Upward Basketball

Aubrey has been practicing for 3 weeks and today was her 

Upward Basketball debut!

The league is at the Gateway Nazarene church in Oskaloosa!

A little nervous before the big game! 

They create QUITE the entrance!

For each game, they blow up this big tunnel and turn off the lights

and announce each players name!

SO FUN!!!

Go LADY EAGLES! (white team this time)

They play 4 on 4 - here they are pointing to which basket they are going toward!

This was actually the first play of the game.

She was supposed to PASS it in, but she wanted to take off dribbling :)

LOTS to learn in the first game!

Ref explaining to her that she should PASS it in :)

(He's also the head of the league)

Taking a break!

It is all calculated on the ipad who goes in and who goes out 

and each game they are awarded a "star" that you iron on their shirts

for defensive effort or passing, etc. - It's really a cool system! 

I didn't catch it on camera BUT. . . 

AUBREY MADE A BASKET!

Avery displaying the "ONE ONE" for #11

They divide the game into six - 6 minute periods

and each girl gets to play 4 periods.  

catching the pass to bring it down the court 

She was handling the ball pretty well by the end of the day.  

Kaisand Christmas

We're keeping the late Christmases going and today we had

the Kaisand Christmas.

I should mention that maybe the best gift was having everyone home AND 

planning a whole family vacation to St. Louis this summer!

First we all went to church together at Leighton CRC

Then we headed to Grandpa Craig and Grandma Char's

to do stockings before lunch.

Kids doing ring around the rosy before stockings. 

Aubrey colored this special shadow box for Grandma Char. 

Inside joke - back in TN Kailey got this as a while elephant gift.

I joked that we actually needed a new toilet seat (which we do)

and Kailey got the idea to decorate it and give it to me - pretty funny! 

Sophia reading her new book from us with Grandma and Grandpa Kaisand 

Wow! Her biggest lego set yet from the McMahans - THANK YOU! 

outfits and accessories for her doll "Lexie"

Again, WOW! This will keep her busy!

getting Lexie dressed with Great Grandma Kaisand

All the Kaisand grand-kids together for Christmas!

guys playing cribbage 

reading her new books 

cousins having a "pajama party" and being silly

Grandpa & Grandma Betty Christmas

It took a bit to get our Grandpa and Grandma Betty Christmas scheduled

this year, but it turned out for the best when we learned that

the McMahans from TN came up to surprise everyone!

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma Betty for a lovely time together. 

The girls coloring with K

Grandma Betty explaining the true meaning of Christmas

(and Grandpa Craig babysitting "Chelsea" - haha!)

Aubrey's present from Grandpa & Grandma Betty -

Dollie & Me outfit and Usborne activity book.

Avery's gift from Grandpa & Grandma Betty was a 

Dollie & Me outfit and Usborne sticker book.  

Grandma Betty checking out her Usborne cards

Thanks, Amanda, for the nice gift! 

Thanks, Amanda, for spoiling the kids with coloring books and 

sparkle crayons! 

Avery wasted no time to color

Amanda also painted each kiddo a picture frame 

and put a picture of them in it - so nice! 

Cousins playing the Fishing game together. 

These two had fun hanging out together downstairs,

coloring and playing "Heads Up" on the ipad. 

K and Aubrey acting out "making the bed"

while Grandma Char and Noah tried to guess.