Here's a news story that aired tonight about my nephew and the progress of his recovery. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers for him.

Dancing Mark

By popular demand, here is a video of Mark with all the other Dancing Dads. The video was taken by someone backstage when they were practicing for their big recital debut. I wish I had a video from the recital...but video cameras aren't allowed. :(

Have fun finding Mark!

Memorial Day Highlights

Here's our view during our annual trek to the cemetery for the Memorial Day Ceremony.

The kids are surprised and excited by the whistle of an oncoming train in Red Wing after a visit to see my nephew Bob. They watched the whole train from beginning to end and as James said, "It was awesome!"

Strolling to the park in Zumbrota.

A family photo at the 500 flag memorial in Zumbrota--an amazing site!

To all past and present Service Men and Women, THANK YOU!

Saturday Morning Soccer

Saturday mornings have been devoted to soccer games for the past several weeks. Mark is one of the coaches and Ella is #9. This morning the weather was perfect and we enjoyed watching Ella on the field. Once she gets the ball, she is pretty speedy. She's been doing a lot of scoring for her team and we are proud of the way she hustles on the field.

One of Ella's many goals!

Way to go Lady Bugs!!

Where is May going?

It seems I blink and the week is over and in two blinks an entire month has flown by! It's crazy! As usual, we've been very busy around here. Here's some of what we have been up too...

Ella and Mark are busy three days a week with soccer. Mark is coaching with a friend of ours and Ella is really enjoying her time on the soccer field. Hopefully, I'll get some soccer pics up soon. Ella is still doing dance and piano, though those activities will soon end for the summer. Mark and Ella are both very excited for the big dance recital this weekend. Well...maybe Mark isn't excited. Mark will be making his dancing debut as a "Dancing Dad" It should be lots of fun to see him up on stage and Ella will enjoy hanging out with him backstage too!

Ella and James finished their children's choir season by singing a fun song on Mother's Day. It's always so much fun to watch the kids upfront at church. James never manages to do much singing, but he is very entertaining. The school year is quickly coming to a close for both kids. James has just one more week of preschool and I am looking forward to joining him on his big field trip on Tuesday. I've been keeping grandma busy with lots of babysitting while I've been voluntering and taking kids to appointments. Thanks, Grandma!


We've spent a fair amount of time at doctor appointments during the past two weeks. Claranna had a kidney ultrasound, Ella had an MRI of her spine and Mark had to go in for a tetanus shot. We had a few anxious days waiting for appointments and results, but thankfully everything turned out great for everybody. We are so blessed! We were very proud of Ella as she was able to do the MRI without any sedation and we know that even some adults have a hard time with that scan. Claranna didn't exactly stay still for her renal ultrasound. I expected it to be a challenge, but a very patient tech was able to work her magic and get the images without too much trouble. I think we are done with renal ultrasounds! Yipee!!

Claranna is a very busy girl these days. She's running from here to there, getting into everything, and flashing her cute little smile at whoever she can get to smile back at her. She loves to say and wave "hi" to people and she'll even sweetly say bye. Though, if you listen closely to her bye, she's really saying "die" which actually isn't all that sweet. She can get away with quite a lot because we all think she is so darn cute. James is still calling her his "sweetie pie" which continues to melt my heart. I hope he is always so protective of his little sister.

Here are a couple of pics in case you have forgotten what we look like! Mark took the pic of the kids and me on Mother's Day. The other pictures are just for fun! Enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Girl!

Beautiful Baby!!!

365 days later -- So amazing!

She's still as cute and sweet as ever!!!
We can't wait to see what the next year will bring...

I'm afraid it will fly by much too fast.

Getting Ready to Grow

One year ago, this is what Mark, Ella, James and I were doing. We did our first planting in our garden and we were ready and excited for all that was soon to grow--including our family. These pics were taken the day before Claranna made us a family of five. It doesn't seem that long ago... It's so hard to believe that a year has gone by already!

As we were finishing planting, a thunderstorm passed near the farm and shared a few sprinkles and a rainbow with us. It's kind of neat that today at Sunday School Ella learned that a rainbow is a sign for God's promise.