Aquatennial

This past weekend Emily, Ana, Nana and I went to Lake Calhoun for the Milk Carton Boat Races and the Sand Sculpture competition. It was hot, and Ana & I were not feeling all that great, but we stayed for a little while, ate some cold ice cream and sat in the shade. It was a fun day! Here are some photos of our fun day!

Kysa

Here are 2 new pictures of Kysa. She has more than doubled her weight and is a SMART little puppy! I just wish she'd smile, though...

SOCCER!!

I think we've found the sport for Ana! She loves SOCCER and even though this was her first time playing any sort of organized sport (disorganized) she had a fun time.
The only thing (and this was a BIG thing for her) that she absolutely hated, was the fact that her uniform was WAY TOO BIG!! After many tears and fits, I got it on her and she'd look in the mirror and say, "this does NOT look pretty on me!" Honestly, the tee came down to her knees and the shorts came down almost to her ankles and the black wool socks went up to her thighs. What are these people thinking?!? 4yr olds do not wear the same size as 10 yr olds!! But after some minor adjustments, it fit better.
Anyways, after 6 wonderful and fun weeks, tonight it came to an end. Oh wait, let me tell you Ana did NOT like the game "Shark vs. Fish". Let me explain. The coaches (sharks) line up across the field from all the kids (fishes). The 'sharks' try to steal the ball away from the 'fishes'. They did this many times, going back and forth across the lines until only a few 'fishes' were left. Ana was really good at dribbling the ball and keeping it close to her as to not get it taken away by the 'sharks'. BUT...here's the sad part...and this only happened 2 times....the shark TOOK ANA'S SOCCER BALL and you know what?....she CRIED!!! She stood there in the middle of the field in a pile of tears! Tad & I felt a little sad, but we just had to laugh inside our hearts cause that's the game of life, isn't it. She was a good sport though, wiped her tears away, drank some water and she ran back out onto the field. Way to go Ana! Next time you take on those sharks and you fight your way through the sea of sharks!!! hahaha! :-)


All the kids got these beautiful gold medals! She wore it very proudly and she's bringing it to daycare tomorrow to show all the kids. At the end, we always get a treat and play at the adjacent park. Here she is relaxing. Until next session......

Kysa, Car Wash, Sleepy Kids, Golf Clubs

Ok, here are some random photos:

Kysa wearing a Tu-Tu and a flower headband

Ana and Emily washing the cars

Ana and Emily just waking up and sitting together in the chair with their favorite quilt that Nana made for them! :-)

I often find them sitting close to each other and I love seeing that!

Emily with her new golf clubs! She is so proud of them! I hope we continue to take the time to practice with her!

4th of July!

What an awesome weekend. Tad was off for 4 days and so was I! We spent the entire 4 days together just the 4 of us, and that was rare. Usually we spend the time with his family or my family, but this year, because of our puppy being so young, we had to stay at home. We missed or extended family, but we'll see them again soon! :-)

The night before, we made star necklaces. The morning of the 4th, we went to the Forest Lake parade. The kids really liked it and we found a spot in the shade and it was perfect. We then came home and Noel, Johnny and Joey came over to swim. We had so much fun in the sun!

We had hamburgers on the grill, and later we went to a carnival, then came home and lit some fireworks in our driveway. The girls loved the sparklers! I held Kysa tight as she was pretty scared with all the firecrackers. We then watched all the local city fireworks from our bedroom window...free from mosquitoes and traffic jams!!

The next day we basically swam all day. We went to the Stone's pool party and stayed pretty late. The kids were exhausted and we skipped church on Sunday morning. Sunday we took it easy, both outside in the hot sun and inside in the cool air conditioning.

It was a fabulous weekend and here are some photos.

Tad's 36th birthday (Yep, I said "36"!)

July 3rd is Tad's birthday. He celebrated by going golfing with his friends, then I made him (yes, I made him) dinner- steaks and potatoes on the grill and a carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting at his request. It was a fun evening! Although he wasn't too fond of the plaid shorts I bought him....

Go Twins!

Tad & Emily went to a Twins game in June. They used my Agency's tickets along the 1st baseline, row 6, and they had an awesome time! This was Emily's 2nd yr going with her Dad. He was really good at explaining the game to her and who the players were. They really had a lot of fun. At least this year, Emily's tooth didn't fall out while eating ice cream!

JJ&J Birthday party

Our 3 nephews all have birthday's close together..end of June and beginning of July, so we celebrate them all together with 1 big party! It was a fun evening at the Schewe's house. Johhny, Joey and James all had a blast opening gifts, blowing out candles and eating cake! We love you, guys! :-)

Our Winning Horse!

Ok, first let me explain. It's finally 10:30pm and the kids are sleeping! I've checked my work email, my other work email, my fun email, my facebook, my heritage makers web page, the local news, and finally my BLOG!!! I might have forgotten something....ya, cause it's now 11:08pm and I'm tired!! But thanks to my wonderful friends, they keep reminding me that I'm lame at updating my blog!!
So, I'm finishing up a bottle of wine and staying up late, just for you! Ha! :-)
Love you, too!

Ok, so below you'll see a photo of a horse. Yes, that's right, we're standing in the Winner's Circle at The Running Aces Harness Track in Columbus Twnshp on our anniversary night- June 6th. It was a fun night filled with friends, great food, drinks and plenty of FUN! We were randomly selected to go to the winner's circle and have our photo taken with the winning horse!

Random...

It's been a long time since we last updated our blog! I guess you could say that Kysa keeps us pretty busy these days!

Along with that, Ana is playing soccer and Emily is taking golf lessons. They both really enjoy those sports and we hope they stick with it as long as they love it! Oh, and Emily is just finishing up her piano lessons for the year, too. Come fall, she'd really like to do Piano, Church choir, Dance and Girl Scouts...but, that's a little much I think.

Also, thanks to the Travers, they gave us their 12ft pool. The kids have been in it everyday!!!

At the moment I don't have any current photos on this computer (work) to share with ya'll, but I do have a random Halloween 08 photo to share. The Travers had a costume party and we all brought out kids. It was a blast!! I dressed up as a rockstar (complete with a real electric guitar) and Tad dressed up as Earl from the TV Show. Emily was a rockstar like her mommy and Ana was Cinderella complete with the yellow wig.

Emily's Piano Recital

Sunday was Emily's final piano recital for the year. There was a patriotic theme to this years recital, so everyone's piano piece had that theme. Emily played, "Caravan" and she did a very good job for her first year! Click below to see the video of her.

Preview a book I made

Heritage Makers has added a new preview feature and I'm trying it out on my blog. This is a digital storybook that I made for a client of mine. It was simple to create and her grandson really loved looking at this book all about him!! Take a look...

Kysa's Here!!

After months of research and finding out about Goldendoodles form our friends Noel and Jon Kern we finally got our new baby and trust me everyone is very quick to tell us that is that we are in for alot of work. Well, we did not not walk into this lightly and we also have been met with many challenges that we did not know that we were going to have and many rewards of the same.

Kysa came a day late but we were all able to go and greet her at Delta Air Cargo. We got Kysa from Teri Fann and Goldens-n-doodles.com and she is the best and sweetest breeder out there. She had warned us that the puppy would be a little dirty. Well, she was a little dirty. We took her to a nearby park (away from as many other dogs to keep her away from possible unvaccinated dogs [Teri trained us well] as possible) to clean her up. After cleaning her we let her run for a bit and tried to give her some food and water but she would have none of it, I think she was too excited to be out of the crate and be with people. Unfortunately we had to put her back in the half cleaned crate for the ride back home.

We got home and let Kysa get the lay of the land. It was not long before we realized that we needed to be on top of the house breaking right away. She had has had a few accidents but she is getting better every day. Tonight she even rang the bell for the first time, although she is a little off on the timing, I'll just leave it at that.
Kysa has had many visitors; Bill and Janet came over the first night as well as our neighbors the Lindemanns who have been anxiously awaiting her arrival as much as anybody. Saturday Great Grandma Margaret came over then my sister, her family, Mary Jo and Ted came over to celebrate Mother's Day. My mom decided that she could puppy sit anytime, especially before she doubles in size in the next two months. We will welcome many more visitors I am sure in the coming weeks.

Kysa is a beautiful golden girl which is just fine with me because I have always loved goldens. If you asked me right now she could be a golden pup. But she is not, she will grow to have the adorable Goldendoodle look with the indistinguishable beard and unmistakeable eyes.

The girls have been a little apprehensive about Kysa as of yet. Ana, who would jump off of a two story building if you gave her the chance is even a little scared. It seems that there is a disconnect between being a little girl and being a puppy. The girls want to give hugs and kisses and the puppy wants to nip at little girls. We'll work on that, look for more in future blogs.

She is a very sweet puppy and we love her very much. She has had some accidents and she will have some more but we will help her to become a very kind and loving dog. We encourage any advise you have we have gotten alot already read alot and want to do what we can to all raise a great dog together. (Oh and we'll put in some pictures of Emily and Jenny too)

No Dog Today

Our puppy missed her flight!! That's right, a little illness in the family and the puppies didn't make their flights out to their new homes. So, we had to break the sad news to Emily and she didn't take it very well. Our hopes are broken at least for today. We went out to dinner and we all had wonderful meals and dessert! Sure to put a smile on the kid's faces!

Anyways, we go to bed still a little dissapointed, but TOMORROW Kysa will arrive (cross your fingers). They booked another flight for 2pm arrival in MN. Tad will pick up Emily early from school (she hopes before phy ed class cause she doesn't like phy ed) then they'l go to the airport together and meet Kysa for the first time face to face! or lick to lick! haha! :-)

35yrs...Older Than Dirt!

"35 years...Older Than Dirt!" That is the button that my sisters gave me to wear on my birthday. Aren't they sweet?!? We had a great weekend celebrating my birthday and enjoying the warm weather that is FINALLY here! OH, forgot to mention that I was sick with Strep Throat. So, I did stay home and miss 1 party, but I'll just have to make up for that some other time. P.S. do you like the crocheted sweater? ya, never worn it before, have no idea where I got it, and since I was so sick, I couldn't have cared less what I wore. It screams OLD lady! haha!!! Here are a few photos.

P.S. ONE MORE DAY UNTIL KYSA ARRIVES!!! (we are excited and nervous--well, at least I am! It's more nerve wracking than having my first child!!)

School project and photos of Emily & Ana

Emily had a class project that involved the whole family making a peace dove. We had to show our family heritage and family interests. We all had a fun time making it and describing what we like to do as a family.
Emily is in her 2nd grade classroom showing her book that she made all about herself. When she grows up she wants to be a teacher. You will make a wonderful teacher, Emily! Here, Ana is in Emily's classroom. She can't wait till she goes to school!!
Ana just being herself. And I think she did her hair this day, also!
Emily has had 1 front tooth since Aug 07. Although she really doesn't mind that the other tooth hasn't appeared yet, it does look a little...funny..or I mean, cute?? :-)