Weekend With Amanda...

This last weekend Hannah's friend, from Iowa, who she met in Colorado came up for a visit...

On Saturday we took her on a drive and showed her some fun places near here...

We went to Stillwater, picked up some sandwiches at the grocery store and had a picnic and then walked in some stores...

and did some more walking...

On Saturday evening we went to Osceola to a coffee shop where some friends were playing and singing...

We got to see Camille(left) who has been gone in Taiwan for the past year...

On Sunday morning we got up at 6:00 and went for a hike in the park before church...
it was a lovely morning... although I did spend a few minutes thinking about the sleep that I could have been enjoying...
;) not for too long though! ;) ;)

On Sunday afternoon we went canoeing on the river...

it was a beautiful day!

everyone got some nice sun!

and we all had a lot of fun!!

It was great to have Amanda here! We enjoyed it a lot! You are welcome back anytime! Next time hopefully we can bring you skiing!! :)

Aaron knows how to make mommy happy!

This is Aaron at 3... only a few years ago... :)
Mom was looking through his baby book, trying to find another copy of his birth certificate for him and had a little too much fun, I think! :) She really enjoyed this book that he made for her...

Mom says thanks for making her feel so special, Aaron! :)

Afternoon in the Lions' Park...

Yesterday afternoon Mom and the kids walked into the park to search for rocks... For science, yesterday, they learned about a few different kinds of rocks, so they were doing some rock picking.

As a surprise Joel and I loaded up the canoe on the van and drove down to the park...

I think everyone enjoyed it! :) Tovala was a little worried that the canoe would tip... but not for long. :)

They built a dam in the stream...

Then everyone played on the playground...

It was a great afternoon!

A Cheesy Week!

Last Thursday our church called us saying that a trucker had dropped a load of milk off... and that people needed to come and take milk before it spoiled in the sun! So Dad went up and got about 130 gallons of milk... so we have been busy! Hannah and I picked some rennet up from the local cheese factory and I ran up to walmart and found some cheese cloth.... and since that the kitchen has been a mess! ;)

Dad and I have been making cheese and yogurt, and cheese and yogurt, and some more cheese and yogurt!

It has been a lot of fun to learn the process of cheese making!

We used our cheese press that we had from making goat cheese a few years back...

but soon decided that it was not big enough! Mom made a big bag for us...

so we put it in the colender and set the mung beans ontop with the honey ontop of that! Sounds like a great design, doesn't it?!?! lol

I think it took about 8 minutes before it fell...

(I had left between the time we finished setting it up and when it fell, so I missed out on the exciting part of cleaning up the mung bean mess) :)

We now have 10 gallons of yogurt back in the milk cartons and in the freezer, about 15 gallons of milk in the freezer, lots of feta cheese, lots of ricotta cheese, and a couple of bricks of mozzarella cheese... and we are still have of milk to process! It has been fun! :) :)

Congratulations Elsie!!!

Last night we all went to Elsie's graduation party! It was great to see everyone!

Manicures and pedicures...

After dinner on Thursday it was time to do the nails!

I think everyone enjoyed it! :)

So many fun days!

On Wednesday Mom and all of the kids walked down to the park for a picnic and to go swimming!

They met some neighbors down there. . .

This is Katie and Natalie... :)
After Joel and I finished house cleaning we drove down for the remainder of the time. It was a lot of fun!

Later in the afternoon a friend of Grandma's came over for a little while and she gave us all a Spanish lesson! :)

On Thursday(I think) :) - it was a beautiful day... Mom and Grandma folded laundry out on the patio...

then we had a picnic dinner...

we have really enjoyed having Grandma Judy with us! :) :)

Happy Father's Day!!!

Yes, I am a little slow... :( for some reason it was not working to post.

Happy (late) Father's to all of you Dads! and especially to my Dad and Grandpa! :)

We had a fun day! After church Grandpa Don and Grandma Polly came over for a picnic lunch...

then we all went for a walk in the park! everyone played some frisbee.

except for those who felt like watching, that included me... :)

:)

When we got back home we made Banana Splits! they were very good! :)


Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Friday, was Nathan's 25th birthday! For his birthday he rented a car a did a little traveling throughout the surrounding towns near the Air Force Base... We missed having him here, although we are a little used to him being gone on his birthday... throughout the past 7 years(I think) he has been home for only one birthday and even that one - he was at work.

Thanks for the picture Nathan! :) :) We love you and hope that it was a great weekend! :)

Another Fun Day...

Today was a great day! We got up, with kind of a late start, and Mom did summer school with the little ones and I ran to Walmart for her.
Then this afternoon we took our lunch to the beach... we went swimming!

and played on the playground!

Grandma went out to lunch with her neighbor while we were gone...
It is very funny to watch Claudine and Sylvia; neither of them likes the other... this is about the closest they have gotten to each other (other than by accident!).

Noah, Seth, Talia and Behn started a fire down the hill, because we were going to do our potatoes and carrots on it... but we changed our minds and Mom did dinner on the stove and we sat around the fire that I built on the patio! :)

Before dinner some friends stopped over for a few minutes!

They enjoyed playing together in the sand box!

Joel has been working very hard down at the orthodontist (he is working for his braces) they have planted all kinds of beautiful gardens and done some pretty nice landscaping!

Then we had dinner on the patio! :)

After dinner came desert: bananas cut down the middle, stuffed with marshmellows and chocolate chips and heated in the microwave... they were pretty good(and messy)!

Today was "Camp in or out" day... so the boys set up the tent and are sleeping in there tonight!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday we walked down to the beach to visit some friends who were camping... they all caught lots of little fish with their net! They wanted to take them back for dinner but I think everyone decided that they were a little too little!

Then we went to Noah and Joel's soft ball game.

They won! :) :)



P.S. I was just looking through the pictures that I am posting and have posted, Sylvia seems to be my most photographed person! :) She is at the perfect age that every picture is adorable of her! :)

Fishing and Picnicking...

This morning after "Summer School" we went into the park for some fishing...

Nobody caught anything...

but we still had a fun time!

We had our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the river. It was a great place to sit and relax!

Sylvia went wildflower picking... :)

Today we discovered that Sylvia is not scared of the water in the least!!! She was ready to get right in... we had to stop her several times! As you can see we didn't catch her soon enough the last time. Mom went over to help Talia get her line lose from a tree in the water... Sylvia followed and quickly fell over getting herself all wet!!! :) She thought it was great!

*watching the minnows*

Mom and Sylvia (after Sylvia's clothes dried! :)

Noah and Seth wanted to race with Mom... Mom is fast, but I think Noah and Seth won the race! :)

It was a fun time in the park and a beautiful day!

A Good Full Day!

Yesterday was Joel's 15th Birthday!

Joel and I began his birthday bright and early at 5:00. It was our second morning out on the river this week! The first morning we saw a bear! It has been fun to get up early and go canoeing!

For his birthday, Joel got a guitar! He has been hoping and saving for one for quite a while and finally with help from a few people he was able to get one!

Well, since everyone else is getting indoor dogs, we decided to get one too! Isn't she cute?!?
Actually, on Wednesday Grandma Judy and Claudine(her dog) came to stay with us for a couple of weeks while Grandpa Neal goes to Alaska. She is the best behaved dog I have ever met - she is very obedient!

As you can see Mom's summer calender says that today the kids get to open a restaurant!

So when Hannah and I got home from house cleaning we were seated at our very fancy table, complete with menus and everything.

Our waiters were Noah, Seth, Talia and Behn! They made tuna sandwiches, Apple slices, brownies, Ice Cream, and Chocolate milk! It was all very good!

The kids played hop scotch outside for a long time!

Asher picked flowers for Grandma Judy! :)

Last night after dinner, Joel, Hannah, and I went on a walk in the rain...

It was a great day! Happy Birthday Joel!

...

This morning when Sylvia was going down for her morning nap we noticed that one of the bottom "feet" of the crib was beginning to give way... after 10 babies and all their (our) jumping... So Sylvia made her move to a "big girl bed"!

I think Sylvia likes it!

She was pretty cute!

Summer School Schedule...

Throughout the past week Mom has been gathering books, creating fun activities and planning for the kid's summer school. This is what the days are going to look like, although everyone will have something different.

Today they started with Spelling and Science.

Sylvia slept through almost all of it! Yay!

The first day of science was spent learning about the first of the 5 senses - Taste.

They identified lots of tastes like sweet, bitter, salty, sour and as Asher says "yummy"!

Asher helped Mom by cleaning the board after she was all finished! :)

Sylvia has the taste part all figured out! Cookies taste good!!!

"Ghetti"

Sylvia loves Spaghetti! :)

It was pretty cute watching her eat her spaghetti - she really likes to feel the noodles go through her lips when she sucks them! :)

She is mimicking everything! On Friday she heard Asher say "yes Yetta" and ever since has been saying "es datta/datty/mommy/ect". Another of her favorite words is "sunshine"! When Mom and Dad were gone over night, I slept in their room with Sylvia - she woke up a few times, every time saying "Mommy, Daddy" and then she would go back to sleep when I reminded her that they are gone. By about 3:00 a.m. she convinced me to let her sleep with me - such a little cuddle bug! I keep telling Mom that she should come and share a room with Hannah and I up stairs, but Mom doesn't agree.
She missed Mom and Dad - that was the first time she has been left over night! :) :)

Happy Anniversary

Last Friday Dad and Mom celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary! We sent them to a Bed and Breakfast in Hastings so they could have a little time together... They stayed in Victorian style room called St. Croix... They did not want to bring the camera with, but they did take a couple of pictures with Dad's phone...





It sounded like they had fun together!

An Unfortunate Event...

Last week Hannah and I went over to the farm to finally mow the lawn... It was very long, and I might add that half of it is still very long. Well after going over it once and then going over it again, to get it short.... we decided to be done for the day and come back tomorrow. So we stored the lawn mower in the tack shop for the night. Next morning we came back to finish the job and much to our dismay, someone decided that they needed the lawn mower more than we did. They didn't even leave a note saying thanks. :(
We have pretty much gotten over the loss of the lawn mower... And we were also blessed by some friends, who when they heard that someone stole the lawn mower decided to bring theirs over and help us out! It was very thoughtful of them!
Joel, along with some help, got our other lawn mower working pretty well, so hopefully we will get the lawn mowed soon!

Thank you Suttons!!