Makena saying "bye bye baby Jesus"

Makena tells baby Jesus bye, bye. How cute is this?

Brewers games in Milwaukee & the Milwaukee Zoo

We went to a couple Milwaukee Brewers games in June and then in September. In June, the Brewers played the Kansas City Royals. So, I wore my KC Royals jersey and Mark wore his Brewers jersey. Unfortunately for me, the Royals lost the 2 games we saw. Miller Park is an awesome ballpark to visit! However, I like KC's ballpark because of the water fountains! We also visited the Milwaukee Zoo. It's been a really long time since I had been to a Zoo, so I really enjoyed this Zoo. They have a lot of animals!

Miller Park:

Before the game.
Racing sausages.....they are fun to watch.

We had good seats for this game!
The September game was against the (as Mark would say) "hated" Cincinnati Reds.
Ice cream after the game.
Mark posing like the mold-a-rama gorilla in the machine at the Milwaukee Zoo.
A lot of cool animals at the Zoo.
Red Pandas don't like hot weather. Marky doesn't like hot weather either. Coincidence.....I think not!
A mean looking tiger.

I liked seeing the Polar Bear the most.

Nieces

Some cute pictures of our nieces Skylar & Makena:
Makena at dinner
Mak & Sky in matching dresses at the Bonfire.
I love Makena's face:

Makena & Uncle Hip (the way the girl's pronounce Chip)
Playing Princess: Skylar & Auntie Jonay
Princess Makena:

Vacation in Colorado & Kansas - May/June 2007

At the end of May/beginning of June, Mark and I took a trip with Fritz & Judy to visit (Mark's brother) Jay, Shelli, & Emma in Ft. Collins, CO. We were able to go to Colorado Springs and visit Focus on the Family and we stopped at the Compassion International headquarters. Shelli and I toured the Celestial Seasonings plant and that was fun. We went to Estes Park one day. And, one of the highlights for me, was that I got to eat at Sonic! We don't have Sonics up here. :-( While in Colorado, we got our first experience of Wii. It was quite fun! I'd highly recommend it for entertainment. Some how, only the guys got their pictures taken with their Wii characters. They are pretty good.

On the way back to Wisconsin, we went through Kansas City and spent some time with my parents and friends Debbie and Heather. It was nice to visit Christ Community Church (where we were married). We played mini golf, had some Sheridan's Frozen Custard, and played Mexican Train. It was a beautiful evening outside that night (playing Mexican Train in a gazebo at the hotel).....no bugs, very low humidity (that's unusual for KS weather), and just the right temperature. The time just went by too fast! Here's some pics:

Emma in her play house.
Rocking Emma & Papa

Not long and both are napping

Emma (niecer) and Uncle Mark
Mark & Jonay at Focus on the Family in Colorado Spring, CO.
Where Dr. Dobson & John Fuller record the daily broadcast of Focus on the Family.
Outside of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, CO - Jonay, Mark, Jay, Emma, Shelli, Judy, & Fritz.
Emma feeds a goat Emma having a popsicle
Wii Mark
Wii Fritz
Wii Jay
Wii Chip

Aunt Jonay and Emma (niecer)
Emma enjoying the sour cream just a little too much at Beau Jo's Pizza.
Mini golfing in Kansas City - Mark, Jonay, Heatho, & Debba
Mini golfing in Kansas City - Ray, Carolyn, Judy, & Fritz

We were blessed this morning with a beautiful scene of frost! The pictures don't do it justice! Everywhere you looked, this is what you saw. Absolutely gorgeous! These are pictures off of our deck in the back around 8am and the video was taken around 9:30am. If you click on the pictures, they will be enlarged and you can see more details. To get back to the blog, just click the back arrow.

Okay, here's the finished fireplace with our blue Christmas Tree and a yellow tree.

Here are pictures of the fireplace that we had put in the house. It's absolutely wonderful to have a fireplace now! So much more cozy on these cold winter days! Mark and Fritz (Father-in-law) started on Saturday, Nov. 24 and it was completed on Monday, Dec. 3. These are the before, during, and after photos (I'm a fan of before, during, and after photos). I guess I should take another photo of the actual finished fireplace (stuff on the mantel and fire going). Thanks to Mark, Fritz, Kirk (brother-in-law), and Gary (Kirk's dad) for all the hard work!

The start:
Cutting into the wall:
The fireplace was already roughed-in (or whatever you call it) with electricity already running into the area.
The 2 studs were removed:

Fritz puts in the header:
The fireplace is inserted and the mantel is being worked on:
The mantel is installed:
Mark is sanding and staining/varnishing the mantel:
The "man's iron" as Mark calls it (the electric sanding thingy is what I call it):

The staining and sanding is done:
The mesh/wire stuff is going up for the stonework:
The stonework is about to begin:
Gary applies the mortar to the wall:
The first stones go up:

Gary is working his way to the top:
The top half is done:
The stone is done.
The fireplace without anything on the mantel or the fire going....sorry about that. :-)