Mr. & Mrs. Franta

April 14th...

Keith's sister, Chelsey, got married to Ryan last Saturday.

Here's a sneak peek... I'm still editing the rest of my pictures from the big day.

The newlyweds...

Happy 3rd Birthday, Chloe!

April 10th...

Chloe turned 3 years old!

And to celebrate, we had spaghetti (her favorite) for supper
and then Grandma Deb brought out a cupcake cake. Yum!

She is such a unique little girl and we just love her to pieces. Here is a cute video of her being her silly self that I captured a week before her birthday. She talks about turning 3 ("tree"), wearing big girl panties (YAY!) and singing "Happy Dirt-day" to herself. All while Morgan is singing her own tunes in the background. Love it!

Grandma Deb and the birthday girl...


Posing for Jared (he had Grandma's camera)...


The best part... licking the frosting off of the candles...
 

Morgan and Jared liked the cupcakes too...
 

We haven't decided when we are going to have the girls' birthday parties (due to not knowing when field work is going to start) so Chloe got a few gifts on her special day.


Technically, she won the bike when she was 3 months old... 2009 Blog Post
We put it away and saved it for when she was big enough to ride it so it's new to her!
She's still a little small for it but don't tell her that. After a few trips up and down the driveway, she had it all figured out and is SO proud that she can ride a big-girl bike!


We had a few more presents for her but we had to peel her off her bike to open them. Then it was right back to the bike. :)

Happy Easter!

April 8th...

Jared was SO excited for Easter this year that he went to bed with his nightvision goggles with hopes of seeing the Easter Bunny out his window while he was hiding our eggs. That kids cracks me up! It's getting harder to come up with excuses for how things happen when it comes to the Tooth Fairy, Santa, Easter Bunny, etc. He spotted one of the bags of goodies (candy and toys) that I bought and almost busted me but I told him that the Easter Bunny's job is to hide the eggs. He doesn't have a sleigh like Santa does to carry all of the baskets. It worked... he bought it! ;)

Easter morning...

     

The best part of the morning was that Jared woke up... peeked out the window... sqealed with excitement and ran right past the table full of goodies and out the garage door. I was still in bed so I just had to giggle. About a minute later he came back in the house... running... slammed on the brakes in front of the table... sqealed again and then raced into my room. To make it even funnier was that he was only in his undies! It was cold outside! He had to tell me that he went outside to get a better look at where the eggs were hidden but didn't touch anything. He knows better. ;) He was bummed that we couldn't hunt for the eggs until after church but it was too cold out and the girls are not morning people... I was not about to start WW3. :)

The hunt... 

   

Morgan had enough and just wanted to swing...

I was trying to help Jared find the last couple of eggs but he just stood there going "What?! I don't see anything!" The camera lens was a few inches from the egg. That was a good laugh!

All done! Another attempt at a group shot but the sun was shining so all I got was squinting...

Sharing treats with Daddy...

Easter Egg Hunt

April 7th...

I took the kids to the Easter Egg Hunt at German Park. Grandma Deb met us there.
It's always nice to have an extra set of hands (and eyes) with these 3 busy bees...

Grandma Deb and Morgan...

Morgan wanted a ponytail like Chloe but she doesn't have much to work with yet.
She looks just like Pebbles Flintstone. :)

Chloe was a little shy so Grandma helped her find some goodies...

Not much in her basket but she still had fun...

Getting a good group picture is always a challenge...

 

Thanks for the help, Mom. What would we do without you?!

Easter Egg Contest

April 6th...

We had the annual Beranek Easter Egg Contest at the farm.

The kids' eggs were judged first...

Keith was very thorough...

Then it was the 'big' kids' turn...

We each pick our 2 favorite eggs and then they narrow it down from there.

The final 6...

A2 and C2 are mine. I've never won the Egg Trophy so I was pretty excited to make it this far!

The winners were Kristin and Alec (they were the winners last year!)...

Technically, I helped Alec make his egg so I get to take a little credit. ;)

Billy the Bull Calf

April 3rd...

Keith brought home our first (and only) calf of the year. During the winter they are all at the farm. We have 18 huts but he's all by himself back in the grove. Hopefully he'll have some neighbors soon.

The kids were really excited to check him out but Jared was the only one brave enough to actually touch him. Chloe wanted to pet him but as soon as she got close she changed her mind. Morgan was content checking him out from the comfort of the wagon. :)

Bright Ideas

March 26th...

This is what happens when Jared gets a bright idea and talks his sisters into helping him...

They took every pillow and blanket they could find and made a big pile to jump on.
Of course, it was SO much fun!!!

Until mom ruins the fun and makes them put everything away. ;)

Archery

March 12th...

Jared is into anything that deals with shooting stuff. Nerf guns, water guns, Buck Hunter (video game)... you get the idea. He's a boy. It's what they do. I surprised Jared by signing him up for archery lessons this Spring and he was SO excited! Way better than those boring swimming lessons every year (his words). The other option was gymnastics (which he also loves) but Dad wasn't real fond of that idea. ;)

First night. 6 boys soaking in all of the instructions...

Who knew that there were 11 steps to shooting a bow?!

They started out with 'string bows' to get the positioning mastered...

And then they finally got to shoot the real thing at the end of the class.
He did pretty well for his first time. He hit the target 2 out of 3 times.

March 19th...

Second night. The hardest part is getting the arrow set-up on the bow.

Ready... Aim... Fire...

Hi, Moe...

March 25th...

I caught this cute shot while she was bookin' it across the yard...

On a mission for something important, I'm sure. ;)

Vroom...

March 25th...

Someone has been watching her older brother drive the 4-wheeler... and paying attention.

What a sweet, innocent little girl...

And then there's the motor-revving speed demon...

I think we'll stick to letting her drive the Gator. ;)

One, Two, Fwree!!!

March 31st...





The two monkeys were being super silly in the tub so I snapped a few cell phone pics.

As soon as I held up the camera they squealed "One, two, fwree!!!"



They get a kick out of shampoo crazy hair so that just adds to the silliness. ;)

Baby Claire

March 25th...

Chloe and Baby Claire...

She loves holding babies! And it has to be by herself. "My do it."