steeple Sunday...

Today's steeple is more of a dome but definitely Steeple Sunday worthy. The photos do not really do the dome justice as when you are driving down the road the sunlight really reflects the green of the old copper sheeting.

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Buffalo, MN. A funeral was being held there later in the day when I photographed it and a kind lady carrying in food told me the church was built in 1912. She was thrilled I was taking photos for my blog and invited me back for their 100 year celebration next year.

hurry up spring...

I'm sick of looking at piles of snow as high as the barn and halfway up the trees...
so I'm trying to create my own burst of spring inside.
Hopefully this planter of assorted bulbs blooms by the 20th! Is it spring where you are at yet or you looking at piles of snow as well?

Happy Birthday Tammy!

steeple Sunday...

Today's steeples were taken on a beautiful sunny day before our recent heavy snowfall. We see these two steeples towering over the trees several blocks from the highway on our trips to Minneapolis/St. Paul or the "twin cities" or just plain "the cities" as rural Minnesotans say. On a recent sunny day we made a detour off the main highway to photograph the steeples of St. Mary's Catholic Church, Waverly, MN.
Built on a little hill above the street level it was impressive to look up at the front of the 1884 church.
It is a large church with an even larger modern building addition.
The back view of the steeples we usually see on our drive.
Have a wonderful Sunday!

outside my window...

it is snowing lightly and I am enjoying watching the juncos!

our outstanding daughter...

Today, we watched while Jayme received an Outstanding Service Award at the university she works at. She was presented with a plaque and a very generous check for receiving this award. Here she is receiving the award from the chancellor...and with Pam, the co-worker who nominated her.
and with Jerry, the associate dean.

and of course the proud parents :)

those eyes get me every time...

I'm a sucker for big brown eyes...Austin melts my heart with those deep chocolate eyes and chubby cheeks!Who is Austin? Below, we have Tammy, Jayme, Austin and Taunya. Austin is Tammy's 7 month old son and Tammy is one of Jayme's best friends. I love her too, she has spent many days at our house during their high school years as Jayme did at hers. Taunya is her sister (and mom to beautiful Brady, who was napping during this photo) and they have a brother, Chris, who just became a first time father yesterday to Caden Lane. Congratulations Chris & Lisa! I am over-the-top excited for Don & Shirley becoming grandparents to 3 little boys in a little under 12 months! Jayme & I spent Saturday with them and as always we have so many laughs, such a fun time with the family.
Here is Austin showing how he can vibrate his lips and blow spit bubbles...
and laughing at his mommy as she blows them back at him!
He is such a lovey-dubby little boy and was content to let us hold and play with him. I think I am love those big brown eyes so much because my family has all blue eyes.
But I love blue eyes too! Look at Brady's beautiful pools of blue...
Brady is almost one and I haven't seen him since his baby shower because he lives in WI. Yet, he wasn't shy and sat on my lap and played.
Is there anything more sweeter than baby giggles...saying P-U to his pretend stinky socks did it everytime!
Yes, those eyes get me every time whether they be blue or brown :)

what a weekend!

We had quite the weekend, Jayme came home on Friday night so that we could spend Saturday with this cute little guy named Austin and his mommy! More on Austin tomorrow - on to the rest of our long weekend.We ended up having a blizzard on Sunday so Jayme got snowed in and helped her dad install a new floor in the bathroom. Yeah, saved my knees :)
This is a photo of the drift forming on the patio late Sunday afternoon...
this is a photo from this morning, the drift is about 6 1/2 ft tall!
Jeff was out early trying to clean a path off of our yard so he could go do the neighbors and his commercial clients. The driveway and main yard were covered from one foot to drifts of 5 feet in places. The materials yard was a different story!
The drifts looking towards the cabin...
drifts as high as the back arbor!
It's going to be a little hard filling those back feeders and we won't be seeing any pheasants feeding on the floor of the satellite gazebo for awhile!
Here is the payloader as he cleans off our cement pad by the garage...this is a pretty big machine...
so that will give you an idea of how deep the snow is by our shop!
Tomorrow is a special day for Jayme so Jeff and I were planning on driving to Duluth to attend a reception for her, instead he'll drive alone while I went with her today on the very slow going roads. Living in the northwoods she is not used the drifting snow we get out on the prairie. Tomorrow, I'll share photos of Austin & Brady in the am and hopefully tomorrow night a post on Jayme!

road trip...

It was a beautiful sunshine filled day so Jeff & I took a roadtrip so he could visit Cabela's and I could check out the Monticello swans as in years past.Usually we go to see the swans in January and today we found out that is definitely when you should visit as almost all the swans were already gone. Also gone were all the Canada geese but there was still a small flock of mallard ducks.


We saw a few swans fly by us overhead, maybe a total of 8 or 9. Some were flying to our left...
and some to the right...
and once they crossed flight paths :)

We may not have seen many swans but I managed to find 3 beautiful steeples for future Steeple Sunday posts. I had run out of archived photos so have missed doing it the past few Sundays.