Kirstin's moments

Kirstin is also having a birthday this month and these are a few pictures of her earlier years. She is our first child and we had the most practice with her. While going to school, she always told us that she didn’t learn anything new at school; it was just all a review.

Kirstin loved her horses and she was able to mimic the call of a peacock at the Denver zoo with Debbie Lee.

She liked to shop and hide in the kitchen and one time she had a whole bunch of money.

Here she is in a couple of Halloween outfits.

Kirstin always wanted special cakes for her birthdays, usually figure and doll cakes, gradually changing to a traditional cake to a plane angel food cake.

Kirstin was in the habit of saying her prayers before she went to bed. We always had to tell her at least a dozen nursery rhymes, some time saying them as fast as we could, before she would go to sleep (this carried over to some of the other kids, too). She always had to be tucked in very tightly, like a mummy, even during her naps. During the night she would work her way to the foot of the bed and lots of times she would be hanging off the side of the bed (it’s a good thing that we tucked the covers in).

We have evidence that she did chores and that she liked to dress-up like Sheik Araba and an Air Force dude.

Kirstin liked to sit in the snow and look at her snowman, liked to curl her hair and talk on the phone.

And them before you knew it she went from graduating from Pre-school to graduating from the University of Minnesota in Genetics and Cell Biology.

Highlights for Brandon

Brandon will reach a milestone this month, never again to be reached. He will be ten years old in March. He has been a joy over the years and has been willing to try new things, even taking ice cream and root beer together (root beer float). He likes to help, he digs in sand piles, he breaks his arm, he draws and colors, he waits with envy as his older brother gets an airplane ride for his tenth birthday and he likes to participate and sing in school plays. We have not figured out what his special tenth birthday present will be but it will be fun.

Playing in the snow at Grandpa's

On Feb 24 and 25 we received more snow in a single day in February than any other day in recorded history during the month of February. We got about 12 inches (not much for Minnesota standards). The Barnhart children came to visit a couple days later to take pictures of Tana's hats and to play in the snow. Here is a sample of their play day.

2006 Halloween

Ellie as Kahn the magnificant

Liam is passified with his Batman pacifier.

Logan is pretty flashy in his Flash outfit.

Yoda looks a lot like Gretchen.

The beautiful Princess Lorelei Leah

Joseph makes a great Skywalker.

This winning car at the 2005 Pinewood derby

This is my second pinewood derby car and I won the race. This car is a Norwegian flag car, complete with a piece of flagpole. I cut out the wave on the bandsaw. I put the wheels on a lethe at work and got all wheels the same diameter, put a 15 degree bevel on the inside hub and a 2 degree bevel outside to inside on the tread. It weighs exactly 5 ounces. Then I put a lot of graphite on the axles for each run. I helped Jake Winkel cut his car out and he came in second place and he was only eight years old. I will need to stop helping. That was too close.

Our Grand Children in order.

This is Andrew's 2006 school picture. He is trying to be like grandpa with that hair.

This is Brandon's 2006 school picture. He's pretty cool. Huh?

This one is Joseph. His shirt says he is the good one, and he is really trying hard at it.

Joseph's oldest sister is Lorelei. It is true. We are best buds and we understand each other.

Then we have Kyle and Tiffany's first, Elisabeth. Isn't she cute? She even has her own fan club.

Look at those eyes! Just gorgeous. Oh by the way this is Gretchen and she is crawling up a storm.

This is miracle child number one, Jeffery (Logan). This was the result of his first haircut. We are so glad that hair keeps growing.

This is Liam, miracle child number two, and he just witnessed his twin brother's first haircut and all of a sudden he is sitting in the barber chair. He just can't wait to have his first cut, or is that fear?