Snowman making and Christmas Program

Almost every year since Megan and Jason were very little, we have made a big snow man.  This past weekend, we made another taller than them.  Kora also helped make the little one. 

We had our Church Christmas Program on Sunday, December 13. 

Megan was a Shepherd.  (We have many girls,

but not too many boys).

Jason was Joseph and his friend Trevor was playing his father.

Kora was a sheep along with the rest of the Preschool-

Kindergarten.  She loved singing "Go Tell it on the

Mountain" with her class.

Kora is with her friend Lillian in her preschool class

getting ready to sing for their Christmas Party.

Fall Pictures

Megan and Jason are in 5th Grade this year.  They're still in the same class together as they have been through out their elementary school years.  They enjoy being in the same class and their teachers didn't see any problem with keeping them together, so we requested them to continue to be together each year.  It has made it much easier for Jesse and I to go on field trips and to eat lunch with both of them. 

Jason has a good sense of humor and enjoys sharing his views and stories with others.  This does get him into trouble at times in school with talking too much.  Jason played flag football this fall and is following in his father's footsteps in being a Steeler's fan.   He loves to read and can be a real deep thinker at times.  He also enjoys tormenting his sisters when he has the chance.

Megan has a tender heart and is very kind, except when Jason is trying to aggravate her.  She enjoys creating things and loves to write and draw pictures.  Megan is very good at writing fictional stories.  She also likes to read.  Megan is in classical dance class again this year.  She also enjoys being outdoors.  Megan has a great imagination and often thinking up imaginary play ideas for Kora and her to do together.

Kora attends preschool two mornings a week.  She loves going to school and would go everyday if she could.  She loves to wear dresses, jewelry and fancy shoes.  Kora looks up to Megan and wants to be doing whatever Megan is.  She likes to aggravate Jason as much as possible.  You wouldn't think two kids 6 years apart would fight that much, but Kora and Jason sure do.  I think they are too much alike and both want to be right.  Kora keeps you on your toes.  She likes to test the limits, but she also pays attention to what is going on around her and has many questions to find out why things are the way the are.  She is very social and when we go places, people say she is always smiling.

I am very blessed to have three wonderful children.    

Halloween

We had a great year for pumpkins this year in our garden.  It worked out well that we had 3 large ones for each one of them to carve.  They all picked out their own faces, and Jesse and I helped them carve them.  Kora was digging in and cleaning out the inwards just like Megan and Jason. 

 

 

 

For their costumes, Jason is a phantom with eyes that glow red. 

Megan is a dragon ninja, and Kora is Princess  Belle.

It was raining on Halloween night, so we thought we would mostly stay at the indoor parties, but when we did stop at a few places for Trick-or-Treating, they all wanted to keep going and do more.  Luckily, we timed it well and were out when it wasn't raining as much.   

Pumpkin Patch

 

We went to a Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze in Minot, ND on October 17.  The weather was much cooler, so Megan, Jason, and their cousin Jakob had fun climbing on all the straw bales and going down the slides.  Kora liked the barrel ride and smaller slides.     

 

With cousins Jakob and Jordin.  

Corn Maze

We went to a corn maze on Sunday, October 11.  They had fun going through the maze, but since it was so hot, they were ready to be done before we made it to the end.  Who would have thought it would be 89 degrees in October.  They also liked the corn box and spider net. 

 

Megan and Jason were working on their American Ninja Warrior skills. 

 

Jason didn't want to get out of the corn.  He said it was cooler there.

4th Birthday

Kora turned 4 on October 4th.  She had to have a Princess theme for her party.  No other theme would fit her.  I made her a princess castle cake, and she wanted to wear a tiara.

 

We played a "Tangled" princess game where the kids would wrap each other in

crepe streamers.  They all had a lot of fun with it, even Megan and Jason. 

Jason wrapped Jakob.

Kora was wrapped by Megan.

Jakob and Kora had some help wrapping Megan and Jason.

 

Jason had fun playing in the left-over streamers. 

He's pretending to be a rock-star using Kora's toy guitar. 

Zoo with the Cousins

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to the Roosevelt zoo with cousins Jakob and Jordin.  We hadn't been to a zoo for a couple years, so Kora didn't remember what they were like.  She couldn't wait to see the lions, but she was nervous seeing them until we explained that they would be in cages. Once there, she kept talking to the lions, hoping that they would roar, but they didn't.  She was a little disappointed that the animals wouldn't make noise back to her when she said hello to them.

 

 

Summer Fun and swimming

Megan and Kora outside our home.

 

Jason and Kora at Old Mill State Park

 



Kora swimming at Old Mill State Park

Jason, Kora, and I went to Old Mill State Park on 8/30/15

while Megan was fishing with Jesse

Bear Visitor

We had another bear go through our back yard a few nights ago.  He got caught on the trail camera.  All he did was knock the salt block off the stump.  Thankfully, he left our garden alone.  A couple years ago, another bear had fun eating our watermelon.   

Kora's sunflower

Kora got a sunflower from Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) in the spring that she started from a seed in a cup at the preschool.  We later transplanted it to the garden.  It grew amazingly tall.  It finally has a flower on it, so the kids took their picture in front of it.  You can see how tall it is, as it towers over the corn. 

 

Big Bog Camping Trip

We went camping at the Big Bog State Recreational Area on the Upper Red Lake this past weekend.  When we got there on Saturday, it was really hot so we spent the majority of the afternoon in the lake.  On Sunday morning, everyone wanted to climb the fire tower.  It was very windy that morning, which made the last few flights of stairs more interesting to climb.  Jesse and Jason counted the steps, 139 of them.  Kora walked all of them up and down without being carried. 

Megan and Jason thought it was so fun that when we

got back to the bottom, they went back up again

so we could get a picture of them from the ground.

 

 

Then we went fishing at a little pond in the north unit

of the recreational area.  The kids caught lots of little

blue gill, pumpkin seeds, and large mouth bass. 

 

Kora enjoyed her cheerios and running up and

down the dock after she got tired of fishing.

 

We also walked the boardwalk that leads out into the bog.  Megan and Jason

 enjoyed seeing the Pitcher plants the most.  These are plants that eat insects.

 

 



 

On Monday morning, we went canoeing on the Tamarack River.  Kora also had to take a turn in the front seat so she could have a turn using the oar.  Before we left for home, we had to climb to the top of the fire tower one last time.  Kora again walked the entire way up and down.

Happy Birthday! 10 Years Old!

 

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years already since Megan and Jason were born.

 

 

We had a birthday party at our house for them last weekend. 

Jason requested that he have his own cake instead of having to

share one with Megan.

Jason with his "Halo" cake.

Megan had a Garfield cake.

 

Today, on their actual birthday we went swimming at a pool.

 

Shooting water out of the noodles.

They still have great smiles and enjoy being together

like when they were infants, (most of the time).

Kora also enjoyed the pool.

July Fun

Here are pictures from the month of July.

 



With Cousin Jakob and Jordin at the July 4th Parade. 

Kora was working hard on getting the candy out of the box.

 



Sparklers for the 4th of July. 

 

Jason loves to light fireworks.  Megan was finally brave enough to start lighting some herself this year.  Kora and Jordin went in the house to go to bed once the sparklers were done and we started with the loud ones.  Megan still wore her ear muffs.  Couldn't talk her out of those.

 

 

July 11th was the last Saturday of soccer for Jason for the season.  



 

 

We went to the county fair and Kora got to ride some of the carnival rides

for the first time this year.  She was just tall enough to go on the rides. 

 

This was her first ride.  She wasn't sure if she liked it yet or not,

so no smile for the camera.  But she did decide later that she

liked them and wanted to go on more.

 

The carousel with Megan was her favorite ride.