What we've been up to lately...

Not much really :) We've mostly gotten over colds and the flu now, except for Jenna who is congested and seems to be teething. She is not her normal self, poor thing. Steve is busy with a lot of meetings lately.

Steve decided to watch the Lord of the Rings movies as a family, a little bit each night here and there (the extended versions - wow are they long!). I think Joel's too young and there's a lot of nail-biting and pausing the movie to explain parts, but they are really getting into it. Actually, Joel sticks his whole hand in his mouth when he gets tense :) I'm hoping Emily and Marie will read the books, if not now then in a few years.

Holly never tires of playing with her doll and listening to its electronic sounds... I'm very thankful that they did a good job making the sounds sweet and soft even when it's crying, although it's still trying at times and I've also wondered if it's the doll or Jenna.

Em & Marie are taking a knitting class at coop school, and enjoying it. It's a little challenging to come up with new projects as they are so ambitious they go through quite a few. Below is Holly modelling her new scarf. If anyone would like one done, let me know and we'd be happy to make one for you.

The kids had fun growing hybiscus (each year there is a virtually unlimited supply of free bulbs, compliments of brother-in-law Travis). They each grew at least one, but Emily did most of the watering. They are now planning out what to grow in the garden soon. I think pumpkins and sunflowers top the list.

Joel builds a lot of Lego airplanes. I really should take more pictures of their creations. Emily's latest is a pyramid, complete with a mummy wrapped in bits of toilet paper inside (she used a Lego skeleton man for that :). Does anyone else have trouble getting their kids to take Lego stuff apart? My kids want to keep them up on top of the piano for MONTHS. I guess that's one disadvantage to having great amounts of Lego. We found the motherload at a garage sale years ago, for less than $10.

It's not spring yet! We got more snow just this past week, and a big windstorm two nights ago.

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)