A Valentine's Day Wedding Reception

The Girls on Valentine's Day.

Brandon and Dera wedding reception 2/14/09

Emily and I were in Madison for Valentine's day, Ben and Dad were in St. Cloud. We had to divide and conquer as we had too many things going one. The Valentine's Day wedding reception for Brandon and Dera was a lot of fun. Emily LOVED dancing with the big girls. She quickly learned that the in thing to do was to dance with your shoes off.

Ben and Mike had a good time attending the Wheeler boys Hockey games however I don't have any photos of that. Ben had fun hanging out with the Wheeler family, there he is known as "Taco" as one weekend when Ben was two he used to tell the Wheeler boys and their girlfriends that his name was "Taco" and the rest is history.

We should make a sign

Actual conversation between Ben and Mike during a bed time story this week (as later relayed to me):

Ben: "Daddy what is prison?"

Mike: "Prison is a place that people go when they do something bad, like stealing."

Ben: "We shouldn't steal then, I know what we should do and that is make a sign and say 'No Stealing', we should sign it Ben and Daddy, and it should say no stealing in this house...."

KTN Christmas 2008 (but occured in Feb 2009)

The year we were almost out numbered by the kids; let's check the status on that:

Adults:
1. Joe Kruchten
2. Kathy Kruchten
3. Janna Kruchten
4. Jay Kruchten
5. Lisa
6. Cassie Noltnerwyss
7. Mike Noltnerwyss
8. Jim Noltner
9. Gayle Noltner
10. Mike Dockerty
11. Jen Dockerty
12. Dera Johnson-Tracy

Children:
1. Daryan
2. Adelia
3. Gretta
4. Mathias
5. Anthony
6. Ben
7. Emily

Okay 7 vs. 12 if felt a lot closer than that! The kids had a great time playing together. We were sad to miss, Ryan, Vanessa, Gabe, Rick, Dan, Candy and Brandon this year. Looks like we may have a few more years of adults still outnumbering the kids! The party was great although next year I vote for everyone feeling good as there were just too many of us sick this year!

The Amazing Emily

Emily has her own idea of what clothes go together and how many different pieces of clothing you should wear at once. Here she is wearing lady bug PJs, a swimsuit cover up, a shirt, and a swimsuit as a cape. Her and Ben were having so much fun playing "The Amazing Emily".

Giant Snowman

This is the GIANT snowman on Mineral Point Road in Madison, WI. Ben was very impressed with this snowman and was very excited to show it to Dad, Mom, and Baby. He was able to see it the day before and he was so excited to tell us about it and his exact words were, "Emily will love this she will say, "WOW"". This photo was taken in early January, we actually just saw this snowman this past weekend and he was looking very sad, the only thing left standing was his scarf and he was no longer white more of a dingy grey. Guess that's a good sign that spring is on the way! Sad for the snowmen of the world but happy for the rest of us who long for the sun and and trees!

The Trick to the hair.

Step 1: Sitting on the counter
Step 2: Something sweet to eat
Step 3: A lot of Love!

A Beach Wedding

In late January we added a family wedding in Cancun, Mexico. Brandon Tracy and Dera Johnson married on Friday January 26, 2009 on a beautiful beach. It was an incredible ceremony complete with blessings to all 7 directions, North, South, East, West, Sun, Moon, and Earth. We all stood around the couple making a circle of love that was not to be broken. After the ceremony people were welcomed to one by one give their blessings to the couple. I thought this was absolutely beautiful. This coming weekend on Valentine's day will be the wedding reception in Madison, should be a good time if the fun we had in Cancun is any prediction.