Beauty Shop

A favorite pastime of Bryee's

Talli and Mom Wisconsin Style

Presents of course

Dinner with a side of Angry Birds

Flowers and Bubbles

Mimi and her boy

Brett is.....

Brett is.....

Courageous

Wise beyond years

Loving

Creative

Persevering

Honest

My Treasure and my Joy

He is one amazing 10 year old!

The Girl with Impeccable Style

She peeked over my shoulder and said "Can I wear that today?" Of course Brylee. It is a great outfit!

Love the Hat

Love the boots

Love the clip on earrings

Love the juice pouch accessory

But most of all love the girl with all the style.

Gone Fishin'

First you must pick the purse that matches the fishing pole and tackle box your dad insisted that you have and make your hair pretty before you go fishing.

It is then followed by Jake making sure you really want to go because he would prefer to go with Dad alone and then laughing at the purse you insist on bringing.

But he really is a great brother and will hold the slimy fish that you catch.

I can tell by his face he just caught a fish

Must be a heavy one!

Oh my goodness Brett is fishing. Not is favorite thing to do....but once and awhile he can be talked into it. He had the only catch of the night!

Jumping for Joy

Two Peas in a Pod

They Came North!

The snow melted and they kept true to their word. Grandma and Grandpa came North! It was wonderful spending a few days with them. I miss living just a quick car ride away. Ummmm....don't forget to come again soon!

Reading with Grandma

Baseball with Grandpa

Sue hung a new bird feeder

Watching a barge come down the river and a quick trip to Grandad's bluff.

Miss you guys!

Gander Mountain Grand Opening

The main reason we moved north instead of south was for Bryan to have the opportunity to open a new Gander Mountain store and of course to be a tad closer to my family in ND. I literally have not seen him in 4 or 5 weeks. He has been putting in 100 plus hour work weeks. And not once have I heard him complain! Not sure how he operates on such little sleep.....But it looks like all the hard work paid off. The kids and I braved the crowd and tracked down my hard working man.

Jake loves these guys. I know I should know their names but they have their own tv show on the history channel hunting crocodiles or maybe alligartors. The line to meet them was outrageous. I think I heard 500 plus people drove from all over to meet them.

Bow hunting for the kiddos! Both boys want their own bows now.

I'm sure I should know his name too. Bry said he just won over half a million fishing. Not bad for a days work!

and more very cool fishing guys who gave the kids new tackle!

Thanks for working so hard for your family Bryan!

Maybe we will see you soon!

Brylee Who?

This is my Crazy, Goofy Girl her name is:

Brylee Ann

she informed me today that her name is:

Brylee Ant

and Jacob quickly corrected her and informed her that her name is:

Brylee And

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

He rose and conquered the grave!

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

My Gander Man

ONALASKA - The big new Gander Mountain Co. store that opened last Sunday in Onalaska's Crossing Meadows Shopping Center is attracting customers with its expanded staff and merchandise selection, and the chain's soon-to-open second firearms academy.

The new 57,120-square-foot store, built at the former Walmart store site, replaced a 33,000-square-foot store that opened in 1995 along Hwy. 16 in Onalaska. The Walmart building was demolished in 2006, two years after Walmart moved to a larger building in the Market Place shopping center in Onalaska.

The new Gander Mountain will celebrate its grand opening next weekend. Some highlights will include appearances Saturday by fishing celebrities Dean Rojas, Brian "Bro" Brosdahl, Tom Neustrom, Tony Roach and Tommy Skarlis, and the Landry family, stars of The History Channel's "Swamp People" documentary series.

The store's Gander Mtn. Academy firearms academy will open by the end of this week. It will be the first in the Midwest for the St. Paul-based chain, which has 116 stores in 23 states. The chain's first firearms academy opened in February in Lake Mary, Fla., and more are planned.

The firearms academy is expected to attract area law enforcement agencies, as well as the public. It will offer a variety of classes, for beginners to advanced enthusiasts. Classes include basic firearms ownership and safety, concealed-carry fundamentals and permit requirements, marksmanship, self-defense for women and family firearms safety.

The academy also has a live range where gun owners will use real bullets, as well as a virtual range where participants will use actual firearms that use laser technology and realistic recoil but no bullets. And there are two interactive high-definition simulators, featuring scenarios that range from hunting to self-defense.

Extended hours will be available for law enforcement agencies that want to send personnel to the academy.

The academy will feature highly trained instructors in a safe environment, store manager Bryan Cavanaugh said. It occupies about 5,000 square feet of space.

The Onalaska store features the chain's latest store prototype, said Joe Herter, district manager. The Onalaska store it replaced was the chain's standard size, when it opened.

"It's all about the customer," Herter said of the reason for building a much larger store in Onalaska.

Customers had been asking for a wider variety of products, Cavanaugh said.

The new store features a much broader selection of merchandise. For one thing, Herter said, "You'll see a lot more name brands in apparel" than at the old store. "And our firearms assortment is much broader." So is the selection of merchandise for camping.

The new store has a full-service firearms department, as well as a full-service footwear department.

The new Gander Mountain had a staff of about 85 employees early last week, and Cavanaugh said that number soon will increase to about 90. About 50 to 55 employees worked at the smaller Gander Mountain on Hwy. 16, he said.

Cavanaugh, who became local store manager in late August, said the old Onalaska store closed March 21 in preparation for the move to the new, larger location. TCI Architects/Engineers/Contractor of La Crosse was general contractor for the new store.

Onalaska Mayor Mike Giese said he is pleased by Gander Mountain's decision to build a larger store, and in Onalaska. "It certainly helps to invigorate the whole area," he said.

The new store is very visible from Interstate 90 and should help attract more visitors to the area, Giese said.

"I don't think it will sit vacant for terribly long," he said of the former Gander Mountain location, north of Woodman's Food Market.

Page After Page After Page....

Brett is still my reader. He reads a Crazy amount of pages daily. I record the number of pages he reads for school. Some days he reads 500 pages. He never leaves the house without a couple books.

He has an amazing vocabulary and sometimes makes me giggle. The words that come out of his mouth sound like words of a grown man.

And his love for reading has rubbed off on 2 very important little people in this house!