our little emme...

...is such a daddy's girl.

they made her be a sioux puppy

We had a little get together for the Gopher/Sioux hockey game at our house on Friday night. Most of our friends are Sioux fans... look what they did to poor Emme. She looks a little disgusted right? Saturday night Tim and I actually got to go to the game at the Ralph. It was a much better game than Friday night's was and ended in a 3-3 tie. I took this picture with my cell phone so you probably can't even tell, but at one point each of the penalty boxes held 5 players.Speaking of the lovely miss Em, she had her own little photoshoot this weekend. I think she wins the award for cutest puppy ever.

We are dealing with sick kids this week... fevers coughs and overall yucki-ness. Hopefully we get through it quickly!

for your viewing pleasure

Or just so you don't have to look at that horrid cell-phone pic anymore. Here are some photos I took of the kids this summer. I have no patience when it comes to taking pics of my own kids which means I usually get frustrated and quit before I get anything good. This would have been one of those nights. To be fair, we had just finished getting our "family" pictures taken by another photographer (maybe I'll post those another day)... so they were pretty much all "pictured-out."Christmas card maybe????

Twins Win!

Another great night watching one of our Minnesota teams get a BIG win!

Go Vikings!

We all were so excited to watch the Vikings play the Packers on Monday Night Football. What a great game! More cell phone pics... sorry!

file this one under...

"things you don't see everyday" All three of my boys spending Sunday night reading. Can you spot Emme?

the weekend

We had a great weekend at our house... reason #1 is that it started with a little solo-vacation for me on Friday. I headed down to the cities for the Junk Bonanza... lots of good finds. I also had time to shop Alberville, IKEA, and Mall of America.

I stayed at one of my all-time favorite hotels... the Sofitel.

And then had to get back on Saturday because Katelyn was going to her very first Homecoming! Hard to believe she is old enough for that... doesn't seem like that long ago that I was shopping for homecoming dresses.

She went with a group of friends and had a great time... Even though dad tried to give her "slow-dancing" lessons she SAYS she didn't dance with any boys. :)

While she was dancing her socks off, the rest of us headed over to friends' for a fall party, complete with hay rides, playing with kittens, and a bon-fire!

In other news... Katelyn auditioned for the play (Peter Pan) at Moorhead High School last week, and found out yesterday that she got a part! We are so excited for her and can't wait to see her perform!

1st day of school

Yes it was two days ago, but better late than never! And I even took a photo, even though my kids didn't want me too. 3rd grade for Kennedy, 5th grade for the boys, and 9th grade (HIGH-school!) for Katelyn.

grand view pt II

Here are so more pics from our vacation! AND.... guess what??? They were not taken with my cell phone! I don't think I've taken a photo of my kids in the last six months that wasn't with my cell phone ... yay for me!

vacation so far...

We are spending the week at Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake. We got here yesterday and got checked into our cabin, ate supper at Zorbaz and then headed over to the water slide and pool at the main lodge. This is the beach and playground that is just outside our cabin.

Here is Cooper this morning, practicing his canoeing skills... on dry land.

The Glacier Waters Spa... where I had the best massage of my life this morning!

Our kids would make the worst campers. With the miles and miles of beaches and fun outdoor activities available here, they chose to spend ALL day at the pool and waterslide again. Tim went golfing and I sat on a chair on the beach reading my book looking at this view. What a relaxing day!

Princess Emme was suppose to stay at a kennel this week while we were gone, and we dropped her off yesterday morning before we left. I cried pretty much all afternoon thinking about how scared she was when we left and what an awful week it was going to be for her stuck in that concrete cage (Yes... I AM aware that she is a dog... but she is still my baby...) Grandma Sandi came to the rescue and went to pick her up today. Thanks Grandma!

kennedy turned nine!

okay... yes it was two weeks ago... but well... life has been busy... as usual.
On the day of her birthday party she was up at the studio with me for a bit so I tried to snap a few photos of her, but she would have NONE of that... So... this is what you get I guess!

She had her party at Whipper Snippers where each girl got a manicure and pedicure and got to pick out something from the shop! Kennedy chose the rockin' sunglasses. Afterward we went out to dinner at Mexican Village, and then back to our house to play for a while.

The next day was her actual birthday... so we had cake and ice cream at our house. I took Kennedy out on her birthday to pick out her birthday present and she chose a new pink Kodak digital camera with a pink camera case. Love you Miss Kenn!

wefest

Awwwww.... how cute are we???

already august

Summer is just zipping by... as usual. August is here and all of the kids activities and busy schedules are over. Hopefully we will get some nice weather soon so we can just sit back and enjoy summer. This weekend we will again head to WeFest. Iwill only get in one night there though(Tim ... alone... at WeFest? Is that a good idea???) I fly to San Diego on Friday afternoon for a photography workshop. We are still trying to figure out what we are going to do for our family vacation the week before school starts too. Any suggestions?

Last weekend we went to the new Trollwood Perfoming Arts School to watch The WIZ... Katelyn performed with Totally Trollwood before the play. We all thought it was Fantastic... especially the costumes!

And... we got in a quick visit with cousins Jillian and Elliott at a family get-together at Grandpa Dan's. (Delaney stayed home to play in the championship game of her soccer tournament!)

Don't you think Katelyn and Elliott look a lot alike? He really liked hanging out with Katelyn ... and wanted her to help him with everything. Sure wish they lived closer... like in Moorhead (hint,hint!)

bachelor night

It is Monday night... but for the first Monday night all summer, I do not have "Bachelor Night" tonight.

For the past couple of years, I have been getting together with this fun group of girls to watch each episode of every season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. And when I say watch, I mean eat tons of junk food, gossip a LOT, make fun of all the the "contestants" on the show and rewind the previews for the next week's show relentlessly in hopes that we might get a glimpse of some very important information to predict what may happen NEXT WEEK on the MOST SHOCKING EPISODE in BACHELOR HISTORY!"

At the beginning of each season, we watch the first show together, and then make our picks ... fantasy football style. Each "player" puts $10 in the pot and those who pick the girl/guy left standing at the end get to split the money. I have never EVER picked anyone who finished in the top three.

This season my pick for The Bachelorette Jillian was JAKE.

I sure did like him after that first show. But by mid-season he really got on my nerves and even I was happy when he got the boot.

The winner was this dude... ED.Here are the gay green shorts he wore all.the.time.So here we are... (most of us anyway) before watching the The Most Romantic Season Finale in Bachelorette History. I brought the cake...and gagged a little when the guy in the gay green shorts won.

monday ramblings

First off, I'd like you to meet the newest member of our family....
In our hearts that is.... we fell in love with this little guy at the pet shop this weekend. We named him "Mauer" and dreamed of bringing him home with us, but our daddy said, "No. No No No. No WAY. Seriously, NO!!!" Poor us. He was the cutest little thing we ever did see.Dad said he just loved his little princess Emme too much and he didn't want her to ever think she had been replaced.
Okay... that's not really what he said. But... she is his little princess even if he won't admit it.

On another note, Tim and I went to the movie The Hangover this weekend and laughed so.dang.hard.

We both agreed it was one of the funniest movies we'd ever seen. So go see it... but leave the kids at home. Just about every seen has something that is totally and completely inappropriate.

rip-off

Whatever happened to some good affordable fun. I took three of the kids (Carter and Tim were in the cities for another soccer tournament) to the Red River Valley Fair last Friday and was not quite prepared the amount of cash that would be needed. So after we paid our gate admission, walked in, realized our lack of funds, walked back out, drove to the bank, went back and purchased the ride wristbands for the kids, I was already more than $100 down. And then there was the food...

The kids had fun at least.

Dear Hazel,

I think being naughty is very fun too!

our weekend

We had a very busy weekend and packed in lots of fun. Friday night Tim and I went out to the RRVFair with some friends for the Zac Brown Band concert. On Saturday the girls and I headed to Pelican Rapids for the Turkey Days parade and to the craft show at Phleps Mill. We also visited Grandma Sandi's lake cabin and went to Maple Beach for supper. The girls painted rocks at Phelps Mill.

On Sunday it was my birthday so I got to choose the activities! First we went to the Flea Market by Detroit Lakes (which nobody else enjoys, except my COOPER!) Then we went to Go Putt & Bump for mini-golf and go-karts, and finally to Zorbaz on the lake for supper.