at The Ridges clubhouse.

Emma's party was a Fancy Nancy party. There were a bunch of little girls in fancy dresses, with their hair done up, and little clicky dress shoes. Balloons, healthy birthday treats, nails painted and stories read. She had a wonderful time.

Here is a quick shot of Lexy and Emma. Happy 6th Birthday Emma.

Isaac went to Paul's birthday party at Grand Prix. Paul and his parents were sure glad that Isaac came to the party. With the 3" of snow on the ground there weren't many people showing up. In fact, Isaac was to only church/scouts kid there. They raced cars, played games for tickets, ate pizza, cake and ice cream. Then they went upstairs and played lazer tag.

Isaac LOVED the lazer tag.

The blue team kick the tar out of the red team.

Happy birthday Paul...!!

Funerals and Reading

I am sure that most of the folks that visit this blog know that Amy's Uncle Brad died last week. Amy and Isaac went to Utah for the funeral. In fact Amy spoke at the funeral. It was pretty tough for her. She took Isaac for emotional support.

Here are a few pictures from their trip on Saturday night. This is their plane getting ready to leave Atlanta, GA in route to Salt Lake City. That trip from east to west to is brutal.Isaac isn't much of a reader. We made him pack 2 books to read when he got sick of the video games, etc. In the airport he begged Amy to buy him the new "Wimpy Kid" book. Turns out he loved the book. He read 60 pages in the first 2 days.

This is him getting started on the book in the Atlanta airport.
Then he was still into the book driving around on Sunday in Payson.
Keep reading Isaac... I will buy you a hundred books if you just read them.

Earrings

Lexy finally got to wear her ice skate earrings. Her Momma and Isaac went to Utah for the week and we decided to go to church on Sunday. She wanted to dress up, she kept grabbing more things and I kept telling her, "Yes, you can wear that." She grabbed her new ice skate earrings that she got for Christmas. We soaked them, and use ointment when we put them on her.

Here she is...

She was sooo excited the get to wear them. After church she had lunch with them on and we changed back to her normal earrings to go to skating lessons. Yes, we soaked the normal earrings and used ointment when we put them back on.

Isaac's Shifting Lever

I took these pictures the other day, I didn't get them as good as I wanted but I was using a camera phone. I was inspired by JRuss to show these pictures because he has some similar photos from his un-motorbike. He broke a crank with those powerful commuter legs. If you have the time check out his technical discussion about aluminum failure.

So, this is the gear selector lever that Isaac broke when we were riding on the Hatfield and McCoy Trail last weekend.

I did see the small cracks when it fell off earlier in the ride. I knew it wasn't going to last. But, when your on the trail you have to make due. I have already ordered another one for him. I hope it gets here soon, we need to ride again.

Even though this picture is blurry you can see the light and dark area in the fracture that JRuss is talking about.