Backyard afternoons...

Audra waiting her turn to blast the ball into the neighbors yard...
Anders hasn't quite figured out the rules (or chooses to ignore them) and hits and and runs all around the yard until he finds home plate, mindless of the fact he's been hit by the ball squealing the whole time!
Anders "best friend" Emily
Many an afternoon we'll end up with one of the Skeeter girls if not all either at our house or their's after school and one of their favorite things to do is kickball. Last week on a beautiful afternoon we played kick ball with the three Skeeter girls Kate, Francie and Emily (all our kids ages) and enjoyed our new (daddy made) swing set!! IT was a moment when you breath deep and appreciate the simply things in childhood... like your mother throwing you a ball so you can run as fast as you can!

GO TEXAN DAY!

After living in Texas for almost 12 years I am starting to realize that my kids (although Scandinavian through and through are also.....native Texans!) Every February a huge trail ride crosses Texas. Cowboys and Cowgirls riding horses, covered wagons with families, sleeping under the stars and on the last Friday in February they ride into Houston to mark the beginning of the biggest rodeo in the world!!! Friday night and Saturday they have an official chili and BBQ cookoff (this year feeding over 200,000!!) THe rodeo will last three weeks with each night's activities ending in a Star performing. And on that Friday school kids, employees, everyone is encouraged to dress Texan!!! Here is Audra and Gunnar's attempt at "Go Texan Day" 2009
**Boots courtesy of "Franks" in Windom!!

2 months!

Dane turned two months yesterday oh his cousin Ilsa's 3rd birthday!! Happy Happy Birthday Ilsa!! We love yoU!!!

Enough is Enough....

When the possum was seen staring back at us through our backdoor one evening...I CRIED...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! We must catch our zoo pals in the backyard. My father who had just flown back from MN went on an "Adventure" to find a live-catch critter cage with Anders..returned (with a story of course!) and we were ready to catch.
Day One: No catch....could we be wrong? Could it be life size roaches eating through our garbage at night instead of rodents?
Day Two: HOorayy...we caught our possum. Hhhmmmm with closer examination, he was much smaller than the life size creature that had peered back at me and my mother through our back door? No no...we had caught him. Triumphant he was released into the wild by Uncle Lee.
Day Three: Let's bait just in case... ANOTHER POSSUM!!! THis time a much bigger version. WE forgot about him (I know we're a little busy) and after two days Uncle Lee came back to rescue this homely creature and release him into the wild!
Day Four: ANOTHER possum. Ok...now I am a little out of my skin. For real? We've been living with a possum family under our feet?? Daddy takes him to the woods and releases him AND comes home with some firewood (nice)
Day Five: now this is it right? AT my 3am feeding I wake Chris up. "We caught something else!! and it's not too happy!!!" Chris says half asleep....I think it's a dog?? No ...it's a racoon!! and he shook that cage ALL NIGHT LONG!!!!
Later that day I saw two women dressed in what looks like zoo or maybe mall security garb with huge cloth gloves in our backyard (I had called animal control) and I said to Anders...."Animal Control is here!" and he responded with excitement..."WHO? Uncle LEE???"

Ah yes....we may live in the city but you can't take critters out of their homeland!

The Youngest!!

I'm sorry.....this is my family???

Happy Birthday MIMI!!

Chris' precious mother had a birthday last week and we love to celebrate her!!! My wonderful in-laws were here for two weeks over Christmas and over Dane's birth. I can't begin to tell you how hard they worked at "loving our kids" and keeping our "house together" while we figured out how to have four kids!!
Happy Birthday MIMI and thank you for everything!!!

A tribute to Grandparents

My precious grandmother passed away earlier this month at the incredible age of 96!! Peacefully she went home to Heaven and for us it was a beautiful celebration of her life. To look at this picture and see four generations....each holding the promise of their own story gives me such hope. My Grandmother was an incredible woman. Soft spoken but she knew what she wanted, loved the LORD and would find time to invite anyone to Bible Study with her. She embodied "womanhood" to me as a young girl. She was never seen wearing pants!! although my mother told me recently she owned a pair of jeans (just because she could!) but never wore them. She was always dressed with class, she wore aprons and cooked a lovely meal and sowed and collected recipes and washed fine dishes by hand. She was not heard gossiping or talking unkindly but she was heard joking and laughing about life. My Grandmother came to stay with my mother when she had me in 1973.. I was the youngest of five, my sister Jill had surgery when I was only a month and my Grandmother took care of me....


My own mother just spent three weeks with me after I gave birth to my 4th. My parents came, my dad worked hard in our yard, fixing our lawn mower (with duct tape no less!) , my mother cleaned and walked my kids to school and took down my Christmas decorations and laundry and on and on.....and there lies that cycle of life that is so obvious to us when we step back as adults but so subtle when we're children. Maybe one day I will be taking care of Audra's precious babies while she walks around in a sleep deprived stooper! And I too will get to go home to my husband and enjoy the memories....