Various stuff

Thank you, Hilary and Hannah, for giving up your bed for us when we were down there.
Thank you, Hailie, for giving up your room for us.
I don't think we ever properly thanked you girls, but we really appreciate your giving up those things for us!

It's good to be back home. We came home to fairly fresh snow. I need to go to the store today to get coffee, salad stuff, and milk (pretty much the only things we need right now, which is nice) and also to the post office to pick up our mail. The kids really want to play outside and I'm kind of holding off until after we run errands because of how frigid it is outside right now (21 degrees!). Maybe it'll "warm up" to like upper 20's by the time we're back home. Anyway, I am gonna let them play out there, even if it is ridiculously cold. Thankfully Noelle and David both have snow boots (Noelle's are boy hand-me-downs, which is fine for just playing) and Timothy can use muddy boots until we get him real snow boots.

We gave in and got a fake tree, because we won't be able to have a real one this year (or, if we did, it would have to come down before we left for our Christmas vacation--too much of a fire hazard). So we got one for $30 at Wal-mart, a 6.5 foot one, it's about 3-4 feet wide at the bottom so it's a small one, but definitely good enough. I'm going to try to do some decorating with the kids after naptime and have some kind of yummy snack we can have while (or maybe after) doing that.

Oh, I drove over the Blue Mountains pass yesterday in pretty snowy conditions. It was stressful but I felt so good that I was able to do it without losing control at any point. It was nerve-racking to pass the big semis. There were tons of them, lined up at various points, having to put chains on, or pulling off for whatever other reasons.

Pictures will come, but I'm not sure when. I've got a full day planned for today. Maybe tomorrow. We almost filled up our memory card (which holds like 250 snaps). Got a couple of videos. OK, I really need to go, breakfast is ready and the kids are still trying to get me to let them play outside before we go. Bye!

P.S. Hathaways and Sleimans, we miss you guys and want to get together!!! And sorry, Taneisha, that I didn't give you that apple pie recipe--I had it all ready when we went over there last week and didn't bring my purse in (where it was) so totally forgot. Anyway, hope to see y'all soon!!

We're Back!

But only for three weeks.
Here are some pictures Hilary sent me from our visit in Nevada.
More pictures when we get around to uploading our camera.

A Song for Rick & Rachel

I overheard Noelle singing this last night:

"Dane-do, Dane-do
For my Dodpanents,
Halle-lu-lah,
Dod- pan- ents!"

(Dane-do is thank you; Dodpanents is Godparents.)

The boys recite Psalm 1

Last night, at dinner...

Timothy said to me, "This is a yummy dinner, Mama! Thanks for making it."
Well, David, being in an excessively goofy mood, decided to put in his 2 cents, and said, "Thanks for my head, Noelle."
That prompted a discussion...I said, "Noelle didn't give you that head. Who did?"
Timothy answered, "Jesus!"
I said, "That's right."
And Timothy responded, with a puzzled look on his face, "But....just, where does he find heads?"

Then a few minutes later, David goes, "Jesus sewed your head together, Timothy."

Forrest and I had a laugh over that later on when I told him about it.

Oh, and the other day, David was heard singing, "O God, You are nice. O God, You are nice," at the top of his lungs, outside. And Timothy, this evening, made up a song that he played the drum to (one beat of a drum for every syllable) that went something like, "Jesus, You are here with us. Come to us, come to us, Jesus come to us, You are here with us."

Okay.

Our Hallowe'en Costumes:


Timothy as Wolverine.




















Noelle as a butterfly.








































me as some kind of wood-elf (??)




















David as a Ninja




















Forrest as a Russian, or something.




















Plus:

This was today...I finally fixed the zipper on this jumper and put it on her to see if it still fit.





















Sunday, at Grandma's house, in Aunt Esther's Mrs. Claus dress, and saying "Me! me! me!" Ah, the joys of digital cameras and the expectancy of my kids to get to immediately see the picture I took of them.





















Last week, nursing her baby.

















These pictures of David were taken by Timothy today, so I thought I'd put them up because David's expressions & poses were funny.

A Cute Story

A few days ago, I was working in the kitchen and letting David and Noelle look at their cousins' pictures on blogs (since our computer is now in the kitchen). They wanted to see videos, so I got a Symeon video for them to watch from Holly's blog, and later a Berry video (or four) from Heidi's blog. David knew how to press the "replay" button once I got the video on the screen.
So they'd watch it, Noelle would say, "Adin, David."
"Okay, last time," David would say, in a tone as if talking to one much younger than himself.
" 'Tay," said Noelle. And they'd watch it. And Noelle would say, "Adin, David."
And again David would say, "Okay, last time."
They repeated this about 5 times with each video.