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.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful and very tiring Thanksgiving here in Minnesota. The weather was a balmy 40 degrees and no snow in sight. We ate a good breakfast and watched the NYC Macy's parade (wishing we could visit there this Christmas season). After that is was crunch time, or clean up time that is. "Take that upstairs to my room!" is a phrase I repeat often when company is coming over. This time was pretty good, only a few things on my bed as I was crawling in.

We had two families over and ate a traditional thanksgiving meal... plus homemade perogies! They were awesome and a good appetizer too when the turkey was still in the oven. It was great to spend the day with good friends especially when family is so far away. Emma made her "famous" cranberry sauce and Abby made her newly "famous" apple pie.



All the kids played Yahtzee



And had a candle light dinner





This is the table runner I made this year the day after, notice the candles are much shorter. God is good.

Abigail's Drawings & Art

We borrowed a Where's Waldo book from the library that proved to be quite hard and after working at it for a while as a family Abigail proclaimed "I can make a where's Waldo!" This reminded us of the time that they made their own "I Spy" pictures by setting up elaborate scenes and using the digital camera to capture them. After several hours of passionate creativity the series "Where's Woof" was born. Use the key to learn what you should search for then have fun finding the characters and artifacts in the scenes. Also included are a couple of drawings that Abigail made and her Grandma Ward colored.
Key:

Scenes:


Drawings:

Celebrating Autumn

We have taken some more pictures of the family. We've been pumpkin picking, carrot harvesting, and bethany birthdaying. Check out our photostream! Click on the photo gallery link at the top right.