Merry Christmas!

Harvest Festival

Here are my four awesome kids all decked out in their Harvest Festival Costumes  On Monday, October 31st our family ventured off to a nearby church where the kids had a blast playing games while retrieving half a pail full of candy treats. Other fun activities: face painting, petting zoo, outdoor jumping balloon, cotton candy and others who love the Lord. What a "memory maker!" This experience reminded me of the days in my childhood where my sister, parents and I participated in an event titled "Fall Party." A time where we could dress up, go door-to-door,  and show our friends and Bethany family our homemade costumes. This memory was why I looked around for something similar for my kids - a fun and safe place to dress up and have fun as a family. I think I came pretty close this year.

Birthday Girls

Monday, September 19 was my birthday

Today on September 20th our Hannah turned "1!"

What fun we will have in the coming years!

Peach Canning

The Canning crew: My job was to halve the peaches and put them in the jars.

Mary (mother-in-law) was the syrup maker and Master Canner!

Aunt Peggy - Peach Scalder, Micah - Peach Deskinner and Great Grandma - also peach deskinner

      

Micah with Great Grandma as Grandma Mary took the VERY HOT canned peaches out of the canner.

Peach canner-in-training

The fruits of our labor - we had 61 jars done by early afternoon!.

Micah entertained Hannah by taking her for a wagon ride in our family room. As you can see, she enjoyed the ride!

While us ladies were canning this morning, Tim had a vacation day where he took the two middle boys out of the house. Ahhh, what a relief that was! So, once kids were down for rest he got to have some R&R fishing with his cousin. Wow, what catch! Thanks Tim for helping me out and for a GREAT birthday date last evening. :)

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of what's been going on the month of August. Below are Micah and Ben completing swimming lessons at Maple Grove Community Center. They both passed (Yeah!) and thoroughly enjoyed their time in the water.


If you do not know, my boys (including Tim) enjoy tractors. This picture was taken in Waconia at the Carver County Fair

We also enjoyed visiting Elm Creek Beach this summer. Many hours of fun in the sun. Thanks Rekstad family for a fun time!

Recap of things going on...

Wow, is it really August 15th already? I know it has been awhile since I've updated the blog so let me give you a recap of things going on around here.

Hannah baby is looking more and more like a little girl. She is nearly 11 months old and she is crawling (more like army crawling) everywhere! She likes most anything I put before her, even ground up spaghetti, mixed vegetables, banana, cheerios, pizza crust, you name it. She is a happy, go-with-the-flow type gal.

Caleb is talking more and more each day. As you talk with him he'll more than likely repeat the last word you say. It makes it kind of fun to say to him, "Caleb, that piece of watermelon is so delicious!" Where he in turn will say, "Dewicious!"

Ben is full of curiosity and sometimes mischief. We call him Mr. Chatterbox. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are going he has something to say. He also enjoys riding his bike and more recently taking swimming lessons. There was a time when we were at a hotel pool and he wasn't able to stay afloat. As he was sinking down into the water I was able to grab his arm and swing him up onto the ledge. What was the first thing he said? I was thinking he'd say "Mom thanks for rescuing me!"Instead he said, "It sure was good I had my goggles on!" That kid makes me laugh (and occasionally add a few gray hairs to my head).

Micah is growing and learning quite a lot lately. He has some AWESOME questions which sometimes I am able to answer, but others leave me stumped! So we go to good old Mr. Google to find an answer or consult Daddy Bailey on other questions. I love how his mind works and operates. I think he'll be an engineer of some sort like his dad. In a couple weeks he'll be starting 1st grade. We're going to try something a little different this year in homeschooling so I'll have to let you know how things go. I'm excited, especially about our history and math program. In a way, I feel like I'm going back to school myself and it brings back so many fond memories.

That's about all for now. I'll try to put some pictures up soon. Thanks for stopping by. If you are ever in our neck of the woods, we'd love for you to stop on over!

Blessings,
Krista and gang

Baker Park

July 9th, we had family pictures taken at Baker Park by Becky's sister, Amanda of Amanda Joy Photography. Just thought I'd share a few pictures from our day. Below is a picture of our whole group - we're now up to 17 people!

The "original" five!Micah (6)

Ben (4)

Caleb (2 1/2)

Hannah (9 months)Our family of six

Sneaking in a kiss to Tim