Kate, my therapist...

Thanks Kate!

The torturing continues...

I told you there is always some kind of teasing, wrestling, or joking going on between my boys.

So for this weeks "torture", Jim comes walking in the house after work wearing a Vikings jacket!!!
He was all casual, and on the phone when the teenager noticed it. If you know anything about him, you know he is a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan. You can see the look of disbelief on his face as his Dad proudly acted like he was the new owner of this gem. The look was priceless!!

So the gig was up... Jim told him a salesman at his work walked into the office with it on after they Vikings beat his bosses team, riping on him about the loss.
And Jim mentioned what a huge fan his son was and the guy pulled the coat off and gave it to him... he said he will never wear it again, he pulled it out from under his bead from years of dust just to rub it in the owners face.
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He really wanted someone to own it that would love it!


Well I don't think he could have found a better home for it!
The teenager was thrilled... darn we should have saved it for Christmas, we could have scored the best parents on earth award this year!!

I would have never let him hang out with those Heckt boys at the bowling alley all those years back if I would have known they were planting such deep seeds with this kid of a love of this team.

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Keith and Kevin won him a Vikings hat out of one of those claw vending machines one night and the passion began. He still asks about those guys, he was just a little runt back then (probably 4 years old)... they would toss him up in the air and tickle him and play with him until he cried!

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I am sure he is as tall as big Keith now, and I am definitely sure he is just as awnry!

Voting November 2009

It would have been easy to go by the voting booth on my way to work, or while I was out and about yesterday when there wasn't very many people out. But I promised my "strong silent mysterious man" I would go with him after work, it's been kind of a fun tradition since he finally got me out voting after we moved to Idaho (I know, I know... I never voted before, so sad... but it was something way outside of my box that I never learned to do).

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There wasn't lines when we got there!
I was so glad I waited, it's a neat thing to do as a couple.

My boys...

The opportunity to get a decent picture of them together grows increasingly difficult as time goes by... because the standards of harrassment and payback to each other has escalated to an entire new level at my house.

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Let's just say someone innocent always gets hurt!

Happy Halloween 2009...

We were pretty slim on trick or treaters as usual...

One neighbor kittycat (I loved the tail)...

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and then like 45 kids from all the family members of one of our other neighbors that all go out together as a group... that was crazy, I couldn't even get pictures. Our neighbor was apologizing to me the whole time the line of kids was coming through "I am so sorry, I told my husband it would be too overwhelming"... ha ha it was so cute! We loved getting that many kids.

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Then the teenager thought it would be funny to put on a mask....

Hide in the closet by the door...

and as I was passing out candy... peak out from behind me like this...

and see what they do... ?

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He waited in the closet for a while, it was nice and quiet, no teenager, no trick or treaters!

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Then he gave up and went to a friends party for the night.
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After he left, we got one more surprise!

A friend stopped by in the neighborhood... great make up!!!

Jim made me get a secret stash of Giant candy in addition to the regular candy to hand out.

So I was really glad I had it for those special kids that thought about us this year!

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Of course our dogs hate Halloween, but I love it when the kids come over to show us their costumes. Especially since that season of that stressful, sugar overloaded, costume fretting as parents has passed at our house. It's bittersweet I would say!!

Happy Birthday Taylor...

Taylor turned 2 last week.

She is an absolute ball of energy, that we have come to adore at our house.

Her middle name is still "play"!

She got some new toys for her birthday, and she is so sweet, she has learned to share now. And let's our little Rudy "think" he rules the roost.

But she still goes and eats his breakfast if he sleeps in too late.

Her motto is "if you snooze you loose"!

She fits in our family so perfectly, and has so much love to share.

Her obedience is almost perfect when we don't have company around, she doesn't miss a command. We even managed to keep her from eating a cat the other day, totally off leash and she listened. But it was very tempting to her!

But she still doesn't know how to act when strangers come over,

she has some work left to do.

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Happy Birthday Taylor!

Some lost footage...

From Grandma and Granpa's visit in October...

There is probably a book written about this somewhere...

"The Incredible shrinking Grandma"

or

"The Giant and the Minature Grandma"

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We used to measure him under her chin to see how tall he was getting... he passed that up a few glasses of milk ago.

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Thanks for being such a good sport Grandma!!

And as promised...

"Egg Suckin' Dawg"

I wish the video turned out better... but you will get the idea.

If any of the family wants more... we got a few different songs on video, they are fun to watch, just let me know and I will get copies to you.