Styling

Jadenism:
Tonight at supper Janelle asked Jaden in he wanted green beens to which he replied, "No thanks, there not my style!"

God Welcomes Terri

We lost a dear member of our family. Terri Neitz, who was Janelle's aunt, lost her 3 year battle to cancer but earned eternal life in heaven. Terri had many challenges in life but faced all them with a good attitude. She is survived by her two daughters Sara (26) and Stephanie (23).

Here are a few fun memories of Terri:
When I asked Megan what she remembers of Terri she said "she would always kiss and pinch our cheeks"

Terri and the girls would often celebrate Christmas with us at the Wentz house. For about 4 or 5 years in a row Terri always gave me flavored coffee as a gift which was always very nice. The funny thing is I don't drink coffee and she never noticed all those years when we sat after a meal and everyone was asked it they wanted a cup I always declined.

Janelle remembers, as a little girl, putting on Auntie Terri's high heels. She loved wearing heels even when she was going through treatments she wore these high heels to a family event.

Her obituary can be read here. Everyone wore red at the funeral and you can read the obituary to find out why.

We will miss Terri!

Halloween 08

Halloween his was a rare beautiful night. Many years we are truging through snow but this year we had a nice warm night for "trick or treating". When it came to costumes this year Jordan was a "no brainer". Jordan has been marching around the house as a pirate ever since he watched The Scooby Doo Pirate Movie.

Jaden decided to be a Vampire.

Megan was a punk rocker (my little girl wore makeup).
Austen was a duck with "quacks".

Mommy & Daddy Go Trick or Treating

Mommy and Daddy enjoyed an evening out at the 2nd annual Cargo Halloween Party. Todd and Bridget throw terrific Halloween parties. Bridget always goes "way out" in decorating for this holiday. Half way through the evening Bridget has everyone go into a room in which she has all kinds of costumes and masks and you can either change your costume or add to your current costume. The costumes were great. As you can see below we went as tourist. There were three pirates, a construction worker (or Village People member), doctor and a nurse that were handing out pills and medicine(skittles and shots), a gangster, a clown, the Pink Panther, and a witch. It was a fun evening but a short night as we were out late and kids were up early as usual.

Oktoberfest

On October 17 we celebrated our 100% German heritage with our annual Oktoberfest. Traditional German food with homemade beer(thanks to Jerry). Guest included family: Mom and Dad Zander and Wentz, Curt & Marti, Michael, Morgan, & Mathew, Jodi, Sean & Mandy, Tammy & Curt, & Rob; friends included Tom and Donna, Kathy and Jerry.

Loretta and Donna with some clown in the back ground(Curt).

Family enjoying good food and good company.

Rob and Kathy blow out their birthday candles.

Grandpa shows off his accordion skills to the grandchildren.

Last weekend at the Lake

Labor day weekend was our last weekend at the lake for the summer since the weekends will be filled with Megan and Jaden soccer games. It is too bad since fall is such a beautiful time to be in Northern Minnesota. We had a beautiful weekend. It was a windy weekend for most everyone but we were on the right side of the lake so we had a beautiful days. We went the days tubing, swimming, boating, and spent hours creating sand castles. We even got grandpa tubing as shown below.

Austen enjoys the last summer watermelon.

Austen finds his own boat.

First day of school

Megan started the 4th grade while Jaden is now in 1st grade. Jordan and Austen enjoy watching for the bus but are still a little confused why Megan and Jaden are gone all day. Both seem to have great teachers and we are looking forward to a good year (hopefully).

The bus stop is now in our driveway (we kind of sort of moved it) with 8 kids catching the bus. The race is still on every morning to see who can be in the first position. As you can see Megan won out on the first day.

Jaden getting use to his new desk.

Never too soon to "brown nose" the teachers.

Weekend at lake

Spent a wonderful weekend at the lake. Janelle's whole family was there along with Michaela's sister Lucia from Slovakia.

Jordan gets to open a few birthday gifts from uncle Rob.

Jordan and Elli (Elizabeth) relax by the fire.

The Zander men.

Canoe Trip

This weekend Megan and I along with Janelle's brother, Rob and Gary, and Sheri and Lucia went on a little canoe trip. We started at Rob's place on Lake Plantagenet and headed north. We ended up going through 5 lakes and on the Mississippi. In all we went about 7 miles (if we canoed straight) in about 3 1/2 hours. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun.






Megan & Jeff





We fall behind
Gary & Lucia

Cool Megan

Rob & Sheri

Birthday Weekend

We had our annual family birthday celebration at Curt and Marti's. We enjoyed time swimming and family time while celebrating all the summer birthdays.

Megan and Jaden take an icee break from Swimming, Morgan and Mom are in the background.

Jordan opens a present while cousins and sister watch.

Austen and Daddy take a swim.(yes, I can swim without the floaty)

Jordan practices to be the next Bon Jovi.

Austen, the next Michael Phelps?

Graduation

When we asked Jaden what he wanted to do for his Kindergarten Graduation he said, "I want a bonfire." So despite the rain we gathered with friends and family to celebrate Jaden's move into the 1st grade.

May 17th

About a year ago I started this blog and one of the first entrees was about running my first marathon. It was the Fargo Marathon and this year I decided to run the Half Marathon. It was my fourth half marathon but I was pleased with my performance of 1:51:47 even though it was my third best time. My goal is it someday get it down to 1:39:59 to be able to say I ran a half marathon in 1:30's. I did wear the beanie and it was again a hit. My next big race will be the Twin Cities Marathon in October.

First Communion and Confirmation

On May 10 Megan celebrated her First Communion and Confirmation. We were very proud of her (and not just because she wore a dress). After the ceremony we had a get together at our house and served tacos (that is what she wanted). She received many nice gifts but we are most thankful for all the people that showed up and gave their support. Her Aunt Michaela and Uncle Gary were her sponsors (and her godparents) but only one was allowed to walk with her. One of the nicest things about the whole thing is the scrap book Megan prepared, you will have to see it the next time you visit.

1st Road Trip

Megan, Jadan, Grandma Shirley, Grandpa Jerome and I took the new van on its first road trip. We went to the Cities to Cousin's Michael's 1st Holy Communion. It was a quick day trip that turned out to be a enjoyable day. The new van has swivel chairs in the middle so the middle row and the back row can face each other and a table goes up in the middle. The kids did not know about this so they were real excited to get on the road and try it out. Things went well all the way to Albertville were we stopped for breakfast. Grandma and the kids played all kinds of games the whole way. After breakfast we took off for the last hour of our journey. Jaden sat in the middle row with his back to the front of the car and started getting car sick. We don't know if it was because he sat backward and he had just eaten a big breakfast so we are going to have to be careful with him on trips. If you don't know Jaden has a very week stomach and I could write a book of stories on that subject.

Easter

Here is a family picture of us after Easter Mass. It seems that we are at a stage when we can never get a picture of everyone smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

When you think of Easter Mass I'm sure you think of over an hour celebration or maybe an over two hour celebration. Well 38 minutes has to be a new Catholic record. Father was not feeling well so his homily was this:

"Obviously the reading were about the Resurrection...you know the rest"

Jaden's Birthday

In April we celebrated Jaden's 6th birthday. All he wanted was his best friend Claudia and him to go to a swim park. We started the day by going to Home Depot to the children's workshop and built planters. Then we headed to Casselton to the Governor's Inn with Megan, Jaden, Claudia, and two of our friend's children. We came back and had pizza, cake, and opened presents. It was a wonderful day.

Catch up time!

How do you celebrate one year of blogging? By taking a month and a half off. After you have been on a new job for a year don't you expect 6 weeks off for vacation? Why should blogging be any different. I will try to be better but life is a little crazy. I will try catch you up on what has happened in the last few weeks. Stay tuned for more....

We Did It!?!?

We did it. We became a, not one, but a two Mini van family. Yes, we traded in Denita (our Toyota Camry). Old blue was a faithful vehicle for 8 years but the family grew and Denita (Megan named it when she was 3 yrs old) did not. We found out when our current van was in the shop that a family of six was a tight fit. We had been talking about it for awhile and finally did some serious shopping the last 2 weeks.

Friday Janelle and I test drove a Dodge Caravan, Town & Country, and a Toyota Sienna. We decided on a Caravan and jokingly made a comment about the vehicle in the showroom to the sales person. He asked "what do we have to do to get you to drive it home tonight?" We made a low offer and he joked he couldn't do that. This was at about 6:30pm and they closed at 6:00pm. We left there at 9:00 pm in a new Dodge Caravan with a H*ll of a deal. The secret is to keep the sales person, the sales manager, and the finance person all 3 hours late on a Friday night. We think they finally got to the point of "we just want this over with".

The van is a very nice model with all the features we wanted and a few "bells and whistles" extra. I will post some pictures later.

Any ideas on a name?

Gatorade Boy

Jordan was playing down stairs alone when Janelle heard him crying and calling for help. Janelle rushed down to find him stuck in a Gatorade container (the kind you see being dumped on coaches after a big win). Jordan had sat down in the container and found that he could not move. Janelle, with a smile on her face, reached down and picked him up but he was stuck. She tried again but found that she could not get him out all the while Jordan continued to cry. Realizing this was not going to be as easy as expected Janelle thought she better calm him down so she picked up the container and held it(him) before continuing(stop here and paint yourself a visual image of this). After he was calmed down Janelle worked hard and after several minutes was finally able to release him. Think of that the next time your team wins a big game.

Proud Dad

A few weeks ago I was ironing a shirt while watching TV and Megan came into the room. As she entered a commercial for a new show "My Dad is Better than Your Dad" came on showing Dads competing in different events. Megan watched the commercial and when it was done said, "Dad, you should be in that show, you'd "rock"." I couldn't leave the room for several hours because my head was too big.

Country Comedian

If money ran from my nose, I would blow it all on you.

Check out this funny country comedian/singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egCeIwjIuZM&eurl=http://www.komando.com/videos/2-20.asp

Tis the season

In December we were working very hard with Jordan on talking and were very proud of the fact that we were able to get him to say "Merry Christmas" to people especially as a good bye. Of course, he said it in his own 2 year old voice as "Merry Mis Mis." What we seemed to have forgoten to tell him is that once the season was over he no longer needed to use that saying because everytime someone says "Good Bye" Jordan still says "Merry Mis Mis."

How do you do it?

People ask me a lot "How do you do it with four children under the age of 8?" I think of what my mother said she said when people asked her:



"You just do it and either turn to the bottle or prayer."



I think a little of both has helped us.

Homework

Jadenism:

We were getting ready for school one morning and all of a sudden Jadan asked Mom "What day is it?"
Janelle replied, "Tuesday."
"Oh no! Its gym day" exclaimed Jaden.
"It's OK Jaden, your wearing sweat pants."
"No, I forgot to do my homework. I was suppose to paractice my skipping."

Oh, to only have the stress of a kindergardner!!!!!

Visiting Santa

(As you have figured out I am making up for missed blogs)

On a Friday before Christmas Janelle and the kids met me after work at Rheault Farm (which is across the street from were I work). This Fargo attraction is actually a farm that a high school friend of mine grew up but now serves as a City of Fargo park. At Christmas time it is decorated and made to look like Santa's place.

We started at the house to visit Santa in his living room. As you can see Santa is in his overalls since the red suit only comes out on Christmas Eve. The kids got to tell Santa there list while he told each of them they made the good list. We then went to the kitchen to see Mrs. Claus and helped here decorate cookies. From there we walked over to a separate building where there were craft projects. From there we went to a big barn that had a large model train set up and running (Jordan loved that, "choo choo"). Then it was over to a smaller barn where a couple of Santa's real reindeer were. They must of been a little stressed out because one actually charged the fence. It is really a neat place and the price is right, free.