WeadockWords

All is well

2012-02-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, we're still alive!! It's been a rough winter (not as far as weather is concerned, but our health), but I'm happy to report that everyone is still breathing. Tom started everything rolling for us the Thursday after Christmas. He began coughing and coughing and coughing and....coughing and coughing and coughing. Get it??! He coughed for about 2 weeks before he finally went to the doctor. He was diagnosed with bronchitis and given a whole bunch of medicine. He was on those for awhile and seemed to slowly improve. Towards what we thought was the end of that...oh, wait a minute. I forgot to mention that all 8 of the kids ended up with some sort of cough, too. Some were worse than others, but coughs, nonetheless. One of the things that absolutely drives me crazy is someone coughing all the time. I was insane.

So, back to Tom. Some where along the line, a few of the kids picked up a mild cold. It was mild for those older than 2. For Haven, it was faucet city for about 2+ weeks :( Babies with runny noses are gross...even your own sweet babies. Well, good ole Tom finally picked up the cold, too. Just as he was recovering from that (still with a mild cough going on in the background), Haven and Ethan decided it was time to introduce the barfing flu to our family.

Tom's parents had come to visit for Christmas (yes, it was late, but it was the first time we were healthy!). I took Ethan and Haven to Krogers to pick up some food for dinner (they have great fried chicken, btw). We were there for quite awhile because they were backed up with orders. Anyway, on the way home, I heard Haven coughing and sputtering but didn't think too much about it...until she kept doing it. I looked back and noticed that she was spewing all over herself. GROSS! Two things I was thankful for...1. She didn't throw up at the store...that would've been awful. 2. She only got it on herself and the carseat. None in the van!! I called Tom, told him what was going on and he met me at the van and took Haven!!! Wonderful husband :) He got her all cleaned up and we ate (not Haven) and visited for a bit. We thought maybe she gagged or something. About an hour later, Ethan said his stomach hurt and threw up. Fun times ahead. We pretty much shoved his parents out the door, politely, of course, and went to cleaning that up. They were both assigned a bowl and told not to move without it. (Much easier to enforce with Ethan!) They both threw up a couple more times and went to bed...and slept all night :) We weren't expecting that. Ethan was fine in the morning. Haven barfed once or twice more, but it was my fault because I gave her too much water. She was so thirsty, but I should have known better. Anyway, after that, she was fine, too. We went very slowly on the food and drink.

That was Saturday (started Friday night). Everything was fine and dandy until about 3am. Peter's turn. He made it in the bowl (we had given out bowls to everyone!), mostly. Tom and I cleaned up that and were going back to bed around 4 when Tom looked at me and said, "I'm next." Oh, yes, what fun on a Saturday night. He continued to barf on and off until about 7, I think. I kept hearing the door open. **Side note: Tom discovered the best way to barf with no clean up. We line a small bucket with a plastic garbage bag. Make a deposit and then take it to the trash can outside. Wonderful. No bowl to clean. Toilet, you say. Sure, that's great, but what if it splashes??!?! (tmi, I know, but think about it) Sometimes you have to clean the toilet, too. YUCK! This really worked well for us this time. Anyway, Tom and Peter stayed home Sunday and recovered and I barely stayed awake at church.

Again, all quiet on the Weadock front until about 1am (normally, we're awake then, but we were exhausted and asleep). Sarah. Then at 3, Rachel and Sarah. This was really fun. At least they decided to do most of it together, but it was like every 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the next 4-5 hours. Then, thinking he was missing out on all the fun, Daniel joined in somewhere around 4. Thankfully, we were able to sleep in between barfing spells, but it wasn't terribly restful, if you know what I mean! They settled down and rested Monday. I was really hoping that Nathan and Andrew would just get it over with. They both moaned and moaned about stomachaches for awhile. Nathan finally gave in and barfed...only once, but that was enough. I even got to take the bag out. Lucky me. Like he couldn't have walked 10 feet to the trash can. "I'd rather not." Like I *want* to take a bag of your barf outside?!?!? Oh well. I survived. Andrew continued to mope around until about 7. Yeah! Finally produced some barf for us. Now, we're all recovering. I've never had the flu so I'm safe. Immune. Thankful beyond belief. The rest of the week was fairly quiet except for the "I've just had the flu so please cater to my every whim" syndrome. That gets old. Fast.

Saturday night about 7, I started to feel weird. Queasy. I lay down for awhile and didn't eat dinner. We were watching a video together and I realized that it was finally my turn. I'm not exactly convinced that it was the flu, but I did make a deposit in the bag! I even took out my own bag. I really wanted to give it to Nathan :) I felt fine afterwards, but stayed home Sunday morning just in case. I've been fine ever since. Eating and doing all the bazillion things moms do. (I'll try to list them sometime!! Just kidding--not enough space on my computer.)

So, here we are, Monday night...well, I guess it's Tuesday now. Oh, and Tom told me that Saturday night (he slept on the couch so he wouldn't get spewed upon!) he had to take cough medicine to get to sleep. What's up with that?! It's been like forever with that cough.

Maybe, we should not pray for mild winters again. I'm thinking that the cold temps might kill some of the germs that have been attacking us. I don't know. I just know that we're ready for health. I'm also very thankful that nothing is worse than it is. I know compared to others, this is a piece of cake. I'm very thankful for the health we have...it's just fun(ny) to think and write about it now that's mostly done.

Here are a couple of pictures from January.

Ethan pretending to talk on the phone and work on his computer!

Ethan in the snow...that minute we had some. Remember?!

Ethan and Haven eating crackers. I don't know why he has his coat on. We do use the furnace.

Ethan got a new sleeping bag from Grandma and Grandpa W.

I caught Haven on the kitchen table--she had climbed up herself

She thought it was pretty funny!

Hope you enjoyed that lovely 'little' post! Thanks to all who prayed for us during some or all of this.

December 2011

2012-01-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

I finally decided that it was time to finish up 2011. So, here are all the pictures from December (I think). Hope you enjoy them! I like that Blogger is letting me upload all the pictures at once...and in the right order. That may actually inspire me to update more often. Maybe.

Haven and Ethan watching a video. I love the little hands on the face!

Sarah and Andrew doing their school...such diligent students

Sarah, Andrew, Rachel painting Andrew's model

ingredients for fudge!!

FUDGE!!! We made 2 of these huge pans of fudge

Christmas cookies--Ethan and the girls (and mom) decorated them

Peter, Daniel, Jonathan, and Nathaniel in Sunday School on
Christmas Day--notice all the suits and red:)

Grandma and Grandpa H. with all the grandkids
(Cousins Brenna and Carson are in the middle)

Our family

Just a cute picture of Haven

Sweet Ethan

Nathan decided to take a nap in the middle of things!

Guess who didn't want his picture taken?!?!

Dad playing with Ethan and Haven (actually, it was more like refereeing...
Haven didn't want to share Ethan's toy!)

A picture is worth a thousand words

My parents

My dad with Andrew's new Army hat (my dad was in the army in Vietnam)

Christmas at our house--on the 26th
Some of the kids

Some more of the kids (only Haven is missing...she was still asleep!)

Ethan!!

Nathan got a ton of books for Christmas--he was THRILLED

Daniel and Andrew

Haven and Ethan

Haven on Ethan's new laptop--see her doll and purse (purple with pink flower)?

Sarah and Rachel got doll heads!!

Now they can practice doing hair

Dr. Ethan Judson

The boys got a new game for the Kinect xbox thingee

Dad and Ethan playing football

stiff arm

Run, Ethan, run!!

TOUCHDOWN!!! He won something like 27-3
(or whatever score he told everyone a zillion times!!)

All ready to go out..."Somebody open the door, NOW!"
She stayed out for about 5 minutes. It takes so long to get
them dressed for 5 minutes of outside time.

Well, that'll do it for now. It's January 13, 2012 and as I type, it's finally snowing. We've had such a mild winter so far. I think it has snowed a couple of times, but not enough to shovel. It's usually gone in a few hours. I can't believe how warm it has been. The kids have been outside playing in sweatshirts for most of the winter. It's hard to convince them to wear a heavy coat on the few days when it's been in the 30s. I'm not complaining at all. At. all. It's been wonderful. I just hope we don't pay for it later with a very late or cold spring. I'd rather have the cold now while we're expecting it. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not in charge of the weather.

More pictures to come later...or sooner!

November--Miscellaneous Pictures

2011-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are the rest of the pictures from November...

This is Daniel in my High School soccer jacket!

He grabbed it to run outside quickly and I took a picture of him.

It's just one of those weird things to me...I never thought in high school that

my kids would be wearing my jacket!! Anyway...

Ethan's new tie...some more birthday pictures to follow

Love that smile :)

His favorite present of the night!

Sarah's favorite thing to do!!

There are 4 candles in his ice cream

Daniel's 14th birthday...how did he get so old?!?!

new M hat

Jump to Thanksgiving--Tom is always so social!!

Looking at ads for Black Friday which we never

participate in. It's fun to read the ads, though!

My parents' house--all the kids and my dad and my brother's knees!

Another angle--this time my mom is there (red shirt) and more of

my brother (laying on floor)

His new favorite present!!

Daniel's present from Grandparents (excuse the red eye--I forgot to fix it)

Sarah, Rachel, and cousin Brenna

Dad and fireman Ethan

Haven

Ethan and Haven playing together :)

Yeah!! That finishes November. I'm on a roll. Now onto December.

End of September??!!

2011-12-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

I'm finally trying to finish up the pictures from September. Let's see how far I get. Only 5 days until Christmas!!!!!!

Ethan and Haven unloading the dishwasher

They did such a good job :)

Andrew playing soccer (blue shirt)

Tom--he coached Peter's and Andrew's soccer team. He did a great job!!

Peter playing soccer (he's on the far left)

Tom made dinner outside one night!

We went apple picking--the apples were HUGE!! The one on the left is a normal sized apple--we picked several of the kind on the right. They were HUGE!!!!!!

The boys didn't pick a ton, but they had fun running around and teasing the girls!

Ethan :)

Sarah and Haven

The girls (even 'sweet' Rachel!!)

Haven had fun walking around...

and wanting to be held

Rachel with some HUGE apples

Sarah

Haven on the way home--super messy face, super tired baby ;)

Another picture of the HUGE apples!

Haven 'helped' Tom replace the garbage disposal.

He couldn't have done it without her!!

I made it!!!!!! That's it for September. Now, I need to finish November and get going on the December pictures. I'll try to do at least one more before Christmas :)

Ethan-in-a-Suit Photo Shoot

2011-12-11T11:45:00.001-08:00

Ethan tried on a suit coat and it fit...he was thrilled and it was very hard to convince him to take it off. While it was on, I decided to take about a zillion pictures of him. Here are 'just a few'!!!! Enjoy :)

Just be thankful I didn't post all 50+ pictures :)

We're almost done with September now. Just a few more pictures and I can finish up November and maybe start December before Christmas...what a thought!!

Part 3--Girls & Soccer

2011-12-11T11:32:00.001-08:00

Some more September pictures...

Sarah playing soccer

Rachel playing soccer

Sweet Rachel

Sarah and Rachel playing soccer

Haven playing soccer

September 2011, part 2

2011-12-10T20:08:00.001-08:00

Here we go again...

Nathan (red socks)

same red socks!

Ethan and Matthew M. had a great time playing

during the soccer games every week!!

Don't ask :)

Sweet Haven--she was a bit of a challenge

for some of the games. They were long, cold Saturdays

for her, but she did fairly well :)

Dad and Haven...she finally fell asleep!

Stephen M. got in on the action, too!

I love Ethan's smile here :)

More soccer pictures later...Peter and Andrew played, too,

but I didn't get good pictures from their first game.

We had a squirrel in our tree... it was fun to

watch him and take pictures

He saw me :)

A normal response...run away from her :)

Andrew after trimming the neighbor's lawn

Daniel mowed the lawn

Peter mowed the lawn, too

Andrew's new thing this summer was to play

football in the street :) BTW...he survived!

Nathan playing football in the street--he

thought Andrew had a good idea :)

Daniel doesn't like to have his picture taken...

he's trying to escape :)

Ethan being a policeman on his motorcycle

That's enough for now...more to come :)

September 2011

2011-12-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right. Remember I promised September pictures when I could get them off my dead computer?? Well, I got them. I've been procrastinating, but I'm finally going to bite the bullet and start putting them on. So, here's the first batch from September. (Hopefully, I can get caught up in time to put Daniel's birthday on here before Christmas!! Sorry, Daniel!)

Andrew's 10th birthday--Sept. 1

new keyboard

Ethan gave him a present, too...one of his trucks :)

Ethan playing peek-a-boo

Ethan and Haven playing in the curtains

lest you think I don't really exist!

Peter...compostable man

New shirts from Grandma--

(cousin)Brenna, Rachel, and Sarah

First soccer games of the season--Nathan, Grandma W,

Haven, Ethan, and Rachel

Rachel--white shirt

Sarah--white shirt

For some reason, there are quite a few pictures of Daniel!

Here are a couple of them.

goalie

More soccer pictures to come...some super cute ones of Ethan and Haven, too. Not playing soccer, but playing during the soccer games.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!!

2011-11-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

4 years old today!!!!!!!!!! How exciting for Ethan :) However, Mom doesn't like that her little boy is 4, four. That is so old. He was so funny this morning...he came running in my room and said, "Look how big I am. I'm 4 now!" He thought he grew last night while sleeping. It was very cute. He's been showing everyone how big he is and how high he can jump...because he's 4!! He's a sweet, funny, cute, (yes, bad!), cuddly little guy. He told me he would still sit in my lap because 4 is still little, too :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN JUDSON!!

(Yucky) First Snow

2011-11-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, another collage. I think I have 2 more to put on here, then I'll go back to normal :) Sarah, Rachel, and Ethan ran outside during the first snow yesterday. They were so excited and wild (here is where mom says, "Yippee. It's snowing. I'm so excited. Now sit down and be quiet. It snowed last year and it'll snow next year. In fact, it'll snow more this year. Big deal. It's cold, it's wet. Shut the door when you come in.") Actually, I pretended to be a good mom and let them go outside for a bit and postpone their jobs and nap :)

Ethan in the tree

2011-11-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda liking these collages--faster way to post pictures. I promise I won't do this always, though. In fact, some of these pictures are too cute to only put in a collage. I'll separate them and post them later.

Ethan was climbing the tree yesterday and I snapped these.

Princess Pumpkin Party

2011-11-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Brittany Mills, the girls were able to attend a Princess Pumpkin Party last Saturday! The girls thought it was the best, the boys thought it was funny (of course!). The girls got all dressed up and painted their fingernails and had the best time. I was so thankful to get their dresses done in time...down to the wire on those :) They loved the party!! Here is a collage of the pictures. If you click on it, it will get bigger. I'll probably post some of them individually later, but I wanted to put this collage on today!

End of the soccer season

2011-11-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

So, after 8 weeks, the soccer season is finished! I'm very happy to have my Saturday mornings back, but it was a lot of fun to watch the kids. We had fairly nice weather, although it was freezing a couple of times. We had no rain, no thunder, no lightning--it was predicted a few times, but the Lord prevented it :) It's nice not to have to reschedule games. All of the kids ended up doing really well--they all won more than they lost. They all improved their skills, too. It was a lot of fun watching Rachel, Sarah, Andrew, and Peter improve with each game. (Nathan and Daniel improved, too, but not as noticeably. Their group wasn't as competitive as they had hoped, but they enjoyed it.) Here are some pictures from the last Saturday (freezing cold!).

This is the girls' team after the game...Sarah

is on the far right looking at the camera

and Rachel is behind the coach (can't see her)

You can see Rachel's legs--white socks with blue hearts right by the coach.

They played soooo well for this last game. They lost, but it was a great game (and I'm

not just saying that because I'm a mom!)

Rachel and Sarah at the end of the line

Sarah getting her team shirt from the coach...

he was a super wonderful coach :)

Rachel with her team shirt

Nathan getting a drink during the game

All 6 after the last game--freezing cold and two of them

are barefoot :)

Haven 'watching' a game

Ethan and Matthew playing during a game--they had so

much fun together this season :)

Peter Muzzi!!

We're done with October!! That was quick. I'm still waiting to get the September pictures off my old computer. Soon, soon.

Poor little sick Ethan :(

2011-11-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

So, almost 3 weeks ago now, Ethan started complaining of a stiff neck. We let it go for awhile, but then we noticed a bite mark (like a spider, not a sibling!) and that his neck was getting swollen. He was also very sleepy. We finally decided to take him to the doctor to see what was happening. That started a whole battery of examinations, medications, and complications!! I won't bore you with all the details because most of you have already heard this. He had a blood test, a chest x-ray, 3 different antibiotics, and a trip to the hospital for an ultrasound of his lump. The blood test showed extremely high white blood cell count, the x-ray showed cloudy lungs (think pneumonia...but no symptoms whatsoever), and the medicines ended up causing head to toe hives for about 5 days. I've never seen hives like that before. He looked like he should've been in a freak show in a circus. He didn't look like Ethan. They were from the top of his head to the top of his feet--poor guy. We changed medicine--no flavoring, no coloring, lots of fussing--and that seemed to help. He is now off all antibiotics, the hives are gone, the swelling is gone, and he is back to his normal, loud, bossy, talky, sweet, funny, cute, cuddly self :) We are so thankful that the Lord chose to heal him and we are thankful for the trial. We had just learned about 'perfect peace' from our family Bible time. The timing was perfect and we all learned from this situation. It was still terrifying, but 'peaceful.' Thanks to all of you who prayed.

Here are some pictures from those 2 weeks. It was hard to get too many--he didn't cooperate and the camera wasn't the first thing on my mind!!

This is a picture of his neck--his right side--and his

new fire truck from Grandpa and Grandma Koski!!

The beginning of the hives--notice his eyes

One of them on his foot :(

Day 2 or 3--his face was really getting affected

Just a cute picture of Ethan--the shadows must have masked the hives :)

Again--his face. It was hard to get a really good picture of the hives.

The ones on his belly and back didn't show up very well for the camera.

He's happy here because he's getting an oatmeal bath and he gets to play in the tub!!

Hive practically gone, mischief back!! I turned my back for 30 seconds and found this :)

One more batch of soccer pictures and I'm done with October, I think :) Aren't you proud of me for getting 3 posts in 3 days?!?!?!

October pictures of the kids

2011-11-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

We had a nice break in the weather that lasted for almost 2 weeks. The temps were in the mid-to upper 70s. It was sooo nice. On the last day of this niceness, I took the kids to a nearby park and tried to take pictures of them. I say 'tried' because with 8 of them, there is usually at least 1 who doesn't want to cooperate. We had one who was fine with the pictures until he found out he had to wear church pants!! Then, there were 2 others who thought it would be funny to make faces at the camera (I didn't realize this was happening until I got home and looked at them.) You should be able to tell who the 'funny face' kids were--one boy, one girl. Here are a couple of the pictures...

**First, the pictures of the boys...

You may not be able to see, but Nathan is teasing Daniel.

I think he put a leaf down his back :)

**Now, the girl pictures...

One while we were trying get Haven ready

I know Sarah's not looking, but this a very natural pose for her!

I like this picture :)

**Ok, the pictures you've all been waiting for...all 8 kids together :)

They all ran out on the dock and I snapped this one!

Find the funny faces??!!

Funny faces and snarly face

Decent--I'm trying to figure out a photoshop type of program to fix this one!

Another decent one

Different location, different pose--in order of age

**Random pictures of some of the kids...

Haven by the lake

Ethan

Daniel and Haven

Nathan and Haven

This is a joke, but it turned out to be a good picture of Nathan!

We just had Morris Gleiser at church and he told a story about a man who had been blind for a long time. He was able to have surgery to restore his eyesight. On the way home, he saw a trash can with a swing-top thingee and thought it was so neat. He had his wife take his picture next to the trash can. This one doesn't have the cool top, but Nathan mentioned the story as he walked by it and I took his picture!

This is the park...Notice the name of the lake :)

**Some pretty pictures of the park...

**Next up?? Pictures of Ethan while he was sick :(

October...here we come!!

2011-11-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, ok, I'll just skip to October and go back to September after Tom fixes my computer. We'll start right out with some soccer pictures. The older 6 kids were able to play soccer this Fall. We put Nathan and Daniel on one team, Peter and Andrew on another with Tom as the coach, and Sarah and Rachel on a third. It worked out really well time-wise because Tom and the girls had practice at the same time; N and D--I took to practice and Tom picked up on the way home from work. The games were all on Saturdays (9am, 10:30, and noon). Most of the 8 Saturdays, we had all 3 time slots--the girls were at 9 and the boys split between the other 2. We had a lot of fun and mostly good weather, though it did get frigid a few times. The first pictures are from a game in October. It was freeeezing. I actually stayed home with Ethan and Haven for the girls' game and then met up at 10:30 for the boys'. The next week it was 70 degrees! Michigan.

Sarah

Rachel--yes, they're on the same team, but if one team is killing the other, or if one team doesn't have enough players, they switch teams to make it more fun!

Rachel, back on the blue team (the jerseys are reversible)

Peter braved the cold and went and watched his sisters!!

Sarah freezing!

Just 4 days later, the kids were outside playing in the leaves with no coats!!

Haven, Sarah, Ethan-goon

Mom and Sarah

Sarah

Haven

Guess who?!?!

Sarah and Ethan

Someone didn't want to do pictures at the start

She finally changed her mind! Rachel and mom (the pictures of Haven and mom didn't turn out well enough to post!)

Three girls!

Meanwhile, the boys were playing football in the street

Andrew

Daniel

Um, Daniel, that's 3 pictures in a row... :)

Nathan

Nathan and Daniel

Andrew

Peter didn't feel like playing football--he usually plays with them. Instead, he chose to 'whittle'!!

Now, Rachel was asking for her picture to be taken! Go figure :)

Ethan, the soldier, policeman with a cape and boots

Don't ask :)

He was fond of his tongue this day!!

Ethan and Haven

Sarah was trying to tell me something and I kept taking picture after picture of her! She thought I was weird, but I love how the pictures turned out :)

Soccer shoes after Saturday games

Tom was able to finish our new walkway!! It looks so nice.

I'll try to take a better picture later.

I'll end with some pictures of the trees outside our house. They are just beautiful!!!

Many more October pictures to follow...soon :)

Death of a computer

2011-10-11T20:55:00.001-07:00

My dear, sweet laptop decided to up and die last week. One minute it was fine, and the next dead. I could spiritualize at this time, but it's just a computer :) It was devastating, though. I liked that laptop--we were friends. So, for the time being, I'm on Daniel's old one. It works just fine for me--except it's missing the 'w' key. I have to stop and hit it just right, but it's not that big of a deal. At least I have a computer that works. BUT, all my September pictures are on my other computer. I was just getting in the groove of updating and thinking of updating (it's fine if you don't believe me!) when the death occurred. Tom said he could get the stuff off my hard drive--he just hasn't had a chance to do so. As soon as he can, I'll update. I also have a bunch of October pictures. I may just go ahead and post those and then go back to Sept. We'll see. I just wanted to let all my faithful readers (all 2 of you!) know what happened.

August in a nutshell

2011-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, I'll do my best to capture August tonight seeing as though the calendar just rolled into October. Really, where does the time go? October? Really? That's Fall. I'm still in Summer. I'm certainly not ready for that nasty white stuff that falls from the sky and sticks to the ground and makes me shiver. No thank you. I think I'll migrate south. Well, buckle up and hold on...here comes August!!!

Ethan

Jumping kids--Sarah, Andrew, Peter, Rachel

5 kids after swimming

I forgot to bring the camera so these pictures are from my phone. I can't get them off my phone, so I took a picture of the picture on my phone!! Daniel survived just fine in spite of all the attention. His finger healed very quickly. He could even do his jobs the next day :)

Daniel in the hospital

Nail in Daniel's finger

Peter turned 12 on August 17! He was my latest baby (until Ethan). He was due the 8th. However, he was also born fairly quickly and without a lot of trouble. Enjoy your last year of not being a teen, Peter :)

Peter's 12th birthday--the cake

--the kid!

Peter opening presents while Haven and Sarah check them out!

More presents, more nosy siblings!

Birthday/Goodbye cake for Jacob Koski

Rachel and Sarah (and sometimes Andrew) love to gather cicada skins. It's really gross, but it's science, right?!?! Rachel wanted a picture with this guy.

Rachel holding a cicada

Haven and Ethan cuddling :)

Sarah, Rachel, and Andrew in children's choir

Tom had the boys make a walkway in the front yard. It's still not quite done, but almost. It seems like it's always something. We ran out of sand, not enough stones, too hot, too cold, too wet, etc. I really hope it gets finished before the snow! By the way, we also planted grass where you see dirt. It came in fairly well. We'll probably have to touch it up in the Spring, but it's great for now :)

Ethan and Peter working on the walkway

Nathan and Ethan

The girls found this bee on the back of a cicada! This was really neat, I have to admit. I never did figure out who captured who, but they ended up flying away like this. I'm assuming the bee won.

Ethan reading and not wanting his picture taken :)

HA! I caught him peeking! !

Well, I almost made it. I have one more set of pictures from a trip to the park with the girls, Ethan, and Emily Burtt. I'll post those soon and then do September's pictures. I have a lot of good ones from that wonderful month. It's a great month to have a birthday :)

Random end-of-July Pictures

2011-09-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

I really need to devote one night a week to this blog so I don't get so far behind. It's awful trying to play catch up. I know I've said it before, but I'll try to get the August pictures on here and then be faithful to update regularly. Here are a few leftover pictures from the end of July.

Haven absolutely loves Sarah (I've probably already mentioned that, but...). Here they are playing after swimming at the Woodbury's.

Sarah, climbing the apple tree

The Swing! Ethan loved the swing!Some pictures of the Woodbury's barn

I was trying out the panoramic setting on my camera!

Jungle Java

2011-08-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

I was able to buy a Groupon or Living Social (I can't remember which) coupon for Jungle Java awhile back. I took the girls and Ethan...and my sister-in-law, Amy, and her daughter, Brenna to the Jungle Java in Canton. I had never been to one. It was so neat. The girls loved it :) It was a bit loud and obnoxious, but they had a great time!! Here are some pictures of our time there. Oh, the other boys stayed with Carson, Brenna's brother, at his house while we were gone. Then we went back to their house and swam before coming home. We had a nice afternoon!

Here's the groupSarahRachel (who informed me that she made several friends while there!!)

Sarah was a huge help with Haven :)

Haven loved the slides

Ethan being Ethan :)

The rock wall was a big hit!

Even Haven wanted to try itSarah, Rachel, BrennaSarah, Rachel, EthanEthan (He was scared at first. Then, after he got over that, he had a great time climbing everything!)
Rachel

They had a little kid section that Ethan and Haven really enjoyed.

So, here are some pictures that I took while driving home. I was extremely tired as well...my eyes kept closing. Not a good thing to do while driving. But, it was a quick trip and we, thankfully, made it home safely...in time to grab a quick nap and get to church for Thursday visitation/invite the kids to NBT. What's NBT, you ask?? Wait until a later post :)

Ethan asleep and Sarah off to the far left asleep. The awake boy is Peter. Andrew had fallen out of sight in one of the back benches. Yes, Ethan's carseat is actually tipping...he didn't seem to care--or notice!

Even the big kids were tired :)

Haven and Daniel, contortionist extraordinaire!!!

A few more July pictures to follow, then onto August as we approach the back-to-school month!

A Much Overdue Update

2011-08-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

I know I should be updating this blog, but every time I sit down to do it, a million other things scream at me. Oh, maybe they aren't things...they could be kids. And I guess, there aren't a million of them, but sometimes it seems like it :) Anyway, I have a few minutes now that I should be working on painting, sewing, or Sunday School preparing, but I figured I'd do an update or two. So, here goes...

Ethan and Justice at the July 4th picnicEthan didn't want his picture taken :)Little stinker!The Freedom Wall at church for the 4th of JulyHaven and Bethany at the end of a long day :)Our new carpet!! We love it :)

Rachel rolled up in our new carpet!

Our yummy dinner one night in July--I love the fresh summer veggies!

Ethan and Haven asleep on the floor!

Ethan helping me sand the windowsill before I paint (that's what I'm supposed to be painting now!)

Haven absolutely loves Sarah. She always wants Sarah to hold her :)

Rachel enlisted Ethan to play dolls with her!!!

Peter, Andrew, Sarah, and Rachel went to VBS at Faithway and had a fantastic time. All 4 of them are in this picture...can you find them?!?

Sarah won the overall grand prize for the most verses said and the most total points!!!!! We are so proud of her. Peter was 2nd place and Andrew and Rachel did super wonderful jobs, too!!

Haven with a fever :(

More Sarah and Haven buddy time :)

These 2 like to fall asleep on the floor--must be the new carpet!

Next up: our trip to Jungle Java!

Swimming!!

2011-08-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

On July 1, we went to the Woodbury's to go swimming...even Haven got in the water :) The first few pictures are of the Woodbury's area and of our drive home. It's amazing that there are nice pretty places here in Ann Arbor :)

No, I do not like pictures of myself, but I figured I should have a couple so the kids remember me when I'm dead and gone :)

Ethan :) He's doing so well in the pool.

Rachel--also doing well...a great improvement from last year :)

See...here I am!

Haven had such a rough time--it's hard to be carried around in a pool. She fell asleep while "swimming"!!Sarah--she loves to swim :)

Rachel

Up close and personal with...Andrew!

Peter

Andrew again :)

Can't get too much of Ethan!

So sweet!

I know you're probably wondering where the other 2 boys are...I'm wondering the same thing! OH, THAT'S RIGHT! They were at Camp Joy for the week. We went swimming without them and had a wonderful time (I hope that's not terrible to say!). The other obvious missing person is the picture-taker. He didn't want to be in any pictures. I'll have to catch him another time!

Gallup Park

2011-07-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. Sorry. It's hard to sit down and take the time to update this blog. It takes so much time to upload the pictures. Anyway....while Nathan and Daniel were at camp, we took the other 6 to Gallup Park one of the nights. It was actually kinda chilly (hard to believe right now since it's like 90 gazillion degrees outside at 1am!), but it was a lot of fun. The kids rode their bikes and Tom and I pushed Ethan and Haven in the stroller. We'll have to go back sometime with the other 2. We took way too many pictures, but I won't bore you to death. Here is a sampling :)

Tom took this!

Andrew!Mom with the kidsSweet Sarah!Mom and Haven
This goose family crossed right in front of us. They hissed as Tom and Andrew passed by! I took some pictures and then hurried past them!

One of the many attempts at a good picture!

Haven in the swing--she loved it :)

Kids watching the ducks

Mom and kids on the dock

Andrew spent most of his time throwing rocks in the water!

Peter being goofy for the camera :)

Andrew...throwing more rocks

Ethan running!

Ethan doing what he does best--looking cute :)

throwing rocks

Rachel and Sarah

Ethan running to get more rocks

"Let's get lots more rocks!!"

Sarah, Ethan, and Rachel

I love this picture!! They walked out on the dock like this and I snapped their picture :)

We had a very nice night:) I hope you enjoyed at least some of the pictures. Until next time...

bETHANy and Camp

2011-07-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I still think it's neat that Ethan is in Bethany! No, we didn't plan that when he was born, either. I didn't notice it until several months after he was born. Anyway, that's not what these pictures are about so enough of that :)

The first picture is of Bethany in her dress from India. She really wanted a picture with Ethan, but he was very uncooperative that morning.

However, he decided to be sweet and help his sister in the parking lot :)Haven's wearing a dress I made for a friend of mine when she had her first baby about 17 years ago. Both of her girls wore it and then she gave it back to me when we had Sarah :) All 3 of my girls have worn it now! I'm trying to find the picture of Sarah--then I'll put all 3 on here together.

Nathan and Daniel went to Camp Joy this summer. They seemed to have a great time. (We had a nice time at home, too--it was pretty quiet!!!) Here are some pictures of them as they get ready to leave for the week. Thank you so much, Grandpa Koski for driving the crew up and back--all alone :)

The boys (Daniel, Nathaniel, Nathan)

The crew minus one (Nathan, Nathaniel, Daniel, Sarah, Mya)

Here's the missing Kristyn!

Just a cute/pretty picture of Sarah Rose!

The fearless driver!! I'm not sure, but it looks like a GPS he's installing. Since I already know the rest of the story, I'll tell you that he made it up and back 2 times without getting lost ;)

Ok, so, I have one or 2 more batches of pictures from June. Then (for all you impatient, I-can't-believe-no-one-has-posted-4th-of-July-pictures people~~and you know who you are, Koskis!!) I will work on July 4th pictures. I actually don't have very many at all so if you're eagerly awaiting those, you may be disappointed.

Dirt and Water

2011-07-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, we had a large pile of topsoil delivered to our driveway last week. For some strange reason, it seems to be made of magnets--all the kids are drawn to it!!! Here are some pictures of them enjoying the dirt hill :)

Ethan and Rachel

Let's see if we can slide down!

Yep!!

So innocent looking :)

I have no idea what they are scheming, but it looks serious!!

Daniel was trying to avoid the camera--HA, I got you :)

I even managed to get Nathan playing in the dirt :)Next on the agenda was water. Dirt, mud, water--they all seem to be the favorites of little boys :)

What came next??? A shower, of course :)

Grass!!!!!.....at least, that's what we planted :)

2011-07-05T21:50:00.001-07:00

This is the year for us to work on our lawn, such as it is. The backyard is pretty much mud (when it rains; dry, hard ground when it doesn't) with tufts of grass here and there. The front yard is divided into 2 sections. The smaller side was pretty bare from all the wear and tear. The larger side is ok. We started with the smaller side and roto-tilled it. The boys dug, hauled dirt, raked, etc. Then they spread grass seed and sat back and watched it grow. Well, skip that last part. They don't typically sit back :) However, the grass is coming in nicely. We've done a '2nd coat' of grass seed so we're just waiting for that to sprout and fill in the gaps. I'll take some pictures when it's done! We'll probaby just try to fill in the gaps on the larger side. The backyard will take some doing. We have a huge tree back there that thinks it needs to spread its roots everywhere. We ordered a huge pile of topsoil so we'll see what we can do back there. We really want to cut down on the mud and make our yard look presentable :) Here are the guys working--while the girls had their birthday party (see below).

Peter, Daniel, EthanEthan and DanielEthanDad in charge!! Ethan, Daniel, AndrewNathan using the roto-tillerPeter with the roto-tiller. Peter had a great time doing this--he ended up doing most of my new garden, too!

Hopefully, there will be more tomorrow :)

Birthday Party!

2011-07-05T21:42:00.001-07:00

The girls were invited to a birthday party for one of their new friends. They had a lot of fun getting ready to go and a lot of fun at the party!! They played outside most of the time...in the water :) They also decorated flip-flops and had lunch. Here is a picture of them ready to go and of the shirt they took to give to the birthday girl.

I'm still alive

2011-07-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that, no, you didn't miss my funeral. I'm still alive and kicking :) I was planning to update this right now, but I changed my mind. I'll try to add some pictures by the end of the week. I have a bunch to put one and no motivation to do it now :)

Enjoy your week--check back in a couple of days!

Children's Choir

2011-06-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Abby, for taking pictures for me! I forgot to bring my camera.

Andrew, Sarah, and Rachel were able to join the children's choir. They're having a great time. Here they are singing in church for the first time :)

Andrew (far left), Rachel (purple dress in front), Sarah (2nd from right in back).

Classic Andrew face :)

Other kids (for future reference): Andrew, Jordan, Baileigh, Naomi, Sarah, Dyanna, Rachel, Colin, Daniel, Stephen

Matching girls

2011-06-21T21:55:00.001-07:00

I made the girls matching skirts (jumper for Haven) out of some pig material that I've had forever. Here they are all ready to go to Abby Koski's open house!

Rachel wanted a funny mad face picture :)No, Ethan doesn't match, but he's still cute. He wanted in on the picture!

A very messy Haven

2011-06-21T21:50:00.001-07:00

I was trying to plant my garden while Haven played. HA! She wasn't playing. She was eating. I gave her a sucker so she wouldn't eat dirt. HA! HA! She thought the sucker tasted better dipped in dirt :) Here she is covered in dirt and drooled sucker!! Yes, she went straight from here to the bath tub, where I discovered a sweet, little girl hiding under all that :)

Cat vs Baby Raccoon

2011-06-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

This cute little baby raccoon was walking down our street. The cat saw him and came running out after him. The raccoon seemed oblivious to the cat. The cat was so funny--he stalked him across the street and then acted like he was afraid of the raccoon when they got to the sidewalk. The kids were looking forward to a fight, but I was glad the cat ran away and the raccoon went about his business!!

Spies in the making!

2011-06-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

We recently had new neighbors move in. Rachel and Ethan took it upon themselves to spy on them while they were unloading their stuff!!

After spying on them, he decided to spy on me!!

Haven's Bedhead

2011-06-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Get together at the Weadocks

2011-06-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

We had planned to have a teen activity tonight--Friday, June 10, but the weather was wet. And cold. Strange since we had 95-100 degree weather just 2 days ago. But, alas, we live in Michigan and the weathermen are not in control of our weather. Ethan told me today that it was raining. I asked him, "Now who did that?!?" He said, "God." Right, little buddy. Don't forget that. Don't complain about it, either (that preaching is for me, btw!). So, instead of completely canceling the activity, we went to Plan B. We canceled the soccer-in-the-rain idea (Plan A) and the official "Teen Activity" name and went with a "Get together at the Weadocks." We had the teens over to watch a video (yes, we called the parents and explained and got their approval *before* asking the teens!). We figured we would lose a few teens in the deal--not interested, parents would prefer not, etc--BUT, we ended up with everyone saying YES!! We picked up a few people that hadn't signed up and a couple backed out at the last minute, but we had a full house! We had 20 teens plus the 10 of us in our mansion, um, little house ;) It was fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. If you really want to know what they thought, you'll have to ask them! I took 2 pictures of the kids watching the video and a couple of Haven wearing Jacob's hat. Thanks, parents, for letting your kids come over :)

Half the group

The other half! Poor Abby--she got stuck with Haven all night :)

Haven and the hat :)

Some random pictures, just because!!

2011-06-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the end of May and beginning of June!!

I made this yummy Indian Coconut Curried Vegetables for dinner--it was delicious (the kids had different opinions, but it got eater!)Peter was fixing the chain on his bike. Evidently, his nose itched. I thought he ended up looking like Hitler :)

I tried very hard to get one good picture of them wearing matching shirts (thanks, Koskis!). However, I failed!! (The shirts say, "Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Gets in Trouble, too!)

What an innocent looking face :)

She's telling him that he's the "monkey gets in trouble too" type of monkey :)I didn't know monkeys liked mice!! Haven loves to play with Tom's laptop--not a good combo (fat baby girl meets Dad's computer). I guess her shirt is right--monkey gets in trouble, too!!Ethan, Sarah, and Rachel in the sprinker--1st time this year :)

Peter even joined in on the water fun!! It was so hot 2 days after being so chilly (I wore a jacket to the store and stayed inside all day). We even ended up turning on the ac for 1 1/2 days!Rachel in the sprinkler

Ethan in the sprinkler!!

My greenhouse--thanks Daniel and Sweetie :)It actually looks a bit better in person--the muddy ground doesn't do much for it!All the wind has pretty much destroyed the poor thing, though. If I re-do this next year, we'll glue it together. It served its purpose and I love it!! See the following pictures of my 'crops'!!!!

I'm trying to grow tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers! I started all of these plants (except the cukes) from seeds :) I know there are several pictures of plants, but aren't they so cute.

2nd Batch of Field Day Pictures

2011-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Here we go again!

Liesel and Peter

Sarah M.

Pam Mills--a.k.a. Scorekeeper!

Tug of War--Blue Team

Tug of War--Red Team

Tug of War

While Dawn was taking pictures for me, a worm (yes, this one!) crawled into my camera case unbeknown to Dawn. She reached in to get something and felt what she thought to be a gummy worm. When she felt it move, the whole group of kids turned to see why she was screaming!!

Steal the BaconSteal the Bacon

Rachel

Ethan and Matthew and RyanTaking a Break :)

Three-Legged Race--RachelThree-Legged Race--Sarah

Three-Legged Race--Andrew

Three-Legged Race--Peter

Three-Legged Race--Daniel

Three-Legged Race--Nathan

Three-Legged Race--Cutest Contestants!!

Haven (playing with Sarah Rose's water bottle for a long time!!) and Jacob Koski

Water Balloon Toss

Ethan and Matthew again :)

Daddy and Haven

Spoke Tackle (kids love it, parents hate it!)

Nathan after a water fight!

Peter

Clean-up Time

Guess what Ethan got on his wet-from-swimming-in-the-pool-after-mom-just-changed-his-clothes legs?!?!? Dandelion seeds :)

The little stinker didn't want his picture taken. HA! I got him anyway :)

Haven

The parking lot is more interesting when you're on your belly :)

Ethan and Haven

We made it!!!!!!!! I think I ended up taking 204 pictures!! We had perfect weather this year for the first time. No rain, no scorching heat. It was amazing that it didn't rain, seeing that it's rained just about every day since April 1 :) Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Oh, that's right! The winning team?? The Red Team barely beat the Blue Team. Red was able to pull off the victory using their brains...they gathered the most hidden plastic bugs (think Easter egg hunt, but with bugs!). The scores were incredibly close which made for a fun competition!!

'Til next time...goodnight :)

Friday School Field Day 2011

2011-05-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the annual Field Day happened last Friday. Here are some of the 204 pictures that I took--with the help of Mrs. Ray :)

The Red Team vs The Blue Team

The Red Team

The Blue Team

Mr. W--looking official!! and cute :)

Matthew and Ethan--so cute!

Ethan

Long Jump--Nathan

Long Jump--Daniel

Spectators! Daniel, Matthew, Ethan

Another spectator...a super cute Haven!

Obstacle Course--Ethan (Sarah Rose was his helper!)

Obstacle Course--Ethan

Obstacle Course--Rachel

Obstacle Course--Sarah

Obstacle Course--Andrew

Obstacle Course--Peter

Obstacle Course--Daniel

Obstacle Course--Nathan

Well, I have a lot more pictures, but this is taking forever and I need to make dinner. I'll try to do another batch tonight. Enjoy!

For Mom

2011-05-02T21:25:00.001-07:00

Ethan picked these for me today (Monday) and brought them inside. We put them in a vase and decorated the table with them :) Peter said they were weeds, but Ethan and I think they're beautiful !!!

She's ONE!!!

2011-05-02T21:21:00.001-07:00

My sweet little baby girl turned ONE last week--May 12th!! (She shares a birthday with her Grandma W.) I honestly, truly can't believe how fast this year has gone. I probably say that every year, but this is ridiculous. If time keeps going this fast, I'm gonna be an old woman next week!

We celebrated Haven's birthday with my parents on Easter. Here are a couple pictures of her.

Haven opening her presents

Shirts and dresses!!!!!!!!

We also celebrated at home on the 12th. We had a meeting at church that night so we made a birthday cake and took it with us. Haven opened a present from us, too.

A new carseat!! She's the first of our girls to get a pink carseat :) Rachel, who can't wait to get out of her booster seat, really wanted to sit in it!!

Ok, I'm sorry. My computer is having some technical problems right now and it's not letting me upload pictures and add comments the way I want to. It took me about 1/2 hour to do this post and I don't have that kind of time. After my dear, sweet husband has time to fix the problem, I will put up the other pictures I have. I just wanted to get Haven's birthday pictures up before she turns 2 :)

FISH for the girls

2011-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sarah and Rachel decided that they wanted to buy a fish tank with their birthday money. They've been bugging me the past several Saturdays--when we go to Meijers and they see the fish. So, today, I finally gave in and said Yes! Of course, Tom got the honor of setting it up when we got home. We have 4 goldfish right now, but we'll see how long they last. We may try a different type of fish later--if these don't survive :) Here's a picture of the tank.

I hope you're impressed with this post--we just bought this TODAY!!!!

The birthdays continue

2011-04-28T23:40:00.001-07:00

Happy 15th Birthday to Nathan on May 2!! I can't believe how fast the time flies, but our firstborn is now 15 years old. I have changed diapers every day now for 15 years--no, not Nathan's!! We have had at least one, sometimes two babies in diapers for 15 years straight! Wow.

Grandma decided to make him a birthday pillow case

He also got a teddy bear--long story, but now he
has a bear for Christmas like the other kids!

His favorite present from Grandma and Grandpa

Nathan blowing out candles--notice sweet, little Ethan watching him!
Nathan with his airsoft gun from DAD
(Mom is in no way connected with this!!)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!! Just think, only 15 more years until you can drive and get married :) You're halfway there!!

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays...

2011-04-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

While we were at my parents for Easter, we celebrated my dad's birthday. His birthday was April 25--he's 24 1/2 years older than I am ;)

Nathan and Grandpa talking before opening presents

A new USA flag!!

Ooh, Cabela's :)

What's in this box--Peter watches eagerly!!

A new spotlight :)

Why is the title "Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays" when that was only one birthday?? I guess you'll just have to check back in a couple of days to find out :)

Easter Pictures

2011-04-28T22:35:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is, not even a week later and I have some more pictures :) You don't have to wait until May, either!!! We went to my parents' house in Davison, MI for Easter. We celebrated on Saturday with 14 other people for a grand total of 24!! It was a bit crowded and overwhelming, but it was a beautiful day and the kids were outside a lot. Here are some pictures.

Sarah waiting patiently for the egg hunt to begin

Sarah

Rachel is ready, too :)

The hunt is on--Sarah (looking for yellow eggs)

Ethan (green eggs...ham for dinner!)
He had fun looking for his eggs!
Aunt Amy with Haven

Sarah helped Haven after finding all her eggs

Haven's eggs were blue

Rachel and cousin Brenna took a break for a picture!
(Rachel is just 7 months older than Brenna.)
Cute smile, cute boy--while hunting eggs
Rachel with her pink eggs--looking at all the stuff inside :)

Haven touching grass for the first time--she
didn't really enjoy it :)

This didn't last too long!

Dad with the kids after the hunt--looking at all their stuff
Haven loved playing with all the eggs and baskets

She sat there for a long time moving the eggs from
one basket to the other

Sweet baby girl (she's cutting molars; hence, the nose problem!)

Sisters...after a long, hard egg hunt ;)
Tom in the background

Eggs and basket

Another basket

Sweet little, um, big guy :)

Ethan loved playing with this sword most of the day

Ferocious!!

The older boys had a scavenger hunt this year instead of an egg hunt. Some of them decided they were too old to hunt for Easter eggs (I won't name any names!!). They had a good time walking around the neighborhood looking for clues. They ended up tieing!!

Peter and cousin Carson
Peter (Aug 1999), Carson (Aug 2000), and Andrew (Sept 2001)

Nathan and Daniel trying to look cool :)

Peter trying to escape the camera. Ha ha, I got you!!

Nathan after the scavenger hunt

Daniel after the scavenger hunt

Andrew and Daniel hanging out

Andrew

The older ladies and the younger ladies

(back row l-r) my great Aunt Loie, my Grandma Horning, my Grandma Shankland
(Aunt Loie and Grandma S. are sisters)
(front row l-r) Rachel, Haven, Sarah, Brenna

Brenna, Rachel, Sarah--matching shirts from Grandma

Haven

If April showers bring May flowers,...

2011-04-25T21:15:00.001-07:00

what do May flowers bring???

I just realized this morning that April is pretty nearly over already. I know I say this every month and with every child's birthday, but, really, why is time flying by so quickly?? I guess we really should redeem the time--not waste our days--make them count for eternity (where there is no time). Today is April 25--my dad turned 65 today. WOW! That seems old, but I'll be there soon enough. When I'm 65, my oldest will be 40 (my age now) and our youngest-right-now will be 26. My dad's younger child (my brother) will be 39 this year. I wonder what it will be like to have young kids when I'm old like my parents!!!!!!! (I hope they're not reading this blog!)

Anyway, that was a bit of confusing blather. Most people just come here to see pictures. So, without any further ado......ta-da: April pictures :)

Haven and Grayson Kimmel

Haven standing up :)

She loves that toothbrush

Mouth always open!!

Ethan taking a nap--he put on the hat and mittens :)

Ethan's big mouth :)

Every time Haven sees Tom's computer, she goes right to it!

She loves the mouse :)

Ethan and Haven being cute

Our sweet little Haven

Daddy and the 2 babies

Another picture of the napping Ethan :)
He does the weirdest things in his sleep!

Snow in April...in Michigan

No bake cookies that turned out really well--yum!

Haven doing what she does best these days--

getting into cupboards and making a mess!

No bowl or cup stands a chance when Haven is nearby!!

I have a bunch of pictures from Easter that I will try to put on here sometime this week. Don't hold your breath, though. I'll try, I promise. Tomorrow is our last day of dissection, too. I hope I remember to take my camera. We're supposed to dissect a clam, a sponge, a grasshopper, and a fetal pig. It should be quite interesting.

Pilgrims, of course :)

A few random pictures to finish March

2011-04-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

The title says it all :)

Ethan and Dad on Tom's birthday!

Tom is now 41!! Where does the time go?!?!
Still just as cute as ever, though. I wouldn't trade him
for the world :)

Peter didn't want his picture taken--oops, sorry Peter!

My mom got the girls matching shirts
and made matching skirts!

I found Haven sitting in her crib one morning.
She's crying because I went to get the camera :)

She calmed down pretty quickly...but she still wanted out!

I can't believe my baby wants to walk.
Here she is trying to learn.

Next up: April pictures.

Dissection Time

2011-04-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Biology class. Dissection. Frogs. Fish. Worms. Pigs. Everybody's favorite part of Biology :) Nathan and Joshua M. are taking Biology this year and we (the moms) decided that it would be fun to get together and dissect some animals for their labs. I have pictures from the first time we did it. We started with the frog and have since done a perch, a starfish, a crayfish, and a worm.It's been, um...fun, I think. It's gross, interesting, disgusting, educational. Next week, were planning to tackle the pig--that'll be really exciting. I remember doing that in Biology class. Poor little Wilbur :) Anyway, here are some pictures of the class and the students!!

First of all...the class!! 15 students in 2 families :)
Sorry, girls, you're outnumbered.

The dissection kit

Getting started...everyone was curious :)

Peter with the starfish!

Nathan made the tongue stick out!!

Frog pinned on the board and ready to go

Those black things are eggs...female frog :)

Daniel helped cut a little bit!

Nathan found a beetle in the stomach

Um, make that 2 beetles in the stomach!

After we were done, the boys went out

to play basketball.

The smart ones stayed inside with the pizza :)

The really smart one slept!!! (Peter M.)

After lunch, the kids went out again.
This time they played capture the flag.

We had an interesting time and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. The next week, we went to the Muzzi's house to dissect. We enjoyed going over there--the boys loved playing football and the girls enjoyed playing with Rebekah. Rachel stepped on a wood chip and ended up in urgent care. It ended up being a very long day, but we were able to see the Lord answer prayer very specifically throughout. That was special for Rachel. And...her heel healed just fine! I'm planning to take pictures of the pig so stay tuned :)

First lost tooth

2011-04-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Rachel was so excited to finally lose a tooth!! Here she is :)

(March 11, 2011)

How Fun--Someone is 41!!!!

2011-03-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I updated this blog--oops. Time is going by faster and faster the older Tom gets (!)!!!! So, speaking of Tom, can you guess how old he is today!?!? That's right...41. I really can't believe that the guy I met my junior year of high school is already 41. It's incredible. I mean, I don't feel a day over 21. All you young people out there...don't blink. Life goes by that quickly. I didn't believe it when I was in high school and college, but I do know. Do I want to go back and start over? No, not really. Of course, there are some things I would do differently, but, no I don't want to start over. Learn from mistakes, go on, try to help others not make the same mistakes. Figure out what the Lord wants us to do...and DO IT!!

Well, on to the pictures. I know that's why most people read the blog--at least, that's why I read other blogs :) I was organizing a few things the other day and came across these cute pictures of Little Tom. I didn't even know I had them. I'm planning to ask his mom if she has others that I can scan and share (!). I'd really like to frame these and hang them somewhere--I just need to find a spot.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!! I love you :)

2 yrs old

3 yrs old

4 yrs old
What a cutie :)

8 yrs old--I love this picture!
I think he looks like Sarah here :)

Maybe about 11 or 12--I need to ask his mom

Food Coloring

2011-03-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

This is the 2nd time Haven went down the food coloring path. The first time, I didn't think to take a picture. This time, I said, "Wait, grab the camera!" I'm sure there are some of you who are thinking why? how? did she get into food coloring at all, let alone twice in 6 days. Well, the first time, I had put the box down on the kitchen stool (I had to climb up to get it). She touched it before I could get it. So, that was basically an accident. The second time was more our fault. I had the box out to do Rachel's brownies (see other post) and I didn't put it away. (I know, I know, always put stuff away when you're done. I tell the kids that all the time.) I put it on the counter instead of in the cupboard and someone (or, Someone since he seems to be a real person in our house. Someone lost my... Someone put that there. Someone made that mess.) knocked it off onto the floor. Did Someone pick it up. NO, of course not. Leave it for mom. Well, mom saw it on the floor and thought something about Haven probably getting into it again. But, no, mom didn't pick it up. Lazy moment. The funny thing was that when I told Tom about it, he said that he saw the box on the floor and thought that he should pick it up, but he left it for Someone else!!! Maybe that's why our kids are so terrible!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, here's the result of Someone's carelessness and our laziness.

It was green and yellow food coloring this time!

For those of you who are interested, the diapers were much less exciting with green food coloring. The black was quite dramatic--just ask Amy or Liesel or Rebekah!!!

Big working boy

2011-03-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

The other day, Ethan took the trash out pretty much all by himself. I'll let the pictures do the explaining. He was so proud of himself!!

Birthday Girls!

2011-03-12T14:11:00.001-08:00

We had 2 birthdays in the past couple of weeks. First up was Sarah Faith on February 24th. Our first little girl has turned 8 already!! Where does the time go?!?! Sarah wanted an '8' cake. I had an idea in my head, but it didn't turn out exactly the same. But, Sarah liked it and that's all that matters. (BTW, for those of you who have heard about Haven and the food coloring, this was the first time she got into it. She picked up a dried up flake of black food coloring and put it in her mouth. WOW! Everything was black--her fingers, her lips, her mouth, her tongue, her teeth! Most of it came off with some scrubbing, but it was exciting the next day changing her diapers!!) Anyway, here are some pictures of Sarah and her birthday.

The girls got new snow hats and headbands

Sarah's new Bible!!

Um, nail polish?!?! That's a gift from DAD!!!
It's glow-in-the-dark no odor clear nail polish that
they're allowed to wear at home (thanks Hannah
for telling our girls about this!!!!!!!!!!!).

The girls with their matching skirts and shirts.
Sarah and Rachel also got matching doll clothes.

Next in the line of birthdays was Rachel Faith. She turned 6 on March 2. The girls have been counting the days until their birthdays since about Christmas time. The boys are glad to finally be done with them :) Rachel has her first wiggly tooth (well, now that it's past her birthday, the tooth is out--but that's for another post!). She requested a 'tooth' cake of all things!!! It was fun. Actually, it's not a cake. She doesn't really care for cake. She wanted 'tooth' brownies :) So, here they are...

Rachel's brownies

New magic Tree House books!

Rachel got a new Bible, too!

No, it's not Ethan's birthday, but he got a book, too!!
Christopher Churchmouse

I have a few more pictures left from February and then we're on to March already. Talk about time flying....I'd really like time to slow down a bit. I'm getting old too fast. And, talking about old,...someone else has a birthday this month and this someone is getting pretty old!!!! Stay tuned!