January & Emily's birthday

Marie got a new haircut. This was our family's first visit to a hair salon of any sort in about 8 years! (Yes, we're Dutch, and yes, there was a sale on for $8 haircuts :)

Steve's grandfather died a few weeks ago, and here are some pictures from the funeral. The grandchildren sang "I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever", one of Grandpa's favorite songs, and it was amazing to see how many grandchildren there are! (and that's without spouses and great-grandchildren)

Moessie with her three daughters

The kids are holding there geode rocks from Ruth, which Steve sawed open. Once they found out they weren't just plain old rocks and that there was something interesting inside, they were practically splitting at the seams waiting to find out what was in them.

I'm trying to think of what's new here, but there's not much, even though we're pretty busy. We're back to regular rainy Washington weather. Steve's on the plant shutdown at work, and we're thankful he's working and even getting a bit of overtime even though the union hasn't made a deal yet and other refineries are already striking.



We had 7 girls over for Emily's birthday last week. When that many girls get together, it can get pretty crazy, we found out :) They had a fun day and Emily planned lots of group games so they kept busy. Emily got a digital camera for her birthday, and she and her friends took about 250 pictures! Ouch; now I have to find some disk space to store them all :)

Emily had a sleepover with Marie, then a sleepover with Laura & Steph, and then a birthday party on Sunday.

They're attempting to make a heart-shape.

Jenna is now in a very curious stage; she will be distracted by a string on my sweatshirt, her own fingers, just about anything... so cute to watch! And this week her appetite has scaled back considerably; I'm not too disappointed about that :)







Her rather-uncomfortable-looking spread-eagle position. All our kids did that... I guess that's normal? Another one I don't have a pic of is when they are laying on their backs and hold up both their head & their legs like a seal.

Family get-togethers

These holidays have seemed extra-long and drawn out, because of all the days Steve couldn't get to work, or we couldn't get to church. Steve has spent many hours each day clearing snow on the road in our little neighborhood, and clearing driveways for neighbors. The setup on his tractor isn't ideal for snow-plowing so it takes extra time, but the neighbors are very grateful for his work (even the 4-wheel drive trucks are getting stuck now!). There are two other tractors and a big road grader in the neighborhood, but their owners don't feel inclined to help out at all.





Christmas eve

Holly got a new bottle for her doll

Marie was present, bodily at least



















Christmas morning

Christmas get-together with Steve's family

These pics are frames from my new Flip camcorder (Steve & I agreed not to do gifts for each other, and then he bought me a great little camcorder)

A winter wonderland!

Steve got off work early on Wednesday because of the snow (there's about 18 inches now and we're still expecting more). He couldn't get around the cars stuck on the hill (the packed snow turned into ice), so he drove around the bottom of the hill and started going up the other way on the north side of the hill (our place is at about 500 ft. elevation). He got stuck in a ditch with part of the car sticking out on the road because he couldn't get around cars that way either. So he ran/walked all the way up the hill (took about an hour and a half). Then we both went back with the tractor to get the car off the road; left the kids at home. It was dark by now. He got the tractor stuck in the ditch trying to get the car out. Then another guy pulled the tractor out (nice guy!). Then the other guy got stuck, so another guy pulled him out. Then we got the car stuck trying to repark it at some kind people's place at the bottom of the hill. Then we got that out with the tractor and parked the car. Then we drove back up the hill on the tractor. All in all, it was a cold and miserable couple of hours with the kids home by themselves, but at least the car isn't sticking out on the road anymore. I'm glad we don't have power out like some people do around here, though. I fell on the ice a couple of times and my tailbone is very sore. Steve's a bit sick too from going through all that. The house is very warm and cozy today and we're all home so I'm thankful for that.

These pictures are from the last few days.

Down our road...

In front of our house...

Behind our house... (mostly trees with a peekaboo view of the Skagit Valley and river)

Steve in his dorky hat... he he!