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Happy March.

It is a Happy March! We started with friends and lots of snow, then a warm up a week later. I'm convinced God has heard my (constant) cries about winter in Wisconsin and after 6 years has delivered up some winter mercy just for me. Thank you, Father. I know you have all been loving it as well.

Gracyn turned 5. Our big girl! Enjoy her smiles!

Jan/Feb 2012

A few new ones.

By more than one request...

Here you have it. The latest. Apparently watching blissful fall days of sunshine and our heavenly rendezvous to paradise isn't good enough to keep you all entertained. I agree, it's been awhile and yes, we know the header says 2010 and it is, in fact, 2012. Blogging? Well, we're just not into it. Maybe I need a different system? Not sure, but I agree I'm terrible at it. I do enjoy writing and photography, so I don't know what the problem is. I need a different system. A few new pics for you here today. Nothing fantastic, no edits. We've had a very mild winter which is fine by me, but we did sign the girls up for ski lessons, so it would be nice to get them out a few times (cross country).

December kept us busy with Holiday fare, baking and visits. Thank you for the visits! Girls had a great Christmas morning, you'll notice it is very dark outside when they are opening presents. Santa gifted them with slippers and snow globes. We gifted them with a much appreciate science kit. One small disappointment with the day, I whipped up some rotten cream for our Swedish Pancakes. That was sad. I'm still not over it. I'm just glad we didn't have company for that experience. I would have been so embarrassed to fail on Christmas morning.

New Year rolled in. Huskers and Badgers both lost. I turned 34. Yikes! I've been busy in the kitchen cooking up meals. Justyn was stumped when he actually thought my pumpkin curry soup was....good. We'd had a few good meals lately. I wish it didn't cost so much to eat. Prices are crazy. I've been working on my education as well, so I rewarded myself for finishing my last class (to get my WI teaching certificate), by using my birthday cash a gallon of paint. Gray in the kitchen, but I fear I've gone too light this time. It glows in there or perhaps the paint isn't the problem as much as the cabinets, appliances, sink, doors, trim and counter tops all being bright white? Yes too much white which I have always believed to be true... maybe we're looking at a counter top. Not sure yet.

Girls are good. Enjoying school and staying relatively healthy this year. Hooray! Tonight, while Alicyn was at ballet, dad and I humored Gracyn by letting her boss us around while playing school. She told us, not only was she the teacher, but she was also the principle. Over achiever. :) Alicyn's still our outdoor girl. She enjoyed playing in the snow for an hour today and she's also our passionate scientist who is beginning a dinosaur unit at school. We are thankful for the opportunity she's had to study real dinos up close in WY and the confidence it's given her.

Justyn is busy. Always. Work has his head spinning, but he loves it. Over break he made a nice looking coffee table, but I'm not sure any coffee has graced it's top yet. These days the fire place gets our attention.

Blessings.

Aloha (and a few more Fall)

Turns out Kauai is in fact a beautiful place. Grateful for the opportunity to celebrate 10 years in such a beautiful place and so grateful to be home with our girls!

End of Summer

A few new pics for you :)

4400 Miles

A few pics of our summer excursion. First stop with friends in MN. Time with family in WY. Hiking with friends in Buffalo, WY. Over to ID to visit Jonathan and home via Glacier National Park. So many pretty places, photos could never do justice.

Enjoy!

Doom and Gloom.

That's how I feel about Wisconsin right now. I'm looking forward to some sunshine in the very near future with big blue sky and little wispy clouds.

Enjoy a few new pics. Camping at Laura Lake over Memorial weekend, fun in the yard, kayaking with daddy, kindergarten celebration, a new cut for Alicyn and a nice shiner for Gracyn. Trip to Bay Beach. And you can't miss our Big Jake, he's not yet 6 months and already 50 pounds!

Don't let all these sunny photos fool you. They were taken on the only six sunny days we've had in 8 months! :)

Tomorrow we celebrate 10 years. We are blessed! I love you PJ.

It's a boy!

Meet our latest addition, Jake.

March 2011

Happy Birthday Gracyn. A few pics of our winter fun.

December 2010

Santa. Parade. Warming up toes. Making treats (the girls practically made the baklava themselves this year)! All dressed up for Christmas Eve. Note Alicyn's missing tooth. Playing in first snow. Scored a Light Bright at Goodwill = family fun. Cheerful girls playing with Grandma and Papa and last a few pics from our weekend with Grandma Dawn and cousins.

November 2010

It's hard turning the calendar pages. For us, it's going much too quickly, so some slow down would be appreciated. November had Justyn working craziness. Alicyn had her first Girl Scouts meeting. Gracyn had a big week off to the lab for pokes, dentist, eval for speech and doctor visit for lab results to find out we repeat lab in 6 weeks. Poor thing. She is sick of being poked, but takes it so well. She's a strong little - correction, almost 4 year old- girl. No news for Rae, but the weather report of clouds (although pleasantly sunny today). I believe Justyn is tired of hearing my complaining and already I'm looking for a change. This usually happens in late January when I want my hair cut or I toy with the idea of coloring it (which I have never had the nerve to follow up with), sometimes I paint the house and other times I get online and dream of sunny places checking on home prices and job markets. All are good therapy for me, but hitting a little early this year since we haven't hit winter yet...ugh. We had a nice little Thanksgiving break at Grandma Dawn's.....phone call..... I'll stop my whining. Speech Path just called and she qualifies! Hooray!

Good Boy.

October flew by for us. We spent some time hauling wood - well, Justyn mostly got that privilege thanks to me having an injury. I should be healed up soon, but the leaves are done and the wood is stacked so it's a little to late for helping with chores. Justyn had a chance to visit Salt Lake City and Illinois for work. I had a chance to ride along with Gracyn to the pumpkin farm for her first preschool field trip. Together as a family, we spent a Saturday at the local nature center where we were treated a wild wagon ride. Much to the girls delight, we found a water park towards the end of the month. Thanks to Grandma Dawn for the cute lady bugs. The girls enjoyed them very much.

Our biggest news for October is the loss of our pal Hunter. We miss him much. Alicyn is carrying around her Hunter stuffed animal which was given to her a few years ago - he looks pretty similar too. Gracyn asks me, "Mom are you sad? Me too." As for Justyn and I - we are just plain missing our dog. He was very much a part of our family and was so gracious giving up his only" child" status. It's really ridiculous what a good boy he was. We know we are blessed to have had him in our home. So in honor of our good boy, there are a few pics of Hunter.

Gold, Golf and Apples

A few new pics. Excuse the overtired model. Our maple peaked today and she wanted me to take a pic of her - well many actually. Alicyn was busy digging worms outside while daddy was painting some trim. Happy October! Forecast is sunny. :)

Fall 2010

I'm thinking I'm not getting to this much. I'm not much for a blogger I guess...

Fall has found its way back to our home and we are not impressed. Cloudy days. Blah. The only redemption is the tree color, but even that will be gone in a week or two. Blah. Blah. Oh, winter stay away. We can actually handle autumn nicely, but winter ... stinks. Alicyn has decided she would like to have one week of winter during Christmas and then jump into spring. Smart girl.

Football is back. Alicyn started kindergarten which has been quite a transition for all of us. I miss her dearly, but know she is a rock star student. With her steel trap memory, she is the ideal classic student. We have faith she will continue to use it wisely and begin shining in her classroom. Gracyn began attending preschool two mornings a week. She loves it. Very big girl stuff. I'm hoping it will be great for building her language skills. We have a packet of articulation activities to work on together. With fall came Justyn's birthday. 35 finds him healthy and a proud father. I personally think he has mastered the husband skills as well. I am extremely blessed. Too much so probably. My life is incredibly easy compared to 99% of the world. My own fall is falling into routine. The kitchen is in full swing. Unfortunately dishes come with that effort, but I'm a realist and Gracyn always enjoys helping. Hunter has also enjoyed the delight of routine as he is getting his regular walk and it seems we are best of friends again.

Our projects have been winding down. Not much yet to do. Some painting. Always, some painting... Not sure what colors you will find here next. We did get the new windows finished and they look awesome. Special shout out to Uncle Bob for helping. (Also, loving my disposal switch! Thank you!)

No other news. I hope everyone is well and takes some time to enjoy the bountiful colors.

Settling Down

Grrr. Just had a nice post done and it didn't post. Ugh!

The new pics are 1/2 way in, so now it really is the longest slideshow ever! I'll take off the top 1/2 in a few days...

Photos - finally

Just getting started, this could take a while....

We've been busy having lots of fun. A trip to see Great Grandma Clara, Harris Ranch and the Black Hills, camping and more camping and a few more side trips, a few projects and friendly visits. July. was. busy.

Tonight we sit on the couch admiring our view. I've got strep throat and I'm pretty sure my man is in the beginning stages, but it requires us to sit still and get 'er done. This shall be the longest slideshow - ever. Enjoy.

Happy Belated Anniversary

Rae and I celebrated our 9th anniversary last week. Crazy! I love you Rae!!! We're heading west to visit family - looking forward to the trip!

May Photos

Here they are. We've kept you waiting and finally deliver. The pics of Alicyn in the poke-a-dot jacket is our little hike in the Kettle Moraine Park on Mother's Day and anything with water is our Memorial Weekend at Peninsula State Park and Whitefish Dunes. We camped 3 nights and our girls did wonderfully. Ofcourse we stopped for our share of treats - ice cream twice, bakery and taffy at a candy shop. While we were enjoying the taffy a man was playing a fiddle for passersby. We stayed 30 mintues to enjoy the tunes. Justyn took the girls over to drop some money in the case and appropriately the man began to play Amazing Grace. It was a sweet moment for all of us.

We were driving by Bay Beach anyway, so we stopped. On the ferris wheel Alicyn said, "I can't stop smiling!" Amazingly the park was empty, so we didn't have to stay long.

So after a weekend of bike rides, treats, hikes, rock throwing, castle building, tower climbing, friendship building and beach strolling Alicyn reporting, "I'm having so much fun, I must be dreaming...."

She's not dreaming anymore. Justyn is back to work, Alicyn begins her last week of school, Gracyn should take a nap and I get to clean up all this camping mess, but it was worth it. :)

We are looking forward to a summer of dreamy moments.