Pickled Beets

I have pickled 4 quarts of beets so far. I have more beets in the garden ready to go but beets can stay in the ground long after they have grown big enough to eat so they can wait until I get a day with a bit more time in it and then I will pickle them too. I posted a few pictures of the process of pickling them.

Second cutting....

Here are a few pictures of the second cutting of the hay this year. I had to nearly hold Kehan back every time the tractor came near our yard when they started bailing the hay this time around. I even caught him on his peddle tractor at the end of the field access road in our yard waiting for the tractor to come by him. Both Kjerstin and Kehan got their turns in the tractor evenutally but man is it hard to keep Kehan away for the tractors and machinery!

Circus Time

On Monday night we surprised Kjerstin and Kehan with a trip to the circus. It was an O.K. showing. The kids had a blast and Kehan kept asking for the tigers to come out again. The clown had some really funny acts and there were a few smartalicky kids he chose to help him that made it even funnier. Then there were some really CRAZY guys who thought it would be fun to ride motorcycles inside an iron ball at the same time! I don't know how people decide to try things like that! Kehan got immense joy out of that act! Enjoy the poor pictures...lighting is not the greatest in a dark arena with a bright light shining your way.

Most recent house....

Here are a couple pictures of the most recent house construction project Quinten has been working on. It is a beautiful house with beautiful green siding...a color I love! The end of the house farthest from the camera next to the woods is an old house. The crew added on the rest of the house as new construction. I didn't go inside the house but the outside looks great!

Laura and John Henry's wedding

Ok, this week has been very busy and kind of disjointed and I know this wedding happened a week ago but what are you going to do with only so much time?!

My cousin Laura (Fehr) and John Henry III were married on Saturday July 12. It was a beautiful wedding and a lot of fun! I was able to see and visit with many cousins that I had not seen in over a year or more. For some it was their first time meeting Ashlyn. I went to the wedding with just myself and our two girls. The boys stayed home. It was about a 6.5 hour drive to the wedding and the girls did GREAT! Kjerstin danced and swam with her cousins Emma and Bowen and Ashlyn was the cutest distraction aside from the bride! I received many compliments on how cute she was or well still is! I even had a cousin tell me she looked like Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was a surprise because a family neighbor also calls her Cindy Lou Who! What can I do though I passed my hair onto my children and well it is stick straight and likes to stick up!

Oh, we also found the other 7 kittens that were born earlier this summer. They were not even really scared of us! We have given two away but have 4 males left to go. The other female my daughter wants to keep. On a side note to that the mother has moved them again after so located them from the kids playing with the kittens and I have not looked for them again...they might be in the boat though! The other 6 kittens will be ready to go in 3-4 weeks....anyone need a cat? Or maybe 2??

Baby Bunnies!

It is the season for procreation! My Father-inlaw discovered a hutch of baby brush bunnies today while clearing out some junk in a shed. He grab three of them and brought them over for the kids to see. I thought maybe we'd like to keep one but I said no. I just didn't need one more thing to have to take care of right now. Kjerstin really wanted one though. Ashlyn was asleep so she did not get to see them but Kjerstin and Kehan really enjoyed this surprise. Thanks again Brad!

A new discovery

We came home from Brent and Megan's wedding Friday July 4th. Kjerstin told me they found a cat in the shop when we came home. So it probably snuck in there when a neighbor was feeding the dog for us. No big deal that a cat was in there. I at first thought it was one of our orange cats and they are mostly male cats aside for one. Later that day I noticed that our other female cat had had her litter while we were gone. I didn't think much of it. That night I picked her up and noticed she was "engorged" from not feeding her kittens. I just thought she wasn't taking care of her babies which she has done one other time. On Sunday when I went to feed our dog Onyx I heard a lot of meowing coming from inside the storage room in the shop! Here she had had her kittens on the top shelf of the storage room inside a foam mattress topper we have for camping!! I could not believe that all 6 kittens survived almost 2 days without their mom!!!! Kehan and I put them in a box and the mom jumped right in and we moved them to a shelf out in the shed. All babies are still alive and the mom is taking good care of them.

Now if we only knew where the other 7 kittens went to as the mom moved them after we found them, we would have a total of 13 baby kittens!! Anyone need a cat???

Fireworks

On Saturday we went to the lake. It was a nice day out but there was a strong breeze throughout the day.We did not do any fireworks on Friday because of the drive home and everyone being very, very, tired. So at the lake we broke out what we had which wasn't much but it satisfied the kids. Posted are a few pictures of Kjerstin and Kehan with sparklers. One picture shows Kehan trying to burn up the remains of the "pop rocks" that you throw on the ground and they "pop". He is such a boy!

Emergency Room Visit #2 for 2008

Ok so Kehan really enjoys having us run him in! Not really but so far he is the only who has had to go to the ER and he has needed it twice so far this year!

Friday night into early Saturday morning Kehan had us in quite a frenzy. I was woken up by his coughing and crying around 12:15am. I went to his room and he could hardly breathe and was trying to squeak out "Mom,help". That is about the scariest moment in my life so far. Knowing that I could not really do a lot for him but him wanting me to fix it. I picked him up and brought him to our room and gave him to Quinten while I ran downstairs and put together the nebulizer and got the albuterol in it. I brought it up stairs and started to give him the treatment while still trying to calm him down so he wasn't crying anymore. He got a little better. Towards the end of the treatment I turned the shower on. Knowing he would need more than just the one treatment. Quinten sat in the shower with him while I called around trying to figure out it I could give him another one or not. I was told not to as it would speed his heart up too much. So we rushed him into the ER in TRF. It took us a total of 13 min to get there....it is usually about a 20-25 min drive. They let me walk right in and they started him on an epinephrine nebulizer treatment. He was getting better really fast with that. AFter that they gave him Pulmicort nebulizer treatment and oral Prednisone. Checked his ears and he had an ear infection too. We got his medicine and went home. We were home by 2:30am. Kehan is doing well now. Although he is refusing to take his antibiotics for his ear and will nto take his prednisone either. That stuff tastes terrible! We have tried everything they have recommended with no luck. I am not worried about it though as he is doing really good with just the nebulizer treatments. I think I will bring him in tomorrow to his regular doc just to have him checked and to see what he has to say about his ear.

So our 4th of July had fireworks of its own! Thankfully God has once again blessed us by modern medicines to save Kehan!

Brent and Megan's wedding

On Wednesday morning we packed up and headed down to Sartell for Quinten's brother Brent's wedding. I was handling all 3 children myself so I did not even get a picture of Brent and Megan! But I did get a few of the kids and some of their uncles before the wedding started. It was a beautiful wedding with a beautiful bride and a good looking groom! I told Brent his only job now was to give my children some cousins! I don't expect anything soon but hopefully it wont take too long! The wedding was on Thursday July 3.

We came home on July 4th about 2:30 in the afternoon. I had a migrain and felt pretty sick the entire ride home so it was not a pleasent 4 hours nor was the rest of the evening but at least I was not in constant motion anymore.