Ice Fishing on Upper Red Lake

After Christmas Daddy Took mommy on her first Ice Fishing trip. They went to Park Rapids for one night to pick up Daddy's friend Mike McNichols. They ended up stying at Mike's In Laws on Two Inlets Lake. When they got there they went out to do some Crappie fishing. Daddy and Mike went out to set up the portables and then came back fro Mommy. once they were all there they started fishing. Mike was the first one to catch a fish. Mommy caught one after! She was pretty exciting. I think she said her first Crappie was about 12 inches. It was a big one! She doesn't have a picture of it, but Mike took one for her. If he send a copy to Daddy she will have to post it later. They all fished until it started to get dark. Poor Daddy didn't have any luck catching anything, but Mommy had caught another 3 crappies, but they were too small to keep. Mike ended up catching 3 more that were keepers so in all they had 4. The next morning they woke up at 6am to make the drive to Upper Red Lake. Daddy and Mike had gone there last year with some friends and they are going again in Jan. Daddy wanted to Mommy and Mike up there with the new Fish House/Camper so he could test everything for their trip January. They got there about 8:30 and was on the ice about 9am. They drove about 3 1/2 miles out onto the water and started getting the Fish House ready. It took a little work but Mike and Daddy were able to get it how they wanted. Mommy said It was amazing to see all the fish house out there on the ice. It looked like little villages in all the different places right in the middle of the water. Once the Ice House was put down and the holes were cut they got ready to start fishing. It was a long afternoon because they didn't catch one fish! They did a lot of watching movies and playing cards. After dinner they decided to stop jigging and set up the Rattle Reels for the night. They had dinner, Pizza since they didn't catch any fish and watched some more movies. They went to bed and than about 11pm they heard their first Rattle Reel go off. Poor Mike was sleeping on the cot in the middle of the floor so he was in charge of catching the fish all night. They were catching fish probably about every 2 to 3 hours during the night. The first fish Mike caught was a crappie. Mom didn't even know what it was when it came up to the hole! It was so big! It measured 13 inches and it was a fat one! He than caught about 5 more fish that were Walleyes. Most of them were too big to keep, but he finally caught one that was 12 inches and they put that one back thinking it was too small and around 7am he caught another one that was 15 inches and they kept that one. He ended up leaving shortly after that while Daddy was making breakfast. daddy made eggs and Bacon. It was yummy according to Mommy. After Mike had left the Rattle Reels kept on going off here and there and Daddy would get so excited. He missed the first one and the second one the line broke because he pulled too hard. He told Mommy with the next one she could try. She ended up catching an 18 inch Walleye. After awhile Mommy started to get tired since she didn't really sleep all night with the night fishing going on so she climbed onto the top bunk with the help from Daddy. Shortly after that one of the Rattle Reels went off very fast! Daddy knew it was a big fish. He was so excited and he didn't want to lose this one. He set the hook and started pulling up the line. The fish got close to the whole and Daddy could tell it was a big Northern! He let it run off 2 or 3 times before it was calm enough to pick up through the hole. He finally got it out and that just pumped him up and made his whole trip. Check out the pics below of it! It was HUGE! 34 inches long! That was the last fish they caught on the trip. The second night there was no bites at all. But it was a fun trip for Mom and a good test run for Daddy for his trip in Jan. Enjoy the pics below.

The fish house getting put on the ice


Daddy getting his gear ready


Daddy hole....No fish!

Mommy's hole...No fish!

Mike's first catch of the night


Crappie that measured 13 inches


His first Walleye


Mommy's Walleye


Daddy's huge Northern


Another picture


If you look closely it measured 34 inches!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning came and Jon woke up early with Grandma and Papa. Grandma told him he had to wait until everyone else was awake to open up gifts from Santa. Grandma and Papa joined us on Christmas Eve just in time for the games to start and spent the night. Any way, when I finally woke up we got to open up our presents from Santa. Below are some pics Mommy took. We must have been really good boys this year because we both got everything the we asked for!

Grandma and Jon practicing his math, waiting for everyone to wake up.


Opening up my first present from Santa


It was the pumper gun with green balls I wanted!


Jon opening his first present from Santa


His Army set he wanted


I wanted an Army set too


I got one!


This present was from Mommy & Daddy. They got Jon a Razor Scooter!


A Game Board from Santa. Mommy said she loved this game growing up


My gift from Mommy & Daddy. I finally got my own set of Golf Clubs. Just like Jon and Daddy


Last gift from Santa Heelys for Jon

Ramos Christmas Eve Party 2007

Every Christmas Eve Lolo and Lola like to put together a big Christmas party for the whole family. This year it was at our house again and Lola had planned all her fun games for us to play. First was the money jars. She puts together money jars for the adults and kids where we have to guess how much money is in the jar. It is a very hard game since you have no idea how much money is in there. Plus if you guess over the amount you are automatically out of the running. Daddy has said in all the 9 years he has been with Mommy, he has not won the money jar once! Poor Daddy, I guess he is just not a very good guesser! After everyone arrived we had dinner. It was all very good food! Lola Ayette made pork Adobo which everyone LOVES! It is our families favorite Filipino dish! Lola Li made puncit, Mommy made her green bean casserole, Auntie Missy made corn bread and regular bread. Auntie Tesa brought pop, and everyone else brought lots of desserts especially cookies! My Auntie Olivia makes the best cookies and snacks! She is a VERY good baker! After we ate Lola went straight to the games. For us little ones she had us sing a song and if we did we would get money. Both me and Nicholas sang Jingle Bells. TJ sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. All the kids sang a song except for Maria and Noah. They were both too shy to sing. After that we played our Mean Santa game. Every family buys a gift for $20 and we play our game. This year was the best year because people actually stole from each other. Here is how the game works. We put all the family names in bowl and we pick one out. The first name that is picked gets to pick from the pile of gifts. They open it and after that it is up for stealing if another family wants it. So the following families that are picked either gets to steal from the gifts that are open or pick from the pile of presents. So really you want your name to be one of the last ones to be picked. You can only get stolen from 3 times and the 4th gift that you pick is your to keep. It was a good game this year because everyone was stealing from each other. When we have played in the past we wouldn't steal because the kids were younger and they would get upset if their gift was stolen. Only Anthony got upset this year, but he got over it pretty quickly. After that Lola had her game for the adults. Every year she imitates the latest game on TV. In the past it has been Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Wheel Of Fortune, Price Is Right, and last year was Deal or No Deal. This year was Don't Forget The Lyrics. It was great. She picked Christmas songs so Mommy thought it was going to be easy, but when it was her and Daddy's turn she didn't even know the song they had! Thanks goodness Daddy knew the song and the Lyrics! They ended up winning $60 in that game. After that game was done Lola announced the winners of the Money Jar games. First was the kids jar. The amount in it was $39 and I won the money jar! Daddy had told me to guess $39 & he was right! Well I guess he guessed one right in his 9 years with Mommy! Now for the adult Money Jar......Total in that one was $89! And Mommy won that one! It was a Koehn sweep! We were all excited! Daddy right away said we could buy the Wii Guitar Hero with the winnings. We all got addicted to that game while we were in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. After that it was time to open gifts. It was a mad house! Mommy wasn't really able to take a lot of pictures because there was so much going and and she was having too much fun video taping. She did manage to take a few though. I hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas! Thanks to all my aunties, Uncles and Lolos and Lolas for all your gifts!

Auntie Marie with all the Nieces. Newest members are Sophia on the right with Mommy Trinity and Mena next to Gen and Maria


Our family


Lolo Jim and Lola Ayette. They were able to drive up from Florida for Christmas and New Years


The whole Ramos clan. Next year there will be two new additions. Mommy and Auntie Tesa are due with their 3rd babies in the Spring


Lolo and TJ hanging out


The Canlas family


All the boys cousins and Lolo


The Ramos sisters and Lola


Gift opening time!


Do you think Nicholas was excited about this gift?! Thank you Wagner family for this gift for me and Nicholas!

Koehn Family Christmas 2007

The Saturday before Christmas we celebrated with Daddy's family. We drove to Buffalo, MN in the morning and spent the whole day with Grandma, Papa, Uncle Doug, Auntie Christine and Ashley. It was a lot of fun. Of course when we got there all we wanted to do right away was open presents, but since Grandma was the boss that day she said we had to wait. We ate lunch (Grandma always cooks us great food!) We had turkey, Mac N Cheese, real mashed potatoes (one of these days mom has to learn how to make them since Daddy likes them so much.) bread, corn and Auntie Christine made her Macaroni Salad. It was all so yummy! After we ate we had some ice cream for dessert. After we ate, we all hung out and cleaned up. Grandma finally told us we could open up our presents! Nicholas and I were so excited! Below are some pics. After we opened up our presents we we outside to go sledding/snow board. That was fun too but we didn't stay too long because it was really cold out. At least too cold out for the adults. We stayed for dinner as well and had leftovers from lunch. We had so much fun and it wasn't even Christmas yet! Thanks Grandma, Papa, Uncle Doug & Auntie Christine for all your great gifts!


Nicholas was 1st to open up a present.


He got Art stuff from Uncle Doug & Auntie Christine


Jon was next! Can you see how excited he was?!


He got an extended pack for his Battlegrounds game


Apparently Papa had wrapped his own present the night before and faked this surprise reaction. Mommy got a perfect picture of it!

Nicholas also go Moon Sand from his Uncle and Auntie. It never dries out!



Both the boys got digital cameras from Papa and Grandma


Jon also got Operation from his Uncle and Auntie. We had so much fun playing it!


Nicholas trying to snow board. He didn't make it very far...


So he went sledding with Grandma instead


Jon is actually pretty good on his snow board...


Here he is right before he wiped out


Grandma and Nicholas again....


They ended out wiping out too! Grandma actually rolled over Nicholas! Nicholas got up smiling saying let's do it again!

Nicholas' Preschool Christmas Program

On December 18th Nicholas' Preschool had their Christmas Program. So, me, Callie and Mike went to go see Nicholas sing. He did such a great job! He sang really loud and much better than his older brother ever did at his Preschool Christmas Programs. For some reason they had him in the front row, right in the middle. I was happy he was there but he just towered over all the other kids! They sang a few songs and told a story for us. Afterwards we stayed for snack, well Daddy had to get to work, but Callie and I stayed for snack and we left after that. Below are some pics.

Nicholas found his name right away and got ready to sing


His class has 13 kids in it and they are all young 3 year olds. Can you see how much taller he is than everyone?!?!?


This is the "Mary Rode a Donkey" song

This song was the"Tip Toe Tip Toe Don't Wake the Baby Up"


Nicholas eating his snack


Callie even got to have a seat and have snack with his class! She was SO excited!


Nicholas and his friend Alyssa