Thank you God

We have a lot to be thankful for and we thank God for all these little blessings. We were able to go to Fargo to meet our newest perfect little nephew Jackson.
Annie, Matt and Owen hosted my side's Thanksgiving and they didn't disappoint. Annie just gave birth to Jackson 6 days prior to having all of us at her house. Now that's a woman! Mom helped her prepare the delicious spread of food and they did a great job. The kids were able to play with all their cousins, the guys watched a little football and Laura, mom and I got our baby fix by holding that precious little boy. Jackson was born on November 19th at 4:07 a.m. and weighed 6lbs 14oz. He is soooo cute! We met Bob and Laura at the hotel on Wednesday night and the kids all swam together. They had a great time. It was a quick trip to Fargo but we are thankful that we had beautiful weather & good roads.



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On Saturday we traveled to Wabasso for the Salfer Thanksgiving and we are so thankful to have alot of fun cousins to play with, I'm thankful for awesome in-laws and thankful for the delicious food especially Charlene's Pecan Pie. It was nice to be able to visit and catch up with the older nieces and nephews while the younger ones played. We hardly ever see our girls once we arrive at Gpa and Gmas! We played a fun new card game too!

We also stopped by Great Grandmas to say hi, see her new place and wish her a happy Thanksgiving. She looked great and was happy to have the company. I'm always amazed at how upbeat she is and happy despite not being able to remember everything or able to say what she wants. I'm sure she feels frustrated inside but she never shows it on the outside. She is one amazing lady. Again-blessed to have her as my grandma. :)

Brian and I always comment on our ride home from these family events how blessed we truely are. And we know that God gave us these blessings and are thankful to him for them.

Happy Birthday Brian

Happy Birthday to YOU, Daddy! We love you soooooo much! -Caitlin, Emily, Rachel & Natalie

I love you honey -Mandy

We enjoyed a nice evening celebrating Brian's b-day. Natalie and I baked the cake and decorated the table in the afternoon and Caitlin, Emily and Rachel decorated the cake, wrapped the present and blew up a balloon. The theme was "Orange B-day", Brian's favorite color. :) We found some Elmo hats though and threw them in-at least his nose is orange! Brian chose Patrick's here in town to go to for his b-day dinner. It was really tasty! As Caitlin lit the candles and walked away Natalie, in b-day spirit, blew them out! She thought it was so funny, especially since Caitlin walked away and didn't notice her do it. So Caitlin relit the candles and Natalie "helped" Brian the second time. It was pretty funny.

Happy Halloween

"Scooby-Dooby-Doo" Where are you?!

We had alot of fun being the gang from Scooby-Doo. Caitlin however was standing her ground and she wanted to be Wonder-Woman. And a fine Linda Carter she was-without the black hair! It's hard to see Brian as a blonde and myself with chest hair but we tried to pull it off the best we could. I thought that Emily looked most like her character, but it was Natalie who stole the show at each house we went. She does make a pretty cute scooby. And she was so good about saying "trick-or-treat"-she knew what her reward would be!!!! Rachel is the bomb in her red hair! She was sooooooo cute! The girls got quite the stash of candy and aren't too hopped up on sugar at this point.


Rachel with her teacher Miss Eichler and classmate Jared.
Our friends-Miss Katie the cowgirl and Abby as Twister

Pumpkin Pickin' and Carvin'

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We went to Grandma's Little Acres here in St. Peter for our pumpkin pickin'. They had tons of pumpkins to choose from this year. Lots of cool shaped ones too. And huge white ones! They were so pretty! It didn't take too long for the girls to pick out their own unique one. It was quite cool and windy! Natalie was on a mission to find a "baby" punkin, Emily a knobby one, Caitlin a huge one, and Rachel, a nice round one. They did pretty good! Caitlin found a huge one but since she couldn't carry it or pay the $8-10 for it she decided to let it lay and pick out a different one. Good choice!








Then on Sunday we carved them up. It's getting easier and easier each year. The kids aren't so grossed out by the pumpkin guts and they do a great job using the special knives. Natalie was super excited to carve her "baby". I kept asking her "Is your pumpkin's name baby Jack-O-Lantern?" and she'd reply "No...momma, baby punkin." As if I didn't know what I was talking about! Emily decided since she had a cool lumpy one, she'd marker it rather than carve it. I think it turned out pretty cool, except for it's boogers coming out of its nose! Rachel drew a picture of what she wanted her pumpkin to look like but wanted Brian to actually carve it. She liked gutting it though! Caitlin was on her own and did a fantastic job-without anyone's help!

MEA at the Dells

A couple weeks ago we went to the Dells for some fun in the water with our friends the Gilbertsons and Gracks. Our 3rd Annual. :) We had beautiful weather the whole time (usually it's raining when we go). Some of the kids got a little braver this year (Luke/Rachel) and LOVED going down the big water slides. Us adults enjoyed sitting and watching them! The wave pool is everyone's favorite and it never disappoints. It does get wild though! Emily was thrown off her tube and collided with a boy who was flung from his tube as well. They were fine and Emily was laughing hysterically. And I guess Levi and Brian bonked heads...at least that's what Levi is telling us. He's got a bruise on his forehead but I think it's from their trampoline! We really enjoy the time away from all the hustle and bustle and love being able to relax with such good friends. We stayed up way too late though and were paying for it when we got back to the real world. Is it a sign of getting older?? I don't know. :)

Happy Birthday Auntie Annie

John Ireland Marathon

While others were preparing for the crazy 26.2 mile Twin Cities Marathon, we opted for a different marathon, the marathon for non-public education. A nice 3 mile walk from the school, around St. Peter and back. We had a beautiful fall day this year. Crisp cool breeze and warm sunshine. The kids were excited, eager and energetic. The school kids raised around $9500 for their school. Good job!

Apple Orchard

A couple weekends ago, we went to a cute, quiet little apple orchard by Montgomery. They have live music in the afternoon, a giant corn maze, delicious caramel apples, pick your own apples and demonstrations to watch. All without the craziness of a million other people like other orchards. The corn maze was so much fun. Pretty sure I would've gotten lost if it wasn't for Brian's keen sense of direction! This years theme was the 150 Anniversary of the Civil war and Abrahan Lincoln. When we were walking to the corn maze this man, dressed as Abe himself, came out of the field and it was so wierd and totally took us aback! He looked exactly like Abe Lincoln!!!! Throughout the maze there were 20 trivia questions to answer and if you got 10 right you'd get a special patch at the end. We got 15 out of 20 questions right so not too bad! It was a very fun afternoon with the kids. We all really enjoyed it.