Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas, Christmas now is done....whew!

Newly fallen snow the weekend after Christmas.

Northern Minnesota


This year was a "Huhta Christmas" All of Brent's

brothers and sisters were here!



L to R starting from the back. Greta, Mark, Brad, Scott,

Jean, Les, Jenny, Brent and Carolyn




Brad giving Katie a bear hug.





Kyle flat-out enjoying himself.






Brent and myself. Greta gave a book to each child.

Henry received "Boys are Best" by

Manuela Olten. Great Book!







Henry and his chainsaw

from Brad and Glor









Just after the big question:

Will you marry me?

Troy and Greta.

Troy proposed at the Christmas dinner at our home.

Wedding to be determined later.








Another get together at Hans and Jenny's.

We were playing the game Mad Gab.

Brent was the "reader" here.











I could have posted and posted....

Our Christmas was wonderful!

We are very blessed.










Friday, November 14, 2008

OPERATION, ANYONE?


The other day Aaron was playing the Operation game, he was overheard to be speaking to the poor guy in the game. "Quit yelling," he said "I know what I'm doing!" The nose was flashing and the buzzer was buzzing wildly.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Finally individual shots of the family!

Troy - almost 15

Bryan - almost 14

Amber - 12


Kyle - 11


Kristine - 9







Lea - 8








Katie - 7






Nathan - 5







Aaron - 3











Henry - 2











Jared - 9 months

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Jelly Belly Experience....for Carolyn

Carolyn visited the Jelly Belly Factory and purchased some special beans for Troy and Bryan. It happens Troy's friend, Brandon was in on the deal too! Thank you Carolyn.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Still growing....


6 months old and still growing! Unbelievable the changes since 5 months!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Summertime!


I think summertime is relaxing only if you're a child or a dog...Yesterday Brent moved a pile of dirt from the north side of the garage. This dirt came from when we built our new garage/playroom 3 or was it 4 years ago. With this dirt, he made an archery backstop, built up the driveway and spread the remainder throughout the woods. The backstop is needed for those "guys" who continually lose their arrows in the woods while attempting to hit the bulls-eye. The driveway was washing away with every minor rainfall. Next week we'll have a load or two of crushed concrete hauled in to help stabilize it.








Being 40

I know Mom posted pictures of Don's party on Bebo...but I had to add a few more.





The moth hatched!

Late last fall Grandpa Kesti gave us a chrysalis. He promised it would hatch in the spring. Spring came and went and no moth. We had given up on it. Then one evening last week there it was opening and shutting it wings on the windowpane! At first the kids thought it had come in from the outdoors. Then I remembered the chrysalis Grandpa had given us. What a fun surprise!

FULL STORY

I purchased a small swimming pool for the kids. It's not much, but they make good use of it. It annoys me to have the wet swim mess in the house, so I've asked them to dress in the sauna. Most of the time the sauna is a jumble of clothing and swimwear and it is difficult to find your clothes when you're only 3 as Aaron is. He came around the house this particular day with a disgusted look on his face saying, " I can't find my stuff in the saunda!" and he hopped on his bike and pedaled away.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Does anybody ride their bike like this?


Let me know if you want the full story behind this one....or is a picture truly worth a thousand words...

5 months old!


Has it really been 5 weeks since I last posted anything!?! I must have been busy or something. Jared is eating cereal once a day, for sure. Soon I'll have to start him on other things. Otherwise he is a happy camper. He is a real social bug.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Hail.....or.....Golfballs


Sunday, May 25th we were at Andy and Kelly's home when this hail storm hit. It was so amazing to witness this size and some hardball size crash to the earth. I suppose it wouldn't be so amazing if it was hitting MY home or MY newish car, though.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Birthdays....Birthdays....and more Birthdays


Birthdays come in bunches around our house. First Amber turned 12 on April 26th. Lea turned 8 on May 9th. Then Nathan turned 5 on May 26th. We celebrated Nathan's a day early, because Brent, Troy and Bryan are off to South Dakota to shoot prairie dogs tomorrow morning. Today was humid. My chocolate frosting didn't like it very well. As you can see it is sagging something terrible!








Awww! Ain't I cute?


I couln't resist this picture I took of Jared last week!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Three months!


Yesterday I tried squeezing Jared into 3-6 months clothes. No dice. Nothing like having a 15 pound butterball hanging off my arm all day. Uuugh!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Baptism


Jared was baptized this evening. It was very nice. Much better than earlier in today! The three little boys were wild guys. They knew I was trying to accomplish something....and away they went, leaving a trail of distruction behind them! Yikes! It was a bit trying on my nerves.




Friday, April 18, 2008

Glasses for me please...


I didn't have a clue Nathan needed glasses. I had thought all along his long blinks were only a new twitch. But, I hauled him in to the eye doctor to be checked. He is farsighted with a +4 correction. He is on cloud nine with his new specs! I did a little "test" on him the other day. I asked him to take his glasses off and look at my face. I wanted him to tell me what I was doing. Mind you, I was only an arms length away from him. I stuck out my tongue. No reaction from him. He put them on and I stuck it out again. His face lit up and a huge grin spread across his face. "You stuck your tongue out at me!"

What!?!


Brent has often complained to the kids; they slam the upstairs bathroom door. It is especially aggravating in the middle of the night. BAM! When they enter. BAM! When they leave. Last evening around bedtime, Brent marched upstairs and removed the door from its hinges! The kids were dumbfounded. What ever was Dad doing? How on earth were they going to use that bathroom without a DOOR! I didn't ask any questions. The kids didn't ask any questions. This morning over breakfast, Aaron said, "Dad must have burned the door." Aaron figures he burns everything. Later today I went out in the shop to fetch something...and saw the door. It had glue clamps holding down a corner. Wait'll the kid see this! I'll bet there will be some quiet shutting of the door for a while.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Winter.....winter...and more winter


I am ready for it to end already! Nathan, Aaron and Henry are more than a "handful" to care for. Henry thinks shirts belong in the toilet. He knows how to destroy our plumbing under the kitchen sink. He just yanks on the flexible plumbing tube and BOOM....we have water squirting all over the kitchen! Nathan and Aaron feel it's OKAY to pee off the front step on to the lawn (or snow as it is). Mom here is trying to tell them, if they keep this up she's gonna go nuts on them. As my wise mother always comments, "this too, shall pass." Well.....I'm waiting....




Thursday, February 28, 2008

Has the baby come yet?


The date is February 4th, 2008. Kyle, Kristine and Lea hop on the bus this morning all excited because their new baby brother or sister will be born today. The bus driver is a friend of the family. As the three clamber up the steps the bus driver asks, "has the baby come yet?" "No, but today it will be born! " they all chime. The following morning, the scene repeats itself. Except this time the bus driver asks the first one on, " well, what do you have?" The child answers, " a girl." The driver thinks, "a girl...I'll just double check that's correct, by asking the next child." "Well," she says to the second child, " you have a baby sister!" "What!" says the second one, "we have a baby brother!" And the third child comments that the first one doesn't know what their talking about, it is a boy! Okay, thinks the driver, two to one it must be a boy. She addresses all three children, "so what is his name?" Nobody could remember. Day three arrives. Today, thinks the driver, they had to have remembered the name. So, she asks the first one on, "what is his name?" The child answers, "Judas." JUDAS!!!! thinks the bus driver, surely they wouldn't do a thing like that to their child! I've got to check this out with the other two children. "Ummmm....kids, so WHAT is your brothers name?" They were disgusted that the first one got it so screwed up. "His name is Jared. He doesn't know anything!" they comment about their sibling. "Whew!" thinks the bus driver.