Family Gatherings » Mi Vida Ocupada

Beebs’ Birthday Bash {She’s 5!}

Birthday Parties, Family Gatherings 4 Responses »

Jan 262012

Last week my niece Bianca turned 5 and this past Saturday we celebrated with a family party.

Here are the photos!

Bianca got a lot of nice gifts including an American Girl Doll named Kit

I got her a little portable table/chair and Moon Dough. After she had opened all her presents I caught her sitting here, smiling to herself. She was very happy :)

Playing with the Moon Dough. This stuff is a MESS. Sorry Bri & Shel, hopefully it isn’t ground into your carpet!! I thought it would be more like play-doh :(

The boys thought the box that the table came in was their new fort…

Some family photos….

I finally got to meet Chan-Man, Erin & Stew’s new baby. I love all his hair!

Jeffrey and Annika

And a few miscellaneous

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Happy Birthday Bianca!

Babies & Kids, Birthday Shout-outs, Family Gatherings 4 Responses »

Jan 202012

It is hard to believe that my niece Bianca is five years old today. Crazy how fast that time went, wow!!

Happy Birthday BeBe!

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On this date I have blogged about:

On 01-20-10: Read Another Random Post…. (01-20-10)
On 01-20-09: Read Obama’s Inauguration: So happy & proud to be an American! (01-20-09)
On 01-20-09: Read Live Inauguration Streaming….. (01-20-09)
On 01-20-09: Read Happy Birthday Beebs! (01-20-09)
On 01-20-08: Read Sweet Baby B turns 1!! (01-20-08)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

25 Years of Family Foosball Fun

Family Gatherings 5 Responses »

Jan 162012

This year marked the 25th Annual Sauer Family Foosball Tournament. The crowd was considerably smaller than usual, as we had only around 25 people in attendance, but we still had a good time. The party rotates from year to year but it was at My uncle Joe & Mary’s house this year

My dad, The Commissioner of Foosball, became a first-time Champion with partner Mike (my cousin Katie’s BF)

A shot of the 2012 Toilet Bowl Trophy

The bracket…

I was paired with my cousin Theresa’s husband, Andrew. We were eliminated in the first round. I am terrible at Foosball but in my defense, this is the only time I EVER play foosball

A few of the Tourney….

And a few other posed shots…

Its hard to believe this family tradition has prevailed for 25 years now…. that is pretty incredible!

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On this date I have blogged about…

On 01-16-10: Read Hangin’ with Cass & Co. (01-16-10)
On 01-16-09: Read Addicted. (01-16-09)
On 01-16-09: Read New Subscription Tools! (01-16-09)
On 01-16-08: Read Best Sellers: Book Talk (01-16-08)
On 01-16-06: Read Thanks, MLK Jr! (01-16-06)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Christmas 2011 Recap

Family Gatherings, Holidays 2 Responses »

Jan 032012

I am already all over the place since I posted Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, but posts will not be in chronological order and will definitely be retrospective.

So here we go with Christmas 2011…..

My cousin Zach and his family

Me and my Aunt Carol (my mom’s youngest sister & #8 of 8)

MacKenzie and her boyfriend

Carol and Chris

Carol has a Santa collection, here are a few of them

For Christmas dinner we went to my in-laws where we had roasted duck. After presents, etc we came home and relaxed before heading next door for Darrell’s Annual Birthday Celebration (he is a Christmas Baby). Separate post on that to follow…
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On this day I have blogged about….

On 01-03-10: Read Blue Moon on the Last Day of the Decade!! (01-03-10)
On 01-03-10: Read Pizza Time! (01-03-10)
On 01-03-10: Read Pharaoh the White Lion (01-03-10)
On 01-03-10: Read Photo Banner (01-03-10)
On 01-03-06: Read Starting the Year out COLD…. (01-03-06)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Annual Christmas Eve Fondue

Family Gatherings, Holidays 6 Responses »

Dec 272011

Christmas is now just behind us and before I allow myself to get too far behind, I am going to get my pics up now! I took a combo of photos with my Instagram on the iPhone and with my Nikon.
As always, we spent Christmas Eve with my family up at my parents’ house in Chisago City. It was a treat to have Jeff’s fiance Amanda with us this year for the first time. She was given the honor of dipping the first fondue fork in the pot;)

I know I blog the same stuff about our Christmas Eve Fondue every year but I still gotta share our family tradition with any new readers I have picked up since last year ;)
For dinner we have large trays of marinated meats and several fondue pots filled with hot oil. We each get a handful of fondue forks to use. This year in addition to steak, chicken, pork and tuna, we also had mushrooms, cheese sticks, cream cheese wontons, empanadas, pierogies and waffle fries.

We had a nice evening visiting and interacting with the kids, then later opening presents.

Christmas angel

I got some very nice gifts including an iPhone from Jeff

and this cute hat hand-knit by Michelle

and these cute s & p shakers

Fat cats (Instagram)

We got the kids pajamas, interactive videos/games, and sunglasses. It was a nice time! Bonus: going home with caramel rolls
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On this date I have blogged about:

On 12-27-08: Read Christmas Eve….. (12-27-08)
On 12-27-06: Read New Banner/Scheme & Banner Give-away (12-27-06)
On 12-27-06: Read JT on SNL Skit: Too funny! (12-27-06)
On 12-27-06: Read Christmas Feasting (12-27-06)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Gramps Turned 86! {Family Party}

Birthday Parties, Family Gatherings 4 Responses »

Oct 272011

I feel fortunate that I have got to see my Gram and Gramp as much as I have this year, especially considering that they live in AZ for nearly 8 months every year. They also have a house here in MN and they typically come up from May-Sept but for various reasons, they weren’t able to go back home to AZ until this week, which meant that Gramps was in MN this year on his birthday. For that reason and because life is short (especially since he had a severe stroke back in March with a somewhat miraculous recovery), my mom and Gram planned a little party for him. I honestly don’t ever remember celebrating my Gramps birthday with him, so this was extra special.

3 of my Gram & Gramp’s 8 children were at the party, as well as 9 of 21 grandchildren and 4 great grandkids (not to mention the many addition spouses and partners!). The rest of our family live in AZ, WI, and WA. It was a nice time catching up with a few of my cousins and of course I was Kristarazzi once again :)

Glad you had a special birthday, Gramps.

Love, Your #1 Grandchild :)
xoxoxooxoxoxox

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Labor Day {Family Get Together}

Family Gatherings, Holidays 7 Responses »

Sep 232011

Yes, I know Labor Day was weeks ago.

Better late than never!

As usual, we headed up to my parents house for Sunday Family Dinner. The weather was very windy so we didn’t get out on the boat, but we did a little fishing off the dock with Bianca and Bennett. We also went on a walk with Bianca. She thinks her Uncle E is really funny, they get along great. He loves those Squirrels (his nickname for A & B)
Here is Bennett lounging on the dock while watching Uncle fish.
Annika spent the time indoors, cuddled up watching something on TV

My Grandparents also came up for dinner. We had ribs that were fall-off-the-bone tender…. delicious!!

We also had corn on the cob, broccoli salad, bread, and fruit salad. My Gram makes the best fruit salad! I remember her making big Watermelon boats FULL of fruit when I was a kid. Love the memory :)

Ahh, I love Sunday Family Dinners :)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Homecoming Party {Andrea from AZ}

Family Gatherings 2 Responses »

Aug 112011

A few weeks ago my little cousin Andrea was in town from Tucson. You may remember her going away party a few years ago, she works as a nurse. It probably isn’t fair to call all of my cousins “little” anymore because most of them are now “of age”, but I am the oldest of the 21 grandkids by our Gram & Gramp so they will always be “little” to me, just like Brian and Jeffrey will always be my “little” brothers.

Anyway, my aunt Carol invited the family over to her house a few Sundays ago while Andrea was in town. It was a hot day but we enjoyed the company both inside and out. We also enjoyed the lasagna and the chocolate-covered strawberries ;)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Birthday party for a sweet 6-year-old {Annika Leigh}

Birthday Parties, Family Gatherings 3 Responses »

Aug 012011

A few weeks ago my niece Annika turned 6 and a few days later Brian and Michelle had a party for her up at their lake home. I didn’t take many photos and the ones I did take didn’t turn out very well but I would still like to post about it here as a way to document. We had tacos, cake and ice cream.

I got Annika a couple of cute little skirts (purple plaid and dark denim) and a top to go with both.

Fun times!

Time is flying, I can’t believe Annika is already six and starting first grade soon!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Photo Shoot { In Manual Mode!}

College Friends, Family Gatherings, Photography 8 Responses »

Jul 162011

Yesterday afternoon my college roomie Laura (brown) and I spent some time with my SIL Michelle so she could give us some lessons in photography. Michelle offered a beginning photography course in the spring of last year, shortly after Laura and I both bought our first D-SLR cameras. The class was a Godsend to both of us! It is from these lessons that I began to understand how a SLR camera works and learned how to do more than set the camera to ‘auto mode’.

My photography has improved in the past year but I still had not learned how to shoot completely in manual mode. While still adjusting almost all the settings manually, for the past year I have shot in Aperture mode. This all changed yesterday when Michelle spent time with us and we forever switched our cameras to Manual Mode. There is no turning back now!!!

I was aiming at getting the proper exposure, composition wasn’t the main focus in these photos but I still got some that are pretty cute. Of course my nieces and nephew make adorable subjects to photograph. Michelle is a lucky lady!

This one is totally overexposed but I still like it

Annika is turning six this week. I can’t believe it.
This little stinker is too cute for his own good. He has the famous “Sauer” disappearing eyes when he smiles. Little whipper snapper ;)

Michelle is so pretty, I took a few shots when she wasn’t paying attention. lol! I probably have more photos of her than anyone, since she is always behind her own camera

Thanks for the lesson, Michelle. I look forward to shooting only in manual from now on!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

4th of July {Party with the Koch Fam}

Family Gatherings, Great Outdoors & Weather, Holidays 6 Responses »

Jul 102011

I know it has been a week since the 4th of July but we have been so busy having fun all week that I am just getting to posting my photos. My cousin Daniel was in town from Tucson and in an attempt to get everyone together, Brian and Michelle threw a party up at their new lake home. We spent time out on the lake, hanging out, playing games, drinking and eating. It was a wonderful day, I almost didn’t want it to end. Only about 1/3 of the Koch clan was in attendance but we still had 30+ people.

The visuals……

Some photos taken on land….

Gram got on the John Deere and gave tractor rides like she used to do with us when we were kids. They loved it as much as we always did!

The food….

I forgot to take pictures of the desserts but my Gram made her famous Club Cracker Cookies. Yumma yumma yumma.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July too!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Father’s Day with the Fam

Family Gatherings, Holidays 5 Responses »

Jun 272011

Last Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day up at my parents’ house. A special day to celebrate and honor our Dad, Gramps and Brian too, as they are all special fathers. Read this sweet little “Ode” that Michelle wrote to Brian.

We didn’t get out on the lake but hung out on the boat and fished from the dock.

I’m having Deja Vu…. I think I have seen Michelle holding a glass of wine on the boat before ;) lol

Jeffrey Cowabunga

Check out this whopper that my man caught ;)

Gram and Gramp came up for dinner as well. Here Jeff is showing off the book he made of His & Amanda’s Engagement Trip Down Under (Which is GORGEOUS and totally awesome. I want to make a book too!)

A few more of the family…..

We haven’t had a family photo with just us 5 in years

Gramps is doing okay since his stroke back in March. He is very quiet now, which is sad. He used to be the King of Storytelling. He still has his sense of humor though!

And because ya’ll always comment on the food at our family dinners and because I take photos of food, here is what we ate this year…..
Roast Beef

Roasted Baby Reds with fresh parmesan, dill and butter

Spinach Salad with strawberries, walnuts and gorgonzola

Broccoli Salad
Asparagus

And Strawberry & Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert. No picture of this but Bianca is eating it in the photo with my dad above.

After dinner we all drove about a mile down the road to check out Brian & Michelle’s new cabin. What a beautiful home! They scored huge with this place and Michelle has already been hard at work with the gardening. Excited to hang out there more often when I can this summer. Speaking of Michelle, she is back to blogging. If you were a follower before, you may want to revisit Curls, Spunk and Monkey Chunk to check out the latest with their family.

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Porkapalooza 2011

Family Gatherings, Great Outdoors & Weather, Slideshows 5 Responses »

Jun 072011

My brother Jeff has an annual BBQ every May near his birthday. This celebration has been dubbed “Porkapalooza”. Every year he adds something special to the menu and this year’s addition was homemade sausages with chipotle and cheese. The sausages were delicious! Jeff even blogged about how he made them. I love the idea of making your own sausages, the possibilities for ingredient combos are endless! The food was wonderful, as it always is! Everyone brings something to share, I made fresh salsa. Yum!

The party was a good time (held on Sunday of Memorial weekend), I enjoyed hanging out with my Gram and Gramp, Mom, Dad, my nieces and nephew, and a few other family members. Jeff and Amanda too (although they were busy cooking and entertaining). Brian and Michelle were at a wedding that day so my parents brought the kids.

Anyway, I made a little soundless slideshow of some of my photos. I am usually too busy to think about all the cool things I can do with my Macbook but this was fun. Sound free because what music goes with pictures of pork??!! LOL

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Patio Weather {It’s About TIME}

Family Gatherings, Food and Drink, Great Outdoors & Weather 6 Responses »

May 252011

It’s no secret that this spring hasn’t been the greatest weather-wise.

So what to do when the weather finally starts to get nice?

Hit up a local restaurant with a great patio!

I did that twice last week and it was awesome.

On Wednesday I met my brother Jeff at WA Frost & Co for Happy hour on the patio (review to come). Of course we were also celebrating Jeff’s 30th birthday. Please excuse the ugly backdrop, we were at the back of the patio with our backs to the wall

The patio at WA Frost is very big and very lush and their coconut-green curry mussels are to-die-for!!

Then Saturday night I went to Black Forest Inn to cover a piece about Spargelfest (festival of asparagus!) They also have a very nice patio, in a courtyard of sorts. They also have a giant tarp on a mechanical pulley that covers the patio when it starts to sprinkle. In Minnesota it is common for the weather to be sunny all day, start to cloud up and rain later out of nowhere and then turn sunny again an hour later. That is exactly what the weather was doing on Saturday. The tarp is actually covering the patio in the photo below, you just can’t tell because you still get nice daylight.

I hope to hit up many more patios around town this summer before it gets too hot, how about you?!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Mother’s Day 2011 {Gram & Gramps are Back}

Family Gatherings, Holidays 5 Responses »

May 112011

Did ya’ll have a nice Mother’s Day? Hope so, I did.

We started the day by taking my in-laws out for sushi. I tried Jellyfish for the very first time….very interesting. Doubt I will be eating that again but I can now add it to My List of Bizarre Foods.

Later in the afternoon we headed up north to my parents house to hang out and have dinner. My Gram & Gramp are now back in MN for the summer, it was great to see them. This is the first time I have seen my Gramps since he had a stroke back in March. He seems to be doing okay but you can tell the stroke has definitely affected him in many ways.

Here are the photos from Mother’s Day

Mom and Gram ~ Mothers Day 2011

Sauer Girls Mothers Day 2011

Michelle and Kids ~ Mothers Day 2011

Kristi Brian Jeff with Gram & Gramp

Gram & Gramp ~ Mothers Day 2011

Bennett on Bench

View of Lake Chisago ~ Mothers Day 2011

Down by the shore of the lake there were tons of carp spawning. Each of these fish were at least 12-15″. It was cool to see

Parmesan Dill Baby Red Potatoes

Greek Salad

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Easter 2011

Family Gatherings, Holidays 6 Responses »

Apr 272011

If you watched my video blog the other day you might remember that I said I had a lovely Easter up at my Mom & Dad’s house with a bunch of my cousins, aunts uncles, etc. It was warmer than it has been lately and the sun was out!

A few photos from the day…..

Michelle, Amanda and Me (with my new “black cherry” hair!) I LOVE this picture!!!

The newly engaged couple, Jeff and Amanda

Brian and Jeff with our dad

Mom and Dad (I had intended to get a picture of my mom’s outfit because it was so cute. Ooops!)

Annika and Michelle

Annika and Bianca

Brian and Bianca

Bennett

More of the extended family…..

Easter Tulips

Dessert…..

I hope ya’ll had a nice Easter too!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Bennett’s 3rd Birthday

Babies & Kids, Birthday Parties, Family Gatherings 2 Responses »

Mar 262011

A few weeks ago my nephew Benett turned 3. Time sure has flown since the day he was born and boy has he gotten to be such a big boy! (Especially when you consider he was born premature).

The theme of his party this year was Lightning McQueen from Cars.

Bud got a ton of cool gifts…..all toys and books! I am usually the one that gets the kids clothes but decided to go with fun stuff this time. Everyone else did the same so Buddy didn’t get any new clothes, but a ton of fun toys! One of the things we got him was an interactive Chuggington book. He loved it.

The kids all got new sunglasses from Grandma Fran because they were leaving the next day for a family vacation in Arizona.

The girls also got little jewelry boxes that they could paint and decorate

Some shots of the family. (Jeff was MIA due to leaving on a flight that day to Australia and I rarely have my picture taken anymore)
Brian and Michelle’s favorite pose

Michelle’s parents

Erin and Stew

My Mom and Dad

We had several pizzas from Criss Cross Pizza for dinner

Then we had cake & ice cream.
Bennett got a little help from Bianca while trying to blow out the candles. You would think they’re twins from this photo!

It was a fun time!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Engaged in Australia! { Jeff & Amanda}

Family Gatherings, News & Announcements 6 Responses »

Mar 172011

When my phone rang on Monday night I didn’t think much of it until I saw who was calling…… my brother Jeff.

Not that having Jeff call me is a strange thing by any means, but I knew he had just gotten to Sydney, Australia within the previous 24 hours, why would he be calling me?? Surely it wasn’t to see how well the reception is on his iPhone half way across the globe ;)

He told me he had some awesome news to share with me……. he had asked Amanda to marry him and she said YES!! I couldn’t be more happy for them. Amanda is a great girl and we all love her. I admit I got a little choked up with happiness

They will be in Australia and New Zealand for 17 days of adventure and to officially start the beginning of their life together. They plan to discuss many of the details while they are there, so I don’t have any other details for now.

I am so excited!!!! My baby brother is going to get married! Brian, Michelle and I get a new sister!!

Congratulations, Jeff & Amanda!!!!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Family Dinner {Birthday Celebration}

Birthday Parties, Family Gatherings 5 Responses »

Mar 042011

I turned another year older on February 11th and for the first time in many years, my family was actually in town that weekend to help me celebrate (although my parents had JUST gotten back from a 2 1/2 week Panama Canal Cruise) . I should have posted these three weeks ago after they were taken but I never even looked at them until a few days ago. No time to edit any of these (and I could care less!)

Me, 34 years old (wearing my glasses out in public and looking ultra-cheesy with this look on my face)

Pretty Flowers

Jeff spent the entire time playing with his new toy, the NEW Macbook Air.

Michelle and Annika

The rest of us were also pretty laid back that day, we spent most of the afternoon watching fun family videos that my dad was streaming from his computer through Apple TV. Once I get my hands on some of these I will make sure to post them on the blog.

Dude letting it all hang out

Except my mom who was cooking her Chicken Marsala for dinner.

Mmmmmm

My mom also made a rum cake for me, a dessert we haven’t had in probably a decade!!!
Here I am blowing out my candles…. (FYI- Everytime a photo with candles is taken I get the weird “halo” reflection off my lens filter)

It was nice to celebrate my birthday with my family this year ;)

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

I Believe in Miracles {My Gramps}

Family Gatherings 8 Responses »

Mar 032011

You could never call me a religious person, however I am very spiritual.

I believe in miracles and devine intervention. Personal experience as well as the stories I have heard over the years make me a true believer.

My Gramps has made a most miraculous recovery since he suffered an ischemic stroke originating in the Left occipital lobe of his brian stroke just four days ago. Things were looking so bad that on Monday night we didn’t think he would make it through the night. He made it through the night but the next day he had no gag reflux and was unable to swallow and was at great risk of aspirating and developing pneumonia. It was very scary.

After being on pins and needles waiting for any new news from the family camp down in Arizona, updates from my cousin Andrea (RN) and my aunt Patti (also a RN) were especially nice to have. Each day he has continued to improve an incredible amount, starting from being almost completely unable to speak, unable to read, and paralyzed on one side of his body and unable to walk. We speculated that he would have to go to rehab center since my Gram wouldn’t be able to care for him on her own and he would need extensive OT/PT and Speech.

One could say that Norby (Gramps) is a stubborn man. He was “tired of that dang bed and wasn’t sleeping well in the hospital” and GOT BETTER OVERNIGHT. He told me this himself tonight from his own home. He literally woke up in the hospital today and was able to speak better than he has in the two months since his first stroke. It is unbelievable!! Our prayers were head and answered. Gramps is feeling stronger than he has in some time. All the tests they did at Mayo in Scottsdale could not conclude what had caused the stroke. ( That is what worries me, especially since this was his second one in the past two months.) In any case, Gramps was in good spirits when I talked to him tonight and I am so relieved. He had us all very worried, I still can’t believe he is doing so well this soon. I am overdue for a visit to my 2nd home (Arizona) and was encouraged by Gramps to come on down. I have a week off of work coming up later this month, would love to head down if I could find reasonable airfare.

Anyway, I am so very happy my Gramps is doing better. He is a very special guy and I am his #1 grandchild (out of 21) (Photo of me and Gramps 7-4-10)