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!