The Giant Green Bean

The new "green bean" is up at the farm, at least that's what Rebecca calls it. The rest of us would know it as a grain bin. Dan has been working very hard on getting this grain bin moved from near Kellogg to Marv's farm near our house. There was a lot to do involving this move, but here is my non-farmer, shortened version of the whole process: First Dan disassembled part of the grain bin in its original location and had the top of the grain bin moved by a special trailer. Then the grain bin was reassembled in its new location. Lots of hours and helping hands were needed, but things went pretty smoothly.

Taking the grain bin down a few rings.

The new pad of cement for the grain bin.

The grain bin top going over Interstate 80.

The grain bin top reached its new home.

The grain bin in its new home with only 2 more rings to add.

Some more helping hands and the 2 shiny new rings added.

Birthday Girl!

Rebecca celebrated her 3rd birthday this past Tuesday and we had a family party for her on Sunday. We continue to be amazed at how fast she is growing up! She has been talking for weeks about wanting a Strawberry Shortcake cake. So with the help of a few figurines, she got her wish.

Opening gifts - this one is from Grandma and Grandpa Pontier. Thanks!

We took a few pictures outside before church. For the past year Rebecca has not loved the camera and usually will not smile or look at me. But today I found the trick - she loves to look through her scrapbooks that I have made for her. So I told her I needed cute pictures to put in them so she could look at them all the time. She ate it up and finally smiled for me!

the last bits of summer

The last weekend before school started we did a few fun things. We made it to the State Fair and were able to spend some time with my brother Jon and his wife Tonya. Tonya's family has dairy goats and Rebecca enjoyed petting the goats.

We also got together with Dan's family for supper and went to the park afterwards. It was hot, but lots of fun.

Weekend at the Lake

We enjoyed a great weekend at Lake Rathbun with friends and my sister. We had great weather too - the humidity moved out for a few days and we were very comfortable. I didn't seem to get very many pictures of the action in the boat, but we did a lot of things. Dan and I both like to ski and we are learning how to wake board. We can both get up on the wake board pretty well and are learning how to stay up :) We also did a fair amount of tubing. Rebecca also likes to ride on the tube with me as long as we go slow.

This is by far the best picture of the weekend!

6th Anniversary

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this past Saturday on the 24th. We knew we wanted to spend some quality time together, but didn't make plans until the day before :) Rebecca spent the evening with some friends. We went out to eat at Johnny's Italian Steakhouse. It was the best food and service we have had in a long time - a very relaxing meal. After dinner we went to Grays Lake thinking we would just walk around the lake, but then we saw the paddle boats and for $5 for a 1/2 hour, we couldn't pass them up. Here are some pictures from the water.

After we got off the water we decided to so check out the new pedestrian bridge over the Des Moines river. The bridge has a really cool design. It was nice to just stroll on the bridge and enjoy looking at the river and skyline.

We are thankful to God for another blessed year of marriage!

I'm finally here!

I finally made it to Viterbo University. I have been working on my masters degree for the past 4 years and this week I am graduating! This is also the first time that I have been to the campus which is in La Crosse, WI. Here are a few pictures of the at campus and by the river.

I miss being home with my family so much! But I'm glad to have gotten this far and can't wait to be all done later this week!

Have some fun in your drawers!

I got this simple idea from here. Although these drawers don't get much traffic so I used craft paper instead of fabric and did not protect the paper with anything. This was so simple, it took me all of five minutes to measure, cut, and tape. Most won't ever see it, but it will make me smile ever time I open the drawers.