Velarde kid's

Lucas, Isaiah, Josiah and Miss Olivia


"Little" big brother Josiah, cracking himself up!


I ran up to Lonsdale to visit the Velarde family last night. Miss Olivia was kind enough to let me cuddle her as much as possible - she is too cute!!! They all seem to be adjusting well, sleep deprived, but doing great!!! We are all looking forward to going up to spend a little more time after school gets out.

Ben and Kate, proudly showing off their nails and guitar tatoo

Spring Fling at Fairmeadows

Ben getting his nails done

Kate getting her air brushed guitar tattoo

becoming an expert at the ring toss

How low can you go Sis??

Kate was very proud of her chess club trophy and certificate that she earned this year. The last meeting was Wednesday am. They have been competing all year on Wednesday mornings from 8-9.

It was Spring Fling at Fairmeadows last weekend and the kids all had a great time. They were very lucky and won many wonderful raffle prizes (pottery store g.c., costume shop g.c., hockey tickets, a new webkins, bagels, a new pen, and bowling certificates). Ben's favorite games were the bowling and the ring toss. He also was very proud of his "blue" nails at the nail salon - a proud moment for many dad's around the school as dozens of boys were sporting their new "finger art".

We are easing into the season of softball around here with practice twice a week for Kate. Tomorrow is a busy day for the little lady: team pictures at 11:30, a birthday party at 2:30, and then her and I are attending a play at the Jr. High School at 7 pm! What a fun day we hope to have......who knows what those Cairney men will entertain themselves with.....Sunday we are celebrating Jack Jensen's first communion and also Palm Sunday.

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