Wrestling 101

Monday nights will never be the same for our little monkey boy, Conner has had his first introduction to the world of wrestling! So while Brie & Mommy ran on the track, Daddy & Conner were downstairs in the wrestling room. Daddy signed him up months ago & had many long conversations to prepare him, some went like this: "on some occasions you might get smacked down hard & it will hurt" "you aren't going to win all the time & might loose more than you win, it's okay, you're learning" "there will probably be a lot of kids there bigger than you, so being quick is important" "end up on your back get up & wiggle outta there" all kinds of advice. Not sure why we were so worried he'd end up a crying mess, because he most certainly did not!

Conner's buds Nick, Antone, Carson, and many others from preschool/kindergarten were also there. Imagine a wrestling room with a huge mat as a floor with tons of circles, the walls are lined with parents while each circle is occupied by pair of little kindergarten boys super eager to expel enormous amounts of energy by finally taking each other down. I guess at that age it's what every boy wants to do at the play ground in school but is forbidden to. Here they get to do it & not get in trouble! That just might give you a glimpse of how excited these little guys were to be there! The high school wrestlers & coach did an awesome job at showing what it's all about - yep, Conner is hooked! Never saw him so attentive! Should have seen this coming, he's small but quick, he can scamper up a wall if he was allowed to. Remember the basketball pole episode at LBBC anyone, the clues were right there & blaringly obvious!

Conner paired up with his buddy Antone and when instructions for different drills ensued Conner obediently followed, while his buddy on the other hand had only one goal, take down as many fellow wrestlers as he could! No one was safe, if you were upright, you were a target. At first it was hysterical to watch, each time he took out Conner they both fell into a heap laughing, glad it wasn't tears. Daddy was about ready to tackle little Antone himself by the end of the session however, I guess maybe someone should suggest football for that little man, cuz he's mastered tackling!

Walking out with Nick & his Mom, we both marvelled at the two boys jumping all over the place, we were quite puzzled by the fact that they weren't completely wore out!

Conner in the car on the way home spoke up quite loudly "Mommy, I'm just SWEATING!" like he was surprised somehow by this? After a bath & being properly tucked in to bed our little wrestling machine didn't even make it to the first page of the book, out cold!

Update - the next morning at breakfast he was crestfallen to hear that he has to wait 6 more days till he gets to go again, one night a week just isn't enough apparently! So amazing to see the excitement he has for this, will post photos & short clip next time! Daddy is very excited to take you on this new adventure and we're all going to be there on the sidelines to cheer you on!!!!!

Deer Hunting 2011

How do you follow last year when our little sniper takes out her first deer in her first season ever at the age of 10? Well you take aim & miss sometimes. Mommy was amazed at Brie's excitement to get out in the stand with Daddy for another season, she really does love it & Daddy couldn't be more thrilled.

Daddy, Brie & Papa 2011

While not a single flake of snow blanketed the ground this year, the wind certainly made up for it, both weekends saw warm temps between the 50-60 range, but again that wind on that first weekend was brutal. Weekend 1, saw Daddy take a med sized doe on Saturday,which filled their doe tag, only bucks left for the Sunday hunt (Brie had acolyte @ church so it was just the boys that day). Daddy reports that he had a very antsy shooter in the stand, she kept asking "Daddy can I shoot that sign?" Daddy wisely responded "No honey, it's a $500 fine if you do that." followed by "Daddy can I shoot that tree?" "No it will scare away the deer.." It went on and on, clearly she was ready to blast away at anything, never thought our timid little girl would be so eager! Luckily she was able to take a shot later that night (missed but got to shoot!)

Weekend 2, the wind was gone & everything was eerily still, which meant complete silence! A large doe presents herself & Daddy lets Brie take the shot, she misses. There will be many of those in life sweetheart, don't sweat them, there will always be next year! Many great memories of hunting with Daddy & Papa, big brunches at Hillcrest, warm amazing meals made by Nana in the evenings & the shared thrill of the hunt were had yet another year. Love you & are so proud of you peanut!

Papa & Daddy set up paper plates so Brie could use them for Target practice!!!

Taking aim, thank you Papa for taking these great photos!

Trick or Treating in Towne Lakes!

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is such a blast! The kids dashed from house to house with so many handing out large candy bars, to one that gave a choice between a large candy bar or a brand new teddy bear to yet another that toasted the parents with a punch glass full of wine, it just doesn't get any better than that! Oh wait, Mommy gets to peek inside all the amazing homes in the neighborhood for new decorating ideas! All in all it's a great time and having the Barta's & Hamilton's join us just makes it the best!

Hudson (cow), Colin (blue dragon), Ethan (green dragon), & Conner (THE Optimus Prime) all ready to head out for candy!!!! If you could have seen these two dragon's tails wagging behind them as the sprinted door to door, you'd be rolling on the floor like we were!


All lit up, the scary face (formerly known as the Autobot pumpkin) and our soccer ball masterpiece!

The other soccer ball & Daddy's awesome Decepticon!

NOTE: pumpkin carving at our house took a new twist this year after Daddy found an electric pumpkin carver, those soccer balls were a breeze with that fun toy!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Schueler Annual Pumpkin Carving Party - 2011

This was our first experience at the pumpkin party and boy have we been missin' out! It's a blast and apparently the whole town must think so because we couldn't believe the cars parked in front of the Schueler home! What made it so awesome you ask? Well, it could be many things, like the awesome treats (can you say pumpkin cheesecake), campfire, hay ride, and pumpkin carving! Oh and maybe enjoying all of that with the Schueler's, Nana & Papa, Jagow's, Buffy, Ashley, & Amanda could have played a big role too!

So here's the deal, the pumpkin on the left is the Decepticon Transformer symbol and the one on the right is the Autobot. Not really, while the first part of that is true, the latter not so much. Brienna & Mommy had a hand in the failed Autobot pumpkin while Daddy expertly pulled off the other....


Nana & Abbott enjoying a good book before bedtime!

An Angel without a doubt!

See, our hippie Brie had a great start.... things quickly unraveled though...

Just a taste for Manda...

Buffy & Ash fighting over some of the amazing goodies!

Em, Manda & Ash what pretty ladies!

Cutest dang frog I've ever laid eyes on... but you should see what happened when we gave this one a kiss, poof emerged an even cuter little prince!!!

Who we missed was Ayden & Seth, those boys were too hard to catch! They out ran this camera lady too easily!

Pre-party photo ops for the Reese kids! This year we didn't have our Brie with us trick or treating because of a class trip so we were thankful for the opportunity to still have her get all gussied up for a party! Love those bell bottoms!

Captain America to the rescue! You keep saving the world one super hero at a time little man!

Happy Halloween our daring duo!!!!

101 Market Maze 2011

There is this great nursery just off Hwy 101 in Elk River/Rogers that has a pretty good maze & other fun for the kids each year. Well after snatching some great deals on tickets we set off to see just what all the fuss was about. We had so much fun, I think everyone was surprised!

Conner at the rubber duck races, was fun introducing them to the water pumps & they were amazed that this used to be the way to get water back then...

Corn Pit time, of course this calls for many fun activities like wrestling/smack downs,

burying yourself,

and corn angels!

Maze time, here we're deep in the maze & at one of the many signs posted throughout. On the signs are riddles that you have to solve along with letters that require unscrambling for a chance to win a shopping spree!

We were stumped at the end. We gathered all the letters & found the word, check, then for the "special riddle question" which the answer qualifies you for the drawing.... we were at a loss! What beloved Halloween symbol is also important in the pollinating of flowers? A bee certainly isn't a Halloween symbol, while our fingers were on the speed dial to cousin Seth who we KNOW has the answer, I inquired with one of the nursery workers... it's a bat!!!! Never knew they played a role in pollinating!

Oh the giggles from these two while running through this maze, pure joy!

Another favorite, potato sling shots!

Absolutely without a doubt, the peddle race cars were the best! These things flew!

The family rounding the track, Conner leading the pack (of course he was caught cheating quite often cutting across the infield)!

Daddy showing off peddling backward!

Conner & his super cool ride!

Brie's ready to peel on outta here!

Everywhere we turned was a new funny face board...

Oh and the crazy headbands too...

Our cute lil' pumpkins!

Wish we could show you all of them, each one was more creative than the other...

What a beautiful & handsome crew!!!

Loved this one!

Hope you had an amazing day kiddos, we sure did watching you scamper all over the place! Love you so!

Character Counts Award Winner!!!!

The STMA school district, as a whole, promotes a concept called Character Counts consisting of six pillars: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, & Citizenship. They actively promote the importance of all six pillars in each school & hold various activities throughout the year celebrating each one. Fall brings about the first pillar of Trustworthiness, in Conner's school it meant that each Kindergarten teacher chose one student from class to be the recipient of the Trustworthiness Character Counts award. Mrs. Ryan chose Conner! We are so proud of you buddy, he had his photo taken with other winners from other classrooms, received a blue trustworthy bracelet & a free meal at Subway. He was just beaming when he came home with his certificate. Not sure he'll take that bracelet off anytime soon! Love you so much little man and we're so incredibly proud of you, keep up the great work!

Scary Spiders

One of the many craft projects Conner has brought home (we thought Brie brought home a lot of projects, I think they have a quota to meet these days), he is proud to show us each & every one of them but this one was so cute & required a quick shot....