Hi Everyone,
We wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone and share a few pictures from our Christmas Eve. The house seems to get smaller every year. If you haven't heard, both Christy and Lindsey are expecting in 2012. I told Audrey we will have to eat in shifts like the good old days. I hope you all have a Great Day, remember we love you and miss you all. See you all in May.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas to everyone!
I hope everyone is having a very happy Christmas Eve! We are all here just getting ready for our Christmas Eve dinner and then will be watching Kynnedi and of course the rest of us open gifts. I wish there was a way I could talk to everyone but just know we miss you all!
Have a wonderful New Year! We'll see you all in May!
Love
Jake, Scott
Jonathan, Kelli, JJ and Kynnedi
Have a wonderful New Year! We'll see you all in May!
Love
Jake, Scott
Jonathan, Kelli, JJ and Kynnedi
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Just a little joke to share
Since everyone is all caught up in Tebow time I just had to share this:
So a little boy needed change for a dollar, he walks up to Tim Tebow and asks - do you have change for this dollar? Tebow looks at him and says sure - digs in his pocket and hands the little boy 3 quarters - the little boy looks at them and says but where is the 4th quarter - Tim Tebow answers The 4th quarter is mine!
Everyone have a great Sunday
Love to all
Jake
So a little boy needed change for a dollar, he walks up to Tim Tebow and asks - do you have change for this dollar? Tebow looks at him and says sure - digs in his pocket and hands the little boy 3 quarters - the little boy looks at them and says but where is the 4th quarter - Tim Tebow answers The 4th quarter is mine!
Everyone have a great Sunday
Love to all
Jake
Friday, December 16, 2011
This one is for Todd
When I read Todd's christmas letter I thought I needed to share our favorite card this year. This is Robyn's nephew. Be sure to read what the card says double click on it to make it larger.
This one is for Landon
> Subject: The First Woman President
>
> The year is 2036 and the United States has just elected the first woman
> as President of the United States.
> A few days after the election, the president-elect calls her father in
> North Dakota and asks, "So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my
> inauguration?"
> "I don't think so. It's a long drive; your mom isn't as young as she
> used to be, we'll have the dog with us, and my arthritis is acting up
> in my knee."
> "Don't worry about it, Dad, I'll send Air Force One or another support
> aircraft to pick you up and take you home, and a limousine will pick
> you up at your door," she said.
>
> "I don't know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?"
> "Oh, Dad," she replied, "I'll make sure she has a wonderful gown
> custom-made by one of the best designers in New York."
> "Honey," Dad complained, "You know we can't eat those rich foods you
> and your friends like to eat."
> The President-elect responded, "Don't worry, Dad. The entire affair is
> going to be handled by the best caterer in D.C. and I'll ensure your
> meals are salt-free. Dad, I really want you to come."
>
> So her parents reluctantly agreed, and on January 20, 2037, arrived to
> see their daughter sworn in as President of the United States.
>
> The parents of the new President are seated in the front row. The
> President's dad notices a senator sitting next to him and leans over
> and whispers, "You see that woman over there with her hand on the
> Bible, becoming President of the United States?"
> The Senator whispered in reply, "Yes I do."
>
> Dad says proudly, "Her brother played football for the Bison!"
>
> The year is 2036 and the United States has just elected the first woman
> as President of the United States.
> A few days after the election, the president-elect calls her father in
> North Dakota and asks, "So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my
> inauguration?"
> "I don't think so. It's a long drive; your mom isn't as young as she
> used to be, we'll have the dog with us, and my arthritis is acting up
> in my knee."
> "Don't worry about it, Dad, I'll send Air Force One or another support
> aircraft to pick you up and take you home, and a limousine will pick
> you up at your door," she said.
>
> "I don't know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?"
> "Oh, Dad," she replied, "I'll make sure she has a wonderful gown
> custom-made by one of the best designers in New York."
> "Honey," Dad complained, "You know we can't eat those rich foods you
> and your friends like to eat."
> The President-elect responded, "Don't worry, Dad. The entire affair is
> going to be handled by the best caterer in D.C. and I'll ensure your
> meals are salt-free. Dad, I really want you to come."
>
> So her parents reluctantly agreed, and on January 20, 2037, arrived to
> see their daughter sworn in as President of the United States.
>
> The parents of the new President are seated in the front row. The
> President's dad notices a senator sitting next to him and leans over
> and whispers, "You see that woman over there with her hand on the
> Bible, becoming President of the United States?"
> The Senator whispered in reply, "Yes I do."
>
> Dad says proudly, "Her brother played football for the Bison!"
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Update!
For those of you who attended a Twins game this past summer and saw this building under renovation, I thought you might enjoy this article.
Frank's boss passed away suddenly on Thanksgiving weekend. Frank is now President and CEO of United Properties. So things are busy here. We are not ready for the holidays, but will get there. Our plan is to spend the week between Christmas and New Years at the lake. We are all doing fine.
Love to all,
Patti
Remodel will fit to a T
- Article by: JANET MOORE , Star Tribune
- Updated: December 13, 2011 - 12:47 AM
As St. Paul's Ford plant prepares to close, its predecessor in Minneapolis, rebuilt as a business complex, is getting ready to open.
Rich Bonnin of HGA Architecture passed through the atrium of the renovated Ford Center near Target Field. The first of three companies will move in next week.
While much attention has been showered on the soon-to-be shuttered Ford plant in St. Paul, a multimillion-dollar renovation project tied to the automaker's past has been quietly taking shape in Minneapolis, and is now near completion.
An 11-story brick building formerly known as Ford Centre on N. 5th Street has undergone a $40-million-plus makeover that speaks to Ford Motor Co.'s storied past in Minnesota.
The 270,000-square-foot structure overlooks Target Field and was once an assembly plant for Model Ts. It will soon be home to HGA Architects and Engineers, the creative agency Olson, and luxury cleaning products maker Caldrea under the new moniker Ford Center. HGA will start moving in next week, with Olson and others following early next year.
The bones of the 99-year-old building were largely intact when the project began, including five elevators that were crucial to the vertical manufacturing production method common in the early part of the 20th century, said Richard Bonnin, associate vice president-architecture for HGA. But over the years, the finer details that hinted of the building's past as an auto assembly plant and showroom had mostly been stripped away. Some research, imagination and elbow grease were required to restore them.
"Our goal was to retain the Ford Center's industrial aesthetic while creating a creative and complex new workplace to do our best work," Bonnin said.
Ford only used the building for 11 years, before departing for the greener pastures of St. Paul in 1925. Since then, the Minneapolis building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, has housed Honeywell thermostat manufacturing operations, offices and artists' lofts.
Minneapolis developer Schafer Richardson purchased the property in 1997 with plans to build condominiums, but those plans fell through. Bloomington-based United Properties bought the building for $12.7 million in 2008.
Two years later, Target Field opened, and the neighborhood bloomed as more commercial and residential projects followed the ballpark's lead. The addition of Olson to the area complements the move of other creative agencies, including Colle+McVoy and Carmichael Lynch -- creating a kind of mini Madison Avenue on the western edge of downtown. All are served by the nearby Hiawatha light rail and Northstar commuter rail lines.
In recent weeks, a legion of construction workers put the finishing touches on Ford Center's painstaking renovation, which includes a striking new two-story atrium entrance and staircase from the street level to the main concourse of the building. The lobby features 20-foot-high ceilings, aged raw-steel finishes, terrazzo floors, maple ceiling panels and large panels of historic images. Space has also been set aside for a restaurant, although a tenant has not been named.
"The challenge was that, before, you walked out of the basement level, so we needed to create a new entry," said John Saunders, of United Properties, the project's owner and investor, on a recent tour.
At least 350 Olson employees will occupy 4 1/2 floors, or 125,000 square feet, beginning next week, while HGA's 330 employees will assume 84,000 square feet, or three floors, early next year. Caldrea will occupy 27,000 square feet on the fifth floor. The building is currently 88 percent leased.
HGA's space on the main level encompasses what once was Ford's Model T retail showroom, complete with 19-foot-tall windows. Detail from original plaster columns was restored, or in some cases, replicated, in the portion of the building that was once open to the public.
One of the biggest pieces of the renovation involved restoring 700 of the 1,000 distinctive checkerboard windows throughout the building, as well as replacing five freight elevators with six modern lifts. A fitness center for building tenants now occupies space where Model Ts were loaded onto railcars. And a parking garage with 78 indoor bike racks replaced eight loading docks.
RJM Construction, the main contractor, said about 500 construction jobs were created for work on the core of the structure and shell, with an additional 500 jobs created for tenant improvements and renovations.
Some Twin Cities residents may find it surprising that Ford's operations in Minnesota began in Minneapolis -- the company's first plant opened in 1912 out of a converted warehouse at 616 S. 3rd St.
The 5th Street site, purchased by Ford for $50,000, was one of at least a dozen sites built nationwide under the direction of the company's architect at the time, John Graham, according to Brian McMahon, a local historian who is writing a book on Ford's tenure in Minnesota.
They share similar "stylistic motifs," as McMahon put it, although the 5th Street plant was, at the time, probably the tallest structure ever built to manufacture cars.
An 11-story brick building formerly known as Ford Centre on N. 5th Street has undergone a $40-million-plus makeover that speaks to Ford Motor Co.'s storied past in Minnesota.
The 270,000-square-foot structure overlooks Target Field and was once an assembly plant for Model Ts. It will soon be home to HGA Architects and Engineers, the creative agency Olson, and luxury cleaning products maker Caldrea under the new moniker Ford Center. HGA will start moving in next week, with Olson and others following early next year.
The bones of the 99-year-old building were largely intact when the project began, including five elevators that were crucial to the vertical manufacturing production method common in the early part of the 20th century, said Richard Bonnin, associate vice president-architecture for HGA. But over the years, the finer details that hinted of the building's past as an auto assembly plant and showroom had mostly been stripped away. Some research, imagination and elbow grease were required to restore them.
"Our goal was to retain the Ford Center's industrial aesthetic while creating a creative and complex new workplace to do our best work," Bonnin said.
Ford only used the building for 11 years, before departing for the greener pastures of St. Paul in 1925. Since then, the Minneapolis building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, has housed Honeywell thermostat manufacturing operations, offices and artists' lofts.
Minneapolis developer Schafer Richardson purchased the property in 1997 with plans to build condominiums, but those plans fell through. Bloomington-based United Properties bought the building for $12.7 million in 2008.
Two years later, Target Field opened, and the neighborhood bloomed as more commercial and residential projects followed the ballpark's lead. The addition of Olson to the area complements the move of other creative agencies, including Colle+McVoy and Carmichael Lynch -- creating a kind of mini Madison Avenue on the western edge of downtown. All are served by the nearby Hiawatha light rail and Northstar commuter rail lines.
In recent weeks, a legion of construction workers put the finishing touches on Ford Center's painstaking renovation, which includes a striking new two-story atrium entrance and staircase from the street level to the main concourse of the building. The lobby features 20-foot-high ceilings, aged raw-steel finishes, terrazzo floors, maple ceiling panels and large panels of historic images. Space has also been set aside for a restaurant, although a tenant has not been named.
"The challenge was that, before, you walked out of the basement level, so we needed to create a new entry," said John Saunders, of United Properties, the project's owner and investor, on a recent tour.
At least 350 Olson employees will occupy 4 1/2 floors, or 125,000 square feet, beginning next week, while HGA's 330 employees will assume 84,000 square feet, or three floors, early next year. Caldrea will occupy 27,000 square feet on the fifth floor. The building is currently 88 percent leased.
HGA's space on the main level encompasses what once was Ford's Model T retail showroom, complete with 19-foot-tall windows. Detail from original plaster columns was restored, or in some cases, replicated, in the portion of the building that was once open to the public.
One of the biggest pieces of the renovation involved restoring 700 of the 1,000 distinctive checkerboard windows throughout the building, as well as replacing five freight elevators with six modern lifts. A fitness center for building tenants now occupies space where Model Ts were loaded onto railcars. And a parking garage with 78 indoor bike racks replaced eight loading docks.
RJM Construction, the main contractor, said about 500 construction jobs were created for work on the core of the structure and shell, with an additional 500 jobs created for tenant improvements and renovations.
Some Twin Cities residents may find it surprising that Ford's operations in Minnesota began in Minneapolis -- the company's first plant opened in 1912 out of a converted warehouse at 616 S. 3rd St.
The 5th Street site, purchased by Ford for $50,000, was one of at least a dozen sites built nationwide under the direction of the company's architect at the time, John Graham, according to Brian McMahon, a local historian who is writing a book on Ford's tenure in Minnesota.
They share similar "stylistic motifs," as McMahon put it, although the 5th Street plant was, at the time, probably the tallest structure ever built to manufacture cars.
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