Christmas 2014

 Well sorry for the absence of blogs lately.  I got a new computer for Christmas so we're up and running again! Yay! 
Christmas Eve, one of my favorite days of the year.  It's a fun filled day with family, yummy food, and lots of happy excited children running around and screaming, who can't WAIT to open the presents! I also love having the house all decked out with festive Christmas decorations. 

 Jennie and Sheri were there to help with the food, and we had our tradition of beef tenderloin. Every year the pressure is on for the best steaks that melt in your mouth and make you just close your eyes when your chewing and say mmmmm.  This year did not disappoint.  I look forward to these starting in August!  So thank you Fareway for having them, and thank you Bret for making enough money so I could buy them.

                                                                 So many presents!

 Debbie sent us some fun Christmas posters that we all had fun with, and I'm sure it will be apart of the Christmas Eve tradition from now on.  By the way, Bret took some of these pictures and he doesn't use the right settings.  So the blurry ones are one's he took.

Ok.  Now on to the rest of our Christmas.  After everyone left we all went to sleep and woke up early Christmas morning and opened all our presents.  Then headed off to Wisconsin for our winter hunting trip at Edenwood Ranch and Preserve.  We were hoping for a winter wonderland with snow, but it was not to be.  So the snowmobiling, sledding and skiing might not happen on this trip.  But it was a hunting trip, and you can do that in any weather.  So..............

 Ben Bret and Sam, went out with the guide and Ben was able to find a great Fallow deer, stalk it and while resting his gun on a tree was able to bring it down. 

 That afternoon we all went on the ATVs.  It was so fun driving around the trails through the woods, and looking for Elk, Fallow deer and Whitetails. 

 We even spotted the albino Doe and her two fauns.  One is albino and one is brown.  They looked so amazing, so visible compared to the normal brown animals you see in the woods.

 The boys spotted a big rock and being boys had to climb it.  Keaton had a bit of trouble, but made it with some help. 

                                                                          My boys.

                                                                   I have the best life.

Sorry about not updating my blog lately. My laptop had an unfortunate meeting with a bottle of Pepsi, thanks to my lovely sons who borrowed it to watch a movie. So I'm attempting to do this from my phone. Hopefully a new laptop will be coming soon.

Breaking in the pond

We had an 80+ degree day last week and the kids wanted to show Hannah the joys of pond swimming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think she had a good time.

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We had our prom. Hannah was beautiful and went with a very nice guy.  Sorry can’t remember his name :0

What a couple. 

The grand march. 

Ben put his car in a ditch.  Really should watch out for those soft dirt roads. Especially after a rain.

Explaining what happened.  “It was an accident.”

This is all that’s left of the historic stadium.  (sniff)

A tiny little park. 

A trip to the zoo.  Bears and lots of other animals and a shy Hannah

Why do girls always turn their heads when you go to take a picture of them?

Having a great time watching Ben run wild on the soccer pitch.

Having lots of rain storms  and waiting for all the flowers and trees to bloom and blossom.  Happy Spring.

Bret turns 46

Bret and his buddies.  None of these dogs are alive any more, sad, but they were a lot of fun to have around, and were great hunting dogs!  We have Belle, Jazz then Ranger, our German Short hair.  I miss him the most. 

 

Bret had his birthday last weekend.  It wasn’t much of an event for the family, he didn’t want a cake or presents, and he was gone all day in Des Moines for the Iowa Big Buck Classic. He went with a good friend and met his Brother there as well.  He said he also had a wonderful conversation about the gospel on the way home with his friend.  This family is very dear to us.  I gave his wife a Book of Mormon a year ago for a birthday present, which she took very thankfully, but I really don’t think she’s even picked it up since.  I can’t say that for sure.  I haven’t brought up the subject of the Book since then, but as she asks questions about how Amber is doing I’ve snuck in a few things about the church.  I guess I’m waiting for her to say something about the Book.  After Bret talked with her husband in the car last weekend he really thinks he might start reading it.  He seems to have a lot of questions about religion and he’s not getting the answers from what he was taught from his church.  So we’ll see.  They are in our prayers. 

Bret loves to hunt.  He has taught me a lot about it and has even included me in quite a few hunting trips.  Which I have enjoyed, some more than others, but I’ve always enjoyed being with Bret, just the two of us outside enjoying nature. 

He’s also been the best Husband and Father I could ask for. 

Although a bit silly sometimes,

I’m so glad I said yes!!

Happy Birthday Bret!

Florida Trip

The Harlan Band takes a trip to Disney World every 4 years.  They work on fundraising and helping at the school to earn the money to help with costs.  This year we decided to take the whole family.  Well Amber wasn’t with us because she is currently serving a mission.  So, insert Hannah Jacobs, our exchange student to take the place of the missing sister. 

We went down a day earlier than the band to do a day at Universal studios, which the band wasn’t going to be doing.  The kids, and myself, wanted to see the new Harry Potter World that they have there and also a whole bunch of other cool stuff they have there! 

This was at the entrance of the Potter world.  The Hogwarts express with a real conductor complete with British accent. It was cool.  They have recreated the streets of Hogsmead, with all the lovely shops, like Honeydukes,  the Three Broomsticks, and Zonkos Joke shop. They also had an owl post office, and Olivanders, where you can buy your own wand, which the kids did.  These weren’t plastic cheap wands either. 

Everything looked so authentic, and like you stepped right into the movie.  They have the castle of Hogwarts as well, and you get to go in and experience life in the castle complete with moving and talking portraits.  You get to experience a thrill ride and fly with Harry on a broomstick, all over the grounds, fending off evil dementors and dragons, and all sorts of creatures.  It was amazing! We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, where Ben ate an enormous chicken leg, that was bigger than a turkey leg!  We were thinking it was a hippogriff leg!  Then we explored the Other part of Universal, where we enjoyed a Transformers ride, which was one of my favorites, also a ride with the Minnions, Shrek, and all sorts to other movie characters.  Lucky for Bret, Hannah likes roller coasters.  So he didn’t have to go on them alone, because the other kids and myself, don’t like them.    

 

The next day we went to Disney World and enjoyed, the rides and scenery, and also was able to watch the marching band perform in the parade.  They did wonderful as usual. Sam was also in the parade, he was asked to be one of the banner carriers.  He was really excited.  We then said goodbye to Ben, he was going to be with the band for the rest of the trip and fly back with them.  A bit of bonding time with his friends.  Sam and Keaton, weren’t to happy about losing their older brother.  But managed to have a good time anyway.  

Taking a well needed break from all the walking you do around these parks!  I swear we walked about 8 miles each day.  It would have been fun to wear a pedometer, to see for sure.  I’ll have to remember that next time.  Sam goes again in 4 years. 

 

This is one of the rides at the dinosaur park.  Its an older ride but fun all the same.   I have lots more pictures of what we did and will try to get them off Bret’s camera and my cell phone camera to add to this as well.  So much fun, and a nice break from the very cold Iowa temps!  Although as you can see, we still needed to wear sweatshirts, but it was wonderful!

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