Her 9th Birthday...

I have some blogging to catch up on! I'll dedicate this post to our celebratory birthday weekend for our baby girl, and my next post will be for Christmas. Nana & Poppi are in town. We made special plans for Madeline's birthday, to see the Vikings play the Texans in Houston! They played on Madeline's actual birthday. So we took Nana & Poppi down to Houston. The day before the game we went to the Houston Space Center and then celebrated with a birthday dinner at my Oom & Tante's home. Above is Madeline at their home as we were singing her happy birthday. The picture next to it was on her 2nd birthday - she's grown SO much! Where is my baby!?

Stephen wanted to take his Dad to the Space Center because he spent so many years working for McDonald Douglas and Boeing working on many space equipment parts. Dad certainly enjoyed it and I think if we hadn't rushed through the exhibits at the kid's pace he could have spent all day there reading about everything!

We got to see their new Saturn V Complex Rocket Park as well as go inside the Mission Control Center building. While we were viewing the real Mission Control room and seeing a live feed of the astronauts in the space station this is how I found James. :) Okay so maybe he won't grow up to be a rocket scientist or an astronaut. :)

The morning of Madeline's birthday we woke up bright and early. Had breakfast with my Oom and Tante, said our goodbyes and headed toward the stadium 3 hours before game time. Stephen wanted to park and tailgate. At this stadium you have to pre order and purchase your parking passes, you cannot purchase them game day. They were outrageous prices, so we just winged it. Parked right across the street at a somewhat ghetto parking lot, but the Asian owners said it was fine that we BBQ'd so we made the best of it. All the Texan fans smiled as they walked by us and we even met some Viking fans who joined us in the tailgating!

About an hour before the game we walked over to the stadium. Can you tell by Stephen and Dad's expressions we were excited?

The crowds there were just a sea of red and blue but we found a few in purple and gold! The guy in the Viking costume wasn't allowed to bring in some of his costume because I guess security said it was dangerous. This couple did some tailgating with us. The lady had bought new Viking earrings for herself and her sister but when she found out it was Madeline's birthday she gave them to her instead. Madeline said this was probably the most favorite part of her day. So sweet of this lady.

Here we are ready to rock and roll and start the game!

This was the view from our seats. Even though we were in the nose bleed section, the view actually wasn't that bad. And for some reason we ended up in a Viking section, there were fans behind and in front of us!

This was the kids and Nana's first time to a NFL game. Madeline wanted to understand how the game worked. By mid game she finally got that each time each team had possession of the ball, they had 3 downs to get 10 yards. She said it made the game more exciting now that she understood how it was to be played.

At half time we were up 13-3. GO VIKINGS!

And we ended the game with a W for a win! 23-6 was the final score. And I think Stephen heard somewhere it was the first game the Texans hadn't scored a touchdown (they only got 2 field goals) since 2006! Way to go Vikings! It was a ton of fun and I think everyone had a great time! When we left the stadium many of the Texan fans displayed good sportsmanship and some even congratulated us on the win.

After the game we drove back home to Austin and arrived late in the evening but still managed to take Madeline out for a birthday dinner. James got her a birthday balloon next door to the restaurant at the Dollar Tree. It was a great birthday weekend!

A Viking Christmas

So this summer we found out that our favorite NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings, would be playing here in Texas this season! And better yet they are playing on Madeline's 9th birthday, December 23rd. So we promised the kids we would take them to their first Vikings game, and Nana & Poppi will fly out from CA to join us. Well back in August when I started looking at tickets they were around $60. Stephen told me to hold off on getting them. Then in September and October I changed jobs. In November we were waiting on a bonus check from Stephen's work to purchase the tickets. Well we were finally able to...and let me tell you they cost us a pretty penny...more like and arm & a leg...seriously an obscene amount....sigh. But we made a promise...so we're gonna go and enjoy the game....even if it means we're eating PB&J sandwiches and boxed mac'n'cheese for the next month! The kids decorated our tree this weekend and were excited to put this Santa ornament on.

Hope y'all are getting into the Christmas spirit!!! 

Michael Buble's Christmas album can help you do that...

One of my favs :)

"Bummed" is an understatement

My brother Tason text messaged me this morning, "So are you guys super bummed about the Vikings?". Um I think that's an understatement.

“This was a real tough one. I felt they didn’t win the game, but rather we lost it. You can’t turn the ball over like that and expect to win.” - RB Adrian Peterson

(on turnovers) “We’ve had no three turnover games this year. So to have five against a good football team, it’s very difficult to overcome. I thought our guys did a great job in this environment here. I don’t think there was a false start penalty. I don’t think there was a procedural penalty. I thought we took care of this setting here extremely well.” - Coach Brad Childress

“You know, even with all of those turnovers and fumbles we still had a real good chance to win. We beat ourselves on offense. Everybody’s feeling bad right now and it will hurt even more tomorrow. We feel like it just slipped through our hands.” - RB Chester Taylor


(did you think the hits tonight were dirty?) “I guess every time I get hit I think it’s dirty. Peter (King) was telling me in the locker room that the one I got hurt on was a high-low and that was the reason for the Brady Rule. Pete Morelli, the head ref, has called a lot of my games. He’s a great guy. It is like playing the game, you make decisions and you live by them and I think had he truly saw that and felt that he’d have thrown a flag.” - QB Brett Favre

(on Brett Favre) “I thought it was a gutty, gutty performance. I thought that he grinded it out. He found a bunch of different receivers….I just thought that he did a nice job of competing. He would be the first to tell you that he wishes he had a couple of those (throws) back.” - Coach Brad Childress

(on what made the difference in the game) “You can spread it all the way around. It’s hard to win games when you turn the ball over like that, particularly around the five yard line and the seven yard line when you think you’re going to have a chance for a minimum of three points.” - Coach Brad Childress

“We kept battling back, even when we were down because we know what kind of offense we have. This season was a success. It’s not the success we all wanted. But I have to tell you, this loss hurts; especially when we knew we should have won. It’s hard to put the feeling I have right now into words. I felt we beat ourselves more than they (Saints) beat us. - WR Bernard Berrian

“Hey, we all fought out there. We played as a team and we left it all on the field. Because of a lot of things that happened, we are not going to the Super Bowl. The Saints are a great team. They played well and we played well. But they came up with the final play to win and take it from us.” - TE Visanthe Shiancoe

As you can imagine there was a lot of hooting and hollering in the Spence Ohana household yesterday evening. We were disappointed by our teams mistakes and the officiating. Had those 2 aspects of the game been different we believe the Vikes would be heading to Miami and not the Saints. O'well, can't change what's done. :(

*Just read this article and couldn't agree more...
The Saints lucked out on several replay reviews that went their way (one fourth-down spot that looked as if it was marked wrong, one key pass reception that looked as if it should have been ruled incomplete — neither overturned).

The non-reversal of that spot on the fourth-and-inches run.

Should’ve reversed that. Pierre Thomas looked like he made it on his leap, but lost the ball in the air and by the time he regained control, the ball was behind the line to gain.

Wasn’t reversed. VERY fortunate for the Saints.

And the Saints absolutely lucked out when the Vikings’ long marches through the New Orleans defense were constantly interrupted by Minnesota’s self-destructive miscues.

Yes, the Saints, who won 31-28, get credit for causing the five Minnesota turnovers and for taking full advantage.

Yes, the Vikings can’t be credited for a good performance when they were so sloppy and so careless.

But the Vikings outgained New Orleans 475 yards to 257 and completely shut down the Saints and Drew Brees for most of the second half.

The only exceptions: When Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin were handing the ball directly to the Saints.

This is an easy call, because I think Minnesota is better than the Saints and proved it at the Superdome, except on the scoreboard.

Minnesota would have won this game if not for Favre’s terrible late interception when the Vikings were driving for a field goal to win it in regulation.

Minnesota would have won this game if Peterson didn’t get a bad case of the dropsies (two fumbles, one lost) or the Vikings had won the overtime coin flip, or the referee had correctly overturned one of those calls.

by Tim Kawakami

The pigskin sport weekend update

Brett didn't have much to smile about yesterday night in his game against the Cardinals, and unfortunately neither did Stephen and his 3 brothers who traveled to AZ to root the Vikes on. Seriously what a bummer of a game! James and I fell asleep on the couch in the 4th quarter. I guess we scored one more time but still came out defeated. Overall though I think Stephen and his bros had a fun time in AZ.

Hey at least our Longhorns WON.....

A second can really matter. Woo hoo, looking forward to watching the BCS Championship game! Hook 'em Horns!

Viking Game

Stephen attended the Viking game in AZ this past weekend with his bros.