My favorite girl...

The perfect snowflake: 

Go Wings!

When we went to Michigan over Thanksgiving, we went to two Red Wings games!  The seats were AWESOME......front row, right on the glass at Joe Louis Arena.  The picture above is the arena but it's taken across the border on the Canada side. 



It was Toys For Tots night at the Joe Louis Arena.  Carol hooked us all up with toys to donate.  This is Carol, Ann Marie & Mom chatting with the Toys for Tots representative at the Joe.

It was so much fun hanging out with the girls.  They always make our visit so wonderful!  This is Jim and his sister, Carol:

Jim celebrating with adult beverages (notice the pink glow on his cheeks and the happy grin on his face!):

Jim and his sister, Ann Marie:

During the national anthem, the Red Wings allowed a little league hockey player (they're called Mighty Mites) to skate onto the ice with them.  This kid was so cute!  You could tell he was totally star-struck.  After the anthem, the poor kid just stood there looking around.  He didn't know what to do.  Todd Bertuzzi (#44 next to him) finally nudged him with his stick.  I'm told that's hockey code for "get going....you did good!".  :)

We were so close to the players, it felt like you could reach out & touch them.  I have to admit to being star-struck myself.  Each time they would check the other team into the boards/glass, the whole wall would shake!  We learned first hand that you can't rest your beer on the shelf by the glass.

Garrett's favorite player:  Niklas Kronwall (#55).  He loves Kronwall because of the intense hits he dishes out.  We bought a picture of Kronwall taken right as he nailed Havlat from the Chicago Blackhawks.   Kronwall knocked Havlat out cold.  Poor guy didn't know what hit him.  Check out the hit: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QZ10FQ16PQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Delanie's favorite player, Patrick Eaves (#17) is still out with a broken jaw. 

 

My favorite player, Henrik Zetterberg (#40):

Jim's favorite player, Pavel Datsuk (#13): 

This picture was taken from our seats.  Can you believe how close we were?  We kept hoping the camera guy would turn his camera on us be never saw him do it.  When we got home, Ann Marie had taped the game so we watched to see if we were on TV.  We were!  After one of the goals - the Wings won both games - you could see Jim high-fiving Ann Marie.  It was really cool!

I love the snow!!

I have found that when I say, "It's snowing!  I love the snow!", I get a lot of growls from people up north.  We have had such a warm winter this year - it only snowed once before Christmas!  You can imagine the weird looks I got when I decided to take my camera for a walk and capture the landscape on film.  Seriously.....people thought I was nuts taking pictures of snow.

I can't help it.  It feels like we're on vacation.  Texas was always so hot!  There are so many things I am looking forward to doing up here:  snowshoeing, ice fishing, innertubing, snowskiing.  If you look at the snow just right, it looks like there are tiny diamonds sparkling through it!

My neighborhood....

I love this picture.  Black and white prints are my favorite.  This picture is completely untouched.  Isn't it amazing?

There are outdoor Christmas trees everywhere up here!  Over the holidays, several people wrapped Christmas lights around the ones in their yards.  It was really gorgeous!

Hound dog

Puzzles & Pajamas

One of our favorite pasttimes......puzzles in pajamas!

Teenagers everywhere!

Delanie turned the big 1-3 this week!  No more babies.....both my kiddos are now teenagers.  She had such a good time celebrating.  The party theme was SpongeBob Square Pants.

She hung a big "Happy Birthday" banner in the basement and declared no boys or adults allowed!  She invited Jessica and Lexi to go to the movies and spend the night.  Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling, music and dancing involved!

The first order of business was the movie.  We went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  The parents had to sit across the theater from the kids.   When did we stop being cool? 

After the movie, the kids settled into the basement and did what young teenage girls do.  When we checked on them in the morning, they were still snoozing at 11am.  Delanie said they stayed up until 4am watching movies.  Thankfully, the next day was a pajama day!

Happy Birthday, Delanie!  You're my favorite girl!! :)

Life is good

"Life is simply and purely good" - Delanie Albaugh

This was Delanie's Facebook status update Sunday night.  Doesn't it just warm your heart?!  :) 

This move has been difficult for the kids.  There are some times that I worry about them so much.  Making new friends, getting to know a new city, new home......it's a lot of "new". 

Needless to say, seeing affirmations like this puts my heart at ease. 

I am so proud of my little ones.  Garrett misses his friends (and Maci!) so much but he's got a great outlook.  He is steadily making new friends and working to save up for a car.  He had a sleepover for three of his buddies last weekend.....definitely a good sign.

Delanie is focusing on her writing and making new friends.  She always has funny stories to tell us at the dinner table about her latest adventures.  Her birthday sleepover was full of her giggling & dancing friends.

Life is definitely good!