Little Stinker

Last weekend Kara & Allie were here for a couple days. I had an old "Sioux Athletics" sweatshirt that Jeremy, Jordan & Morgan all had worn. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of Allie and Morgan wearing the almost 20 year old shirts. Allie was not about to have a cute photo taken.......

There are at least 40 more of these photos with silly faces. I finally gave up!

Morgan took this cute one after I went inside. Grandpa called Allie a "booger"....I think that is why she is smiling.

We love this little booger!

Birthday Girls!

Happy Belated Birthday Wishes to my Mom on Oct. 1st

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

I must have gotten my first camera for Christmas 1972. These pictures were taken in the summer of 1973. (Or at least they were developed then!)

(I am certain that Shana is sitting on Sheila's unmade bed. I, of course, would never have left my bed unmade into the afternoon!)

Mermaid Hair & Water Flutes

Allie sleeps with Grandma whenever she is here and Grandpa is at the farm. She sneaks over to my side of the bed whenever she can. I found her asleep on my pillow on more than one occassion! She likes to go to the "cold spots" in the bed.

She makes one cute bed hog!

Bathtime is always fun.

Allie has a set of water flutes that she uses to play beautiful music. Here she is blowing two notes at the same time.

It isn't as easy as it looks....especially when you can't stop giggling long enough to blow!

Allie decided that I should take pictures of her mermaid hair.

I miss my little mermaid. Come back soon!

Week with Allie

Allie is spending the week with us while her Daddy is away on business. I picked her up in Albertville yesterday. We stopped at Auntie Sheila's house when we got back to pick up Morgan. (She had to march in a parade today in Dalton & couldn't ride along.) Allie managed to pull out almost every single toy in the hour we were there. After we got home & had supper I needed to sell tickets at a chamber event downtown. Auntie Morgan babysat. She & Allie played with the water flutes in the bathtub, played Bottle Caps, put together puzzles and created many houses & towers with the Duplo set. When I got home we snuggled and read books in bed until 11:30. It was a busy first day.

This morning we got up and went to Sunday School & church. We spent the afternoon at home. The day was filled with books, photo albums & games. Everyone is a bit tired so we are heading off to bed early tonight.

Allie decided to wear Auntie's slippers tonight.

They are green like her pajamas....

and she wanted to crawl into my bed with them on. She said she didn't need her stuffed turtle to sleep with tonight because she was sleeping with the froggy slippers. Sorry, Allie....grandma doesn't want those dirty, raggy slips in her bed! Go find your turtle!!

It was a fun day!

Hope you all have a great week!

Rough Week

This past week has been filled with classes & homework for Morgan. She was excited to be able to sleep in on Saturday morning.

(I am sure she will be thrilled when she sees this post!)

On Monday I cracked a tooth and by Tuesday afternoon I had a root canal. Most of my week was spent feeling out of sorts with a sore tooth/jaw. It was good to have the weekend to catch up on all the work I didn't do last week!

Freshman Year

Today was the First Day of School for Fergus Falls students in grades K-9. (Grades 10-12 will begin tomorrow.) It is hard to believe that the high school years are now upon us again.

Paul had to get back to the farm and left early this morning. No back to school donuts for Morgan this morning. (Don't feel too sorry for her...I am sure her dad will make up for it with numerous donut stops in the mornings once harvest is done!)

After I dropped Morgan off at the school I observed many parents taking photos of their kids in front of houses, at bus stops & hugging friends while they waited to head off for a new school year. We have 1st Day of School pictures of the boys for almost all of their school days. It is tradition that these photos are taken in the same location year after year. It is so fun (and sometimes hilarious) to look back and see how the kids have grown and the styles have changed over the years!

Busy Saturday

Summer is winding to an end. School is just around the corner. All of our neighbors seem to be doing some exterior home repair. We had some peeling paint on the front of our house that has been an eye sore for too long. I found some leftover paint in the basement that seemed to be the correct shade and Morgan went to work scraping the offensive areas. She did a great job of fixing the trouble spots. (All those hours of HGtv are paying off!)

I am terribly afraid of heights and could not have brought myself to crawling around up that high. She was very brave...especially considering there seems to be a small colony of wasps right outside the bedroom window that she had to crawl through!

After the painting we were in a window washing mood. Morgan did the outside windows while I did the inside. It was a tricky job to get the upper windows on the South & East side of the house. Morgan used a small ladder, a telescoping squeegie & some acrobatic moves to reach them. All of our windows (and screens), with the exception of the basement windows, are squeaky clean. A couple of those top floor windows hadn't been washed on the outside since we moved in almost 4 years ago!

After our afternoon of hard work we feasted on a kettle full of corn on the cob for supper while sitting on our deck & enjoying the cool evening weather.

Summer Surprise

At the end of the school year last year Morgan received the Positively Awesome Character Award. Only 4 Eighth grade students (2 boys & 2 girls) were given the award. We were proud that Morgan had received this honor for the 2nd year in a row!

At the end of July Morgan received a letter in the mail from her principal. It was to congratulate her on the award. It also included a $15 Target Gift Card!

What a fun surprise!

Furry Friends

Here are a few (of the 80 or so) pictures Morgan took of the poochies that have been visiting at our house lately.

Hurley (Jordan & Brittany's dog)

She has been here a couple times in the past few weeks. She was suppose to sleep at the foot of Morgan's bed, but always seemed to crawl in with me. (I guess I don't kick as much in the night!)

Etnie (Jeremy, Kara & Allie's dog)

Don't let that innocent look fool you....this little pooch is always on the go!

Emily has been dog-sitting Oreo off & on this summer.

Oreo gets the royal treatment & got to come over to meet the other poochies one afternoon.

The Show Was Great!

Photography was prohibited during the performance of The Sound of Music.

I sneaked a quick shot during the curtain call.

Our little postulant did a great job!

Kara gave up her Sunday afternoon on the Lake to come to the show.

Grandpa Denny & Grandma Pat made a weekend trip with Kara & Allie so they could catch a show as well.....thanks for coming!

People at work looked at me strange when I told them my daughter was going to be a nun. She also waltzed in a party scene and had one other small part.

Grandma Kay is a huge fan of everything Morgan is involved in. We are so thankful for her!

Jordan & Brittany were in Wisconsin for a few days and took time on their way back to Valley City to attend the Monday night show. (I didn't think to get a picture...boo hoo.) Thanks for staying for the show!!

The cast had 1 week off to rest and get refreshed. They will have 5 shows in a row this week. The last performance will be on Aug. 1st. If you still plan to go, tickets are selling like crazy!

The hills are alive......

Morgan has been rehearsing for this summer's musical theater production of The Sound of Music. She has been cast as part of the nun choir and is also one of the party guests. The cast will be having some serious rehearsals between now and the opening performance next weekend.

If you are interested in tickets check out information at

A Center for the Arts http://www.fergusarts.org/

July 18 - 20 and

July 28 - August 1

More Pictures from Allie's Visit

The Fergus Falls Marching Band was marching in the parade in Elizabeth, MN. It was the first parade that Allie remembers going to.

It was a hot day so we started out with a little ice cream treat. Allie only got a couple bites before it melted off of the stick!

Some "parade royalty" went by and waved at Allie. She picked up the cutest wave and as the various floats & vehicles went by us she waved to everyone. It was adorable....no wonder everyone threw her TONS of candy!


If you look close, you can see Emily (clarinet). It had rained a lot and the band did not wear their nice white uniforms because of the muddy conditions of the streets in Elizabeth (some were gravel). They were the only marching band in the parade.

Look for Morgan with her silver trumpet.

This is only a portion of the candy that Allie (with help from Heather) got at the parade.

Allie was hot & tired from collecting all of the candy. Ty let her ride back through town in his stroller after the parade ended.

We were so busy when Allie was here that we didn't even think about afternoon naps. By Sunday afternoon she was so exhausted that she crashed on the couch for a couple hours. I woke her up (didn't want her to sleep too long) and the poor little thing was confused. She asked for breakfast a couple times and really thought it was morning. I had to point out that we were all still wearing our church clothes and it was afternoon, not morning. What a little sweetie!

We got over 8 inches of rain in the 12 days she stayed with us. We had hoped to visit more parks, but the mud was pretty bad around town. She had a lot of fun playing in a pop-up tent on our deck one afternoon.

Our new neighbors got a new puppy. Her name is Molly. Allie LOVED to play with Molly.

Allie asked many times a day to go to the neighbor's "park" and to see Molly.

Molly is a fun little pup. (Golden Retriever - about 9 weeks old here)

Allie was especially proud of the fact that she could climb the rock wall on the neighbor's play set.

It was still quite muddy one night, Morgan had rehearsal for the musical (Sound of Music), but Allie and I went to the park over by where Uncle Wes works anyway. We didn't get to go on the swings, but the mud didn't keep us off of everything.

Can you tell that she was having a great time?!? (So much fun, in fact, that when her Dad called to talk to her she couldn't find a minute or two for him....she was at the park & had lots to do!)

Later that same evening we headed over to Hoot Lake and went out on the pontoon.

Allie & Uncle Wes shared some green Laffy Taffy....

and then he let her drive. No wonder she loves him so much!!

One of her last nights with us we had spaghetti for supper. She politely asked if she could use her fingers to eat her food. I figured it couldn't hurt - it was quite difficult to wind spaghetti around a fork. Well....she slurped those noodles so fast that I could barely capture it on film. The picture is kind of dark so you can't see the sauce that was all over her nose, cheeks & forehead! It was a messy, but fun meal!