July 3, 2014 Johanna Helen joined our family! Johanna was my Grandma Gladys (Skarr) Bogotty's mother's name. Helen Weiner was Luke's maternal grandmother. Our Johanna has been such a wonderful addition we just adore her cute little face and she lights up all around! Must have been because we celebrated with fireworks on her first full day of life! The hospital is on the river, and the awesome remodeled family birthing center is full of great windows. Our room was the corner room and we could see the barge. One really fun thing too was we were able to celebrate with Lexi and her little sister too! Johanna is our own little firecracker!
This was Johanna's first outing, David stayed home to help me. C-sections take a longer recovery and so it was nice that he is such a caring young man! We walked up for dinner out when the rest were traveling.
My mommy retired in the spring and this is a picture of her an Noah at Como. She was generous and thoughtful to have Noah attend their day camp. He got to spend the week at her house nearby and got to go and experience Camp Como each morning! Noah loves animals and was inspired by the Wild Kratt brothers, and certainly the original Noah in saving all the animals!! Grandma Linda also lives nearby the Gibbs Farm, which was the first farm in Ramsey County. They also offer day camps and later in the summer Libby and Reany had the fortune of being able to attend a sampler camp that taught them all about Victorian, Sioux, and Pioneer girls. They all had a great time at their camp weeks and we hope this is a new tradition! We also worked at or attended our family's 12th year at Calvary's Vacation Bible School. It is a highlight of the summer. We biked to the beach, fished and frequented the mill pond, planted flowers, and grilled a ton. yum yum
The littlest Lillie and Johanna, bound to be great friends for life. So much fun to see the kids welcome a new baby and be loving and kind! No shortage of attention. The big kids get attention too. One of the more exciting things that happened this summer too was that Adam and Matthew spent a week at Camp Friendship and they also had some weekend trips there too. David put in 5 weeks at Camp Lebanon and he is a camper at heart! He even was there and we let Libby try her first week as an individual camper too. Helps that we are so familiar with that camp in returning there for Labor Day weekend forever more. Reany also had her share of good times helping a friend at a dog kennel and caring for a variety of different breeds of dogs. She found puppy love more than once!
Where would people be traveling? Where the road goes, in the RV. This hotel on wheels was a great idea, as a family of our size we need to always get two hotel room anyhow. Now we just drive from walmart parking lot to parking lot. Just kidding! We made our way around and would even drive it to our local park and have lunch and random outings or movie nights. Luckily gas prices have decreased because we were reconsidering the cost effectiveness, but seems like a perfect retirement home;)
With a crew this size we cannot always meet together for Christmas anymore, that's lots of kids to travel! Here are my parents grandkids: Ellie, Naomi, Sylvi, Lillie, Emmett, Henry, Oscar, Noah, Libby, Reany holding Johanna, David holding Ivan. Not pictured are Adam and Matthew, and the newest buttercup Oliver. Kids grow like weeds, we are glad to try getting them to know eachother and have fun together each year if not as much as possible! Both of my little brothers live out of state and so we take any chance we can get to see them.
We had baby kitties!! They were sooooo cute! My cat breeding ideas were short lived though because my beautiful Fonzie male was on the extreme side of annoying housed stud and when out was on the extreme side of spraying too, so he was cooped up here too much and we are sharing him with his original breeder. Our kittens were so adorable though and we continue to have updates from their current owners too. Of the saddest outcomes though, was that Fonzie was a brat to our lovable Kalu. Kalu became so stressed out about him that we let him go outside and he was glad to bring us 1-2 mice nearly each day. Gross! Where were they all coming from!! Winter came and the boys interactions continued to be strained, something that I hadn't anticipated since Kalu was neutered. Kalu was top of the charts for awesome cats and I genuinely pray that he is safe and snuggled tightly in someones home that also fell in love with him. We have not seen him since the 3rd week in October. It breaks my heart that he is gone and I feel responsible:( If only we could see the future!
This little baby Johanna is in the little high chair that my late and incredibly talented paternal Grandpa Oscar Claris Olson made. He gave it to me in 1996, when I was a senior in high school. I believe he had made them for some of the grand-daugheters and then hadn't finished them and so they were really later than the original plan for us to be using them for our dolls. Well I have real dolls now! After many hyears of saving and cherishing the high chair, I decided it was meant to be used and let my kids play with it. About a year later they broke the cute little tray off it. Nothing lasts forever, but here is a nice picture to cherish the same.
Lexi came and bid us farewell late July. Haven't seen her since:( Her mother wanted to pursue some life dreams and Lexi wanted to go with. We look forward to her return though and we should be seeing more of her once she comes back then too! If you love them you have to let them go sometimes. This was one of them, sad but true.
Every year we take advantage of the local pay here car dealership's customer appreciation day. I used to repo for them and they don't mind that we are not their target customers. They have free arcade games, bounce houses, clowns making balloons, facepainting, food, pop, Ferris wheel, and drawings. I usually bring the kids up for a free meal, why not! I thought it was a good idea and even took this selfie when we boarded the Ferris wheel. While I did remain calm, there was a sense of panic once we were moving, like, "oh no, why am I on this protable ride with my little newborn." We survived.
Having a baby and busy family means you forget your camera, can't get to it in time or forget if you do have it, and realize after fact you missed some good pictures. So be it. I did manage to get this shot of Noah on the 1st place podium for the BMX State Champion Finals. He is a fast little racer and advanced to expert level this season too. Wrapping up the summer is always a fun time of year as we prepare for another school year and regroup ourselves for winter. I think that means I like Minnesota? Haven't left yet I guess.
This concludes the second portion of sharing some of the pictures I was able to take in 2014. One more to come!!
July 3, 2014 Johanna Helen joined our family! Johanna was my Grandma Gladys (Skarr) Bogotty's mother's name. Helen Weiner was Luke's maternal grandmother. Our Johanna has been such a wonderful addition we just adore her cute little face and she lights up all around! Must have been because we celebrated with fireworks on her first full day of life! The hospital is on the river, and the awesome remodeled family birthing center is full of great windows. Our room was the corner room and we could see the barge. One really fun thing too was we were able to celebrate with Lexi and her little sister too! Johanna is our own little firecracker!
This was Johanna's first outing, David stayed home to help me. C-sections take a longer recovery and so it was nice that he is such a caring young man! We walked up for dinner out when the rest were traveling.
My mommy retired in the spring and this is a picture of her an Noah at Como. She was generous and thoughtful to have Noah attend their day camp. He got to spend the week at her house nearby and got to go and experience Camp Como each morning! Noah loves animals and was inspired by the Wild Kratt brothers, and certainly the original Noah in saving all the animals!! Grandma Linda also lives nearby the Gibbs Farm, which was the first farm in Ramsey County. They also offer day camps and later in the summer Libby and Reany had the fortune of being able to attend a sampler camp that taught them all about Victorian, Sioux, and Pioneer girls. They all had a great time at their camp weeks and we hope this is a new tradition! We also worked at or attended our family's 12th year at Calvary's Vacation Bible School. It is a highlight of the summer. We biked to the beach, fished and frequented the mill pond, planted flowers, and grilled a ton. yum yum
The littlest Lillie and Johanna, bound to be great friends for life. So much fun to see the kids welcome a new baby and be loving and kind! No shortage of attention. The big kids get attention too. One of the more exciting things that happened this summer too was that Adam and Matthew spent a week at Camp Friendship and they also had some weekend trips there too. David put in 5 weeks at Camp Lebanon and he is a camper at heart! He even was there and we let Libby try her first week as an individual camper too. Helps that we are so familiar with that camp in returning there for Labor Day weekend forever more. Reany also had her share of good times helping a friend at a dog kennel and caring for a variety of different breeds of dogs. She found puppy love more than once!
Where would people be traveling? Where the road goes, in the RV. This hotel on wheels was a great idea, as a family of our size we need to always get two hotel room anyhow. Now we just drive from walmart parking lot to parking lot. Just kidding! We made our way around and would even drive it to our local park and have lunch and random outings or movie nights. Luckily gas prices have decreased because we were reconsidering the cost effectiveness, but seems like a perfect retirement home;)
With a crew this size we cannot always meet together for Christmas anymore, that's lots of kids to travel! Here are my parents grandkids: Ellie, Naomi, Sylvi, Lillie, Emmett, Henry, Oscar, Noah, Libby, Reany holding Johanna, David holding Ivan. Not pictured are Adam and Matthew, and the newest buttercup Oliver. Kids grow like weeds, we are glad to try getting them to know eachother and have fun together each year if not as much as possible! Both of my little brothers live out of state and so we take any chance we can get to see them.
We had baby kitties!! They were sooooo cute! My cat breeding ideas were short lived though because my beautiful Fonzie male was on the extreme side of annoying housed stud and when out was on the extreme side of spraying too, so he was cooped up here too much and we are sharing him with his original breeder. Our kittens were so adorable though and we continue to have updates from their current owners too. Of the saddest outcomes though, was that Fonzie was a brat to our lovable Kalu. Kalu became so stressed out about him that we let him go outside and he was glad to bring us 1-2 mice nearly each day. Gross! Where were they all coming from!! Winter came and the boys interactions continued to be strained, something that I hadn't anticipated since Kalu was neutered. Kalu was top of the charts for awesome cats and I genuinely pray that he is safe and snuggled tightly in someones home that also fell in love with him. We have not seen him since the 3rd week in October. It breaks my heart that he is gone and I feel responsible:( If only we could see the future!
This little baby Johanna is in the little high chair that my late and incredibly talented paternal Grandpa Oscar Claris Olson made. He gave it to me in 1996, when I was a senior in high school. I believe he had made them for some of the grand-daugheters and then hadn't finished them and so they were really later than the original plan for us to be using them for our dolls. Well I have real dolls now! After many hyears of saving and cherishing the high chair, I decided it was meant to be used and let my kids play with it. About a year later they broke the cute little tray off it. Nothing lasts forever, but here is a nice picture to cherish the same.
Lexi came and bid us farewell late July. Haven't seen her since:( Her mother wanted to pursue some life dreams and Lexi wanted to go with. We look forward to her return though and we should be seeing more of her once she comes back then too! If you love them you have to let them go sometimes. This was one of them, sad but true.
Every year we take advantage of the local pay here car dealership's customer appreciation day. I used to repo for them and they don't mind that we are not their target customers. They have free arcade games, bounce houses, clowns making balloons, facepainting, food, pop, Ferris wheel, and drawings. I usually bring the kids up for a free meal, why not! I thought it was a good idea and even took this selfie when we boarded the Ferris wheel. While I did remain calm, there was a sense of panic once we were moving, like, "oh no, why am I on this protable ride with my little newborn." We survived.
Having a baby and busy family means you forget your camera, can't get to it in time or forget if you do have it, and realize after fact you missed some good pictures. So be it. I did manage to get this shot of Noah on the 1st place podium for the BMX State Champion Finals. He is a fast little racer and advanced to expert level this season too. Wrapping up the summer is always a fun time of year as we prepare for another school year and regroup ourselves for winter. I think that means I like Minnesota? Haven't left yet I guess.
This concludes the second portion of sharing some of the pictures I was able to take in 2014. One more to come!!
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