My Dad is a Yo-Yo (Lawyer)

I had a doctor's appointment today so Karsyn got to go spend some time with her dad at his office. It just happened to be a theme day for college football and a Birthday Celebration. Karsyn thinks that it is a fun snack day at Dad's Work, everyday. In fact she wants to skip school tomorrow to go to work with Benjy. At one point in time, when Benjy was on the phone with a client, Benjy's secretary took her to the board room full of 30 other attorneys. Of course she loved being the center of attention. When they got home he asked Karsyn what she thought about what he does for a job and here was her response:

By the way at the end she says, "You can rock the world." We aren't quite sure that means.?

An On-going Domestic Dispute

The other night Benjy and I sat watching the show, Hoarders. He said to me, "Isn't it funny how, here we sit after 10 years of marriage, with another little one on the way, the girls are in bed and we are excited to watch a show about people hoarding." When we first started watching the show, I could see the anxiety building in Benjy as he watched it. Benjy's first priority with keeping a clean house is, "his floors," as he calls them. Second on his list would be the elimination of clutter. He considers most things to be clutter, decorations that sit around, especially. Benjy called me last week and said that he felt like a psychologist with one of his clients that he had been working with for a year. He said, "It just dawned on me after watching hoarders, that this person was a hoarder. So I used some of the logic that we have watched on hoarders and I think that it helped." Sometimes as we watch the show we enjoy bantering back and forth about which one of us is more of a hoarder. Then we would start naming the things that the other hoarded. He thinks I hoard paper work and junk mail that needs to be sorted through. I called him the t-shirt hoarder until today....I have decided I get to add another item to his list....TIES!

For years we struggle with what I call the, "TIE ISSUE." Benjy likes to leave his ties, tied so that he can just slip them on, without having to tie them every time. Which is fine for a little while, however what happens, which drives me crazy is, the tie starts to turn over. So I am constantly flipping his tie back around. I also think the top starts looking very thin, the knot too small and too tight. He also seems to have a hard time getting to his ties because they start to stack on top of each other. (see above picture, right?) So about every couple of months, I untie them, iron them and hang them in a color coordinated way. Benjy is not happy and definitely doesn't feel very thankful that his sweet little wife does this for him. ;-)So why did I feel the need to do this process of reorganizing and ironing this morning? On Saturday I was running to look for a dress for Kaydree, so I asked Benjy, "Do you need anything, like jeans?" He of course said, "I need some ties." Now... a little background. Whenever my family asks him what he would like for Christmas or for his Birthday, his reply always is, "dress shirts and ties." So on Saturday I went into the closet and said, "I don't think you need anymore ties, you just can't see half of your ties, how about some jeans, you only wear 2 pairs of jeans." He then must have gotten hurt feelings because when I called him from the store to see exactly what size neck I should get he informed me that he didn't NEED anymore ties. (Sarcastically)

Now Benjy is someone who really doesn't ever spend money... on himself, hobbies, clothes or anything, so I felt kind of bad that I reacted to his need for a new tie. So I bought him one which I am not sure he likes... however he just hit his 35th tie in his little collection. Maybe after he reads this blog, he will have time to adjust to the straightening of this little collection before he gets home tonight?

P.S. I turned on the comment section just for you, Dear, in case you felt the need to have a rebuttal to this post? Keep in mind that I love you!

Minnehaha Falls on Labor Day

This was the group waiting for our bikes.

We all thought they were so fun except for those who had to do all of the peddling. Which was all of the adults. I guess myself and the children got to ride around and enjoy the scenery!
All the little ones loved riding on the front of the bikes.Kaydree, Karsyn and I had a blast while Benjy got to pedal all of our weight, plus his own, plus the bike around!
Let's just say we had the bikes rented for an hour but we all decided to check them back in after 20 minutes. I couldn't help Benjy, so he was thought we was going to die! In fact I was laughing so hard everytime he had to stop on the hills and we held up traffic.... there was nothing I could do to help him. Doctor's orders....so he was on his own for doing all the work! I guess I could have gotten off the bike and walked a little...;-)

The little ones were so excited to hop the pebbles in the little river. It was absolutely beautiful out there. I love Minnesota!
They were looking over the falls. I don't know why I didn't get a picture of the falls?
We then decided to take them for a dip in the wading pool.
Kaydree and Madisyn had fun cooling off in their clothes. The other picture I should have taken was when Kaydree who is 8 changed into dry clothes to wear which were Bella's size 4 top and Parker's size 3 shorts on the way home! That was pretty funny! It was the last day of our summer and it was fun making it memorable with family and friends.

Bunker Beach: Second Day

It's hard to believe that summer has come to an end. I have to say that I really didn't enjoy the heat this summer, so I am kind of thankful it wasn't a really hot summer. I have to admit it's nice to feel fall coming on. Here is how we spent our last weekend together before school started. A Vikings game, Bunker Beach and Minnehaha Falls (pics to come). It was a beautiful end to the summer.

Karsyn had so much more fun the second time around!
Kaydree is our little fish... She loved Bunker Beach.

I guess we all did!

Bunker Beach: First Day

Kaydree and Karsyn participated in the summer reading program at the library this summer and earned passes to Bunker Beach Water Park. Kaydree loved the wave pool. She was completely wiped out after swimming for a couple of hours in the wave pool.

It probably wasn't the best day for Karsyn to go because she had just gotten her kindergarten shots earlier that day, so she just wasn't as into it.

She did jump a couple of waves before she decided to lay in the sun with me.

The good news was she got a second chance just a couple of days later when a paralegal at Benjy's office gave him 4 more passes for us to go. Second day to follow...

First Day of School

Karsyn was very excited for her first day of Kindergarten. I think because she had a new haircut and a new outfit.
She is always ready to pose.

Kaydree looks so old. I just can't believe that she is starting Third Grade. Third Grade was the first grade that I taught and now those students graduated and some are married. YIKES!

She has grown so much over the summer. In fact one of her friends said, "Kaydree, you look so different!"

I asked Benjy to be home that morning because I knew I would be sad. He had to take off for court right after they left, so it felt like a very quiet morning, well day, actually. Not that I didn't appreciate the time to myself, but it felt very awkward. I think I will get use to it though, for a little while at least until the little one arrives.

I held off the tears until Kaydree grabbed Karsyn's hand to help her onto the bus. They both loved their first day. I worried all day that Karsyn wouldn't eat anything at lunch, but she came home and said that the food was awesome! Charlee pouted for most of the day. We were all very excited when they finally came home!

Vikings Game

A friend gave Spencer 4 tickets for the Vikings Game last Friday night and they weren't going to use them, so they asked us if we would want them. The girls had never been to a game so we thought it would be fun. Benjy dropped us off so I wouldn't have to walk so far and the girls thought the Metrodome was so cool.
Benjy is a die hard college football fan and hasn't ever been into professional football, so we had to dig to find some purple clothes.

Kaydree was actually into the game and kept looking for Brett Farve on the sidelines.

Karsyn was into deciding if Victor the Viking was a boy or a girl and if it was a girl, how could they grow mustaches and beards? Then she wanted to know if this lady was real?

Benjy is coaching Kaydree's soccer team this fall and one of his player's dad just happened to sit next to us. (what are the chances of that?)So they chatted off and on during the game.

After the first quarter Karsyn asked if it was over and time to go? She said, "all you do is sit and watch football."
After she realized we were there for a little longer she started looking through the programs and found chocolate coupons from target. She was so excited she started scouting for un-claimed programs, in order to get the coupons!
Kaydree had a blast jamming out to the music in between plays. I think Kaydree would go back in a second, but Karsyn probably would pass up the opportunity to go again. Over all it was a really fun time. Thanks Spencer and Emily.

Helping Hands Day Two....

We wanted to get together to celebrate Shantel's Birthday, so we thought it would be great to go out again.

It was a beautiful night and we hit our neighborhood.

The pregnant ladies drove the car.

The girls just loved having little friends to go out with.

They literally ran from house to house at times. Ahhhh the energy!

I think we were out for an hour and collected 122 pounds of food. I just heard from someone in our church out in Pennsylvania who is doing the same service project. It amazes me how much can be accomplished when people come together in order to try to help others. I am just so grateful that we are willing and able to try to make a difference, especially when we know that there really are so many in need during these times. I often believe that it is the ones serving that learn the most and get the opportunity to feel extremely blessed in the process.

Helping Hands Day One...

WE have had a great opportunity to help the Minnesota Second Harvest food shelf by collecting food and non-perishable items. Here are some pictures from our first trip out.
The first night was organized as a Ward collection night and here was the group that showed up. The Andersons, JoDell (kids), Judy, Donna, Kayleigh and us.

We all really enjoyed it, especially the girls.

It amazes me at how comfortable Kaydree and Karsyn both were going up to the doors and asking people to help. They really enjoyed this experience and I hope they will always realize the importance of service and giving.

We kept teasing Donna because the first dozen houses she went to, no one was home.
And then....she was successful! Our Stake set a goal of collecting 100,000 pounds and asked our Ward to contribute 10,ooo pounds. That night I believe the whole group collected around 350 pounds. Although we felt successful we decided we would get out and increase our efforts again...besides we really did enjoy it as a family. Day two to follow...

Baby Boy Bash

A week ago JoDell put on a fun Baby Boy Bash for myself and two of my friends that are also having boys. She always has such cute ideas. She seperated our tables with blakets, bibs and matching outfits that she gave us. She also had Kaydree and Karsyn help with the party favors which were little baby booties made out of cups and ribbons which were filled with yummy chocolate. They were so cute, I thought I got a picture of them, but I can't find it? The girls were so excited and had a lot of fun, while I got to run errands! Thanks, JoDell...

This is Nicole's first baby, my third and Shantel's fifth. Shantel has 4 girls so it is really exciting that they are having a little boy. It has been fun being pregnant together and now celebrating the birth of all these boys.
I just thought this little outfit was so cute...it says, "Grandpa's or Bust.." with matching camouflage pants. He will easily match Grandpa Koch in these.
My mom came up for the shower, she is holding JoDell's little baby boy, Alex, who is 2 months old, in this picture. While we were at the shower my dad helped Benjy fix his lawn mower, the deck stairs and they attempted to trap the little gopher in our backyard. Having this shower has made us all that more excited for the arrival of our little ones. Thank you to all that attended and helped us celebrate! And another Thank you to JoDell for making it such a special occasion.