Family Picture

The crazy mom vibe took over once again, except this time it took over 5 women at the same time. Kim, Katie, Paola, Grandma Kobielush and I all decided that we should have a picture of all of the little cousins together. This seems like a reasonable thing for a family to want, right? Other families have this, right? Well, we have some pictures. Here they are:

The next one is my personal favorite. Allie is just priceless!

And... We're done.

Yep, that's it.

The more I look at them, the funnier they get. I just might turn out to be one of the people who sends the worst snap for the Christmas card picture.

Family Camp

Year three of family camp has come and gone. A highlight for Lucy this year was catching her first fish. Here she is just after she reeled it in.

She gave it a little kiss to send it back home.
Heston also caught his first fish.

And Bella!

I think Seth caught his first fish too. Can you see it?

We also had some smores by the camp fire.

Some of the parents snuck out after the kids were in bed. . .

Here is the whole crew

Family Camp 2010!

MOPS Convention

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending 4 days with 3 of my girlfriends and 2 thousand other MOPS moms at the 2010 MOPS convention. It was a great time to learn, connect and get energized for another year of serving moms. Here I am at the convention with Katie, Mallory and Kimber.

All of our kids spent the time back home with grandparents and aunties. Here are just a few pictures of one of the special days that my girls had while I was gone.

I know there were many more pictures taken, but after many e-mails and at least an hour trying to get them to upload, these are the ones that made it.

The girls had a blast with Auntie Sandy, Gram and Mandi while I was gone. I've heard stories of build-a-bear, mac-n-cheese, trips to Target, special sleeping arrangements and many other 'special' events while I was gone.

I'd like to give a 'special' thanks to Sandy & Gram for traveling far to take such wonderful care of my babies while I was gone.

My house this morning

Stinky AND Stinkin' Awesome. . .

. . . to steal a phrase from a friend. Perry, the corpse flower, was both stinky and stinkin' awesome.

On Sunday, we drove down to Gustavus Adolphus University to visit the biggest flower that I have ever seen! Perry began to bloom and give off his repulsive odor on Thursday and the green house where lives was open for viewing until Sunday. This is only the second time we have had a corpse flower bloom in Minnesota, so we just had to go see it for ourselves.

Here are some pics:

Here are the girls before we went in. I don't think they knew what they were in for.

And, the girls inside:

That gives you a pretty good view of the size as well. The bulb is filling the pot. It is getting so large, that the pot is buckling. You will see in the next picture, that it has grown to be over six feet tall. It is quite a bit taller than Jer!

So long Perry - I hope you live to bloom again!

Summer Fun

Girls Weekend

Another fun weekend in Viroqua has come and gone. We had a great time at the farmer's market and 'Crazy Days' and even had a FABULOUS Mexican dinner at a new restaurant.

We also had some fun at the house. The girls were 'bathing beauties'.

Of course, they had their special yogurt breakfast

Mighty was banished to, I mean escaped to, the deck for most of the weekend.

We did join her for some relaxation. I managed to get one picture of Sandy smiling. I don't think she knew I was taking a picture.

If she knew I was coming with the camera, she would have done something like this:

Gram had time for a smile and so did the girls

Lots of fun, but way to short. Next summer, we need a week!