Abby just bein' Abby

Tonight in the middle of dinner Abigail hops out of her chair exclaiming, "Ha! What are they watching now" as she peers out of the dinning room window. Speaking of the neighbors (which you can barely make out a TV screen through the yard and fence), "they watch television every night!"...."Aurgh!" she sighs in despair as she longingly looks out the window, "I bet they can do whatever they want whenever they want."

This is a photo of her in the public restroom after we went on a hike in the rain I found her drying herself off with the hand dryer.

Jake's poem won!

Jake's poem "Books" (see old posting to read the poem) won at the county level and he was the only one in his category to go on to the state competition. His other poem won a great big blue ribbon as well. Congratulations Jake!

Snow, snow, and more snow!

The snow just keeps on coming! We hardly went anywhere all vacation--due to the lack of ease of getting out of our driveway and down our street to the main roads. Then Sunday when we stepped out of church our car and the streets were covered in a fresh blanket of snow and it kept snowing until we had 6 1/2 inches. The kids school was delayed two hours this morning. Yeah! One more day to sleep in and make pancakes! I feel very fortunate to live in one of those places where when it snows the whole world stops. It's been a lovely vacation for that very reason.

We, also, hosted a singing soiree at our house and it was a marvelous success! Several of my singing friends came and sang for us. Jake and I sang a duet of "Pie Jesu" and we all sang several carols together. That is one tradition I would like to keep! The kids had a blast staying up late and running around the house with the other children--and they even stopped to sing us a few fun songs. What a night! I was on cloud 9 for 2 days after the party--so much love, delightful food and company were present in our home that night!

Christmas was the usual fare at our house. We had a neighbor guest (Hannah) for our nativity pagent on Christmas eve. Christmas morning we ate Belgian waffles and then opened presents as usual. The rest of the day we played games together. I am so grateful for this time of plenty in our lives we have been blessed to experience. Saturday we took all the Christmas decorations down and I have to admit I did NOT want to take the tree down. It was still drinking water and as georgeous as ever. I hate it when Christmas is over. I just LOVE CHRISTMAStime! Now it's back to the normal hussle and bustle of shuttling kids, planning menus, no more sleeping in and laundry, laundry, laundry....

Christmas Break photos

Here's some pics from Christmas. I got a new camera for my birthday so I've been especially snap happy. Now I can finally capture Vivian on film before she looks away! Yeah! Viv in front of our Christmas tree. The first we picked out and chopped down ourselves!



Scout racing through the snow. He loved it and we were delighted with his enthusiasm--until we took him inside and we found out snow matts his fur--to the point of no return! Nate had to cut most of them out. There goes any chance we had of showing him in the arena--it takes a good year for their hair to grow out. Oh well. He really loved playing in it.

Emmy with her gingerbread house.

Jake--"Oh, the agony" Why his was the only one that wouldn't stay together I'll never know.

Abby's creation!

Our nativity pagent Christmas Eve with Hannah (our neighbor)

Viv
One of those precious moments I never would have caught with my old camera!