Fun day with the Schaben kids

We had a great time watching Erin and Luke Schaben a few weeks ago for the day. They are such great kids - and so CUTE!!!!!!

Spring Break 09

Ben loved wrestling with his cousin Wil

Kate, Ben, William, and Jon jumping!

Nanny, Kate and Ben having a jumping contest

Kate and Ben showing off their beads at the parade - Happy

St. Patrick's Day

We were so lucky to be able to spend some quality time with friends and family last week while the kids were on Spring Break. The fun began on St. Patrick's Day by attending the parade downtown. Ben and Kate enjoyed collecting the beads and candy - it was a beautiful day. After the parade, we headed over to Fremont, NE to stay with the Fitzke family. The kids and I had a blast catching up with all of them. I am bummed that we did not get any photos taken - GEEZ!!!!! How can I have a blog and not be taking photos!
Wednesday morning we headed up to Pender for the rest of the week. We visited both Papa and Nanny at work, then just began to play. We love being in Pender. Our fun activities for the week consisted of going to the park, riding bikes, playing baseball, feeding the donkeys, going out to the Johnson farm to see the new baby kittens and baby cows, riding four wheelers, going to the library, visiting Great Grandma B., hanging out with Aunt Wendi, the Stoltenbergs, jumping on the trampeline, playing basketball, but most important - QUALITY time with family! There is just nothing like being at home.....I feel so blessed to have been able to do this! Thank you to Doug for working so hard while we were gone. We missed you!!!

Thank you Papa and Nanny for all of your hospitality - everything was wonderful!!!! We love you!!!

JDRF walk with Jack's Team

Kate had "crazy hair day" at school this week, and we opted for pig tails all over! As you can tell, she thought that it was pretty silly!

Jack's entire team

Jeff, Jack, and Lynne Jensen

Jack sporting his T-shirt this year - Kate and I loved the pink

Here we are at the walk, and Ben is enjoying his fudge bar snack. We all supported our nephew, Jack Jensen, this morning at the JDRF walk. Jack is doing great managing his diabetes and using an insulin pump currently. We hope and pray for a cure for Jack and everyone else battling this disease soon! It was a cold, dreary morning, but we were all very excited and toasty in the downtown skywalk system in Des Moines. It is about a two mile walk, or "run" in Ben's world.

After a very fun morning, we finished off our day with lunch with Papa and Grandma Cairney and then headed over to Kate's last basketball game of the season. She did a great job today, and overall, really enjoyed the season. Now it is on to softball for Miss Kate.

Weekend in Omaha

Kate and good buddy Max Wilson at the skating rink last weekend


Ben cuddling with Aunt Wendi and "Peter and Spike" of course

Ben, Jon and Kate having a "Jays and Bulldog" rally with their t-shirts

Ben and Kate, tearing it up at the bowling alley

Ben was a tiger in the school circus last week! He also sported this tatoo

on his cheek for 5 days, a new record!

Kate had last Friday off of school so we decided to head over to Omaha to visit Aunt Wendi and Cairney West. A great time was had by all. The kids love playing at Wendi's apartment game room - fully equiped with a bowling alley, ping-pong table, pool table, and arcade games. We were all very entertained by our master level of competitiveness, but Ben takes the cake I think by being the craziest ace server in ping-pong. Those balls were flying everywhere, no one could return his serve! The pool was fun too, but the most wonderful part was quality time with family -which we all LOVE!!! Half of the Cairney West family is preparing to head down to Florida to visit Papa and Grandma Cairney - they are going to have so much fun!

After heading home on Saturday afternoon, we were able to relax on Sunday with church, visiting a friend of Kate's from school and of course managed to sneak in a quick movie - HSM 3!!! Kate was very excited for all of us to finally see this....too cute!!!

Looking forward to a few days of warmer weather this week - Keri

My little sweethearts

Happy belated Valentine's Day to you all! We had a great weekend here at the Cairney house. Kate and Ben really enjoyed their parties at school and were so very excited to share all of their treats and cards with me when I got home from work on Friday night. They all surprised me with tulips and wonderful cards that they had made - I loved them both! I treated them to heart shaped pancakes that AM with whipped cream and heart sprinkles. Then that afternoon we went out for dinner and to the Iowa Chops hockey game. A fun time was had by all! They are already asking when we can do that again.

Roller skating chicks

Kate was invited to a birthday party this weekend at the skating rink. How long has it been since any of you have roller skated?? Anyway, she really loved it once she got the hang of things, only wiped out a few times, and of course, I had a BLAST!! I loved skating as a child and had tons of fun at all of the skating parties in West Point! Ahhhhh the memories - we will definitely go back and do this again!

Papa and Nanny Suhr Visit

Nanny, Kate, Ben and Papa



Unknown boy?, Spike, Ben and Kate

If it wasn't awesome enough that the temperatures were in the 50's this weekend, we had visitors!!! Papa and Nanny Suhr came over to visit and we had such a great time! They arrived on Friday night as a total surprise to the kids. Doug and I were in the backyard and we heard Kate and Ben start to scream.....we thought, "Papa and Nanny just arrived, or the basketballs just started rolling down the hill and they can't stop them". It was the first thought and Kate and Ben were SO VERY excited....they were also extra pumped because they picked up Mc. D's for them for dinner - what a treat!!! Friday night we had a movie night, Saturday we spent all day outside playing, riding bikes, & going for walks. Kate had a game that afternoon and then we went out for pizza and introduced Papa and Nanny to Drake basketball. Ben was thrilled to chat with Spike again and get a quick photo. This morning we went to church, said good-bye to Papa and Nanny, and spent more time outside. Kate was invited to the Wilson's for some fun with Max this afternoon and the rest of us headed to small group. Doug and I had two very sleepy kiddo's tonight, but what an awesome weekend. Thanks again Mom and Dad for coming over -we loved having you here!!!! Have a good week everyone......