Canada Fishing Trip

This is Evan - my first post on the Mackey family blog.... After Christmas, Kyle and I went fishing, along with my father-in-law, Steph's Uncle Rich and Cousin Shane. We went to Nestor Falls, Ontario for a 3 day ice fishing trip. Poor roads driving up and back, but we made it safely. This is Kyle's first Canadian fishing trip and man, did he have fun!! And I certainly had a great time sharing it with him and the family. We caught a lot of big crappies, we also caught walleyes and perch. Some crappies were 15" long. I would like to thank my father-in-law, Rich, and Shane for helping to make Kyle's first trip such a memorable and fun fishing trip; they are always great guys to fish with!

First day with some nice crappies:

Kyle with one of his proud catches:

First day's limit:

Loren and Shane filleting fish:

Kyle learning the art of filleting fish:

Kyle holding a couple more of his fish:

Proud Dad and excited son:

Playing at Grandma's

The boys and I stayed with my Mom in Hinckley while Evan, Kyle, my Dad, Uncle, and Shane went to Canada fishing. We went to 2 movies - Princess and the Frog and Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquel. We also did a little shopping and had dinner at our favorite - the Pine City Pizza Pub. The cold weather gave us plenty of time inside to play...

Ryan's new favorite game - Go Fish! Here is his pair pile:

Excited to get a pair!

Carter hanging out while we were playing cards:

Relaxing in Grandpa's Chair:

One of his favorite Christmas gifts - Transformers from Santa:

Grandma put Ryan to work...doing dishes...

and vacuuming!

Check out the huge pileated woodpecker in Mom's feeder:

Carter and Kyle 'sleeping' on the living room floor when we returned home last night:

Two more pieces

I am caught up with jewelry orders! I made more necklaces and zipper pulls/ID tags over Christmas week.

Here is my Mom's - a 2-layer with round wire holding the 3 birthstones:

Another Facebook order - standard textured 1" disc with 2 names and birthstones:

Christmas Day 2009

Traveling through very heavy, wet snow and slush, we made it to McGrath to celebrate Christmas with my Mom's sides of the family. We had a great time and Shane took the kiddos out for a snowmobile ride after dinner. I am so glad we could get together for the holiday, despite the 14" of snow we received!!


Carter was SO excited for new Bakugons:

Snowmobiling with Shane - do you think Carter can see much through that snowy helmet???

He decided it's time to ride with Shane - let Ryan and Olivia get covered with snow!

Riding in comfort on the snowmobile:

Off we go!

Christmas Eve Church

Christmas Eve church service at our church was amazing. This was our first year attending this service - typically we headed up north to Kroschel church or we went on Christmas morning. Kyle and Ryan both sang in church tonight. It was a gorgeous service - so glad we went!

Ryan singing in church - top left:

Kyle singing - second row from the top, in the middle:

Our family after church:

Christmas Eve

We had Christmas Eve at our house this year. Mom and Dad came down despite the snowstorm to spend the afternoon with us. It was a little bit of chaos, but worth every minute to see their faces as they opened their gifts!


Ryan's Transformers:

Kyle will always smell good with his new Axe shower gel:

Kyle's Power Miners:

Dad happy to get his Cities 97 Sampler CD:

Dad giving hugs to Ryan for the Mickey Mouse plate (nothing says Dad like a Mickey Mouse plate):

Kyle giving hugs for Ryan's gift:

Me and Ryan - he bought me this beautiful scarf at school:

Carter and Grandma:

Carter's new Z-Strap Sketchers:

Ryan and Grandpa:

Evan's hands will never get cold again:

Money is always good for Kyle:

Ryan's new Optimus Prime:

Too bad he wasn't excited...

Evan's new Cities 97 Sampler CDs - all 15 that my neighbor generously gave him:

My Mom and her new ring we bought her:

Carter content playing his new Star Wars Leapster:

Grandpa's new sweatshirt:

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

A snowstorm... just in time for Christmas. It didn't stop us from celebrating. Well, it almost did, but we still had Christmas Eve at our house - Mom and Dad braved the roads to join us for gift opening. We received 6" of snow last night and it has been snowing much of the day again today. We are expecting to get a grand total of 12-22".






Just starting at bedtime last night: