Catching up...

Our sunshine boy who loves to be outside.


Making Christmas cookies. Otherwise known as ritz crackers and peanut butter...

dipped in chocolate. I'm thrilled that I have a child old enough and neat enough to dip for me. I'll pass on that part of the job. :)
Kaitlyn found her swimsuit. Then she discovered that Davis had gone outside. She thought the addition of mittens, hat, and coat prepared her for the great outdoors. I wonder how long she would have lasted in this getup?
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! Megan is becoming the third generation of my family to be infamous for holey socks. She needs a Penny Wright to take pity on her. :D
Okay, I told the poor kid to dump the wrecks in the trash, put on another pair, and we bought a ten pack (without holes) the next time we were in Wallyworld.

Comfort

I have four kids howling with joy over a marble rack in the other room. The tree is lit, cookies are baked, presents are wrapped, and we just finished a warm dinner. It's a wonderful life.
I know that for others this is a really difficult time. Death, grief, illness, heartache, hardships, and poverty have deprived many of the joy we are experiencing. Perhaps this song will provide some comfort.

Last Year at this Time...

we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting to bring this precious bundle home from China.We'd gotten our referral in August and our agency believed we'd travel in November or December. But in December we were still waiting on documents. It was a difficult Christmas.
I heard this song last year. I bawled for an hour. It hit pretty close to home.

This year we get to celebrate the joyful ending in this song.
Merry Christmas.

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference

I found this on someone else's blog. I found it very moving. Maybe you will too.

Snow

For a southern China girl, our little one doesn't have any problems with snow. She loves to be out in it. Her comments after the first snowfall were:

"Eat. Snow."
"Play, Frosty."

Guess what we've been watching. :D

Megan

Megan is our natural athlete. She's constantly on the move. She swings, jumps, runs, bikes, crouches, crawls, slides, hops, roller-skates, hikes, and is often upside down. Seeing her on the trampoline is terrifying. She's doing gymnastics this year. It appears to be a good fit.The other day she was on roller skates. Imagine the effect of roller skates back and forth. All. Day. Long.
She's the only person I know who cleans the bathroom while roller skating.

Caught in the act...

Wanna guess what's in the bag?Well, now we know that the top of the fridge is no longer secure.
So much for remorse! :P

Happy Birthday

This was Kaitlyn's first birthday with us. I don't know what she did last year, but her first birthday was in the hospital having heart surgery to close a valve.
Being the super-dooper party pooper mom that I am, I went waaaay outside my comfort zone and had a birthday party. Although, give the girl something with sugar and some presents and she's good to go.
We had five little munchkins come celebrate the joy(translation: come, play, and eat piggy cupcakes)
Later Grandpa and Grandma joined us for supper and Kaitlyn got another round of Happy Birthday.
Daddy got his own song, too, since his birthday was the next day. Notice that birthday pumpkin pie from his mom? I've heard several times, "Mom makes the best pumpkin pie! Her pumpkin pie is even better than cherry!" Normally his favorite is cherry.
.
Birthday are over for the year...but Christmas is coming. :P

It's the First Day of Deer Season

and the "men" garbed themselves in blaze orange (Too bad our family reunion shirts are just t-shirts. They would have worked great.) and headed out to restock the freezer. By 9:00 a.m. the mighty hunters had returned victorious. Actually, my freezer is full of beef. I think Bambi is going to be canned. The first day of hunting season signals it's time for Christmas decorations. Jamison ditched us to be a hunter, but I still had three little elves.
This upside-down version of Ho Ho Ho was never more accurate. They only broke one thing in the process of spreading Christmas cheer from attic to dungeon.
Kaitlyn's favorite movie is the Christmas story. She spent a good part of the day cradling Baby Jesus (That is what you call it when you won't let anyone else near him, right?) and even held him throughout her two hour nap this afternoon.

Decorating the tree was the elves favorite part. While we have acquired a lot of ornaments it was unnecessary to put four on the same branch. Oh, well. To each their own when it comes to decorating, right?
This is my favorite ornament(It was made by a special friend of mine especially for me from a pinecone.) Kenton doesn't like it. His term for it is vulgar.
We brought these home from China. Can you have too much red at Christmas?
I do enjoy decorating for the season and the elves excitement was fun. However, I do NOT want to do it again tomorrow. :P

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Time flies. It seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday...

Oh, that's right. It was. But since Ben and Janelle were in and Grandpa and Grandma haven't left for Florida now was the time to celebrate. All the grandchildren were there except the four in Mexico. Here are the four youngest minus Jenna. (We missed you guys!)Today was Kaitlyn's first taste of Christmas. She likes her new toys...but her favorite was the Reese's pieces from Grandma, then she swiped her sister's candy, and moved onto mine. (I meant that first "taste" literally.) Later I found her trying to steal from some cousins'.
The weather was beautiful for a little football.

Grandma prepared her usual smorgasbord, apparently unfazed from yesterday's turkey feast and this morning's bonanza brunch.
Afterward we were all ready for a little of this.
Some of us didn't wait until later...
Afterward Grandpa entertained with stories.
Grandma entertained the littlest ones.

Kenton and his dad played the world's longest game of memory, demonstrating the capabilities of desperate Mennonites to cheat. ;P We don't need to mention which family member needed a little help to save his pride, do we?


Dennis, Machelle, Lydia, Brooke, Natalie, and Jenna we missed you! We can't wait for the next furlough that brings you our way.
Merry Christmas a month early.

Happy Thanksgiving

We woke up to this....and it was beautiful but not treacherous. Kenton did feed heifers early just in case we lost power later. Mother nature even decorated our fences with rick-rack.
Aunt Janelle was a good sport and entertained the younger crew with Uno...
while some of the others slept off the effects of tryptophan.
After everyone revived, we had more turkey. Now we're home to again sleep off the effects of turkey time.
We had a great time with family today and find much to be thankful for. I hope that you can say the same. If not, our prayer is that you can find peace in knowing that God loves you and will never leave you or forsake you.
Happy Thanksgiving

Kids

Davis is really excited about learning to read. He has just finished his third book. I was a little worried that my farm boy would have a hard time settling down to school. I seem to have worried in vain. :)
This was a talent show.....
which quickly morphed into a battle.
Looks like fun, eh?

In Need of Rain

We are hauling water from the pond for the cows so that we have enough in the house. We're seriously considering digging another well here. The water was running low at the home farm but when Kenton and his dad pulled the well it turned out to be a pretty quick fix. As usual I'm a little vague on the actual details. :P
Kenton's been hauling this 500 gallon tank down to the pond and pumping it full of water. If you find it alarming that the water in the tank looks a bit dark to be potable let me assure you that the cows find it delicious. Kaitlyn has recently discovered how to stack duplos. I guess it was either learn to stack and fit in or get left out a lot. Between legos and duplos this is not a safe house to walk in unshod. Ever stepped on one of those things in the dark with bare feet? If they were designed by a teenager to annoy his/her parents s/he deserved to be CEO. They're everywhere-all the time. They're insidious!
And they're so much fun! :D

The Clampits Go Christmas Shopping

I sweet talked my husband into going Christmas shopping with the kids and I. He put me off for two weeks but we went yesterday. As we were pulling out of the driveway he mentioned that he wanted to make a quick stop near a farm we rent. Jamison had spotted a "treasure" on the side of the road. Then Kenton thought he spotted another one from the combine window. They both thought it was worth a quick (that'll be the day!) stop to check it out.

In town you call this dumpster diving. In the country you're just combing the unauthorized landfill for something that might still have a little life left in it. This brought to mind our friend Perry Helmuth . His son once said something along the lines of "it was a good trip to the dump when you could bring home more than you went with."

Kenton found this perfectly good doll crib. It's a perfect find for the treehouse. The side still flips up and down.


The real find of the day was Lightning McQueen.


Poor Lightning must have had a run-in with a bigger vehicle. One handlebar (with throttle) was broken off and one tire was sadly misshapen with a bent axle. However, the men of the family were sure that with a little help from Lightning's new pit crew(them) he might be worth salvaging. Then they discovered that the throttle, though severed from its handlebar, was still operational. They had hit the dumpster diving jackpot! Lightning went home in the back of the van.

This morning Lightning was up and running. Davis, for the first time in three years, has quit asking for his own John Deere gator for Christmas. Unfortunately, Lightning's previous owners didn't see fit to dump his battery charger along with him. The pit crew is hastily sorting through options to extend Lightning's stay. :P

I bet you can't wait to see what we found for YOU! :D

Recently....

The big news is that I actually washed the windows on the main floor. I hired a couple helpers who did walls and floors while I did windows. The full effect was only invisible for twelve hours or so but I'm really enjoying the view out the non-spotted windows. :DKenton found a deer caught in a fence on a farm we rent. It didn't look too badly injured but he wasn't all that happy about having four kids petting him.
I've been praying for precipitation....however, I kind of had the non-frozen variety in mind. Here's our first snow that stuck around past hitting the ground. Kenton's been bringing pond water for the cows here so I've had water recently in the house. He may need to start bringing water to the cows at the home farm, too. The water was just a trickle there tonight. Looks like a new well may be in our future here or there. Rain would be good...I'd even be pretty thankful for the frozen kind.
The kids have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to play outside. They've had a good time in the tree house and making leaf piles to leave all over the yard.

Kenton and Carl did finish shelling corn yesterday. Hooray! Today Kenton was baling corn fodder as planned.

Dress Parade

We got hand-me-downs from a friend the other night. Megan picked out a bunch of things she was extra excited about....and wore many of them at the same time.



I think normally my girl inherited my mom's sense of fashion and detail. (Heaven knows it skipped me.) Megan is always very aware of what other people are wearing. If someone has a matching accessories, like purse and shoes, etc. she always notices. Mom can be at peace knowing that once she's no longer here to bemoan my fashion senselessness Megan will be on the job. :P
Kaitlyn got new jammies, too.

Shelling Corn

Kaitlyn had her first (I think) combine ride today with grandpa. She loved it. It was a beautiful cloudless day.Barring the unexpected, Kenton anticipates that shelling corn will be finished for the year tomorrow. Woohoo!
I love to watch all that golden corn flowing into the truck. With corn prices high this year we may be able remodel our kitchen this winter.

Kenton hopes to spend Thursday bailing corn fodder for bedding. BUT....this is pretty well the end of crops for the year which means I may see my husband during daylight hours for something other than meals.