Happy New Year {2011}

Happy New Year {2011}

Thursday, January 6, 2011

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I decided to send out cards way too late, so I made them New Years cards instead of Christmas cards. My friend Kelly designed them. I was so excited when I got the proof. I couldn't wait to send them out.

We had some very exciting news to share:

We are very excited to announce that Baby D aka Lil D is due July 7, 2011!
Stay tuned for weekly updates.

Leah

Thanksgiving {2010}

Thanksgiving {2010}

Friday, December 3, 2010

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

We usually spend Thanksgiving with my family as it is one of the times a year I get to see my Grandma. She lives two hours west of the cities and I don't get to see her as often as I would like to.

We gather mid-morning, eat the main meal at noon, take a break, watch football all day, eat pie, make Krumkake, and then end our evening with another small meal and more pie.

I didn't get any pictures of the food, but here is a picture of Wayne (The Husband) and Les (My Dad) eating pumpkin pie. I believe this is actually round #2 for them. Pumpkin pie doesn't last long in our family.

We also have a tradition every year of making Krumkake. We take over my Mother's island with the two irons and numerous ice cream pails that we fill.

From Left to Right: Grandma Edna, cousin Emily, Aunt Laurie, Mom Karla.

You can see that the ice cream pails are already starting to fill up and the can of Reddi Whip on the counter.

From L to R: Sister Kate, Jorun, who is the Diekens foreign exchange student this year from Norway, Grandma and Emily again.

The italicized information is taken from Wikipedia.

Krumkake or 'Krum kaka' (English pronunciation: /ˈkruːmkɑːkə/, meaning bent or curved cake, plural krumkaker) is a Norwegian waffle cookie made of flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and cream. Krumkake are traditionally made during the Christmas season.

(photo from Wikipedia)

A special decorative two-sided iron griddle, similar to a waffle iron, is used to bake the thin round cakes. Older irons are used over the stove, but modern electric irons offer the convenience of nonstick surfaces, automatic timing, and multiple cakes per batch.

(photo from Wikipedia)

My Mom filling up her iron with batter.

While hot, the 13–20 cm krumkake are rolled into small cones around a wooden or plastic cone form. Krumkake can be eaten plain or filled with whipped cream (often multekrem) or other fillings.

Grandma Edna rolling.

These cookies are popular not only in Norway but also among Norwegian immigrant descendants in the American Midwest. Krumkaker are traditionally made in preparation for Christmas, along with other Norwegian sweets including Sandbakelse and Rosettes. They offer a sweet dessert after the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ribs or pinnekjøtt.

In Germany, the cookies are commonly filled with sweet stuffings. They are also used as a type of ice cream cone.

Our immediate family doesn't make Rosettes, but some of our extended family does. So we always have those for Christmas, too.We like to put whip cream in our Krumkake or just eat it plain. Doing this always gets us in the Christmas spirit. We make enough to enjoy for the whole month of December.

Part of the Dieken Family

Me & Grandma Edna

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Leah

Christmas in November {2010}

Christmas in November {2010}

Friday, November 19, 2010

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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Every year, on my Dad's side of the family we actually celebrate Christmas in November. We have done this for many years. Whenever someone hears "Christmas in November", they are like what? Well, my Grandma Sharon Stager (Dad's Mom) goes down to Harlingen, TX for the winter and likes to be gone before the snow actually hits and the cold gets unbearable. We usually try and celebrate the first weekend in November and she usually takes off that following Monday. We do a name exchange...a separate one for the kids and then an adult one. We used to do "naughty" gifts, but after a couple of years after that, it gets old. So now we spend about $20 each and we email out family lists so that at least everyone gets a little something that they actually want or can use, whether it's a book or a movie or just a giftcard to somewhere. We all arrive mid-morning, bring something(s) to share, eat lunch, open presents mid-afternoon, eat dinner and then play games and snack. I've been wanting to share more pictures, but I know that sometimes it can be burdensome, so I've started creating collages to consolidate.

This is all the "kids" opening their presents. My cousin, Sam, is cut off of the right side of the picture, but they are all pretty much there. Not too many kids left. Most of us cousins are all grown and are adults. Soon enough though there will be a second wave of youngsters with all of us having significant others, living together, getting married and procreating.  

Every year we try and do individual family pictures as well as different groupings. Here is all the cousins, with the newest addition of Anya. Anya was born 12-20-2009, so she is coming up on her 1st birthday! She is Aron's little girl and we all just love her. The only one missing in this photo is my brother, Ross. He was working for most of the day. ;(

Speaking of loving little miss Anya...here are a few pictures of her opening her gift and a few with us.

She received her first Barbie Doll...it was the Little Mermaid.

Love those cheeks!

Top Left: Anya & Wayne

Top Right: Ross & Anya

Bottom Left: Me & Anya (Taken Sunday, 11/7/2010)

Bottom Right: Amie (my sister) & Me

Later in the early evening, Wayne was caught helping Brittney with her homework. Too funny.

At about 8:15pm, a few of us started a game of train dominoes. We completed the whole game (from 12-0) and played until 12:15AM...yes, we played for 4 hours.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Some of usually try to make a weekend out of it. I went to church with Amie in the morning and the Vikings played at noon. We all ate lunch and had some snacks while watching the Vikings game. Viking football is major in our family. My cousin's girlfriend, Kayla and I ended up taking a cat nap on the couch. Overall it was a great weekend with the Vikings squeaking out a win.

Of course I have to end my posts with the love of my life.

Happy Holidays!!

Leah

Exotic Erotic {2010}

Exotic Erotic {2010}

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

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Friday, October 29, 2010

Every year KDWB puts on a Halloween party called the EXOTIC EROTIC BALL. There is always at least one guest artist that makes an appearance and performs. Wayne and I had never been before, but I really wanted to go this year because THE FAR EAST MOVEMENT was performing. See a blog post about them here. Also HWood was performing as well. Here is his popular song called "Could It Be You."

Overall it was a fun night. I rarely stay out super late anymore, so I was definitely tired the next day.

Top Left: Obviously Wayne was Hulk. This is him before the mustache.
He also wore this costume the next night at Babe's in Lakeville. I was a cop. 
Top Right: My friend Mandy came out with her brothers and all their significant others.
She was Mother Nature.

Bottom Left: Wayne with Mandy's brothers who were Gary Spivey and a hunter.
Bottom Right: Wayne found another Hulk there that night.

Top Row: Wayne & Lucas



Bottom Row: Wayne found another fellow wrestler, John Cena.

Hope your Halloween was a good one.

Leah

4th of July Weekend {2010}

4th of July Weekend {2010}

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Wayne and I went to a BBQ at my friend’s parent’s house. Tim & Vanny Mahoney, whose son Pat, is married to one of my very best friends, Wendy. I’ve know Wendy since we were in 3rd grade. Pat & Wendy started dating when we were juniors in high school (1999) and have been together ever since. They were married just a week shy of their 10 year anniversary on 11/7/2009. That was the last time I saw either one of them. So it was nice to see them as well as other friends that were there and Wendy’s parents.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I worked at the gym in the morning and caught up with my friend Lizzie, who also works at the gym. I wanted to get all my cleaning and errands done that day so that both Sunday and Monday I could enjoy relaxing! So I got my grocery shopping done as well as my cleaning for the week done.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

My brother-in-law, Andy, came up for the day to hang out. What I thought was going to be a relaxing holiday spent on the boat, eating food, hanging with friends and family all day, turned into 3 hours of work. Thanks Andy. Ha.

I didn't get any before pictures, but it was basically overgrown with weeds as well as some stupid white rocks/shells that Grams dumped there. Wayne helped me get rid of the shells and most of the rocks. At some point we are getting new rock put in as well as some new sand on the beach.

While I worked on that, Andy took out all the weeds in the rocks. I didn’t get any before pictures of this either, but it was all overgrown with weeds and plants. It was nice to see him and spend some time with him.

Our friends John and Chris came up for the day as well. After completing the yard work we then headed out onto the boat for a few hours to soak up some sun. We parked the pontoon on one side of the lake and slowly drifted to the other side. As the only girl on the boat, I took the opportunity to lay in my pink floaty. It was nice and relaxing and also fun to hear the boys on the boat talking and laughing.

After a couple hours on the lake we headed in to eat dinner. After dinner John and Andy left and so we took Grams for a ride out on the boat.

[This was our sunset.]

After our ride, we had a bonfire to burn some of the weeds, twigs and branches that we pulled that afternoon. I enjoyed a few marshmallows and s’mores.

[Chris & Wayne]

When it started getting dark I took a shower and settled on the couch to watch the Fireworks on tv. At about 10pm, the neighbor started doing some great fireworks that ended up scaring the dogs. At that point I could barely keep my eyes open, so we just went to bed.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Most of the day was spent hanging out. Sandy made my Mom’s Mostocolli recipe for dinner and overall it was a nice relaxing day.

Grams and I went to visit Barbara in the nursing home that afternoon. It’s been a little over a week since she got here. She arrived 6/26/2010. She is Gramma’s friend from childhood. We first visited her when we went to Florida in April. She was in an awful nursing home and to be frank her children are assholes. So we decided to move her up here to get better care. Here are some pictures of where Barbara is at now.

[Front]

[Beautiful Outdoors]

[Her room]

[Barbara & Grams]

[Me & Barbara]

Overall a fun filled weekend!

Leah

"Boat Off" to Summer

"Boat Off" to Summer

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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Memorial Day 2010

So instead of a "kick off" to summer we did a "boat off" to summer instead. We got Billie Jean in the water and went cruising!

It was a beautiful Memorial Day. Jeannine, Jerry, Chloe and their dog Marley were fishing on the lake, and decided to stop by and say Hi!

Jeannine and Wayne actually went to Prom together in High School and now are both married and both live in Buffalo. Too funny!

Chloe and Marley cooling off.

After hanging out for awhile on the dock, we decided to take Billie Jean for a spin.

Jeannine got herself (and her belly) onto her raft and enjoyed some sun! We were drifting in, so we decided to pull her behind and head back out onto the lake.

That's her with her baby belly. She's 6 months pregnant and can pull off a bikini! You go girl!

Overall, it was a great day with great friends. That's it for May! Stay tuned for June!

Leah