Our family

We had family pictures taken in October. I am super excited about how the photographers captured our family. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

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The harvest

I have always wanted to have a garden, but our yards have not been conducive to them for one reason or another. This summer we tried an experiment with one of our decorative landscaping areas in our backyard. The people who owned the house previously had wildflowers in it and I took that out right away. I have had various flowers in it over the past couple of years, but they did not do very well. So, I pretty much redid the whole area and turned it into a place to put a few veggies.

This spring we planted onions, cilantro, a pepper, and 3 tomato plants in there. I was hopeful, but cautious, as this didn't seem to be a very fruitful place. Boy was I wrong!!!!!

The onions were great, the cilantro was beautiful, and the tomatoes----

 

.........they are crazy!!!!! I'm pretty sure we have already picked almost 60 of them and as you can see, they are still loaded. Our tomato cages can't even stand up anymore, they are so heavy with fruit!!!!! The pepper is the only thing that didn't do so well, but it was kind of taken over. I've heard peppers are hard to grow, and this one didn't have real great odds with the overgrowth of the tomatoes.

We have given some away, made spaghetti sauce, and on Saturday Carson and I made salsa together. Carson and I like to cook together! I taught him how to chop up peppers and he helped me blanch and seed the tomatoes. We worked together for about 11/2 hours and had a great time.

I haven't been completely thrilled with the salsa recipe I have, but the spaghetti sauce is very good. I guess I will have to find some more uses for tomatoes as we still have a lot of tomatoes to use. Surely, a good problem to have!

 

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Are you ready for some football?

We are off and running with our fall schedule. One of the fall activities I love is flag football!!!!! I love watching the boys live out their passions. Carson especially gives it his all every single time he is on the field. He is fully engaged from the moment he steps on that field to the very last handshake with the opposing team. It's in his blood!!!!! Connor likes it too and does his very best from the beginning to the end.

On Tuesday they had a scrimmage against another team and they have their first official game on Saturday. Their team name is the Panthers. They play with kids from their school and in their classes so they are good friends. They have GREAT coaches this year that have pushed them to achieve and yet have fun too. I feel like they have already learned a lot.

Carson is the one with his arms up ready to catch the ball. It was a great catch!

Connor played center a lot. He seems to enjoy that position.

We are hoping for a "winning" season this year. I feel like we already have a great start in more ways than one!

 

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First day of school

Today was the first day of school. We have a 1st grader: 

And a 3rd grader:

And another 3rd grader:

This is an especially exciting year as we are all at Eastwood Elementary. I am a special ed paraprofessional there and am so excited to be a part of the staff there. I will be in a 5th grade classroom working with 7 different students. Yes 7 students!

Kaelynn's favorite part of the day was when her gym teacher left his microphone on and was talking to another teacher without knowing that the all the kids could hear. Don't worry. Nothing inappropriate was said. I guess the whole class of 1st graders was amused by it.

Connor's favorite part of the day was everything!!!!!!!!

Carson's favorite part of the day was math because they played an addition game. He loves math!!!!

The day went very well for all of us. The kids have AMAZING techers this year and I am anticipating a great year ahead.

 

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A little time away

Our last hurrah of the summer was a little jaunt down the interstate to
Minneapolis. We don't get there very often, so when we do we like to pack in a lot of fun things. No exception this week.

We got there late Friday night and settled in. On Saturday we parted ways a bit- the boys going to a hunting fair and the girls taking in the Irish festival in St. Paul. It was warm but it was fun to take in a bit of heritage. Kaelynn especially loved the Irish dancers.

Sunday was pretty chilly so we decided to try out America's largest indoor waterpark across from the Mall of America. It was a ton of fun.

The boys especially loved the surfing. They did pretty well for boys that live no where near the ocean.

Monday was spent with a little shopping and a home cooked dinner with my sister and her family. The boys spent their birthday money on these pellet guns. They were very excited about them. Hunting season is not far away and they are ready.

Kaelynn sure does love babies and was a great helper for Liam and Declan.

Tuesday was low key until the evening when we took the train downtown to see the Twins take on the Detroit Tigers. It did rain a bit and the Twins lost but it was really fun to experience it.

Papa and Kaelynn waiting for the train.

Kaelynn's seat during the rain.

 

The only bummer was Kaelynn and I picking up some sort of "bug". It made the Twins game not so fun for us. We were both pretty achy and not feeling very well.

 

One fun thing though is that Kaelynn, my mom, and I got on the big screen at the Twins game. Andy and the boys were walking around the stadium so they didn't get to see it.

Another fun thing was that Kaelynn got a new "do" for school. We both got pretty tired of the crying and screaming from tangles so she decided she wanted to cut it shorter. I love it and so does she.

Before:

After:

We start school, football, and dance next week. Here we go.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3rd annual camping adventure

The 3rd annual Bethel worship staff camping trip was held this week at Crow Wing State Park near Brainerd, MN.  These are some of our best friends and we look forward to this time together!  

The first night was marked with excitement when Kaelynn lost her first tooth!  It was a fun way to remember this trip!

 The kids are all about the same age and they love playing together.  For the most part, they get along really well.  They spend a lot of time together with many different events at church and yet they don't seem to get bored with each other.  The boys outnumber the girls by a few so the girls seem to stick together especially closely. 

This is Lauren and she LOVES Andy!  She often asks for him when she is at her house and she loves to see him at church!  She loves it when he lets her sit on his lap and loves to talk to him.  It's pretty cute!

What's a camping trip without a pinata?????????  It was Johnny Rogers birthday so Carrie and Greg brought a pinata for the kids to do.  Each child got a turn and Carson had the priviledge of busting it open.  It was a definite hit with everyone! 

 Connor and Carson played hard, but didn't sleep quite as hard so Connor ended up taking a little nap with some refreshment on his head. 

 The second night there were some pretty intense thunderstorms that rolled through.  All three kids slept right through it while I prayed and prayed that our tent would keep us dry and safe.  It was very, very, very loud rain, thunder, and wind and I was amazed at the power of a child's sleep.  God did protect us and gave us an amazing lightning show that was nothing short of beautiful!

While we were packing up Connor was trying to convince us to let him take home a pet!  He had found a very small tree frog and was very adamant that he needed someone to keep him company.  After we told him that he could be arrested if he took the frog out of the park he backed off.  Oh the things we will say!   

No doubt he was cute- just not Kvernen pet material.  

So another successful camping trip is under our belts.  Camping is not my first choice of vacation options, but when it's with friends it's worth the sleepless nights and piles of laundry!