Getting ready at the beginning of the game to jump.
During a timeout with their coach, Kyle Drey.

The boys played a very good game today. Tyler had another excellent game of getting the ball down low to the post. He also stole the ball for some fast break easy layups. Afterwards, we had Grandpa and Grandma over for some homemade beefstew and cheesecake to celebrate.

Tonight we held our weekly fun night. By the picture you can tell who won all three games. The T-man. We played Texas hold 'em, Kings Corner, and Indian Poker.

Sunday evening St. Mary's held their annual "Meet the Team Night." We ate supper at the Booster dinner and watched the teams scrimmage. In the picture I'm holding the check that the Scrip board presented to the school. In the past year more than $47,000 has been rasied to help tuition cost at St. Mary's. Afterwards Grandma and Grandpa treated for DQ. What a great weekend we had with everyone.

After the baseball clinic Grandma, Mom, and I headed to Ankeny to spend the weekend with Rich and Andrea. Tyler received an early Christmas present. He got a 20 gauge pump. The picture is at Okoboji Grill "Boji" where we ate supper Saturday night.

At the end of the session Tyler and Eric took time out for a memorabilia photo.

Wednesday Steve was the first caller to win a free pitching lesson with Eric Wordekemper. He is a St. Marys alumni that now plays for the Tampa Bay Yankees (The minor league team to the New York Yankees). Above Tyler is reviewing his instruction for the day.

Today started the first game of the 7th grade basketball season. Tyler is #11. He is the teams starting point guard. His stats for the first game are quite impressive. He had a double double. 12 points and 10 assists. That means he had a hand in 32 of the teams 40 points. Afterwards, Grandma treated us to pizza for supper. I made cookies for dessert. In Tyler's words we had a feast!!!

After a month of taking care of a family friend on Hospice I decided life was too short to just sit idolly by watching TV, texting , and searching the web so I implemented a family fun night for us. 1 night a week we shut all that stuff off and do.....tonight we decided to each pick a game and play it. Tyler picked Indian poker and Steve won. Steve picked poker and I won. I picked 31 and Steve won. We talked, we laughed, and in the end we all smiled!

The nice picture: Grant, Tyler (captain), Cole, Yach, Emily, and Jasmine

The not nice picture. It was Grant's idea to have it look like everyone was beating him up.

This afternoon Steve and Tyler won the annual Community Ed Turkey Shoot. This year Tyler made 13 of 15 and Steve made 12 of 15. There were four kids in Tyler's 7th grade group. Tyler and Steve are pictured with Scott and Aaron Krier. They won the 8th grade group. They received a certificate with their names on it and a turkey donated by Sara Lee.

Here the kids are pictured with Sister Donna who came to enjoy the great musical talent. Also Anthony Krier wanted in the picture.
Hannah Friesen, Amy Schwarz, Holly Keenan
Aaon Krier, Tyler Devos
Missing- Mandy Wolver and Josh Scuffham
Tyler is the only 7th grader. The rest of the kids are in 8th grade.
The kids performed with a bunch of other kids from area towns. Tyler met up with some old friends and got accquainted with some new ones. The director was from Briar Cliff music dept. He said the kids performed high school level songs to push them to the next level. He also said you were looking at the leaders of their respective school classes.

To catch up with everything else Tyler had dodgeball again this past Sunday. His team is now 3-1. Monday was the first day of basketball practice. They do lots of running and drills. Tyler even got his first taste of a 6:00A.M. practice. Steve and I got a taste of getting up at 5:15a.m. I'm sure I got more done before 8a.m. than most. I was done vacuuming the house by 7a.m.
We also want to welcome to the world Chloe Ann Smith. This is Tyler's first cousin. She was born on Halloween. We can't wait to see her on our trip to Denver over Thanksgiving.