Kissing Cousins

Ashlyn giving cousin Connor a kiss during the Vikings game last weekend.

Dancing Queen

Ashlyn dancing at the Sesame Street LIVE show below... too cute!!!!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Sesame Street LIVE!

We went to Sesame Street LIVE this morning at the Verizon Center in Mankato with my sister Lyndsey and her son Jared who just turned 5. They had a blast! I think it was the most fun Ashlyn has ever had! She spent the whole time standing on my lap jumping up and down and clapping. I think out of the whole place she was having the most fun! She LOVES Elmo and the gang. She knows almost all of their names. We went out to eat at Happy Joe's in Mankato after and she had fun playing the games with Jared. They earned 37 tickets and traded them in for a few toys. The day was a success and worth every penny!

waiting for the show to start

dancing Jared dancing in the aisle

trying to play a game

cashing in their tickets

hanging out by the window where you

can watch them make the pizzas

Snowmobiling

Joe took Ashlyn out for her first snowmobile ride on the 13th and she really liked it. Joe said she saying "whoa" in a her excited voice. We also wend sledding down the piles of snow in our yard and she thought that was pretty cool too.

Magic

Mommy turns her back for a minute and look what happens when a little girl finds a magic marker. It only took three baths to wash it off!

BUSTED!

What these?

Robbery

We just haven't had good luck on the farm this past month. First, our barn roof collapses.... and now our shop was robbed. It happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning before 5am. They came in through the unlocked door and stole mostly power tools. They took the time to take the stand along with our chop saw, angle grinders, cordless drills, impact wrench, the cases to match each of the tools, rechargeable batteries and chargers that were plugged in on the work bench and a ice auger. Thankfully they didn't vandalize anything, they were so neat that nothing really looked out of place... things were just GONE. We had the sheriffs and detective out here and they said that they already had one suspect so hopefully they catch the jerks. We're not so concerned about the "stuff", it's just such a violation of our privacy and our sense of security.

18 months old!

Our little girl is growing up fast! Ashlyn turned 18 months old last Saturday. She had her Dr appointment today and she's doing great! She had one shot and only cried for a second. Overall she is a healthy, happy and chatty little girl. Here are her stats:

• 32.2" tall (70%)
• 26lbs 4 oz (80%)

Some of the things she is up to are....

Gives kisses and hugs (daddy's favorite!). High fives, and knucks.

Absolutely loves Elmo and the whole Sesame Street gang. She gets excited and starts dancing as soon as she hears the theme song.

Spends a lot of time playing mommy to all her babies. She has a stroller, pack-n-play, car seat, high chair, bottles, diapers and nuks. She rocks them, gives hugs and kisses. She even has one that stays in the bath tub and gets her bald head washed every night. It adorable.

Runs around the house full speed. Loves to be chased and play hide and go seek. She also gets a kick out of being scared. (Like you jump out from behind a door and make her jump... she just giggles like crazy.)

Can't get enough of the outdoors even if it's cold out. I have to drag her back in the house to warm up.

Likes being pulled in her sled and going down hills with mommy in the big sled. Likes going on snowmobile rides with daddy.

Talking like crazy, can copy almost any word but some of her favorites are

• Mommy, Daddy, Gauge, puppy, papa (grandpa), Chloe
• Elmo, Abby, Zoe, Cookie (Sesame Street character)
• TOUCHDOWN!!

• No Way!
• Yeah
• Eat
• All done
• All gone
• Baby
• Shhh! (with her finger by her lips)
• P-U!
• Blankie
• Milk
• More
• Hot Dog
• Cracker
• Cookie
• Night Night
• Hi
• Bye bye
• Cheese
• Hot
• Cold

Knows where her eyes, ears, nose, toes, fingers and belly are and can point them out on other people.

Has been sleeping through the night like a champ for a while now. Usually 8pm -7am and a 1-2 hour nap late in the morning :)))

She is the light of our lives and we feel very blessed!

Outside at last!

The weather was FINALLY nice enough for us to go outside and get some fresh air yesterday! Ashlyn had a blast playing in the snow and even tried to shovel some. I got a good work out pulling her all around the yard, she loved it!

Trying to feed Gauge some snow

Decorating

Backing up a bit, here are some picture of Ashlyn helping me decorate our tree. She did really good and it turned out great!

Ready or not, here we go!

I'll get these for you mom

here you go!

Mom, didn't you know that throwing

them into the tree works really good??

Treat

Ashlyn loves when Daddy and Jeff come in for lunch. Jeff usually has a cookie or chips that he shares with Ashlyn. Yesterday it was Oreos. Yum....

Christmas Eve at the Krals

survivors

Two more pigs came out of the rubble tonight and yesterday we had five come out. They are pretty cold but will survive. I know many of you are concerned about how the pigs are doing. We've done everything we can to get all the survivors out. There are still a few that have made a nest in the insulation and are by a feeder that still has feed in it. Maybe they will come out when the feed runs out or when the construction guys get the rafters off of them. So far it has been amazing that there are so few that were injured. We haven't found any dead ones either. Unbelievable if you ask me.

Christmas card picture

Santa's back up reindeer....

Lincoln Michael Dorn

We went to visit our new little friend Lincoln Michael Dorn. Son of Tim and Angie. He was born on Sunday and weighed 9lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long. BIG BOY!!

Congrats to Tim and Angie, he's a keeper!

Bad Day

After four Christmases we were looking forward to sleeping in and having a lazy day around the house, but no. We got a lovely call this morning at 6:30am from our hog barn. It was the alarm saying that sensor 2 was at 20 degrees (really weird since it's supposed to call before it gets to 50 degrees) so Joe got up and raced back to check on it and thought that the water line broke and was spraying water on the temperature sensor. But once he got in the office he realized that we had a bigger problem on our hands. He opened the door to the west room and saw that the roof had collapsed. Not just the tin roof inside, but the whole ceiling, insulation, rafters and roof. About a 100 foot section in the center of the roof had fallen in on top of our pigs. Luckily we have been marketing pigs (they are 280lbs) for the last few weeks so the barn was about half empty and a few of the pens were empty where the roof fell. So thankfully Joe's parents were able to come over right away and Tim helped Joe and I move pigs to the east side and Ruth watched Ashlyn. We were able to get almost all of the pigs out but a few (5 or less) are still trapped. It's so sad, I feel bad for them. So much for a restful Sunday!

View from the highway

What the barn should look like.... East Room

West Room

The lights still worked but the water and gas lines were obviously snapped off.

View along the outside wall

Elmo Riding Shotgun

Ashlyn got a huge Elmo from the Beraneks at Christmas on Sunday and it was love at first sight! Here she's crusing with Elmo riding shotgun.

let it snow....

I took Ashlyn out for her first sled ride today. She LOVED it! I pulled her around the yard and down the ditch. There were little snowflakes sticking to her eyelashes that were so cute. She didn't want to go back in the house and cried when I finally had to pick her up and carry her in.

Tongue sticking out trying to taste the snow flakes