SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!!!! Well, until Monday...

May is gone and we are half way into June.  I can't believe how fast time is going.  Our house has been pretty busy with Jayden turning 6, Kindergarten ending, planting our garden, vacation and getting ready for the start of summer school (getting ready for 1st grade).  Jeff has been able to get out on a few fishing expeditions on the river and hitting

a few rounds of golf with friends.

As everyone knows, Jeff enjoys going storm chasing.  He went last summer to a storm spotters class and his addiction is more than ever.  This is one of the pictures he took of a storm that didn't produce, but turned out to be a pretty cool picture opportunity.

Here is Jayden and his buddy Beck on the last day of Kindergarten...I can't believe the school year has come to an end.  Let's just compare the first day of school with this picture...

Guess they grew up a little.

To the farm we went to plant the pumpkins, gourds and potatoes.  We hope for a big selection since we planted 25 pumpkin/gourd hills.

Jayden and I enjoying our time at the farm.  What a wonderful

place to go and relax.

This is one of Jeff's practice pictures with our new toy.  We bought a SLR camera since we love to take pictures (imagine that).

Nicole is able to get into the Milwaukee Zoo through work for a family fun day...so we took advantage of it.  Jayden was enjoying himself very much.  He even felt adventurous enough to take the Sky Tour of part of the Zoo.  Zip Lining is on the list of things to do next time.

My parents, Uncle Ronnie, Uncle Louie, Nicole, Mike, Jeff, Jayden and I were able to enjoy the North woods for a few days.  As you can see, we fit a lot into the few days we were up there, but loved it all.  This picture was taken on a boat ride from the lake we were fishing on, headed down the creek to our cottage.  Such a handsome guy!!!!

Jayden and Uncle Ronnie are crossing the beginning of the Wisconsin River....something Uncle Ronnie has always wanted to do.  Glad he got to do it with his big fishing buddy.

Jayden said "Oh, this is a big one...this one can't take my pole this time"  Well, he won!!!  He caught this 14 inch large mouth bass off the dock at the cottage after Jeff had headed home.  Oh did he want to show his daddy how big his fish was and that he too can catch bass.

Here are the guys getting dinner ready for a fresh fish fry...yummy!!!!

Thought this was a cute picture for Nicole and Mike enjoying the North woods with baby finally popping out to show us he/she is really in there.

Congrats Mommy and Daddy to be!!!! 

Uncle Louie, Me, Jayden, Mom, Nicole and Uncle Ronnie headed to Minaqua one day to enjoy the Wildwood Wildlife Park.  It is a really fun place to go.  We were able to walk right with the goats, pigs, tortoises and deer.

Jayden thought catching the bird on a stick was pretty cool.  The sticks are coated with food for the birds so they land right on them.

One of Jeff's big catches on the river.  It was a 18 in small mouth bass that fought like it was very hungry!!!!  Good catch babe!!!!

We found this to be something you don't see every day...a small mouth bass that just got a crawfish and was aggressive enough to go after Jeff's bait too.  Wow!!!!  Guess you don't see that everyday.

We hope that everyones summer is going well and have been able to make many memories thus far.  We are looking forward to the rest of the summer and will keep you posted on all our fun explorations. 

Until next time...

Heather

Where does time go???

Wow, can you believe it, it's half way through May!!!  Sorry I forgot to post in April so this might just be the longest post I've had so far.  We have had a very busy last two months, so check out what has happened.

We went golfing at Winnegamie for an afternoon of fun.  I ended up hitting one of my balls on the edge of the woods to find out a wood chuck was gaurding it...think he gets to have that one!!!

Easter Morning after searching high and low, we had to make a list of where we all looked for "the basket".  Boy oh boy, the Easter bunny was tricky this year...

And here is where it was...hidden in the hope chest...never know where that Easter bunny hides the basket!!!

Jayden loves to make goofy faces...usually he borrows my camera on my phone to take them.  Instead this time he asked if we could do a photo shoot with the real camera...this is my favorite of the 20+ pictures we took.

Practicing a little baseball with Grandpa Stoffel...what out...we have a real hard hitter in our family!!!!

For Jayden's 6th birthday we wanted to do something really fun...we headed to Wisconsin Dells and had a blast.  Here is Jeff and I trying to see who is going to have to pay for dinner (who ever lost playing mini golf had to pay)...it was me!!!

Jayden got a hole in one on this hole!!!!

We enjoyed the indoor water park and loved swimming.  The bigger the water slide the better for Jayden....

Fun and games in the arcade!!!

Birthday Party Time!!!!  A turtle pinata was the highlight of the party Jayden later told us.  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Stoffel.

The loot from within the pinata...can I have some?

Checking out his new pole with Unkie (Uncle Chad).

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY JAYDEN!!!!!  Thanks Auntie (Aunt Nicole)

for the yummy cake!!!!

My friend Amy and I decided to do something better for ourselves this year.  In February we started to train for the sole burner (a 5K run).  Neither one of us a big runners and never have been.  It was for a good cause...we were on my cousin Dan's team ("the Dan-O-Mites")...  It was a great turn out with 97 team members, most walked, but we ran.  We both crossed the finish line within the 38 minute mark and we were so proud of ourselves!!!!

Here is Amy and I and Nicole and Mike after we were done.  We cheered everyone from the team when were finished...notice the walkers behind us.   What a great time and a great accomplishment!!!!  It may seem pretty slow for some, but we were really proud of ourselves.  Our average time before the race was 14.5 min/mile and the race was a little over 12min/mile.

Hope to have more to share soon and hope everyone is enjoying the great weather...until next time!!!!

Heather

Spring Has Sprung!!!!

Wow...March sure has made a good impression so far.  Can't complain about the beautiful weather.  We have enjoyed the outdoors a lot lately especially at night; what a treat to sleep with the windows open (besides the recycle truck at 5am and the pop can picker at 1am).

We have been so busy with so many things lately and want to share all our fun with you...

We had my parents over for dinner and game night.  Had a blast!!!

Of course Jeff won almost every game.  He's a natural.

The chalk came out and we made a few great pictures.

We spent the most time on the fire breathing dragon.

With the warm weather, we loaded the bikes up and headed to Memorial Park for a ride.

We managed to make a few loops and found a few mud puddles too.

On one of our adventures we decided to hit up the driving range.  Good old reliable Bob Burns was open and was lots of fun for both Jeff and Jayden.  Jayden was doing pretty good and shows a lot of interest in the sport.  Not the best swing, but we are working on it.  :)

The volcano has been in the works since the day Jayden received this from Santa for Christmas.  First Jeff and Jayden built it, then Jayden and I painted it and finally we all erupted it.  Not as impressive as we hoped, but still worth it.

Jayden has been quit busy digging in the garden.  Don't quite know what for, but he is loving it.  Every day after school for 4 days straight that is the first place he would go to.  I asked him if he was trying to dig to China(thought we'd visit Lindsey, Josh and the kids), but he told me that wasn't possible.  Guess he is one smart boy!!!

We went to the shooting range to break in Jeff's new toy and we finally let Jayden try out is Red Rider BB Gun(with our help of course).  He had a pretty good shot, but think we'll wait awhile yet to practice.  :)

Jayden surprised my mom on her birthday with a gift of Silly String.  We had a lot of fun having a silly string war.  We donated all the string that we could salvage for the birds to build nests.  Think that would be a pretty colorful looking nest if they chose our string.

Can you believe this? The ants are out already!!!

And lastly, the lovely dandelions are growing in our yard already.  Where is the weed-be-gone?

Until next time...

Heather

Lucky???

As we all know, St. Patrick's day is just around the corner...we'll see if we can have the luck of the leopracon this year.  I don't really believe in this, but I have been having some weird dreams about winning the lottery lately.  Hmmm, maybe it is the year...

So February was pretty busy for us and we didn't really get many pictures taken, but I will post a few.  Hopefully we will have better luck taking pictures this month to post next time.

Jayden managed to get a little play time outside with the little snow we had.  It was sad watching Jayden every morning, "no snow".  But we made the most of the little bit we had.  This is of our sand box which is being used for hills and mountains for his truck.  Love his imagination.

 Valentine's Day was a blast.  I was able to help out in Jayden's class for their very "sweet" party.  We made pink popcorn.  Lots of fun!!!  We decided to share some with the squirls and birds...

A few hours later this is what was left...guess they were hungry.

Uncle Ronnie was so nice to invite our families for a nice warm home cooked meal.  The weather was nice enough to go for a stroll down in the flats by the river.  This is the view of the back side of the barn...so many wonderful

memories here...

The Embarrass River slightly frozen, looking into the little town of 400+

Before we headed inside, we seen that the tiny creek was flowing slowly and took advantage of it.  Jayden raced sticks through with my cousin Nash.  Such a serene place to be; so peaceful!!!

This is all I have for you this time, hope to be more productive for the next posting.  Have a great St. Patrick's Day...hope the luck comes your way!!!!

Heather

6 MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!!!!

Happy Ground Hogs day to everyone!!!!

I am sure a lot of you didn't enjoy what the ground hog predicted, but at our house there were many cheers!!!!  Sledding is something we really enjoy doing, but the guys only have gotten out twice this whole winter...

so bring on some more snow!!!!

We will miss the Green Bay Packers!!!!

I was able to find some tickets to the Playoff Game so Chad (Jeff's brother), Jeff and I went.

We made the most of it, even though it was a pretty quite game.  Before the game, they took a 360 degree photo of everyone there...I will try to link the web address here.

http://www.gigapixelfancam.com/fancams/football/packers/20120115/

We were on the opposite corner of the Packer's tunnel, 18th row.  If you follow the end zone that has "Green Bay" on it, follow the white corner up on the "G" side...see if you can find us.  (hint:  camo and only faces)

Here is our silly guy...on a field trip that I was able to chaperon.  We went to 1000 Island Nature Center.  It was cold that day, but were still able to go explore outside a little and check everything out inside.  Pretty sure the talking parrot was a favorite.  If you haven't been there,

it sure is a fun place for the kids.

If you haven't figured this one out by reading it, here is the scoop.  Jayden was awarded at their monthly assembly at school for being a positive student.  Crazy thing, the neighbor boy Beck was awarded on the same day!!!  Great job Guys!!!!  So this is to a new experience at our house...let these keep rolling it.  We sure are proud how great Jayden is doing in school and the boy that he is turning into.  YEAH!!!!!

Bringing back the 80's!!!!  At school a week or so ago, the kids got to dress in any era that they wanted.  So we tried to do something with the stuff we had...our best try at being a 80's rock star!!!!  If you look closely, you will notice the Mohawk tips are blue!!!!

Hope you enjoyed your visit...until next time!!!!