Merry Christmas!!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and this year we are especially wishing Calinn Weber, our niece, a Merry Christmas. She is deployed in Afganistan right now and we are all praying for her safe return. She is far away from us, but still in our hearts this Christmas. We are thankful for all the milatary men and women over there defending our country. We are also thinking about Wendy Weber, Jay's sister and Calinn's mom, who just moved to Arizona and is spending Christmas there. We had Elness Christmas today and I would like to share some pictures with you Calinn and Wendy if you are looking at this. We love you guys very much!!

What a beautiful winter day

What a nice, warm day and Jay and the kids have been enjoying it outside making snow scultures and sledding. Enjoy the pics and the video.

We are blessed!!

It has been a wonderful week of many blessings. We celebrated Chance's 6th birthday this week. I can't believe that he is that old already. Seems like just yesterday when he was a tiny baby. We enjoyed his birthday party with family at Pizza Ranch in Worthington last night. He was very excited to get many great gifts, which he has enjoyed playing with all day today. Last night we were also blessed to be able to go to the "Go Fish" concert in Worthington. I can't explain how awesome it was. I loved it and the kids loved it. We enjoyed it with my mom, Jay, Angie, Maddi and Macie. I truely needed that concert to get into spirit of Christmas, but also to remember the real meaning of Christmas. It was a refreshing concert to go to and the Go Fish guys are are so awesome. Their mission is to create great kids music that has a Biblical message. If you ever get a chance to go see them, do it. I recommend them to all ages. God's blessings today and every day. Jen

Santa, I need a vacation!!

Hi, wow this month has been crazy already and we are only in the first week. I do love this time of year. As busy as it is with everything happening at once it seems, it is an exciting time. The kids have been busy with their activities. Clay started basketball this week, which is always a challenge. Because everyone has to share the gym, his practices have been at crazy times and different every day, so it gets to be a challenge some days. His first game is next week already and on Chance's birthday too. Good thing that Chance didn't want a birthday party with his friends this year. Im not sure what we would have done. Chance is still content having his birthday party with just his family and that's ok with me. I can't believe that he will be 6 already. Time flies. This week we had a Holiday open house at ECFE and Santa was there, so Chance and Cam told the big guy what they wanted. Chance actually sat on his lap this year and talked to him, but not Camryn. She was a bit frightened of him this year. Im not sure why, because she was fine last year. So I barely got a picture of her before she ran off. I look at my calendar and the month only gets busier. I wonder if Santa would get me a vacation somewhere?? I wish. Have a great weekend.

Tagged

I've been tagged, so here are 6 interesting things about me:

1. I'm a preschool teacher and teach for a christian preschool in Windom. This year my classes are full and that makes me feel very good. I love working with the children. It's fun to see them grow and change throughout the year. There is never a dull moment at school and everyday is a different, exciting day.
2. Jay and I have been married for 11. 5 years. Im not going to lie and say that it's been easy because it hasn't. Jay and I have been through alot and he is my best friend. We do need to go on more dates. Sometimes it's easy to forget about us, esp. with all the things going on with the kids.
3. I love my kids very much. I especially like now seeing Clay grow up and enjoy different things like hunting and sports. On the other hand it makes me sad that he is getting so big. He's not my little boy anymore. I love seeing how close Cam and Chance are. I pray that they will always be this close.
4. I really miss my dad and wish that he was here.
5. I'm very fearful of going to the doctor. After spending many, many hours in the hospital and clinic, I get very anxious when I go.
6. My faith has gotten me though each day. Prayer is a powerful thing.

A beautiful fall weekend

Wow, what a great weekend it was. We enjoyed Mike, Brenda and Jayme's company on Saturday. Mike took Jayme and Clay out pheasant hunting a little this weekend. Mike shot one, but the kids didn't. Clay really enjoys hunting and will be going deer hunting next weekend with Mike and his other uncles. Mike has been so good with Clay. He even helped me go get a deer license for Clay on Saturday. It was pretty cool for me to get to spend some time with my big brother. When they got home from hunting, we had a bon fire out at Jay's mom and dad's house. It was fun to hang out around the fire. It was a nice night to. It was actually a little cool and the fire felt very good. Enjoy the pics.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all. It was a beautiful night for tricks or treating. Chance and Cam had a great time. I had Jay bring them out tonight and I stayed home to hand out candy. I really enjoy doing that. 2 hours later they came back with their bags plump full. They were exhausted. It was funny because the first thing they did was dumped out all their candy and sorted it into piles. It brought me back to when I was a kid and used to do that. As for Clay, he went out with friends to get candy. For his costume they all wore their hunting vests. Now I have three 7th graders in my living room talking smack. We are having them over night. We will see if I get any sleep. We need a bigger house!! Oh yeh, if your wondering who Chance was, he is young Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.

Camryn's Halloween party

It's so fun to be Camryn's teacher. I get to be at all of her fun things at school. We had a Halloween party for her class this week and the kids had so much fun. It is so fun to see their excitement. She wanted to dress up as a pumpkin for her class party and for the real trick or treating she dressed up as a princess. It's so sweet to see the friendships that she has made and how she likes to play with everyone. Enjoy the pics.

fall fun

Fall is here!!

Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent it outside raking leaves, carving and painting pumpkins. We watched our neighbor kids also, so the kids had a blast playing all day. We also had Grandma Joan here for the weekend and it was nice to visit and spend time with her. It was a great fall day.

Remembering Kendra

Tomorrow, Oct. 20th, we remember our daughter Kendra's life. It was a short 1 year, but she filled our hearts with more love, compassion, and joy that we can't describe. We believe that Kendra is watching over us. We remember her when we see a monarch butterfly fluttering by, we remember her in the gentle breeze that blows, we remember her in the beauty of a flower or the laughter of my children. Take the time to enjoy these things and every time that you see them, think of our Kendra bug. Please visit Kendra's website at the left.

Football

Clay's football

Last week Clay played football in Tracy. My sister, Jeanna, was there to watch him and she took some pictures of Clay playing. Thanks, Jeanna. Clay plays running back and corner back and he was chosen today as the teams punter. We are so proud of him.

Relaxing after a long day

This week was everyone's first full week of school. I think we all survived pretty good. Camryn started at Sonshine preschool this week and goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is fortunate to have me as her teacher. The kids wondered why she calls me mom. We are trying to break that habit. Chance had his first full week of Kindergarten. I think that he had a good week. It is a big transition going to all day every day, so he did come home quite crabby after school. His teacher said that he is adjusting well and starting to talk more in class. He is pretty shy, but he's getting better. Clay has had homework every night this week. 7th grade is quite different than 6 th grade. He had a football game last night in Tracy. He is really enjoying football. They lost, but I don't think that it phased him to much. This is his first year of playing tackle football in full pads. I started preschool this week too. I have to say that it didn't go to bad. I am tired today though. It is going to take awhile for me to get used to getting back into our crazy routine. I was spoiled being off for the summer. Hope you enjoy the video. The kids were playing around on the trampoline last night. We were all home relaxing together finally. Hope you all enjoy the weekend.

First week of school

Well today I brought Chance to his first day of Kindergarten. It was very quiet today at home. I haven't started school yet, so it was just me and Camryn at home today. At one point this morning she said to me, "I miss Chance". I did too. I wondered all day what he was doing. He finally came home and sounded like he had a good day. I think that it gets long, but he survived. We will see how his 2nd day of school is tomorrow.

Clay started 7th grade this year and he seems like he likes it. Although he will have a lot of homework this year I have a feeling. It already has started. He already asked me to help him with this math homework tonight. He is also in football this fall and has enjoyed that alot so far. Tonight was his first scrimmage in Fulda and he got 2 touchdowns, the only score for Windom. Yeh Clay. I had to miss it tonight because I had already scheduled orienation at my preschool. So that was a bummer. But Jay, grandma, grandpa and Chance went to cheer him on. Camryn went with me to meet her new friends in her class this year. Next week I start school and then life in the Elness house will be busy. I also work at ECFE this year in Windom 2 nights a week now, Mondays and Thurs. I'm tired just thinking about it. Hope you enjoy the pictures of Chance's first day of school.

August

August is always a hard month for us and it's been a stressful month this year too. We celebrate lots of birthdays this month. Our nephew Jesse would have been 17 years old this month. Our daughter Kendra would have been 8 years old this month. We know that they celebrated in heaven together. We also celebrate our God daughter, Maddi's birthday. We remember Jesse this month too for the fact that his 2 year born into heaven anniversary was on the 21st. We miss him every day yet. My kids talk about Jesse on a daily basis. He was a great kid and he touched our hearts in more ways then he knew. We love and miss you Jesse.

We also pray for my nieces little baby, Johnnie. She aspirated meconium when she was born and is in Sioux Falls yet. Please pray for her so she gets better. Her mom and dad want her to come home very bad. She's getting stronger, but has had some set backs. So say a little prayer that she gets healthy and strong and grows up to be a healthy little girl.

Twins Game

Every summer Clay, Jay and I go to the Twins game with our church. Our chuch gets a charter bus full of members and we go cheer on the Twins. We had a lot of fun. The Twins played the Indians and they won. We got to see a very good game. This year Clay's friend, Andrew went with us. Every year we go in August. This year happened to be on my nephew, Jesse's birthday. In memory of him, we wore our Jesse shirts. He loved the Twins too. Go Twins!!!

Having fun swimming

A couple of weeks ago we went to Lakefield to there cool new pool. The kids had a blast and it was just fun to relax and play with them. Their all a bunch of fish. It was a great day.

Camryn

Camryn is a happy go lucky 3 year old that loves to play dolls or in the dirt. We have been doing daycare this summer while Im off of school and she just loves the fact the she gets to have a couple of play mates to play with every day.

Chance jumping off of diving boards

Baseball pictures

Chance's swimming lessons

We put Chance in swimming lessons this summer and he loved them. He is quite the little fish in water. I think he liked jumping off the diving boards the best.

Summer Baseball

Clay had a great summer of baseball. It was very fun to watch him every Tues and Thursday evening. He was on a traveling team that would go to nearby towns. His team consisted of 4th, 5th and 6th graders. By the end of the season it was fun to see them click and actually play as a team. His last tournament was last weekend and Clay played really well. He was proud that he hit a infield homerun. Enjoy some of the pictures and video from his tournament.

Welcome to our Blog

Hi everyone, Ive been wanting to do this for awhile now and finally got the courage up today. I figured because we are far away from each other that it would be nice to share some things that happen in the Elness house. Hope you will enjoy and I will try to add things on a weekly basis.