Sweet Sarah Sees SEVEN at Sunset!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

Our first little girl turns 7 today at 9pm!! It's so hard to believe that she's that old already. I told her 3 years ago that she wasn't allowed to turn 5. She was fine with that--that year. The next year, (when she was actually turning 5) she said that she would turn 5, but that she wouldn't turn 6. She would just stay 5. However, I think she's having too much growing up!! She did turn 5 and 6 and now 7. It seems like just yesterday she was born. Now, she's tall and smart and learning to hold her own with her 4 older brothers!! I'll post pictures of birthday cakes and presents later--we're going to celebrate Saturday with my parents (and her 'little' sister who also insists on getting older). Here are a couple of pictures of the birthday girl :)


Daniel and Sarah on Christmas 2003 (Sarah was almost 1)
















Sarah on a giraffe at the zoo!! (2004)


















Sarah and Rachel--March 2005
















Sarah on vacation--September 2005

School and flowers

Here are a couple of pictures that prove we actually do school!! The 5 older kids are in the family room learning History from Teacher Dad!!


The 2 'little' ones are deeply engrossed in their own school! Rachel was playing a reading game and Ethan decided to join her. Notice the banana stickers on his hand. He's also holding money from Grandma and Grandpa (Valentine's Day card had just come in the mail)!!





































Tom sent me flowers for Valentine's Day!! It was a complete surprise because we (ie he) usually call this a ridiculous holiday made up by Hallmark!! Anyway, the flowers are beautiful :)

More snow pictures--and one hair picture :)

Rachel decided to do her own hair!















Sarah and Rachel in the snow!

























Some (ok, lots!) pictures of Ethan playing in the snow. He loved being outside after all 8.5 inches fell last week. He played with all the summer toys :)

Snow Pictures

Here are the pictures from earlier this week--playing in the snow. And, there are a few from this morning (impressive, eh? The kids played, I took pictures, I uploaded them, and now I'm posting them--all in the same day!!)

Rachel

Sarah

Nathan and Rachel

Rachel, Sarah, Nathan, Daniel, Peter

Andrew playing basketball

Now the ones from today:

Andrew playing with his light saber
Andrew, Ethan, Peter, Sarah, Rachel
Andrew, Ethan, Peter, Sarah, Rachel
Andrew, Ethan, Peter, Rachel (notice Ethan on his tricycle!!)
Andrew, Ethan, Sarah, Rachel


And, here's one just for fun (or funny!). One of my friends from way back wanted a picture of my baby bump. Here it is at 26 1/2 weeks!

Winterfest

Last weekend, the boys spent the night with my parents. They went to Winterfest in Lapeer, MI. My mom just sent me this link to the Lapeer newspaper. There is a picture of Nathan and Andrew (and their cousin, Carson--in the red hat behind Nathan) in the paper!! The other 2 boys must have been just outside of the picture range. Anyway, here's the link.
http://thecountypress.mihomepaper.com/images/2010-02-03/055p3.preview.jpg (just the picture)
http://thecountypress.mihomepaper.com/news/2010-02-03/Marquee/Seven_Ponds_Celebrates_winter.html (picture and caption and page from the newspaper)


I don't know if this other link will work or not--it's a link to the KODAK Gallery where my parents uploaded their pictures. If it doesn't work, sorry. I'll try to figure something else out later.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?albumId=441267728211&ownerId=818008044211

That's it for now. I do have some pictures of the kids in the snow from this week. They'll show up shortly ;)

Cinnamon and Chicken

The 4 older boys spent the night last Friday with my parents. They had a great time. If I can get some pictures of the weekend, I'll post them on here. They went snow shoeing!! My parents brought them back Saturday night and also brought along their dachshund, Cinnamon. Bethany had given Ethan a stuffed dog for Christmas and it looks just like Cinnamon. We named Ethan's dog, Nutmeg (aka Nut). I tried to get some pictures of Cinnamon and Nutmeg. Here they are.












Ethan is always excited to see "Bumpa"!! He loves when Grandpa comes over. Here he is playing with him :)


Ethan petting Cinnamon! Even Sarah touched her this time. Sarah is pretty much terrified of dogs for some unknown reason. She did really well on Saturday :)


Rachel--the happy girl!! I don't know what's up, but I'm glad she's smiling :)


For lunch on Sunday after church, Tom made this wonderful dish!! It was so good. It's pasta, chicken with Italian dressing, peppers, and cheese. WOW!! The kids all loved it, too!!