Last night was amazing, and I added another patch to my mom sash, say hello to HOCKEY MOM! Our hockey program here lets small children try hockey for free. Who would turn down that? Max was so excited to start and when I asked if they'd let Rory play too although she was a year too young they excitedly said "Yes!" and even explained there were a couple other young kids already on the ice! After an hour of fitting, we had this.

I cannot stop laughing at how stinking cute they are in their gear! We walked them over to the ice, let them step in, and then watched them fall to the ice where they were greeted by some very nice high school hockey players who were amazing at getting them excited to learn how to skate.

And then they pushed them over to the other side of the rink where all the little kids were learning how to skate. So funny!

After some coaching from the woman running the program, Max started figuring out how to get his skates under him and stand up.

That's all the further he got in his half hour of skating, just standing up, attempting to move his skates and falling back down. I couldn't have been more proud watching him try again and again. Look at him, he is doing great!

Rory? Well she had fun with all those high school boys that were pushing her around on the ice, or helping her stand up where she would than shuffle her feet around between their legs, never really getting them straight enough to figure out how to put her weight on them.

Eventually she just started pushing her self around on her bottom with her skates in front of her. She made it pretty far around the rink doing just that too!

So now, we've become a hockey home. This morning, Max woke me up dressed in all his hockey pads just happy as could be. I promised them they could walk around the carpeted parts of the house in their skates so they could learn to balance on them, and I imagine we'll be finding some ice real soon to help them practice. This is just so awesome!

One of my gifts from my parents this year was another visit to the Orpheum Theatre to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

This was my favorite musical we've gone to so far. It follows three drag queens as they travel into the desert of Australia to get to a casino where they will be putting on a show. Of course, there is a bit more to the plot than that but lets be honest, this play was all about the costumes and the music. It was awesome and completely over the top!

Thankfully, Tara brought me a little gift for the musical. A pair of her glasses.

Yes, it does help me to see things further away. I may have to suck it up and get my eyes checked out. I don't care how vain I sound, having hearing aids and glasses is definitely the reason I'm hesitant to go in. Ugh.

Can you tell we had a good time though? This was on our way out. Nice healthy glows on our faces after a couple of hours of smiling and laughing will do that to you!

Yesterday was our first day back, since Christmas, to the swing of things. The kids, Dusty and I were all feeling better and finally on the mend from the viruses that took us out for the last two weeks. It was going to be a great day!

And then I hyper-extended my driver side door in the van.

Go ahead, laugh. If you're like me, you're envisioning me backing up with my door wide open into a shopping cart corral.

The true story isn't as entertaining. I had put the van in park (or so I thought), left my door open and walked up to my mother-in-law's door to drop off something. As soon as I knocked at the door I heard a crunching sound and turned around to see my van moving backwards.

The scary part here is that Rory was in the van and it was rolling towards a garage! Thankfully, I had left my door open and it caught the snowdrift on the side of the driveway. The door hyper-extended and then got wedged into the snow bank, stopping the van from rolling more than a foot.

My guess is that I never put the van fully into park. When I got out of the van I walked behind it on my way to the house, I would have noticed it moving then if it was as it would have hit me, so it must have snapped back into gear and started rolling about the time I heard the crunching noise. So a bigger crisis was averted since I left my door open. Yes, the van door will need to be replaced and an insurance claim is filed. But my daughter is safe, the garage was not crashed into, and thanks to amazing family and friends the nuisance of not having a car for the week is a non-issue.

Also? I have to tell you, my insurance agent with Keister and Keister Agency, was a God send. My door could not be closed. I worked at it for a good 20 minutes and then called our agent to find out about getting a tow truck since I wasn't going to drive with my door open and Rory in the van. My agent, Bryan, offered to drive out to me and see if he could close it. And when he couldn't? He offered to drive my van with the door open to the auto body shop, and let me load Rory into his truck and drive us there that way. Yes, that really did happen, he was amazing!

To be honest, I couldn't stop laughing throughout the whole hour of the ordeal. I mean, I couldn't stop thinking everyone is going to envision me backing up with my door open into a shopping cart corral and I was just so relieved that it wasn't worse and everyone was fine.

The moral of this story? If you need a new agent, I highly recommend Keister and Keister Agency.

Auntie Ta-Ta came over this weekend. Mind you, she wore a mask while near Dusty which was hilarious. Her and I made plans to go see the Les Miserables movie, which was marvelous even with a migraine! Before we left, she got busy making the kids their very own friendship bracelets. They are naturally in love and now they have friendship bracelet power. (Or something like that.)

Thanks for the pretty bracelets Auntie Ta-Ta!

Auntie Katie and Uncle Andrew bought the kids a few months of Kiwi Crates which is a fun mail service that sends crafts for the kids to do. I have to admit, I've been hesitant to open and start it. I mean, first of all, we've been sick, so a craft project has not been at the top of my agenda. Secondly, I've seen some other bloggers share their kits and crafts and while they all had great things to say the projects have looked very detailed which hasn't been much of a motivator for me.

So I don't know if the crafts are setup by age, or maybe we just lucked out, because their first months crafts were perfect! We put together the Penguin Bowling kits yesterday which took all of 10 minutes for decorating their penguins. The perfect amount of time to hold their attention.

After that it was on to the bowling!

Such a quick easy craft and it was very satisfying when it was finished. The cooler part was that they even included other games and ideas for the penguins once the kids got bored with bowling. Although in our house they were only bored with the penguins, throwing the wiffle ball at other objects was far more entertaining. At least they were having fun! (And no windows were broken.)

If Kiwi Crates continues to be this easy I may have to extend our subscription. And if you know someone who may be interested, or you want to purchase a subscription, consider clicking on my link to Kiwi Crate to do so, it gives us a $10 credit to purchase more. Thanks!

A story to share. The scene? My bedroom, 5:15am on Christmas Eve morning. Enter Max, talking loudly.

"Dad! Do you know why I'm dressed already?"

Some incoherent grunting from the bed.

"Because we're going fishing! Get up!"

And that is how Christmas Eve morning was spent with two girls snug in bed while two boys braved the cold to catch some fish. It's also how Daddy ended up being in charge of Max with his overtired meltdowns that evening during all the festivities. Not Mommy's problem, nope.

I think this bronchitis is finally on it's way out. Everyone is still coughing and no one feels at their best just yet, but outside of Daddy who was the last to get sick, the rest of us seem to be moving up. Now, just how long until we can all breath deeply without coughing? That's the question!

Our New Year's holiday has not been the greatest. I got sick shortly after Christmas, Rory followed closely after and Max has also become ill. The worst part is that I'm still not fully recovered! OK, maybe that seems to be the worst part for me only, but when you're supposed to be running the show yet are still showing signs of illness, it's tough. Send some healing thoughts and I promise to try to get some more photos and stories posted soon.