Winter Wonderland

It's a winter wonderland around here! We got a fresh layer of snow last night that coated all the trees....it's absolutely beautiful! The temperatures were a little warmer too which made it really nice to be outside. Natalie went sledding for the first time. We had a lot of fun - yes, that's Nate sledding with his cast on .....We took Natalie on a little nature walk in the backyard. It's the first time she's really been out in the snow. The pictures were all taken in our backyard as we walked around. It's going to be a white Christmas!

Meet the pets

 
 
 
For those of you who've gotten our Christmas card.....here are the Dufon pets! S'more the guinea pig, Rascal the cat, and Tucker. Rascal lives up to his name....we have many funny stories about him...like the time he fell off the second floor landing and didn't land on his feet (Splat). He staggered away from that one and stopped doing the tightrope walk on the upstairs railing....or the time he crawled out the upstairs window onto the roof of our new house....then he went down into the cold air return vent and was stuck between the wall of our bedroom and Nate's room....I could go on - he definately lives up to his name! We're still getting to know Tucker. We've had him a little less than a year....definately has his own quirks which makes him fit right in around here. Believe it our not he and Rascal have come to terms with each other and actually play sometimes. Rascal pesters him by laying just outside the boundary of his electric fence where he knows Tucker can't come and get him. Tucker is in training right now so that he can go bird hunting with Steve and Nate. He loves to chase the birds!

Backyard Ice Rink

The city flooded the baseball field behind our house again this year. Sarah spent many hours out there skating last year and was very excited to be able to get out on the ice again this afternoon. The picture from far away was taken on the lower level of our deck. It's great to be able to keep an eye on the kids without having to be right by the ice rink. Sarah likes to come home from school and skate for a little while before it gets dark. Her only complaint is that her skates are hockey skates and she wants figure skates! The other girls in the picture with her live on the cul-de-sac near us. Laura is right next to Sarah and is a 3rd grader at her school and is on her basketball team too.

Sarah's Basketball game

Dec 15th- Sarah had her second game of the season. She seems to be remembering what basketball is all about.....if you look at the pictures she's one of the smallest girls on the team. In one of the shots you can see that she's guarding the biggest girl on the other team! She's in a 3rd/4th grade league and they play every Saturday morning. Nate is also on a team, but he's sitting out his games until his hand heals. Sarah's team ended up winning the game 24-14.

Nate VS. Tree

Nate - 0
Tree - 1

The weekend of Dec. 2nd we got our first good snow. Of course the kids were out sledding all weekend. As you can see we have a great sledding hill in our backyard. We also have 1 tree at the bottom of the hill. probably wasn't a good idea to line up the ramps this close to the tree! Nate was using a friend's sled and his hand got stuck in the handle. He couldn't bail out in time and the top of his hand slammed into the tree. This was on Sunday night.....took him in Monday morning and sure enough...3 bones with spiral fractures in the top of his hand. He got his cast put on Tuesday and will have it until the 1st week of January.