...

It's been an interesting year, to say the least. Much growing- both physically and Spiritually- and overall changes in our lives.
Like any other year, we've had our "ups" and our "downs"- the "downs" more often than the "ups". But when the "ups" come, I can most assuredly say they make up for all of the down time. How was 2009 for you?
Anyway, that was a round-a-bout way to say


from all of us VonSevens!

Today I...

baby-sat a bunny. A super cute bunny.



I told you she was cute. Her name's "Oreo"




Long story short, a friend asked me to take care of her while he was gone and so... I did. All the kids wanted to keep her. Dad did not. ;)




And as a side note, everyone enjoyed stuffing carrots up her mouth.

Sam: "Ahh! I heard her go "crunch, crunch"!" (He made a "crunching" noise as he said this)
Viv: "I'll go and get another carrot!" (The bunny had had 3 already at this point :)
Lil delightedly said "Her whiskers tickle my cheeks!"

Yes, we were ready to adopt her there and then!

In Case You Haven't Noticed...

we're on hiatus. Hoping to be back soon!

Wanted: One Baby Boy

After coming home from a baby shower, Sam ran downstairs, and calling out very loudly said,
"Did you bring home a baby?"
"What, Sam?" my mom asked.
"A baby boy- did you bring home a baby boy?"

After explaining that "no" we did not bring home any babies, his bottom lip stuck out a little bit as he said,
"I just wanted a little baby brother!" Aww Sam!

Princess Viv

"Now Sam, you have to bow to me and call me "Princess Viv", okay?"
"Nooo... I want to play by my self!"
"Sam! Don't put grass on my head! Saaaaam! you're ruining my pictures!"
"I just want to play!!"
- at which point Sam grabs the sash of her dress and tugs with all his might, undoing the bow. At which point Viv starts yelling. At which point Big Sister puts down her camera and steps in to rescue them from each other-
I don't think I will be taking pictures with them any time soon!

Art meets Home Ec

The other day Rachel and I wanted to help my mom pick green beans. After we were done with that, we took them inside, washed them, and then started cutting the green beans so my mom could can them. We had a great time together and had lots of fun spelling with our green beans!

A Homemade Water Park

What do you get when you add, one swingset, one hose, one inflatable pool, and a handful of hot kids. It equals an instant water slide with lots of fun!



It works great!!!

A Day at the Park

Want to know a fabulous exercise? Running up and down eight flights of steep steps- three times! Whew. That was definitely the highlight of my day. :)



When you finally get to the top of the Tower, I think you are amply rewarded by the panoramic views form all sides.






One last stop: the memorial garden at the base of the Tower. How nice it is to sit and relax and catch your breath after all those stairs!

The Vegetables of our Labors

This year our family planted a garden... add a couple raised beds, some huge overgrown tomatoes, peppers, and corn, and you get our garden. Yep.
When we first planted our plants, everything was in neat, cute little rows, and everything was contained inside of the raised beds. People who walked by would often stop to admire our yard, complimenting Dad and Mom on "How nice it all looked!" I thought it was nice too.


Until everything decided to grow up.



Above are our pumpkins and corn. Our pumpkins were supposed to grow on the ground around the corn, but as you can see, they're almost half as tall as the corn!



What does all of this garden produce translate into? Canning. Of course.
I'm off work today so Mom's going to have me help with canning some more green beans and beets. Fun!!!

At the Zoo...

you can pet sharks,


view sun-bathing seals,




watch majestic polar bears,



see donkeys plod around and around in their pen (this is possibly my favorite picture; so cute!),


and, ladies and gentlemen, see the... *drum roll, please* ... rare Komodo Dragon!!!


Watch as the chimps comb through eachothers' fur. Why take a shower when you have so many friends to keep you nice and clean???



Gaze thirstily at the lush waterfall in the elephant exhibit. Lucky elephants!


The lucky exhibit occupants. I love baby elaphants- don't you?


You know what I discovered? I like going to the zoo!

*Sigh*

After hugging and kissing six little peoples goodbye, the girl climbed out of the van only to hug one more person. Her mom whispered into her ear, "I love you and I'm so proud of you, sweetheart," which only brought tears into her eyes. Her heart felt as heavy as lead at the thought of not being able to go with them. *Sigh*. The car started without a hitch and amid many loud goodbyes (a.k.a. yells thrown out of car windows by little peoples), and some horn blows the car pulled away from the curb and rode smoothly down the street. It turned at the intersection and was lost among the morning traffic. She turned to go inside the quiet, still house with a lump the size of a baseball in her throat.

That girl is me. This incident happened today.

Today is the first day of camp- I've had so much fun every year so far and I really wanted to go this year. Really wanted to go. But I have a job. And with most jobs there comes a certain level of responsibility. There was no one to take my place so I decided quite on my own that I was going to stay home this year, even though it meant a huge disappointment for me. You have to grow up some time, right?
My boss was overjoyed though, and there's a small consolation in that, I suppose.
Plus, I only have myself to grumble at since I made the choice.
Double plus, all my siblings are gone so I have one whole week with just me and my daddy. Complete silence will reign in our home.

Although, *groan* my mom made me promise we'd eat almost all food in the fridge. (You'd have to see our fridge to understand ;)

After All, They Come Cheaper by the Dozen!

Yes, we are here! We are alive! We are doing pretty good! Busy, very tired at the end of the day but pretty well, all the same. Haircuts are done on time (or nearly so, :)our garden is growing quite well, Viv recently learned to ride her little bike without training wheels, and we can barely tear her away from it long enough to eat! Being as busy as I am, I still find time to read and recently picked up Cheaper by Dozen and found it to be such a cute book. Filled with so much humor and the fun of large family living I found it to be a book I will want to read to my siblings. The following is one of my favorite stories:

"Dad himself used to joke that he couldn't even tell us 12 kids apart. He even boasted about one time when Mother was away on a lecturing tour and he was in charge of the household. Things went fairly smoothly and Father had us all lined up outside on the front porch when Mother arrived. "How was everything, dear?" asked Mother. "Fine, just fine," answered Father. "But this one here gave me quite a bit of trouble," he said as he pointed towards the offender. "But as soon as I gave him a good thrashing he was as good as gold." Mother, who was never ruffled at anything, calmly replied, "But he isn't one of ours dear, he's from next door."

Hey everyone! Such a lot has happened since last month. My parents are currently out of town- for two weeks! I'm really glad they could go, since it will be a good vacation. My siblings are all up in Iowa with my grandparents- hopefully they're not creating to much havoc in grandpa and grandma's usually peaceful home! Since I have job, I'm staying with family friends who live two blocks from my home. They have one kid, a three old boy who is really cute, very curious, and follows me like a shadow. He doesn't want to do anything without me and cries when I leave for work. Aw. It helps me not miss my siblings so much.
I also have a room to myself... which is a delight all on its own. In preparing for two weeks of relative quiet, I checked out a whole bunch of books from the library- 11 books, I think- and have so far finished five. So nice to be able to read this much. I haven't done this much pleasure reading in... forever, it seems. Okay, not forever, but a long while! For school literature, I'm reading Les Miserables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, both of which I'm so interested in that I'm reading far more chapters than I need to. Okay, well, I have to go and get ready for work now, but I hope that my extra free time will give give me opportunities to post more regularly. *hopefully*

:)

A Modern Mozart

Last Saturday my mom took Si, Lil and me to see Emily Bear perform with the Champaign Symphony orchestra. If you have never seen or heard of Emily Bear you have to check out this YouTube of her. Emily is an amazing seven year old who has an extraordinary talent for playing the piano.
The most exciting thing about my evening was getting to meet her after the performance. We were able to get a picture of her with Rach and me.
To find out about Emily's story, paste this site into your browser address.
(We are currently having technical difficulty linking this site)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUx4t4W4eVY

Chocolate Calculator

My grandma sent this to us and my mom and I thought it was really neat!

You have to try this out!

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate; more than once but fewer than 10. (we won't mention the number we used :)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 (you might have to get a calculator)

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759... if you haven't, add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should come up with a three digit number.
The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week)
The next two numbers are YOUR AGE!

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) THAT IT WILL EVER WORK,
SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.

A Puppy Bouquet for You!

A dear friend sent these to me today and I thought they were too cute to not send to you, also! We especially thought of you when we saw these, Miss Rebecca.

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Hanna!

Your dad and I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays, Hanna. When I was pregnant with you I remember how much I REALLY wanted to have a little girl. I am continually amazed at how the Lord knows the desires of our heart and He abundantly blessed us with you! It's hard to believe that the tiny little baby born fourteen years ago is the same young woman who is growing up so beautifully. I still think that there must be some switch going on in the middle of the night - how else could you grow up so quickly?

Hanna, we love you very much. Our lives have been filled with so much joy because of you!

Hundreds Attend Global Warming Protest

We thought this was pretty cute!
By the way, have you ever seen so many perturbed snowmen in all your life?

One Sweet Boy

Sam! He has to be watched constantly. If not, we'll undoubtedly have a mess to clean up! One of his favorite things to do is to take a jar of sugar, white or brown, it matters not to him, and run and hide underneath our kitchen counter along with the sugar container. The moment things get quiet we know something is up so we begin calling his name. When there isn't any answer, we investigate and, to our chagrin, find him licking his sugar-covered fingers and there is sugar all over the floor. Ah... little brother and his sweet tooth!

Changing the Story

Once upon a time there was a big sister who, to help her two year old little brother go to sleep, she decided to tell him a story. She began with... "There once was a shepherd boy whose name was David."

"No, Hanna, his name wasn't David it was Samuel," interrupted Sam.

"Okay," she began again, "There once was a shepherd boy named David Samuel."

"No, his name wasn't David Samuel, Hanna, it was Samuel!" little brother declared.

Big sister began again, "There once was a shepherd boy whose name was Samuel and he looked after his father's sheep."

"No, Hanna," Sam again interrupted, "it was pigs and goats, not sheep."

"Sam, you are ruining my Bible story with your interruptions. You lay still and listen while I tell the story."

We thought he was finally content to be quiet until near the end of the story when Hanna said, "and David killed the giant Goliath..."

At this point Sam piped in, "and then he shot the Indians!" (can you tell this boy has big brothers?)

Big sister ignored this last comment and continued on with the story. She got the last word in though when she ended the story with, "and when David returned home he told his best friend Samuel all about how God helped him to kill the giant Goliath."

The End

Zooming Along

Hello! This is Si.
Today I want show you a ramp that my brother, Chris, and I built. It is not the best, but after a lot of trial and error, we finely got it to work.
We first started out with Chris putting a thin piece of wood out for the kids to run their little cars down. Then I got out another piece to make a bigger ramp. Next we went around the house searching for ideal spots to place the ramp. We ended up deciding to nestle it in between the cushions of our living room couch. After several test runs and minor adjustments, it was finally completed. Viv and Sam had so much fun with us. They would run up into the kitchen, climb up on a chair placed by the wall overlooking our living room, and then send their car down the track. Here are some pictures.
Signing off,
Si (and Chris, too :)

Building Igloos

This week we received about four inches of snow so we decided to do some building - igloo building, that is! This is the igloo that Sim and I built.This next igloo was built by Chris and Gabe.


You can see the little addition on the side - this was built for Nate. We made these igloos out of the piles of snow shoveled from our driveway. Because it still wasn't quite enough snow, we shoveled our yard to get what we needed. The day after we built these we got some REALLY cold weather. It's amazing though, inside the igloos it is quite a bit warmer!

Staying Warm 101

A couple tips on how to stay warm in the winter when the high for the day is -8.
1) Have a wood burning stove. Very helpful to thaw out snow encrusted boots and children.

2) Eat hot soups or chili.

3) Wear lots of layers.

4) Pile numerous blankets on your bed or, in my case, have two little "body warmers" (a.k.a. two of my little siblings) in addition to the numerous blankets.

5) Stay indoors if at all possible. Or, if you're like some adventurous young boys I know, if there's snow on the ground and if there are friends to play with, outside they go, regardless of the temperature!