A whole lot o' nothin'

We've been busy....doing nothing.  Well, not actually nothing.  Just nothing big going on.  School, cold and flu season, serving....just life keeping us busy and quiet "on line."  I thought I'd pop in here quickly and post a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Miss A loves playing in the sensory bin.

Miss J has developed a love for math.  She also loves taking care of Miss F.  She's managed to bring two of her loves together here. :) 

The older boys got to go to a UAV conference with Daddy.

Field trip to the Viking exhibit at a museum.

Happy Birthday Miss F!

Better late than never!  Miss F turned 1 earlier this month.  With Daddy out of town on their (shared) birthday, and since she'd not yet been introduced to sweets....we skipped the cake.  Her siblings were all sure she wanted pizza for her birthday dinner though, we we went with that.

Miss F is a cheerful baby who loves to eat, loves her blankies and pacie, and all of her siblings (but most of all Mr. R).  She crawls all over the place, "walks" on her knees very well, can stand on her own (when she wants to), and can push chairs and other things around to get where she wants to go.  She's also mastered the art of pointing and grunting to get the person holding her to take her where she wants to go.  She loves to watch our chickens and cats, touching them is even better, and she's starting to enjoy going outside to play.  She also loves books.

We're having a blast with this little cutie.  She brings so much joy into our home, we all just adore her.  We're loving getting to see more of her personality and getting to know her better.

Working at SpaceX?

Well, not yet.  ;)  But when your uncle works at SpaceX....

Happy Birthday Miss J!

Miss J turned 9 last week!  It's kinda hard having a birthday right after Christmas, but she's great about it. :)

Miss J is a thoughtful, cheerful, and encouraging young lady.  She's often thinking of and putting the needs of others first, before herself.  I see this daily in her, but also as she gave her birthday requests.  I had to coax some of the requests out of her as I saw that she was trying to make choices that were easier rather than what she really wanted....Eggo waffles and sausage for breakfast really was easy.  I was happy to drop Chick-fil-a off for her and the 2 other siblings that were at our co-op that day (while I ran errands with the rest of the kids).  Dinner was a joint effort between me and Miss E (Mr. M helped a bit too) to make a German food feast.  Miss J had requested a vanilla (yellow) cake with blue fondant; Miss C and Miss A helped put red and blue M&M's on to decorate a bit more.

We are so very blessed to have this spunky red head in our lives.  We look forward to watching her continue to learn and grow, and pray that (above all) she continues to grow in her love for God.

Merry Christmas!

The kiddos talked us into opening gifts on Christmas Eve.  We had a great time opening gifts and enjoying all of the toys, games, books, and goodies.

The next morning brought us a white Christmas and a stomach bug.  The bug wasn't too bad, but we all stayed home.  We played, plowed and just enjoyed the day.

Treats and the zoo!

After our gingerbread day we got to work making other treats for Christmas.  Some of the little girls wanted to make Christmas Mice.  They didn't end up turning out so great, but they sure had a great time putting them together.

Mr. R made "muddy buddies" one of his favorites and daddy's too.

Miss E made up some sugar cookies and we had fun decorating them in the evening.

We took advantage of the zoo pass that great-grandma gave the kids this year and went up to see the zoo lights.

Gingerbread day

Today was our gingerbread day.  Miss E spent the day mixing up, rolling out, cutting out, and baking gingerbread men.  I did most of the icing, but I had plenty of little helpers too.

Mr. R and Mr. S spent the morning building gingerbread houses for everyone as well as themselves.  Miss E took a bit of a break from her gingerbread men to build her own "house."

Mr. M had a blacksmithing class to go to in the morning.

In the late afternoon everyone got to decorate their houses.

We even kept the gingerbread theme with gingersnap chicken for dinner.  YUM!

*We know that God is sovereign and that He directs our paths each day, but today He showed us that very clearly in the course he set for us.  We had dinner plans to go to friends' home for this evening.  In the morning they let me know that something came up and needed to reschedule.  We easily adjusted our plans and went about our day.  Around the time we would have been getting ready to go I got a call.  It was my neighbor.  Her husband had fell from a ladder and was injured, he needed help and she wasn't home.  Rob was out the door in a minute followed quickly by Miss E.  I quickly gave instructions, here at home to the older boys, and then ran over there too.  His wife was home shortly and took him to the ER while we took their boys to our house to play for the evening.  The boys had made extra gingerbread houses, so we had plenty to go around.  These little boys that had just seen their daddy get hurt got to spend a happy evening playing with their friends and decorating gingerbread houses reassured that their daddy was in good hands and being well cared for.

I'm super proud of my kids.  Everyone did just what they needed to in this emergency.  Miss E didn't bat an eye at being sent over to help daddy with the situation.  She helped with the little kids over there and also helped me get things cleaned up.  At home Mr. R did great taking over watching little ones (who also did great by staying calm and playing nicely), Mr. M and Mr. S took over my dinner prep and got it all in the oven.  We were thankful that God gave us this opportunity to serve our sweet friends and neighbors.