Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Ice!......

What a month December has been. Seems like it has snowed about every other day and everything was covered in ice for a while. Sure was beautiful and didn't slow us down much, life still went on for us. That is when we weren't shoveling to get out so we could.

We risked life and limb (passed about 10 times accidents actually) to get to Des Moines to watch Blake wrestle. He had a pretty good day actually with 2 pins. His main problem is keeping his weight up. He doesn't graze and eat like some of the rest of us, wish I had that problem!

Blake, and under the blanket is Jacob. My boys like to lay over the heating ducts in the living room to get warm. They used to fit over them, now they have really overgrown them and have a hard time fitting over them!

Blake did not hesitate when I asked him to help Grandma bring in the presents from her car when she arrived for Christmas, he went out in robe and slippers!












Laura graduated from Bethel University in Minneapolis December 19th so we took the grandparents and headed up. We are so proud of all she has accomplished. Jacob stayed for a few extra days with her and Adam and had a blast! They played lots of games, whiffle ball on the ice rink, and made gingerbread houses with some friends, they are great siblings! Our house seemed rather small this Christmas, when did all these guys grow up, seems like yesterday they were just children.....




well maybe I spoke too soon! But we love them all. Surely God can use a bunch of hams who belong to Him. It was a fun Christmas. We hope yours was too, Happy New Year 2008 also!

O Christmas Tree.....

We always go cut a tree for Christmas. This year we ended up in Solon on the coldest day of the year and came home with a lovely tree. We had to let it thaw out overnight before we could decorate it. Mom always gets to do the lights.
Blake wanted to make sure that Montana ornament got hung with care, and Jacob's already started in on the hot cho. We try to pick up an ornament whenever we travel and sometimes we even remember to do it. We also have a couple from the Czech Museum in CR cause we are part Czech and then we usually stop at the bakery there for kolaches after. Mom keeps trying to make them, but just hasn't gotten it right yet, maybe this year. We forgot to give Laura all of her ornaments so we get to enjoy them for one more year, then she and Adam can have them to fill their tree next year. We wish you all a memorable Christmas season. Take some time to step away from the busyness and connect with the author of the season. ...and enjoy some cookies too!

Feathered Friends

Blake took this picture the other day of a redtailed hawk in the front yard of our house! It was poking the ground with it's talons (hopefully there aren't mice in
our yard). He said he got really close to it,it must have been really hungry.Isn't it beautiful? You can see it in the yard in the next picture.

We also have milk jug bird feeders on the back deck. There was a female cardinal
eating and actually a male in the other one next to it, but I didn't see it when I took the picture. We have all kinds of birds, finches, sparrows, nuthatches(I learned all these names from Jay, Mr.Ornathologist). It's been lots of fun to sit at the table and watch them come if we don't move too fast. There's usually lots more
when I come home for lunch and peek out the window.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving at your house! We tried to fit a whole year of eating into a few days ( at least I did my part :) ). Blake ate 10 pieces of pie last year, don't think he quite made it this year. Jacob is on piece 3 in this picture of him (doesn't look too good does he?). We had lots of snow at Grandma & Grandpa Struves so the cousins thought they'd clean off the deck by throwing it at anyone who opened the door. All the girls in the picture are all the sisters I inherited along with Jay's mom. It makes up for me only having a brother. Besides shopping (yes, Laura and I went to the outlet mall at midnight) we kicked off the Christmas season by making cookies, which are just about gone! We also got into watching Man vs Wild this weekend. There's nothing quite like watching a grown man eat bugs and snakes, yum. All in all it was a fast and furious holiday but really nice to have everyone home and in our living room at the same time! Take time in December to enjoy each other and remembering Jesus as we get ready to celebrate His birth.

Random hug day

I'm not sure how it got started, but random hug day has been initiated. I think it was started by Shelby and Emilie who spend a few hours each week at our house after school. Jacob is the victim many times of this spontaneous showing of affection, and even though he rebels, it's not wholehearted.

Soccer and Flag Football

Jacob played flag football and soccer this year. Their soccer team was undefeated until last week. We think the other team had some pros. He really enjoyed football too. Also check out the photo of the braces - go Carolina!

Fall Football

Here's some pictures of Blake's football games from this fall. We enjoyed tailgating before all the homegames with many of you. Good company and good eats. Blake wears #83, following in the tradition of Adam and Dos. It's been a fun ride.

Our favorite time of year

Jacob, Mom and Dad went on a bicycle leaf photo ride. We'd like to share some of our favorite trees with you. Oh yeah, and it's fun to drag your feet through the leaves as you ride. It makes a cool sound.

Ya Gotta Have....Friends

Do you see the pattern in these pictures? Yup, lots of boys. Jacob and Mom went boating with some friends before it got to0 cold and found out the water was already cold. Jacob and his friend got pulled behind the boat in this cool raft. They went really fast and yelled "faster" most of the time they were out there. They also learned that yes, lifevests really work when you get dumped. Mom thought she was safe in the boat til a big wave came over the front right where she was sitting, WOW!
Jacob celebrated his birthday playing flag football with six other friends. Blake played QB and launched many touchdown passes. They also played night games - they opted for TEAM bloody murder (because of the so thought scary dog next door). They also hunted for the traditional hidden goodie bags over in the park. It fun to see the flashlights going everywhere in the dark and the yelling when they found theirs. They slept well, but I think Mom and Dad beat them to it.

City High Parade

It was time again for the City High parade. It's always fun, but a little different this year. See all the empty spaces? We miss all of you who have moved and couldn't come this year, but we did get lots of candy! Ask Paige about being included in the picture....we needed bodies! It was fun for us though because it's Blake's graduating class so we know some of the queen and king canidates. Oh yeah... Austin is incognito.

Piped Piper...

Bring a ball and they will come. It's just something about a ball, a park, and your dad. It's like a magnet, others will find you and that's part of the fun, just being a kid.

Pictures of a great day! Hope you had fun if you were there, and if you weren't...you were in our thoughts and prayers.

My budding scientist.....a mother can hope.

Fall stands for football...

Welcome to our Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Blake played on varsity this Friday night against LinMar and JV on Saturday. It's such an emotional game, mostly for the parents I think and fun finding out those moms who you thought were so polite and timid are really crazed fans who would rush the field if they could to tell everyone how great THEIR son is and how proud they are of them. It was the first time we had to split up for someone to watch Blake while the other went with Jacob to soccer. To add to the fun, we watched Iowa get beat by Iowa State (we know who you are who are glad) and tried to slip in watching the Cubs beat the Cardinals at the same time (yea! Cubs win, Cubs win). I wonder what those families that don't do sports do on Saturdays in the fall? Well, they could go garage saleing, we found a couple of bargains doing that too in our free time! It's a lot of fun though, that senior year goes really fast for all of us, hmm... maybe we should be looking at colleges soon.

And the Fun Begins...

Well, it's that time of year, when life hits full speed. After a fun tailgate (yes we tailgate for high school games) Friday night, Blake played in the JV game Saturday and had quite a day, a 60 yard kickoff return, a touch down, and an interception. It's upclose and personal for the fans and we yelled for all we were worth! Jacob started soccer (we love purple!) All the years of the beehive(you soccer parents know what I mean) we're starting to see progress. He's playing with all his friends and the parents have fun too.
Sunday, we met at Gramma and Grandpa's house to see our great nieces and nephews. Why are there so many? After all, they are GREAT nieces and nephews.W e all came to see the ones from Montana who told us stories of working on their ranch and driving 5 miles to get on the bus for school where the class size is 5 for Kindergarten. It's Big Sky country, and beautiful! Wish it was closer for us all to enjoy with them.

We hope to not be so busy this fall that we forget to praise God and grow in his grace.

The Tag's Been Passed...

Vicki tagged me not knowing my middle name is ELIZABETH! Yikes! So here goes...

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
1) Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name that you wish you had.
2) When tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name facts.
3) At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave a comment telling them that they're tagged and to read your blog.

E - Eager to learn from God
L- Love put into what I do is more important than how much I do.
I- Interested in lots of STUFF
Z- Zinnias - I have lots of them in my garden this year, very bright!
A- Accomodating
B- Bisons, beavers, bats, just to name a few things Jacob and I
saw at the dead animal zoo yesterday.
E- Expert at nothing, jack of many trades instead
T- Tapioca pudding, yes I do like it, anyone else?
H- Hebrew 13:5 - a favorite verse

The only people I know that post have already, I'll send it along if I hear of more.

Welcome To The Family...

August 4th, Laura and Adam got married. It was a full and fun week. Their friends showed up a few days earlier and the celebration didn't slow down til Sunday. There were people from all over the country and few from out of the country. The guys went to The Field of Dreams and paintballed. The girls had lunch and had a party of their own. Rehearsal dinner was nice with lots of great speeches and great food. Saturday's ceremony had lots of fun pictures, great singing from Paul and Austin, with great guitar playing from Blake. The party at Holiday Inn was a blast starting with the Iowa Fight song and continued with great food and more speeches. There was lots of dancing with some new things never seen before by man! A good time was had by all, we thought we'd share some photos with you. We'll add more as we get them.

A Weekend of Non Labor...

We had quite a weekend. Friday we went to Loras College in Dubuque to watch Blake play football. We stayed with our niece and her husband, then continued up to Minneapolis to see Laura and Adam and their new place. We had a fun time enjoying the lakes, celebrating Adam's birthday, and seeing the Twins play. We even managed to get Blake's senior pictures taken too!
The kids all had fun hanging out together and getting very little sleep.