More Christmas Pictures

Here are a few pictures. Dot was keeping a steady log so that thank you notes would be easier to do. Dessert opening a gift. Everyone watching Grandma open a gift. A unique photo gift made by Aunt J. How long a kid's face looks when he has to wait for his turn to open a present. He was very patient. :-)

Merry Christmas at G&GK!

Merry Christmas 2005! We had food, gifts, entertainment, and even a new photographer! (cousin L with her own little camera). Uncle P brought snowmobiles and we hardly saw the bigger kids unless it was for mealtime or gift time. Then they played with their Narnia toys and leggos when it was dark. It was amazingly quiet in the house for so many kids (7 boys!). The grownups enjoyed visiting with a few games thrown in for good measure.

Merry Christmas at G&GW

Merry Christmas 2005! We had a fun evening at G&GW. Uncle B. arrived in a Santa suit! I don't think Dessert knew who he was until his glasses, beard, and hat came off. :-) The kids had a blast and were blest by the gifts they received. It was fun to get to spend time together.

Christmas Breakfast

We had a special breakfast on Saturday after which we gave the kids our gift to them. The kids made faces on their pancakes. Eggs for hair, bacon for mouth, choc. chips for eyes. They were delicious! I've just put on some of their faces. We gave the kids a picture of their name done in a verse. Dunk and I found the hardest part was finding the right verse that we liked and that would also work well with the name. Example: That the Man of God mAy be complete, thoRoughly equipped for every good worK. See the name in there? We lined up the name so that it ran down the center of the page and then fit the verse in. I did the writing. It was fun to find the verse for each child. We got the idea from a friend who did it for me when she and I were teenagers. I'd love to post a picture of them but didn't think that made much sense when one tries to consistently use nick-names. :-)

Cookie Baking - Mmmm..

On Friday before Christmas, the kids had a blast with L., the kids former tutor, and her Mom baking cookies. They turned out delicious! L then went sledding with the kids while the Mom's worked on gingerbread. Thanks!!

Deer's Decorated Cupcake

How would you like to eat all those toppings!!

Happy Birthday Deer!!

Today Deer is 9! Yesterday she celebrated with friends and family.
She sledded with the girls, beaded matching bracelets, and just enjoyed her friends company. The girls decorated their own cupcakes. Then in the evening the Grandparents came over for pizza and a cat cake. Deer's cat, Kip, has been with her for 2 years now. Kip was a present on her 7th birthday. We are so grateful to God for Deer!! Deer is wearing the Lucy costume from Narnia.

Sunday School Program

Today was the kid's annual Sunday School Program. Our kids were in the choir. Dessert was doing sign language to "Away in a Manger". (Mom is his teacher.) Duke was our wiggly one on stage this year. He kept Mom busy with trying to catch his eye and help him keep his wiggles still. We sure appreciated the time all those dear Sunday School teachers spent with our crew.

Tractor in the Pond

Yesterday was an interesting day..... In the morning I asked Papa W if he could clear the ice with his tractor. We had a TON of snow on our skating rink on the pond. Gramma was nervous about it but pretty soon Papa was out on the tractor on the pond. He worked for over an hour clearing snow and was in the far corner of the pond when IT happened - Thalunk - and Papa's tractor was axle deep in the pond. We found there was a spring in that corner of the pond and that was why it probably couldn't take the weight of the tractor. BUMMER!! After a lot of work trying to get the tractor out, they called a wrecker and it got it out easy as pie. The blessing of the day was that when Gramma went to pay their friend for his wrecking service, he refused payment. Wow. We are praying for God to bless him but it sounds like that is what is already happening because he said God was blessing his business lately so he passed on the money. Thanks, Lord!

Drum's New Website

Drum has a new website at www.xanga.com/dog_dude11

A Field Trip to Cabella's

Papa and Gramma K, Uncle P, Little L, and our crew visited Cabella's today. We had a blast seeing all the animals and trying out bows and arrows in the archery division. The kids thought the elephant and African animals were awesome. It was so nice that the animals didn't move and you could just sit and study them up close. We got to finish with lunch at McDonald's!! A fun, filled day!!

More Gingerbread Photos

Here are more pictures of the finished products. It was a blast!! We decided to not save them so long that they were no good to eat so we have devoured about 90% of them. :-) Mmmmm...... The gingerbread was delicious!! We still have a little left. It takes a while to eat 3 Huge gingerbread houses. :-)

Gingerbread Creations

The Children had a blast at the home of friends making Gingerbread Houses. Here are the boys hard at work and Two of the finished houses.

Star Wars Fans!

Deer as Leah
Drum as Obi-Wan
Dessert as Yoda
Dime as Anakin
Duke as Luke Skywalker

Star Wars Fans

The Great Hunters!

In Kansas

Figured out how to add Pictures!

Busy Days, Narnia, Left-handed, Left Behind, Skating

The way our calendar looks, one would think we were not too busy. The way the days pan out though! Whew! Monday was supposed to be a quiet day - school, Dot had ballet which I was driver for. A few phone calls later and we were scrambling to get school done. Deer was absolutely thrilled that her two girlfriends were coming over to play!! Duke got to have his playmate over as well. And, yippee!, so did I. We got to visit in the midst of tying skates and making cookies for the crew. Then Dot's friend and her mom came over to work on speech stuff, Grandma dropped off the mail, We listened to Joy's speech and then everyone left to their respective homes while, Deer, Dot, Dot's friend, and I flew out the door for ballet. Whew!! Poor guys, I didn't leave them much for supper. They made do. Was worth the hustle though for the friendships.

We are planning to go see Narnia on Friday!! We read the book aloud and the kids have been saving and working up the hill. We can hardly wait. Dobson had an excellent show on it on Monday. We checked out the website and it is definitely sparking our interest. I hope to have my camera back to take pictures of the event. :-)

My camera is with our pastor at church. It needed counseling. Just kidding. Dunk and I were invited by friends to an event at our church. Thanks friends!! Naomi Carroll sang and there was a delicious dinner. We had a WONDERFUL time. Naomi had 12 volunteers come up with promises of a CD if they were good. Then she lined them up and gave them a paper. They had to perform actions to the song, "A Partridge in a Pear Tree". It was hilarious!! I happened to realize that my camera will shoot a short video clip, which I did. It caught the whole group in action and so I quietly shared the video clip with Pastor who will be able to share it publically next Sunday. I can't wait!!

I think Dessert is definitely left handed. He has been using his left hand exclusively for the last month or more when doing his "school-work". He is getting stronger with it and making straighter lines. This will be interesting as I've never taught a left-handed student how to write before. Guess never too old to learn something new. He inherits it from his Grandpa W. I won't be as mean a teacher as Papa's first teacher was though!

Dot and I have been reading the "Left Behind" series. She is on book 11 and I am waiting to start book 13 as soon as we get it from the library. WOW is it a good series. I have learned so much about Revelation that I feel like I'm taking a Bible study not reading a novel series. I passed Dot up in reading with a few very, very late nighters. :-) Apollyon is scary reading in the middle of the night. :-)

No word on Dunk's job yet. Keep praying for us. We continue to work on stuff around the house and work on leads. We believe God has His timing for us and want to stay with it. It has been an interesting learning process as we seek what He wants, not just grabbing for jobs to bring in money. Is definitely bringing us to our knees.

The ice on the pond turned out beautiful this year! The kids have been skating every day. I'm proud of the work they did shoveling it. The water was up when it froze so it is the biggest we've had. Anna is trying out figure skates this year (Jerry usually puts everyone in hockey skates) so that she can try and copy the pros. :-) We keep collecting skates from Goodwill so everyone just switched to their older siblings skates and we found enough for everyone to have skates with extra for trying to get some on friends when they come over and don't have a pair. We would love to put up cmas lights around the pond so that we could have skating parties at night. Just need to think ahead of time to pound some posts in before it freezes. Next year!! Not really on the top priority list to get done. :-)

Well, better get those kids moving for school. Dunk and Drum are at Menards. Hope you have a good day!!