Another Teenager!!! Emily Ann is 13!!!!

Today is sweet Emily Ann's thirteenth birthday--she is now a teenager!!!

Happy Birthday to a cute and talented niece!

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One thing I LOVE about Em is her light dusting of freckles--so cute!!!
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The cousins having fun together
Morgan, Abby, and Emily

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Sweet little Em at 21 months

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Looking cute with her "Sweetie Braids"!

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The Generation Gap Cheering Squad
Emily, Abby, and Morgan

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Only 2 days apart in age!

Baby Andrew and Baby Emily

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The cousins ready for a swim at Grandma Pat's house...

Morgan, Andrew, and Emily

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Pretty Girls!

Morgan, Abby, and Emily

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The Christmas of the Flarp!

Abby, Emily, and Morgan

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How much are those doggies in the window??

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Happy Birthday to the final "Baby" to turn thirteen--we hope you had a GREAT birthday today! We love you, Em!!

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love, the Klimies

Happy 13th Birthday, ANDREW JOHN!!!

Today is my "Lifesaver Lips" Thirteenth birthday--he's finally a teenager!--and this blog posting is a tribute to Andrew...

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Andrew John

May 16, 1995

7lbs, 10 oz

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Voted "Cutest Male Baby of 1995" by his family!~~~

Big Brother Austin was so happy to get a Little Brother!

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Andrew always had rosy cheeks and big, blue eyes...
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Hangin' out in his walker!
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The "Goodie Boy"--one wasn't enough!
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A little sweetie with cute little curls!

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Age 3: Stitches after playing with his blankie over his head and crashing into a radiator.
:-(

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Andrew enjoyed his first birthday cake...

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Andrew through the years...
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Andrew's first birthday

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Andrew lovin' his second birthday cake!

(He has always been the sweet-lover of the bunch!)

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A Power Ranger third birthday!

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Fourth birthday!

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First Day of Preschool

Age four

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Kindergarten-Age 5

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First Grade-Age 6

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Second Grade-Age 7

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Third Grade-Age 8

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Fourth Grade--Age 9

(Check out that hair!)

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Fifth Grade-Age 10

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Sixth Grade-Age 11

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Seventh Grade-Age 12

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Summer 2007

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Our little Andrew has grown up quite a bit over the years. We are very proud of him, as a student, as an athlete, and, most importantly, as a young man! We can't wait to see what the future holds for Andrew--we love you, buddy!!!

(Lifesaver Lips, Joe, Jello)
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Happy Birthday, Andrew!!!

Remembering Tinkerbelle

Hannah Rochele Borowski

May 15, 2003 ~ July 31, 2004

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Remembering Hannah on her Fifth Birthday...

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What a beautiful and perfect gift

sent to us from above.

A tiny little angel

for all of us to love.

*

On loan to us from Heaven,

a precious little girl.

Born so small and much too soon,

But perfect as a pearl.

From her dark and downy head of hair

to her tiny little toes,

So sweet and innocent lying there

like a baby-doll in a pose.

*

Her life on Earth was such a struggle,

she fought for each new day.

But even through her trial and pain,

she brought more joy than we can say.

She now is singing with our Lord!

Dancing and laughing, too!

Rejoicing in His endless love,

her perfect body new.

*

Be comforted in the knowledge

of the promise that Jesus will save.

When you put your faith in Him alone,

and accept the sacrifice He gave.

*

So, someday our angel will greet us

when we pass through Heaven's gate.

We'll see our little Hannah again

Until then, we just will wait.

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Abby and Hannah

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Andrew and Hannah
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Austin and Hannah
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"Some people dream of angels,
I've held one in my arms."
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Happy Birthday, Sweet Hannah Rochele!

A Most Marvelous Mother's Day!

Today, my family treated me to a wonderful Mother's Day! My day started off when I went downstairs to find Abby had made me a cup of coffee and some heart-shaped toast! She had worked so hard on her toast! I was so pleased, as her intention was to bring it to me in bed, and I had never had a Mother's Day breakfast in bed before! Of course, I took a picture of my heart toast for the blog!~~~

Austin, Abby, and I then headed out for Durand and Club 10 for a Mother's Day Brunch. Andrew and Jamie met us there, as they had been in Independence to turkey hunt this weekend (unfortunately, with no luck...). We ate with Grandma Lila, Grandma Pat and Grandpa Denny, Grandma Deb and Grandpa Ken, Bill and LaNita, Jack, Todd, Missy, Dylan, Paige, and Cruz, Ross, Stephanie, and Little Abby, and two extra-special guests, Kara and Allie, drove over from Rochester to spend the day with us! It was nice to be able to see everyone again!

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Abby was the photographer for the day for me. Here is Grandma Pat and Grandpa Denny visiting at the dinner table--look how Grandpa is demonstrating proper drinking etiquette!!! (Abz found that quite funny!)

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Jack Nicholson even showed up at our Mother's Day Brunch!

No, wait, I guess that is Grandpa Ken modeling my shades!
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Grandma Deb and Grandpa Ken drove over from Indee for the day, too!
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Great, Great Grandma Lila plays with Allie and Little Abby

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Allie Marie and Abz were buddies today--they had a lot of fun playing together! Abby told me tonight--"I don't want to sound mean or selfish, but I liked having Allie all to myself today and not having to share her with anyone!"

:-)

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Little Abby was walking around the chair all by herself today! She is getting to be quite a big girl, and she had her hair pulled up in a cute little pony!

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Sweet little Allie Marie!

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Austin, Andrew, and Jamie visited at their end of the table...

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After lunch, Abby and I, along with Kara and Allie and Grandma Pat and Grandpa Denny, drove south to Nelson to visit Grandma Bonnie. It had been too long since we had seen her, and she was sure glad to see us show up at her door! Abby and Allie played with her toys, visited her bird, and played Play-Dough while the rest of us visited and caught up on "Nelson News".

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Abz and Great Grandma Bonnie

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Allie hopped right up on Gram's lap and as Gram was talking to her, she nodded her head very gravely, like she was agreeing with everything Gram was saying, and taking the conversation very seriously--it was so cute! She also asked Gram to help her put on her shoes and jacket when it was time to go--she really liked Gram!

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Allie Marie and Great, Great Grandma Bernice Marie

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Grandpa Denny found a comfey spot in Gram's old chair...

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All together, it was a very nice Mother's Day! I am so lucky to have three great kids and a great husband to celebrate it with!

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Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday Morning Soccer

Abby had her first day of soccer this morning. She and Bailey are on the same team, and both girls were pretty tired after a night of partying! The five girls were up before 7am this morning, ready to party some more!

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Even though Abby was tired, she played hard and got right in the middle of all of the action on the soccer field. Here she is dribbling the ball up the field.~~~

Getting ready for a big kick!
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Playing tough defense!

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Examining her "war-wound" from an opponent's cleat--ouch!

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The last girl went home around 4:00, and Abby and I took a nap! We are both exhausted and ready to hit the hay for the night! We had a fun time at her party, and soccer this morning was fun, too--the rain didn't come until later this morning!

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Tomorrow, we are off to Durand to celebrate Mother's Day with Grandma Pat and Grandma Debbie and Grandma Lila at Club 10. Happy Mother's Day!!!

Splunking and A Party!!!

It was a BIG DAY for Abby today, as she had a class trip today to Spring Valley, WI to visit Crystal Cave. Crystal Cave is the longest cave in Wisconsin, at just under one mile long (although we didn't travel the entire length today!), and we traveled down 72 feet below the earth surface! It was a balmy 47 degrees in the cave, so the kids were all dressed fairly warm.

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Here is Mrs. Spanel's 2007-2008 Third Grade class at Crystal Cave...

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We saw many cool things in the cave... fossils, unusual rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites, and flow rock. Here are some samples of the sights...




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And, of course, we saw many other cave dwellers on our tour...

our friends, the furry BATs!!!!

I am happy to report that the bats all stayed hanging from the ceiling, and there was no swooping or flying about today!
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Here is Abby's class deep in the cave.
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The kids also were able to have picnic lunches at the Eau Galle Recreational Area and got to play on the playground equipment there. They enjoyed that a lot. Here is Abz with some of her good friends... Alex, Michael, Abby, and Brenda.

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The Squirrel in a tree...

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After our busy day at Crystal Cave (I was able to chaperone--thus the pictures!), Abby hosted a party for nine of her closest friends tonight. That equaled 10 kids with her, and boy, was that a wild time!!!! She ended up with 5 boys and 5 girls here. We started off with a treasure hunt, boys against the girls. Then, Abby had made a game of "Pin the Smile on SpongeBob SquarePants", so the kids had a fun time playing that--although one boy almost pinned the smile on another kid!

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Here are Brenda, Bailey, and Abby making SpongeBob smile...

The girls at the party smiling with SpongeBob--

Sara, Bailey, Kristin, Brenda, and Abby

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The other big highlight of the evening (besides Andrew and the X-Box for the boys), was the trampoline. All 10 kids (and sometimes Jack and Sophie), were on the trampoline together. I didn't think that old trampoline would hold them all, but it did. Thankfully, no one got hurt too badly, although, there were a couple of bumped heads.

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After it got a bit darker, we made S'mores at the campfire and got sticky fingers. It was a fun night, and it was 9:00 and time for the boys to go home before we knew it! The girls are camping out on the TV/living room floor tonight for a slumber party. I hope there is SOME slumbering that goes on tonight!

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Andrew and Jamie headed to Indee to Jason's house to do some turkey hunting. They will have to get up awfully early tomorrow morning to hunt, and then Jamie will head out to work while Andrew hangs out with Logan Bautch all day--fun for Andrew, not so much fun for Jamie!

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Austin has a friend spending the night tonight. Kyle W. is here, and the boys went again to do their newest favorite passtime--going to the Canton Cemetary, which is rumored to be "haunted", and trying to catch something spooky on video!!! What a bunch of dorks!!! They are sure they heard a strange noise tonight...

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Have a great weekend, everyone! Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms! Especially to my mom--love you, Mom!!!! Thanks for all you have done for me and for all you continue to do for me and my family!

Woodland Elementary Hosts Grandparents

Today was "Grandparent's Day" at Woodland Elementary. This is the day that all kids are able to invite their grandparents to join them for lunch and to see their classroom, meet their friends, and see where they go out to recess. Abby was very fortunate to have both of her grandmas come to share the day with her today!

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Both Grandma Pat and Grandma Deb came to Barron on Wednesday night. Abby took advantage of her captive audience and read her reading assignment book to the grandmas. She had just gotten out of the shower and was heading off to bed...Abby said she had a fun time having her grandmas at school today--thanks, grandmas, for taking time out of your busy schedules to make Abby's day so much fun!

XXOO!!!

Barron Bears Baseball

Austin played a double-header baseball game on Tuesday night against Luck. It was our only home game, it appears, as our previous home games were rescheduled to the opposing team's fields or cancelled because our fields were too wet. Bummer!

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Austin plays center field this year on the C-Team. He is very good at this position, because he is fast and can cover a lot of ground in a little bit of time--which is important when you are covering an area that big. He also has a mean glove, so there are very few balls that get by him!

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Unfortunately, Barron lost both games in the double-header Tuesday night. Austin only played in the first game, as there are so many kids that half played the first game, and half played the second game.

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Here is Austin anticipating the pitch...~~~
Swinging the Big Stick!!!
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Running in from the field--he is spitting out some seeds on his way in. You always have to have a mouth-full during baseball season!

It was fun to finally see the boys play baseball this year. They are almost finished with school baseball season, but then, the summer league will start right after school season, so we are just getting started with baseball season here in Barron!

All About Andrew!

Andrew has been a VERY busy little boy lately. He had his spring band concert on Thursday night--probably his last band concert ever, since he isn't continuing with band next year. :-(

He is also in three sports right now--track, soccer, and baseball! That keeps him quite busy, yet he still seems to find time to squeeze in a few hours of X-Box here and there!

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I snapped a few pictures of Andrew during his band concert. Here he is, intent on the music!~~~

The Riverview Middle School Seventh and Eighth Grade Band--well, part of it, anyway! Look for the good-looking trumpet player in the middle!
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The sixth grade band also plays at the concert, and I take that opportunity to take some snapshots of Andrew and some of his friends. Andrew knows I do this, and he is kind enough to oblige me with some lovely expressions. Here is a sample of what I (and the rest of the concert's audience) saw...

Andrew had 2 soccer games on Saturday here in Barron. It was VERY cold and VERY windy--typical soccer weather! Unfortunately, Barron lost both of their games. :-(

The first game was a loss of 1 to 2, and the second game was a loss of 1 to 5--that was ugly! I am happy to say that Andrew scored the lone goal of the second game for Barron!!! Way to go, Andrew!!!

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Here is Andrew working his magic with the soccer ball...

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I wish I would have been a millisecond quicker on the shutter with this picture...

This is Andrew's goal-scoring kick in the second game. He dribbled through the defenders and did a sliding kick to send it past the "keeper" (that is the goalie for all of you non-soccer folks out there!)! Anyway, that is Andrew on the ground just as he kicked the ball into the goal--you can see all of the defenders watching the ball as it goes in!

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Austin was helping coach. His friend, Erik Kong (from Hong Kong) is also assisting the coach. Here are the guys on the sidelines...

Erik, Austin, Erv (the coach), and Andrew

Tomorrow night, Andrew has his last track meet. He has been running the mile, but he hopes to get in on the 400m relay tomorrow night.

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Austin has a game tomorrow night in Amery. I have yet to get to one of his games. All of his home games have either been cancelled or have been rescheduled at the last minute to the opposing team's field. Because of my crazy work schedule with the new location opening, I haven't been able to make an away game. :-( I am hoping to get to his home game on Tuesday night.

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Abby is busy planning a party for Friday night for herself and nine of her closest friends! Not for any reason, she just thinks she should have a party! The boys will go home at nine, and the girls will spend the night. I can't wait until it is over--she has been driving me nuts for a month with the planning of this thing!!! :-)

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Have a great week!!!!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Ken!!!!

Who is that masked birthday boy????It's Grandpa Ken!!! Happy 62nd Birthday, Grandpa!!!!
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Grandpa Ken is always making an effort to be at all of the kid's events--concerts, recitals, birthday parties, and, of course, SPORTING EVENTS! Thanks, Grandpa!

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Here we were back in 1999 celebrating one of many birthdays!

Grandpa Edward, Andrew, Abby, Grandma Deb, Austin, Grandpa Ken, Shana

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Grandpa is always looking his best...

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Well, I am sure this was stylish at one time!!!

Grandpa Ken, Jamie, Nicole, Grandma Deb

We hope you have a GREAT birthday, Grandpa! We can guess what you are doing today--making the rounds and spinning the "birthday wheels" and getting some free gaming!!! Enjoy! Soon, you will be retired and can be on the go whenever the road calls!

We love you!

XXOO,

Jamie, Shana, Austin, Andrew, Abby, Jack, and Sophie