My life (Joe)

These are some pictures of my life. I love pogo sticks! My record for bounces is 1000 bounces!

Boy can I golf or what?

Aaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! I'm a tin man, Jenny's a loin, and Jack's a scarecrow with a black eye!!! Make that blue.

Does he look sick to you or what?

Ya know those days when you're just so bored?

Iiiiieeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! I loved it when we went down the slides!!!!!

She'll be comin round the tunnel when she comes....

I don't know what I was trying to do here. It was either the hula dance, or I was playing basketball.

This was at Okoboji. I can't remember if somebody said: Boy that Boy can throw!!!

Happenings

It's been a fun week! Jack turned 11 and is on his way to becoming a rock star!

He's decided to grow out his hair again! Jack and Joe already have one song that they've composed---"Saturday Night".

Yesterday we had snow all day. It is just beautiful! I think we got around 6". Jack, Joe, Nate, Ellie and I ventured out to spend some time in the fresh snow. Ellie decided she didn't need boots or mittens and after realizing how cold the snow really was, went in to play with Jack.

Joe and Nate spent a lot of time sledding. Nate rides in back and can't see where they are going but has a huge smile on his face the whole time! One time down Nate got a "facial". He didn't mind at all---brushed the snow off and jumped back on the sled.

Our power was out for about three hours last night. We had lots of candles lit and felt like we were living in the days when our home was built. I can't imagine how cold it was in the house throughout the winter.

One day this week I noticed that the big bowl of popcorn we made was missing. Also missing was the black marker. Lo and behold, I went into the living room and look what I found:

Ellie managed to write in Jenny's Bible, my Bible and color the globe. We probably will continue to find her artwork. She gets hold of a marker and she is dangerous!

Happy Birthday Jack!

Our MacFreak is 11!

It's hard to believe that it was 11 years ago when I first looked into your eyes. How thrilling to finally meet you! I'll never forget studying your face and admiring your little toes and fingers. I looked out the window at the hospital and saw steam come off the river---what a cold day you were born on!

Your first pet---Fluffy!

Many great memories---

Little did I know on that day the journey you would take us on. We have learned so many things through you Jack---everything there is to know about plankton, jellyfish, slugs, underwater life, the solar system, Robot Wars, freshwater fish, Star Wars, power parachutes, and computer programming!

Remember your goal to make 100 baskets at Okoboji? You did it in three days!

Or how about the year you picked out rocks for all of your family at Okoboji---Dad took at least two big sand pails of rocks out of our room each night! You spent lots of time finding the "perfect one" for everyone.

You've made hundreds of Lego creations----

Having fun with your buddies in the mud---

Making "Jack's pizza!"-----------

Remember losing your front tooth on the day Nate was born?
Not many kids would trade their long hair for a zip drive (and get a short-term mullet to tease their uncle---business in the front, party in the back!)

You are such a special part of our family, and we're so thankful that God gave you to us! We pray that you are able to use all of the gifts He's given you to bring Him glory. Thanks for adding new words to our vocabulary----Cozy Pin, double-pitch black hair, obnoxified. Thanks for filling our home with music----rocking to the Boogie Woogie and many Star Wars tunes. Thanks for blessing us with that "million dollar smile". Thanks for keeping Dad and me on our toes with all our your interests. We love you very much Jackie Boy! We know your eleventh year will be an exciting one!

Merry Belated Christmas!

This will have to act as our Christmas card this year! Sorry we didn't get one out.

Merry Christmas to everyone! We've had a nice Christmas break. We enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at church and walking through the Streets of Bethlehem there. Christmas day was spent with the kids trying out all kinds of new toys and gadgets, and Bill and I relaxing. We had a great visit with Bill's family the day after Christmas----never enough time to catch up with everyone!

We are having another snowstorm today---up to 5 inches. The older three are outside alternating between playing in the snow and playing in their new clubhouse, their Christmas gift from their grandparents. Bill cleaned up the granary and put lights all around inside, hung a rope ladder up to the loft, hung a hammock, put up a desk and some chairs, a boombox, a slide for the little guys, and Ellie's swing. We have a zipline to put up too---debating whether to do it in the barn or outside. We also have a badminton set to put up. Once the weather is a little warmer, we'll put together an art studio in the loft. Should be lots of fun!

The older guys have watched Star Wars in their clubhouse (with their snow gear on---no heat!). Yesterday they were playing, and Joe decided to come in. He unknowingly locked Jenny and Jack in. Luckily, Jenny found a screwdriver and was able to get out. We don't have any "facilities" out there, and they both were in need of a bathroom break. We might need to nickname Jenny McGyver.

I wanted to pass along some recent pictures. Here's one of Ellie showing off a cookie that the kids decorated at a friend's annual Christmas cookie decorating party. After Ellie was done with it, the frosting was missing.

The older guys having some fun in the snow.

"Oh, say can you see..................."

Actually, we were at the Children's Museum, and Nate was excited about something. Or maybe I had asked him to show me his tonsils.....can't remember.

And Ellie helping Bill with the dishes. Once she hears the water running, she runs and pushes her chair over to "help out". She can keep herself busy in the sink for up to 45 minutes. Notice how she is on her tiptoes! Funny thing is, she absolutely HATES taking a bath. Go figure.

We played a game at our mini-church's Christmas party in which each family had to dress up (with newspapers) as something related to Christmas. Here you see two of our three Wise Men.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We are so thankful for the many ways God has blessed us this year, and the ways He's shown His faithfulness. We are especially thankful for the birth of His Son at this time of year.

Be looking for Jenny's special guest post soon!

Winter is Here

This morning we had our first snow flurries that resulted in a white lawn. Jenny and Joe went outside to gather a couple of snowballs. Ellie thinks that snowballs taste really good! The first words out of Joe's mouth this morning when he came downstairs were "Are you freezing, Mom?" Welcome to winter again---we've been very spoiled this fall with warm weather.

Let's see what else is new. Jenny is working on cleaning out the horse stall to house her chickens. A friend of hers has chickens and hatched two for Jenny's birthday present. The "chickens-come-home" project will be worked on this weekend by Jenny and Bill.

Jack has a new interest, although I can't share what it is. He has been pouring himself into his new area of interest. He also has done some programming on the computer this week----amazes me!

Joe is working on some physical fitness exercises besides his door-climbing! He also is making his own dictionary. He has found some great words and illustrated their definitions. Do you know what skookum means? Look it up--a great word!

Nate is using more two and three word phrases. He isn't too fond of the gluten-free breads yet but does like the pancakes and waffles. We're working on finding recipes that we all like. Some of them I've even had to choke down. Nate prefers to spit them out rather than choke them down.

Ellie continues to bring smiles to our faces. Her latest fun activity is taking small pieces of toilet paper out of the bathroom and putting them in the toaster oven. Don't know what kind of goodie she is cooking up, but it does keep her busy! She is having lots of fun with her dollies---putting them in their crib, walking them in their stoller, and just carrying them around. Every once in awhile we need to give them all kisses too. Oh, the fun of a having an almost two year old girl!

I don't have any new pictures to post as our camera is in the shop, so I thought I'd post some recent fun ones.

Here's one of Joey doing his doorframe exercise:

One of Jack and Joe with a little too many bubbles:

A snowy day about two years ago:

Finally, a shot from a visit to the Milwaukee museum. This is in the kids area with a lot of butterfly info.

What we've been up to

The last couple weeks have been full of fall fun and changes! The kids have had lots of fun raking and jumping into lots of leaves! The older kids were jumping out of the trees into the big piles. They don't mind raking when they can have such fun with the leaves.

We had some pumpkin carving going on, although some of the pumpkins were "damaged" by Nate and Ellie---they found out that pumpkins just don't bounce like a basketball.

The older kids decided to dress up as Star Wars characters. Ellie was a lion although the kids said she was a Ewok, and Nate was a cowboy. We had a fun night!

After some additional testing, we've pulled gluten from Nate's diet and are waiting for results for the rest of the gang. I made my last batch of wheat bread and have tried making gluten-free bread. Let's just say I'm on the bottom of the learning curve! After my attempts, Bill had some new "bricks" for his repair work on the pig shed.

We've been gluten free for Nate for about ten days and are already seeing positive results with his speech which is extremely exciting for us!

Here are some additional pictures of our last couple of weeks:

Jenny reading---we've found Jenny reading in many different spots. She always seems to have a book in her hands.

Joey playing a little football. He is hoping the Bengals will have a winning season.

And finally, the leader of our clan taking a little "time-out". I don't think I could snooze leaning up against the kitchen cupboards, but a guy has to get a little snooze in where and when possible!