2014.....Hallelujah!

Wow, where does the time go. Last I blogged was actually two years ago. So much has happened in that time lapse. Wil has graduated high school and is currently a freshman at North Dakota State University, enrolled in the pre-pharmacy program.  He completed his Associates Degree while in high school, so has entered college as a junior.  That has it's challenges, but we are so proud of the man he has become.  Jacque is a freshman in high school and just received her driver's learning permit.  We are taking that on little by little, but boy is she excited to drive!  I just wish it weren't the middle of winter, but hey, I bet it will make her a better driver in the long run!  Ben, well, he is a 6th grader, loves music and loves being full of drama!  He keeps us on our toes that's for sure!.....not to mention in doctors offices too!

I often think I should blog about something! Then too many times, time just gets away from me.  So, with the beginning of 2014, I purposefully sit here and restart what I intended to create a few years ago.....a digital update of our families adventures in our home away from home :0).   So here is to new beginnings!

Teenager #2!!!!

Yes, Jacque turned 13 on Friday, December 16. I can't believe she is officially a teenager! We celebrated with 2 ice-cream cakes, both her favorite, one was Mint Chocolate chip and the other was Cookie Dough. Yummmmmmmmyyyyyy!


And what celebration isn't complete without your friends at school? Lucky for her I was teaching 5th grade all week just upstairs, so it was easy for mom to just show up with her camera during lunch!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Ah, our family's tradition for 10 years to return to the Wolcyn Tree Farm to pick out our christmas tree. We love this tradition. We go each year with our next door neighbors and their family. This year we added a new family with us...we had triple the fun this year! Not sure what Den and I will do when our free child labor is all moved away and we have to actually saw and haul this tree down by ourselves!


Of course, with typically Davis style, nothing is done completely normal...without some sort of bickering!



And of course, the finished tree.......

Nice surprise for me!

Ben was helping me clean one day and he was being so creative with his work, I just had to share! Love you to Bennyboy!

Brotherly Love

We took Ben to the Melting Pot in Minneapolis for his 9th birthday. He really likes that place. He had a great birthday celebration. He was sitting by his brother, and from the next set of pictures, well one can only speculate how much his big brother loves him based on his reactions to Ben in the following pictures!









Honestly, how many faces can you make Ben?

Jacque's latest art project

Jacque had a school project to make a landmark out of household items. She was turned loose in the kitchen for about 2 days and made this! All out of various uncooked noodles! Way to go Jacque!

Boys and their toys!

So we took Wil and a few of his friends up to the cabin, just the boys, Den and I. That was a lot of testosterone running through that cabin, with me as the only female to ground them! LOL We really did have a lot of fun with them, even though they ate everything they saw! Our grand plan was to wake them up early and take them on an 18 mile bike trail around our lake so it would wear them out right off the bat. Wrong.

We all took off on our bikes, I swear they rode the entire 18 miles like they were on the Tour de France. I was always behind to the point I never saw them. They would just stop at intervals and wait for me to catch up. But let me to you, I wasn't doddle"ing", I was going as fast as I could, not enjoying any of the sights. I'm used to it though, on the ATV's and snowmobiles I am always bringing up the rear. My philosophy, I usually am the one that tips or wrecks, so I would rather hit the ground at a slower speed, rather than higher!

Amyway, we had a great trip...did all 18 miles in an hour. Did that wear them out? No, they went back to paintball, fish, eat, bottlerocket wars, eat, jetski, and did I say eat? We did take them on a ATV trip just before dinner. Well, the second set of pictures shows the problem we incurred. We had 2 boys on one ATV, 2 other boys on another ATV, Den on his own and me in the rear, again. We came across a mud hole, Wil got over it, but his friend got stuck. Den and I were back helping the other ATV get unstuck. Wil went around the corner and called out to his Dad, " Should I go?" Den said, "What's the problem?"....Wil answered, "There's a lot of water." Den told him to make a decision. He did, and went on.


The water is up to their waists, they are standing on top of something there.




It' hard to tell from these pictures, but the water was up to the top of the seat. Den is in the orange shirt, wading out to help them. He was our hero, he got it out, drove it on through the rest of the bog, turned around and brought it back. I don't know what we would do without him!



Yeah, we couldn't figure out what he was thinking either! Needless to say, when we went to eat from there, there were some dirty boys in our group!