New hip

Hope all goes well with the surgery today. sure will be nice to move around with out the pain I am sure. Will be waiting for the call after surgery to hear that all went well.
Frans

Meet our great granddaughter Madelyn Lorraine Halonen

Beautiful dark hair.  Didn't cry while we were there.  Awake a long time.  She'll be
tall, nice long fingers.  Posted by proud great grandparents!

If you get a lemon, make lemonade

This item was in the Tuesday Brainerd paper.  Looks like one way to handle icey conditions. 

Weather

Was going to go to the Iron Range this afternoon, but, one look at this parking lot caused a change of mind.  Also Heathers comment that we would be "crazy" to head out.  So we will stay home and wait for another day.  Ma & Pa

Cannon river flood

Don't know why it worked now.  It would not load a picture before so we quit trying.
You may see more pics later.

Just me. :)

I will have to chat with Mom & Dad on the cell phone and figure out why they can't upload photos. It works for me.

Life at our house ...

fires burning in the woodstove as the temp dips below the teens and doesn't want to rise above that during the day.

The season of pumpkin and sugar is upon us.

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already next week.

Aaach! What am I going to do?!

Highly unexpected, we haven't lost our snow since the first snowfall.

It has stayed with us.

We don't have oodles of it, but we do have it mixed in with the ice

in the yard. Makes walking a treacherous sport around here somedays.

Quick recap of family life over here:

Jari has been on the North Slope this week and should be home this weekend.

Anita started working 4 ten hour shifts a week and is loving it! Gives me a long weekend two weekends in a row with days off rotating each week.

Blayde is still working at Lowe's and finishing up some last college classes.

Alyx moved out on her own last evening. She moved in with some friends several miles down the road.

Brock is working here and there ... and high school graduation is slated for spring.

Anna is working at McDonalds and earning money. Black Friday shopping is every high on her list right now.

Tia is back in regular school. We decided that online school just wasn't going to work with our current "lifestyle". She's thoroughly enjoying her new school ... even if the bus ride is about 90 minutes each way. 

We've had sick people here for the past week, but it looks like they're on the mend.

Looking forward to the busy of the holidays around the corner .. all the hustle and bustle of busy activities.

Wishing everyone well. 

Mom reporting

When your father goes for surgery I won't be able to post pictures as he did when I was in.  Something has changed on here and we cannot post pictures.  We did it
before but now something is different.  By the way, would love to have you others
post something and include pics if you are able.

Happy Election Day!!

Wishing you only the best after all your hard work!

Life at our house

Sorry that I never get on here. I have to get some pictures put on here at some point!

Miss Heidi is growing like a weed! She has become a little farmgirl who likes to do the chores: feed the cows, sheep, chickens, and pick eggs. She is also a fan of trying to put things in the stove to burn. Mommy is not so impressed! Now when she comes in the house, she spends hours of putting on shoes, socks, another pair of pants... well, anything she can find to put on!

As for farmlife... not much changed. Tomorrow night we are going to be butchering some chickens. During the day tomorrow, Shawn will be hauling home hay bales. He got about 400 round bales this year... that's a lot of hours to haul it all home! Being as there is so much hay, I'm sure he will need to go buy more cows :) We didn't do any square bales this year. I think it is directly related to me being pregnant and not being able to pick them up. I put weight restrictions on and limit it to 50 pounds, so Shawn would have had to do it all himself!!!!

Shawn continues working. The weather has been great which keeps him busy! He is still working at Rob and Amy's building a new house for them.

I'm still working... a really tough work day today... we had a fall festival and went on a train ride in Duluth. Heidi went with me and she had fun! I'm still loving my job! I can't say that I'm excited to go to work everyday, but I can say that I don't dread going to work most days!

Baby #2 seems to be growing and developing as baby should be. So far, so good with everything. Hoping it continues to go well. Trying to teach a 1 1/2 year old the concepts of a baby coming isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. When asked where Mama's baby is, she points at my belly. Then ask where her baby is and she points at her belly. Have even gotten her to do the same for Daddy's baby :)

Maybe I can get some pictures done soon. I have them, just have to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto the blog and facebook. Can't do it on my laptop right now, so have to do it the other way and it is very slow.

Take care and enjoy your fall... hard to  believe it's already almost the end of October. Deer hunting is coming up!

H.

Happy Birthday to our wonderful Dad/grandpa!!!
Hope your day was great!
Jenny

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Father in law!!!
Hope your day was great!
Jenny

Just playin some more...

The last picture was a fun way to spend some time...  but this one, from the middle of a race, is a lil more fun  :-)

Just trying to see whats different now...  Isa used to be able to upload pictures...  so fast in fact, that he was on the verge of wasting coffee, before the high speed, he used to be able to sip away as it uploaded...  With the high speed, he didn't have time to sip!  Since the blog has changed, he can't upload them at all anymore.

October 5th

Happy Birthday Gary.  Hope you have a great day.  In Brainerd sun is shining and makes the fall leaf colors really nice and bright.  Love, Mom and Isä

The wind blows cold ...

there is white stuff of some variety moving in closer by the hour ...

snow is in the forecast for Friday ...

the garden hoses are still stretched out and full of water across the yard ...

maybe we'll use them for ice spears instead ...

took what was probably my last afternoon nap on the porch today ...

the scenery is slowly going to monochrome ...

it is absolutely stunning.

Just playin' :-)

Just seeing  how long it takes me to upload a picture... 

 Reino, I'm not quite sure why you were having trouble uploading this..  I will have Frans call you later to walk you through it to see what's going on..
Jenny

A quick trip to the Range after going to Babbitt first.

Time for Heidi to go to get more feed
Checking to see how the turkeys are
doing.  Should we butcher them for Thanksgiving.  I'm really afraid of the big tom.

Picked up 34 # gr. beef and 13 doz eggs for the Manor residents.  Got in on a good
pork roast supper.  Ruth enjoyed the trip but we can't talk her into going with us to AZ
and TX.

A Quick FYI

I had talked to some of you about Ivan and I having an Open House this October to show off our almost finished house.  Well, we decided to put it off until spring.  We were hopeing to have at least the first floor done, but that isn't going to happen before October.  Ivan wasn't expecting to be working 6-7 days a week for the last two months, therefore not getting a lot done on the house.  So we are going to work really hard this winter to finish as much as we can, then we will be sending out an Open House invite in the spring!

~MISSI~

We're here ... we're alive ...

and we're well.

I'll let Jen share her pictures of Alaska ... but I'll bet she doesn't have this one!

Our world is starting to see more of these on the ground ...

while you can still find a few of these as well!

Greetings from Alaska!

the wknd in Alaska part 1

Flew into Anchorage at noon on Thursday. Picked up the rental car and took off for Fiarbanks. Stopped many times on the way to walk around and snap pictures. This is one of many! Amber (Wuollet) Laulainen had told me that the leaves are starting to change and the drive should be gorgeous, and how right she was! Near the road the yellow, gold and orange were bright and the hillsides were bright red. No picture could capture the beauty (at least not with my camera) so often I didn't even try. There were two things that I have wished to see sometime when I venture up there, to see a moose in that state and to see Mt. McKinley. I was able to see both.

While in Fairbanks, I spent a couple nights at the Super 8. One of the employees saw me looking at a map and questioned if I needed help with finding anything. Told him I was simply seeing where I should go first and wondered if he had any ideas. He told me of Chena Hot Springs, though I decided against going there this time, but... among other ideas he told me where to find the pipeline visiting center. I got in the car and started driving. The fog lifted just about a mile away so I could see this vast thing! 

10 minutes from Fairbanks is North Pole, Alaska! While in the gift shop you will be able to visit with Santa and have him send a letter to your loved ones if you wish. His reindeer are near by and are pretty photogenic so spent time snapping pictures of them as well. I went to the Visitor Center there in town and was fortunate that an elderly woman was working who wanted to talk about the town. There were at least a dozen things she recommended I see, if I had time, and was able to see all of it! Wheter you drive down St. Nicholas drive or Mistletoe Lane or eat at Elf's Diner you are surrounded by Christmas all through the year. Wendy's in town, has christmas decorations up at all times!

As I said earlier, I had wanted to see a moose while in Alaska. On the nature trail in North Pole, I was able to see this mamma and her baby.

While on the internet, before going there, I read about this museum. For any of you who find architecture amazing...you would find this place interesting. The design of the outside is amazing, but seeing the layout inside was even more so. Saw some amazing art, learned alot about difficult things in history and watched a show on what makes the northern lights. I spent a couple hours there, but could easily have spent more!