2009

Well another year has gone by and it's time to recap. I haven't posted much. I've gone back and forth with my motives for posting. Why would I post if no one is reading? I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if anyone is reading. I am not here for self promotion. I am not going to post to make myself feel special or smart or a good mom. My goal is to simply record my life with my family and to post pictures and updates for any friends or family that come by this space for a visit. It feels somewhat weird to write my thoughts here and let them out into the world. It is like a journal, a personal journal, a journal I don't want anyone to read. It is so strange, isn't it? Why would I blog if I don't want anyone to read it? Who am I talking to anyway? It's about vulnerability.

And here I go with being vulnerable!

January

The year started out with a trip to Disney... Need I say more?







Ok, I will say that these two lovely people came with us. Actually, they basically took us!



February and March

Spending a lot of time indoors waiting for the snow to melt and the temperature to rise above the teens.

There was skating lessons:



and a lot of pretending it was summer:



April

We had some snow but it warmed up pretty quickly. We spent Easter with friends. I didn't get any pictures of dresses or of the day itself. All in all Easter in Minnesota is not widely embraced (other than a religious holiday - it is the day we celebrate Jesus defeating death! He is risen, risen indeed!). It is still quite cold here and nothing is growing yet. Still brown grass and leafless trees. We did have some bare feet though:



May

We started to visit the Arboretum again. There is a very short window when we can go into the woods without being attacked by monster mosquitoes!



And we can't forget about Emma's birthday!



June

There was a lot of Girl Scout "flying up"





July

Abigail's birthday



And some "beach" time.





Well, that is about half the year and this post is getting very long. I will post the second half of the year tomorrow. I'm sure we will be resting some after staying up late tonight! Happy New Year!

a night with the fire!

yesterday night all of us ate outside by a fire.
we had hamburgers, (and of course french fries).
after dinner we all had some fun,
here are some pictures we took...



Bethany was a little scared at first, but she got used to it.



Emma had a good idea about wearing goggles to keep the smoke out of her eyes!



Caitlyn was blowing bubbles.



mom took some pictures of the bubbles.





Bethany was being cute!



we have flowers like this all over our yard!



A by accident picture!

I was so glad it was warm.
we have played outside all day every day!
dad put up a rope swing and we have been playing on it alot!

Happy Easter

This Easter was not very "eventful". No new dresses or ties (I was hoping to make one but didn't get around to it and realized that I had a cute white vest for Ben that looked great). But - we had a great time with friends and ate delicious polish fare. David wrote an Easter hymn for the choir and it was sunny and warm!

We only took a few pictures of the egg coloring. We did a whopping three dozen this year! I thought I had some leftover PAAS but found out there were only 3 pellets of color left. So... we got out the old food coloring. It was great! Do you know that there is even a picture of easter eggs on the front of the box. Why did I never think of using it before?





Bethany got into it....



REALLY into it.

She is ok... it washed off right away and all was well with her....



Especially after she got to eat one!

Hope your Easter was blessed.

April Showers

... Snow showers that is! Not just two weeks ago we were so excited to be out in the above average weather. Now we are in the below average stage. Hopefully there will be some sun for Easter.





These are from Emma. She took them this morning while I ran around trying to get the little ones ready for church. The sun came out this afternoon and it is all gone now. Beautiful while it lasted. I have a friend who says it's like waking up in Narnia.

Me Do.....!

It turned back to winter here and our time has been mostly spent indoors again. The big girls have been playing War (the card game) so Ben wanted in on some gaming too.



Fist we played Candy Land. He liked it. Then we played the "Things in my House" game. He seemed to really catch on then. We were given the game by Nana (David's mom) when Abigail was a toddler. I have played it with all the children so far and was amazed I hadn't tried it with Ben yet. He seems to be just the right age.



What amazed me the most is that when someone picked a card that belonged in his house and they would say "Who has the......?" Ben would answer, "Me Do!!!" Just like all the other girls did before him at his age. I know it's probably developmental but it is so dang cute!

Spring

I finally fully understand all the sayings about the months of spring: March DOES come in like a lion (0 degrees and heavy snow) and out like a lamb (low 50's and light showers)! Don't get me wrong - I know it can still snow here in Minnesota... it did last year.

Early spring here is still very brown. From the leftover leaves and the dead grass to the piles of dirty snow on the side of the road (ewww....) there isn't much new life yet. We are still waiting for the buds to even form let alone bloom. But the change is VERY welcome, welcome indeed!



Now I'm waiting for the April showers to bring May flowers!

Charming Handbag

I made this purse from the book Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. I actually looks pretty similar to her example copy in the book. It is very small but its good because it keeps the unnecessary things out of it. I'm on a purse kick. I'm going to make this one next. This time it will be for spring... just waiting for the right fabric. I love that there are so many free tutorials!

Crinkleroot is Here!

Crinkleroot graced our door on Thursday. He is very cute and very well made.



He is made from this shop: Mama Kopp Shop

Also, here is the wonderful book.



I cant wait to make the birdhouses. I really hope the squirrels wont destroy them!



We used the Jan edition of the Book of Days to inspire us to watch the birds. We went to a local nature center and got to see some new ones like the redpoll. It was so hard to get any pictures with 7 kids milling about. (We went with the Smerillos)

Here are the pictures of their drawings:

Blue Yonder Book of Days

I'm shocked! I actually won a giveaway!

Stephani from Blue Yonder has created an awesome resource that seems to fit so nicely with our family. Check her out.

I won a crinkleroot figure and a crinkleroot nature almanac! I'll show you pictures when I get them. Meanwhile check out the Crinkleroot website.

Thanks Stephani

Andrew Mark

If you don't know the Marks' story please visit their blog

http://graceandrew.blogspot.com

We are going to miss him. He was a good friend.

Here is a picture of them when we drove from Seattle to Minnesota together. They were moving here and we were on our way back from vacation. We stopped at Glacier National Park for a day. It was fun having them with us.

The Animal Hedge

We go to the library at least once a week and come home with armloads of wonderful books. Once in a while we get an extra-wonderful book. This is one of them: The Animal Hedge.

I just knew from looking at the pictures standing in the library that this was one of those books where you try not to cry while your are reading it to your 5 year old. Listen to the first line:

"There once lived a farmer whose heart glowed like a hot wood stove with the love of animals."

I don't like to clutter up my bookshelves with a lot of Twaddle. This is a keeper.

2008

Looking back....

Here are some highlights from this past year. Abby got her ears pierced, Emma got Baptized, Ben got a cast, Caitlyn got to spend her birthday in Seattle, and Bethany... well, she is still not walking yet but boy is she cute! We had a great time at the Arborietum and the state fair and the girls have really improved in their figure skating!

Looking Ahead....

We are excited to go to Disney in just one week! There will be an ice show and a lot of *flying-up* in girl scouts. Abby will be going to *real* school in September and right now we are rearranging our bedrooms so that mom and dad can be downstairs with our own bathroom (and we will have a guest room too! So come to visit if you can we would love to have you). We are also going to visit NJ this year. It's been so long so we are excited to see everyone.

We hope your year was a good one and this new year brings many blessings and mercies.