Uncle Vern

Mark's uncle Vern Rinkel passed away yesterday. We are waiting for details on the funeral to decide if just Mark will go to Minnesota or if we'll go as a family. He was one of Mark's godparents.

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile but kept forgetting.
Mark: "Kyra what are you doing in the tupperware drawer?"
Kyra: "Nofin (nothing)."

Yep, my youngest already knows about trying to deceive her parents. It's her answer for everything.

Generosity

Unfortunately Valynn's class took another hit yesterday. One of her classmates lived in the same apartment building and he lost everything in the fire. So last night Valynn and Mason went through their toys and books and found some to give to Jayden. Valynn helped wrap the gifts up since her class will present them to him at a later date. We also collected items and money to give to both families and Valynn took it all to school today. Valynn and Mason showed such generosity and compassion. Mason knew exactly what toy he wanted to give and Valynn helped me pick out some gently loved books. Valynn and Mason didn't complain, they asked what Mark and I were going to give because it was the "right" thing to do. Valynn didn't agree with the money at first but after I explained everything they needed to buy she thought it was a good idea.

Valynn

Valynn seemed to handle the news well yesterday. The school didn't say anything to the students. The school called me about 2:00 to let me know what happened and that a sealed letter was being sent home and they wanted the parents to tell the kids about Christopher. I took Mason and Kyra to Chantel's while I talked to Valynn. Christopher sat next to her in class, otherwise she didn't interact with him too much. She did share some stories about him and knew that his parents were divorced. She seemed to understand that he was dead but didn't show much emotion beyond that. They have counselors coming in today to talk to small groups of students so we'll see how she is after that. Here's a good reminder to make sure your smoke alarms are working! Here is a link for the full story in today's paper.

Story

Tragedy

One of Valynn's classmates was killed in a house fire early this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Story

Winter Fun

After a pretty laid back week we packed the weekend full. Valynn had a birthday party yesterday. Then Valynn and Mark attended a Father-Daughter Girl Scout dance. They had a great time. Today after church and naps we headed outside to take advantage of the warm weather and the snow before it melted.

Kyra's 17 months

Kyra is 17 months today. I'll hopefully get a picture later. She had some shots this morning so she's not the happiest right now. She's been a very busy little girl, if she can get into it, she is. We say it's because she's having a mental growth spurt, but boy is she testing our patience. This morning, she got into the unbaked cinnamon rolls and ate one while I was getting clothes for Mason. Valynn has been sick this weekend. On Saturday she took a 4 hour nap so we let her stay up late and watch a movie with dad (mom went to bed). When Mason heard this he told us he was going to take a long nap on Sunday so he could stay up late and watch a movie with dad, he did just that. So both Valynn and Mason got their dad time in this weekend. We are headed to town tonight to buy a new microwave, our conked out on us last night and Mark determined it was unfixable. Have a good week.

Update

It was a long week here last week. Kyra had a fever for four days, she didn't sleep well unless she was in bed with me, so Mark ended up on the couch a couple of nights. She also wanted to be held the whole time so nothing got done around the house. Mark had to go to Rockford 3 days last week, which meant he put in long days. Valynn and Mason didn't get whatever Kyra had which is good. Mark started school this week. It's been an adjustment not having him home for supper two nights a week. He came back into the house this morning because he forgot to give Mason a hug since Mason was still sleeping, otherwise I wouldn't have heard the end of it from Mason today since Mark won't be home until they are in bed. I work a half day on Monday and I work a half day tomorrow.

Valynn won!

Valynn won a coloring contest, here is the link to the page.
http://www.dsgkidsclub.com/winners/winners3.asp

Also, if anyone would like some Girl Scout cookies, Valynn is selling them, let us know and she'll hook you up.

Snow

The kids were able to get outside to play in the snow before it melted this weekend. We had a very relaxed weekend. Valynn had a playdate over on Saturday. We finally got Kyra's Christmas gift, a Thomas the train table, set up for her to play with. Mason's getting better at Connect Four every time we play. Sunday after Sunday School we headed into town to buy a few needed supplies. It was 65 degrees here yesterday, so all of the snow is gone. Valynn and Mason are back at school. Mark traveled to Rockford last Friday and had to go back today. I'm still trying to get caught up on all of the housework and other odds and ends.

Minnesota

After Montana we went to Minnesota for 3 days. All of Mark's siblings were home. We had a going away party for Lloyd, he left for Afghanistan today. Right now he thinks he will be overseas for about 2-3 months but that can always change. We made sure we got some pictures of the whole family. This is all 19 of the Rinkel's. We got back to Illinois on the 30th. On the 31st we did an impromptu dinner at Brad and Chantel's across the street. The kids had fun playing together and we called it an early night. Today we are tying up loose ends before we have to head back to work. Valynn and Mason don't go back until Monday. We hope everyone has a great year.

Christmas Eve

After a day of skiing and our traditional Lutefisk supper we headed to the Mountain Village for the torch run. A group of skiers ski down the mountain at night carrying torches. The last skiers is none other than Santa himself, he left the reindeer at the top of the mountain. This year Santa showed his athleticism by snowboarding. After they came down the mountain we went to a restaurant where the kids received their gifts from Santa that had been delivered there earlier. Valynn and Mason were so excited when they heard that Santa was snowboarding down the mountain. They were even more shocked when Santa called their names and handed them their gifts. Kyra didn't care, she fell asleep while waiting for her name to be called. Ty also received a gift from Santa. After Santa passed out the gifts we went back to the condo to open our presents there. Santa also stopped by again that night to deliver the rest of the gifts.

Montana

After Lignite we drove out to Whitefish, Montana. We stayed at a condo on the mountain and had a condo full, Grandma and Grandpa Larson, Paige, Adam, and Ty, and Brady. We had beautiful skiing, it was cold enough that the snow didn't melt but warm enough that you didn't get too cold. We also had snow everynight. Valynn and Mason took ski lessons. The surprised us with how quickly they caught on the skiing. Mark and I would ski the mountain in the morning when the kids were at lessons and then ski with Valynn and Mason in the afternoons. They loved riding the chair lift.

Lignite

We spent two days in Lignite. We were able to visit with friends and family. The kids also enjoyed playing with the John Deere Gator that Grandma and Grandpa bought.

Holiday Train

As we were traveling to Lignite we got an unexpected surprise. We pulled to the side of the road to watch the Holiday Train as it passed. It was wonderful. The next day we went up to Portal to listen to the singers on the train. The singers were great. Santa walked around and gave the kids Candy Canes. At the end all of the kids got a train whistle, thank you Canadian Pacific. The whistle ended up getting lost for awhile.