Sara and the kids

Jenn, this is for you. I thought that I would post a couple of photos from the birthday party/going away for Sara.


This is Sara opening my quality catnip toy.


This is Sara opening her favorite thing in the whole world, Nacho Cheese Dip. :) Mmmm!


Alex and Sara. How could that be any cuter?


Birthday people.


Sara and our kids.


Sara and Cannon and Jewel.


Sara and all the nieces and nephews.

Basement Update

Okay, here is where we are at with the basement. Amber and Ashley's rooms are both done. They have carpet, furniture and bedroom doors. They have trim around the doors, but not the floor or windows yet. That will come in the next few weeks. (I need to get started at school and then I will paint in the evenings) The hallway still needs to be painted, I have the paint, and I bought a carpet remnant at Menards to put in the hallway until we can finish off the family room/tv room area of the basement and then carpet the whole room and hallway together. We went ahead and cleaned up the family room/tv room in the basement and have the couch and tv set up so that the kids can use it for now until we are ready to start again. We also converted Amber's old room into Bill's office so that he now has a place to put all things football.




This is the hallway to the girls room. Amber's room is at the end of the hall and Ashley's is on the right. We did put a door on the storeroom hallway/bathroom, since we are not finished with that yet. That way no one has to look at that when they go downstairs to go to bed at night.


Amber's room. This is her new bedspread.


Her desk.


You can see the entrance to her closet on the right. She did not want a closet door. She also wanted it big enough that her dresser could fit inside it.


The inside of her closet. Amber and I put up her closet organizer. She was very excited to get moved in, so she was very willing to help.


Ashley's bed. This picture is a little blurry. Amber took it for me. But you can see the polka dots.


This is her new dresser and mirror. She now has her own spot to put all her picture frames and jewelry box.


This is her closet, minus the doors. They will go up also in a few weeks. It wasn't essential for moving in. You can also see her new bookshelf. She has so many books that we needed to get her one for just her books. This is actually not even big enough. I think she will just have to weed out some more books. Amber also gave her the hermit crabs which made her very happy and they are now living on top of the bookshelf in their tank.

Hopefully this shows what is going on. If you couldn't see all that you wanted, you will just have to come and visit in person and check it out. :)

Canada 2009

Well, it has been a long time in posting. Here are some photos from our trip to Canada. This year it rained most of the time. But we still had a lot of fun, and even got to swim and go blueberry picking. Bill went on a trip with Dan, the owner, and some of his friends. They caught a TON of big walleyes and had a great time! Can't wait for next year.


Addie driving with Daddy. She drove a lot this week.


Alex and Daddy driving. He always wanted to be on the boat or down at the dock when Daddy was there, even if they weren't fishing.


One of the fish that Bill caught when fishing with Dan and his friends/family.


Another of his fish. Bill said he lost count of how many he caught. The smallest fish was 18 inches and the biggest was 26 inches.


One of my MANY big walleyes of the week.


Ashley on her ONLY day of fishing. She came out the last day and told us that she had so much fun, she wished that she had come out more. :) Funny stuff. Maybe next year she will fish more.


All the kids and Daddy with a fish. Don't you love Addie's hat?


As usual, Amber celebrated a birthday in Canada.


Aaron and his world record Canadian weed that he caught one night when he went fishing with Bill and I. You should have seen how far his rod was bending, it was very heavy. At one point Aaron asked for the boat to slow down so he could pull it in. :)


Kids and Mommy. I look like I am freezing, but I think it was just really windy that day, and my ears get cold and then they hurt. Addie said that we needed a picture together.


Mom and Dad after berry picking. :)


This is the berry picking group. I had to set the camera timer and then run down a rocky hill and I just barely made it in time. The second picture I took, I was almost falling over. We didn't go to our normal patch, by accident, but found another patch that in the future will definitely be worth looking at.


The girls and their berries. Shortly after this photo was taken Amber found a small garden snake of some kind. Which of course prompted Ashley to cry. :)


Mom and Dad, on the last day of fishing.


Our family in front of the camp sign on the last day of fishing. We limited out that day in our boat. We brought in 8 walleye, and just so you know, I caught several that were over 15 inches, some 17 inches.