Pretty in Pink

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, we have been busy and/or sick. I spent the weekend in bed with a fever. But at least I managed to take a few pictures of Kayte. Her hair is now long enough to get all of it into her pony tails, not just the front hair...however they have had to be lowered a bit because the back hair is just barely long enough.

The snow is all melted, except in spots where it was piled up. But with the change in weather like that sicknesses tend to go around. I have several children on a couch now, with sore throats and fevers... can't wait until the sun really comes out and we can be outside!!!!!

Last Thursday night the boys had a Spelling Bee. TJ and Chatham both came in 2nd...if you saw how Mak spelled you would understand why he wasn't entered!
Anyway, little did I know that it would be my last time out of the house for a few days. The next day it started to snow, and it didn't stop until Sunday morning. Almost everything in our area was cancelled. Now you have to understand that all the snow had melted, so this is all new snow from that Friday. Mak tried to shovel the walkway on Saturday but it was pointless, so we took pictures... this is his favorite, showing the depth of the snow and the length of the icicles.

Here is a shot from our house of the street. The mailbox is at the road...yet you can't see the road. Keep in mind we live on a Highway!

Sunday morning, church was cancelled, but we made it out to Opa and Oma's for brunch and a time of singing...then sledding and snowmobiling.

The roads were clear by the afternoon. Let's hope we're done and Spring comes!!!

The History Fair

Last night was the night. We've been working on these projects for weeks and months.

T.J.'s project was on the History of Coffee...some of the interesting highlights are that it was discovered by an Ethiopian goatherder who noticed his goats had a lot more energy after eating berries from certain trees, he tried them for himself and felt energized himself. Then the Arabs cultivated coffee and did all they could to keep it to themselves, making sure all beans were roasted before they left the country so that none could be cultivated elsewhere...but the Dutch smuggled some beans out of the Arabian port of Mocha, and began growing their own crop in their East Indies territory called Java.







Mak did his project on Christopher Columbus. Did you know that early on one of his ships was attacked and set on fire by pirate and he had to paddle six miles to the Portuguese shore? Or that he was freckle faced?




















Chatham's favorite part is that Vikings wore bear skin shirts, which they called "Berserkers" which is where we get the word berserk...because whenever they raided villages they acted as crazy as they could.

Things that make me smile.

Sometimes it's just what they say, sometimes it's jsut what they do and how they respond to things, and sometimes it's how God answers prayers, but the end result is a laugh or a smile.

Here are my examples for the week:

When I woke T.J. up yesterday morning he said "and I was just having a really good dream" I asked if it was about a girl and he said "no, it was about pasta."

I was trying to take Jacks picture but he kept closing his eyes...see the picture. He said "take it again and I won't turn my eyes off".

For Chatham, we went to the dermotologist this morning to see why his face has been losing pigment. Notice how white he is? Having done some research online the only thing that fit the description was vitiligo - a sister disease to alopecia (what Mak has), all the symptoms fit so we took him in. What he actually has is a form of eczema that leeches pigment, and is treatable within a months time. I had been prepared for the worst, and was so thankful to hear this. We hadn't told too many people about this because there is no threat to his health...so if you hadn't heard don't be upset :). After we left the clinic Chatham called T.J. and said "It's not a terrible disease, I can take medicine for it." He asked if I could get two bottles of the medicine, but I explained that one will be enough. How could you not smile when looking at that precious face? My children are such a blessing.

Getting dumped on.

Just when Spring was beginning to peak it's head around the corner, Winter had to make it know we're still on it's turf.

On Monday night we went out to eat with an old college friend - great to see you Jim -, note the light jackets.

When we woke up on Tuesday the radio was announcing all the school closings....it is now Wednesday morning and still snowing!

So Tuesday afternooon/evening the kids and I went over to aunt Mona's (because David and uncle Scott were out of town). While the mom's and toddlers stayed inside by the fire the kids were sledding and building snow forts out of the plowed snow. They were even treated later to a snowmobile ride by uncle C.J. and I tried to ge pictures but I literally only got snow!

This is what our patio table looked like this morning.

That kind of defeats the purpose.

This video speaks for itself.

That's a lot of styrofoam

The roof panels and the sunroom are done, and would you believe they are all made out of styrofoam? Here are shots from the back and front of the house. It was an exciting week to see this all go up so quickly!

nothing specific

We are still in the potty training stage...we actually took a break and this time around it's going much better. But Jack still can't tell the back from the front of his underwear. That coupled with his sock gloves and goggles made for quite a few laughs from his brothers.
Kayte is just hanging out these days. Trying to take over everyone elses things. She loves Jack's car and my computer. The power button is just her height. She is now tall enough to climb up onto couches and go even higher. We have one sofa next to our kitchen and several times I have found her on the kitchen counter. She is a handful!!

And for those of you who enjoyed the mole story...we caught two more (but this time with traps).


Here's our house with the beginning of roof support. The weather here has put things to a halt though, lots of school closings due to either windchill or snow.
TJ is up on what will be our attic floor looking down at our vehicles.

Happy New Year!

We went to a New Year's Eve Party tonight. Chatham was excited and even asked if he could dance, however not only did he not make it to midnight, he didn't make it to dessert, but impressed all of us with his ability to sleep sitting up. All the kids were excited with the party favors.

TJ and Uncle CJ

Chatham and Hannah

Guess What Grandma Got for Christmas!

Groundhogs here she comes!


















Look at that smile!

The kids with their stockings

Christmas time!

It's that time of year again, where we pull out the poinsettia picture, dress the kids up at church, and eat....below Chatham is demonstrating with his candy cane. Keri's parents came at the time when we take the poinsettia pictures...of course the kids didn't last long enough to get a good one of just our family, but that's life.

Here is Mak with some of his friends from church...he decided he was going to be a wise guy, uh man and do his own head dressing, instead of being a shepherd like all the other kids.

Jack was our cute little shepherd boy, but oh was he stubborn. He decided he needed to know what was behind all the other kids as they sang. It doesn't help that his Mom was the one in charge and unable to control him!

Check out Chatham's slippers! They are in the shape of Dutch Clogs.

Kayte is two months old!

Here she is...the cute little stinker! Now when people say I have my hands full I can agree quite literally. This little girl doesn't nap, and isn't happy unless she's held. She makes up for it by sleeping at night, but the days can be long - prayers are appreciated! :)

She is starting to coo and smile and that is so fun.

Kayte continues to be a blessing, but she is spoiled rotten. I have never had a child that had to be rocked to sleep!
And of course she loves to be held, and usually we love to hold her, but she gets passed off quickly when she starts to scream. I guess only Mom wants her then.

Visiting Grandparents

Kaytence has had the worst case of baby acne that we have ever seen! She is getting better now, but she is still far from having baby soft skin.


The boys have been having a great time with their Bubba and Nana.


Nana and Bubba have been enjoying their time with all their grandkids.

Kaytence has been amazing with the pacifier and bottle. She likes water! And it satisfies her until real feeding time comes.