Cheer Camp

Courtney is a football cheerleader again this year....her 4th year...rah, rah!

The cheerleaders just put on a cheer camp for kids ages 4 yrs thru 8th grade. She had a blast working will all the little girls. At the end of the day, the little girls that attended the camp got to cheer at the Blue/Gold scrimmage game that with the football cheerleaders. It was soooooooooooo cute!

Here are the cheerleaders with all the girls that attended the camp.

Courtney with one of the little girls.

Lining the girls up to do some tumbling.

When Courtney was in Middle School, she was NOT going to be a cheerleader. Her cousin Kasey talked her into going out her Freshman year and it is one thing that she has really enjoyed in high school. A reminder for all of us to keep an open mind...if she had not had an open mind and not given it a chance, look at all the fun she would have missed out on!

Sweet Corn

My sister Cheryl and I froze about 200 cups of sweet corn last weekend! It was alot of work but fun to work on it with my sister. We had a many laughs and reminisced a bit about our childhood.

First we picked the corn....we had lots of corn this year. I didn't take pictures of that but it was a bit wet as there was terrible fog the night before and it was all hanging on the leaves of the corn.

Next we washed and washed and washed corn....

Cutting the corn off the cob...boy the electric knife sure was slick (after I showed Cheryl the "proper" way to put it together).

Here is a picture of some of the corn cooling and ready to be put in bags.

My body was a hurtin' and I was super tired after getting it all done but boy will it taste good this winter!!!!

School

I got Courtney off to her first day of her senior year yesterday......and not even a tear!

I did have a funny feeling in my tummy but I held back the tears. What will I do with both of them gone next year???? I guess I will enjoy this year and find out about that when the time comes.

Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that they were both just tiny tots!

Softball

Courtney played on a softball league this summer with a team from Tornoto...quite a drive from our house. They just had the end of the year tourney and placed 4th. I only made it to a few games but I did make it to the tourney and took some pictures.

Courtney and her best friend Tayler.

Team Hannah Insurance

Courtney batting

Tayler playing the outfield

Courtney playing 1st base

Pedicure

My sister-in law Kristi talked me into getting a pedicure while we were in the Cities. I have only had a pedicure done one other time, about 15 years ago, so this was quite a treat. Kristi and her daughters Kassidy and Kennedy and Courtney and I all went and had our feet done...the deluxe version....very soothing and oh so nice!!!!! I may have to treat myself to this luxury more often!
Please excuse my fat, ugly feet, but I was so excited I had to show you all how cute the flowers turned out....and she (the girl doing the pedicure) insisted that I was NOT too old to have flowers put on and talked me into having it done.

Twins Game with the Noems

Here are a few pictures of our weekend spent in the Cities at the Twins game with Chad's family.

Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Al with all of the grandkids.

Back: Jeremy, Kassidy, Kennedy, Courtney, Dawson, Mitchell, Grandma and Grandpa

Front: Booker and Jackson

Booker with Uncle Chad....they are buds!

This is how we travel with Courtney (she is in the back seat of the suburban).....does it scream TEENAGER or what??!!

Anniversary

Chad and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary on Saturday! We were in Minneapolis with Chad's brothers, their wives and kids, his mom and dad and our kids for a family day and Twins game......what a great way to celebrate. This is the second year we have gone with his family to a Twins game and "mini vacation" together, it just happened to be on our anniversary this year. It is lots of fun and we hope to continue the tradition.

Wheat Harvest

We finally got the wheat harvested last week. It was HOT, HOT and HOT last week while harvesting!

Al in the combine.....




My outfit (Jeremy ran it for me some)....

Jeremy hauled the wheat to town.....

and Chad was baling the straw right behind us.


So...the wheat is all harvested and the straw is all baled up!
Good feeling!

Dog Show

Yesterday was the 4-H Achievement Day Dog Show.

Courtney did very good with her dog Madyson even though Madyson did not cooperate very well in the obedience part of the show. Madyson nailed the long down (laying down for 3 minutes, 6 ft from Courtney and staying while she returns to her) but was a little hyper through the rest of that part of the show. She got a blue ribbon in Obedience but pulled off purple ribbons in Rally and Showmanship.

Maggie and our niece Kennedy and Courtney and Madyson

I had to show you 2 pictures...one of the dogs paying attention and one of the girls paying attention.

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This year they had enough dogs and kids to do a team entry. Here are a few pictures of the team showing.

Denise, niece Kassidy and her dog Karlie, Davita and nephew Nolan and his dog Chips

It was a pretty good sized show this year with 15 dogs. It was a LONG, HOT day, but was fun to see all the kids show their dogs that have worked so hard this summer getting them ready.

Nikki

Courtney, my sister Cheryl and I traveled to Clark on Thursday to watch my niece Nikki, show her 4-H calves.

Here she is with her breeding heifer.

Grandpa Pat is in the background watching her show. He helps her clip her calves and fit them for the show.

Showing her market heifer.
She got grand champion market heifer and reserved grand champion market beef.
Her mom is in the background off to the left taking pictures and her dad is in the background watching her show.

And......it was also her 11th birthday!

We celebrated after the show in their camper with a cake that her Grandma Pauline brought.

Sunset

I thought the sunset the other night was pretty spectacular so I took a few pictures of it.





Gotta love a South Dakota sunset!

Wheat

We will be harvesting the winter wheat this week....FINALLY!

Courtney in the wheat!

Hopefully I can get some harvest pictures too.

Homemade Bread

I FINALLY had time to make some homemade buns!

The house smells heavenly right now!!! And the family is really happy!

Custer State Park

We took a drive through Custer State Park while in the Black Hills a few weeks ago. I only took a few pictures there but here are 2 of them. Stephanie feeding a mama burro.
Courtney feeding the mama burro. I tried to get a picture of the baby but he ran away right away and was not interested in the "Chicken in a Biskit" crackers we had to feed them.