Christmas 2007

Enjoy a video of our annual trip to get the family Christmas tree. The adventure wasn't as intense as this guy's trip.



But still a lot of fun. It doesn't get any better than cutting down the family tree in a blizzard.

oh christmas tree

For those of you who saw our christmas card this year...this is an

example of the kind of pitures we had to choose from. it took us several

days and numerous trips outside only to end up with no "one" picture with

all three of our children looking normal. levi had his own picture because 1. he is anti-people and

2. he decides when he wants to be compliant or not. (i just happened to have the

camera in my hand when he was actually being cute. statistically speaking, the chances

are really quite low. a part of me actually wanted to use this picture for our cards

just to show how really rotten he is. not to mention to embarrass him later in life.

the colonel has inspired me (by reminding me what a slacker i have become) to post something new. our annual outing to go cut down our christmas tree was enhanced this year as we decided to put up two trees in our house. the one upstairs i get to decorate with all my favorite ornaments and the one downstairs has all of the kids homemade decorations and all the "plastic canvas" ornaments that aaron and i made when we were just wee ones. my husband has been busting his broberg sized bottom to get our basement done in time for the holidays. we put a fireplace in, expanded my laundry room, gutted the old bathroom in the basement and added a shower and retexturized all of the walls. needless to say, he has been busy. aaron & i both have always wanted a fireplace in our house so we are both giddy about it. i am embarrassingly excited about my mantel and hanging the kids' stockings on it. well, tonight is going to be a late night painting the basement walls, so that's all the post you get!

Jumping in Leaves

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. It was chilly enough to wear jeans and a sweater which is my favorite thing to wear. The sun seemed to light up the leaves and our backyard was calling to me... and so was my son. He wanted to rake up a big pile of leaves and jump in them. It seemed like a great idea to me. Gone were the thoughts that I should be baking for the company coming the next day, gone were the thoughts that I should quick throw in another load of laundry or finish tidying up the kitchen mess from lunch. Nature and my son were calling to me. We raked up a big pile of leaves, took several steps back and then locked hands as we ran as fast as we could into the leaf pile. Being a kid is great. Acting like a kid once in a while is the next best thing!

Feliz Cumpleanos

October 9th my little boy turned four. In many ways I cannot remember a time when he was not in my life. It seems like he's been around for as long as I can remember. Then in other ways it seems like just yesterday that I was holding him in the hospital for the first time. He has such a great imagination lately. Not the least of which is the fact that he seriously believes that he is a superhero. On any given day he may be spiderman, superman or batman. My favorite is when he fights off the "bad guys" (usually played by levi) and then yells that he is coming to save "lois" (usually played by me.) So, for his birthday we had a superhero theme. We had superman cake, played kryptonite toss, pin the eyes on spiderman, blasted villians with their sticky webs and had a spiderman pinata. Dad helped out by painting the kids' faces which was a hit with the kids. The birthday party was especially fun because jacob got to celebrate with his cousins and jonah and silas came all the way from Russia to be with him.:)

One Shooter or Two?

Recently my family and I traveled to Dallas, Texas to go to my sister-in-law's wedding. Most of the time we hung out in the pool or were running around getting ready for the wedding.

We did find a couple minutes to sneak away to downtown Texas and went to the 6th floor museum. The 6th floor Depository Building was where JFK was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. I have been fascinated with the JFK assignation since I did a report on it in 9th grade. I vowed to not leave Texas until we visited the museum. We as very great. To be able to visit a place that is cemented in US history was a great experience.

Probably my favorite display at the museum was in the corner where Oswald shot JFK. The corner was all glassed off and inside was re-created from pictures to look exactly the way Oswald left it. The museum as a whole gave you a feel for the events of the day.

As you walk through the museum you will notice no where will you see the couple frames of the Zapruder Film that shows JFK actually being shot in the head. No where do they say why they left these frames out of the film. I believe it is out of respect for the President. I thought that was unique.

As far as one shooter or two? I think I am going to go with one. I have read several books and now have visited the grassy knoll. I am going to stick with my instincts. One shooter.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so I snapped a couple outside.

This is shot is of the Book Depository Building. Notice the far upper right window is where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK.

This picture was taken where the second shooter would have stood. If you look at the road you will see an X that marks the spot where JFK received the wound to the head that killed him.

This is the famous grassy knoll. To the left is the orignial picket fence where the second shooter hid.
At the grassy knoll there were a few conspiracy theory people informing others of the truth and selling books, etc...

Wedding Weekend

This weekend we flew down to Texas for my sister's wedding. We ended up taking 2 out of the 3 kids with us. Originally we planned to leave them all. (We thougt maybe we could make a little mini vacation out of it. silly us.) Then my sister asked jacob to be the ring bearer. So, we thought we'd leave the baby and levi. Well, hannah decided she wanted nothing to do with the bottle so we had to bring her along too. So, we left levi with auntie sarah (god bless you sarah) and took the other two. Some people may think it wierd that we left only one of our children behind. Why not take them all? you may say to yourself. Well, if you really want to know...just ask sarah. :)

We got some great pics so I thought I'd share a few. Jacob was pretty stinking cute in his tux. Auntie Meredith was absolutely beautiful!

My Beautiful Baby Boy?

I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't

help myself. Levi is such a "pretty" boy

that I thought if I put his hair in

piggytails that he could probably

pass for a girl-i was right. Some day,

years from now, i'll be able to pull out

this picture and embarrass him. See,

parenting has it's fringe benefits.

The picture below captures one

of Levi's favorite looks which seems

to be "buzz off-i have no interest in you".

Here's Levi hanging out with the innertubes

at Cousin Camp '07.

My Girl

Here's a couple pictures of me and my little girl. She is

getting big already. She no longer has that newborn look

to her. She is in the 95th percentile for her height, so she's

pretty long and I am hoping that maybe that will stick and

she'll be tall like my dad and brothers. Tall or short though...

she is CUTE!

Cousin Camp '07

We had a great time again this year at our 3rd annual cousin camp. This year

we let the guys come along too so it was a family affair. The kids pretty much swam and

ate lots candy. This year we had the addition of grandma's SnackShack which was a hit

with all the kids. They got an allotment of tickets each day and then for special behavior

they could earn more tickets to spend. This was great for me because I just offered up

grandma tickets to the girls to keep an eye on Levi for me while I floated around on a raft.

The only complaint we had were the mornings when levi got up at 5:30 or so and we had to entertain him until the rest of "camp" woke up. One morning aaron took levi in the van and put a movie on for him and drove around for a couple of hours. You can imagine how exciting that was for him. But, for most of the time levi just ran around either in a diaper or nothing at all and sporting a life jacket. It was pretty funny. Thanks Steve and Rach for all the great memories!

Brothers

Since i am on a trip down memory lane I thought I would post one of my favorite pictures. This photo was taken at Rocking Chair lake in Upper Michigan. As you can see I thought that my brother was a king when I was younger. I think I may be in 7th grade in this picture. I was trying to be as tough and cool as my bro. That was tough to do when you are in seventh grade and your brother is 20. I gave it a pretty good shot though.


I have many memories of following my brother around on all sorts of adventures. From hunting porcupines with homemade spears to dressing up like Skelletor and being beat with a forty-five pound sword for youth camp.

I am glad that Jacob and Levi will each have a brother to grow up with. There is nothing quite as grand as the bond between brothers.

Bible Camp

I have been at Bible Camp all this week. As expected it has been a great experience. Wayne Northrup preached. Some of you may know Wayne from North Central or from hearing him speak at some event or camp. He did a great job. The altar times were very good. I think I prayed with about 17 kids to get Baptized in the Holy Spirit. This weeks altars were some of the best that I have had the chance to experience.

It made me think about the bible camp I went to when I was a kid. I know that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at Lake Hellen or Lake Ellen cannot remember the exact name. But I definitely remember the camp itself. I thought you would all like to see a picture I found of me when I was at bible camp. This picture has to be from 1986 I would have been in 7th grade.




From left to right: Aaron Lindholm, Cory Vial (front), Aaron Broberg, Dennis Leanas (back), Jamie Kahkola.

piggytails

My daughter has enough hair already

to put it in piggytails!
Her hair has really grown and she didn't lose
any of it yet...and I don't think she's gonna. It's
been a lot of fun doing her hair.


Here she is in jeans and her hair done up.
She looks a lot older than 3 1/2 months to me.

A Camping We Will Go

Cousin Elsa lounging around with her new

favorite cousin-hannah.

Jacob making some goofy faces while

sitting around the campfire.

Little miss hannah seemed to enjoy
camping as much as her brothers.

Levi "helping" grandpa Broberg carry

some firewood.

Jacob and his cheesy smile again. I can't wait

until he grows out of his silly stage and I

can take a picture of him with a normal smile.