Baby of the Family Turns 8!!

That makes ME feel old!!! :-) I can still remember the sweet little Native American/Hispanic baby we got eight years ago as a foster child, and now he's growing up (but he's still sweet . . . well, most of the time anyway)! God worked a miracle and we were able to adopt him and he's been such a blessing to us! He's the funny one, always saying something to make us laugh, like the time we were at a friends' house, eating really cold ice cream . . . "I've got an ice brain!!" he exclaimed after taking a few bites. Or the time he was trying to count in Spanish . . . "Uno, Dos, Tres, Squanto . . ." (he must have Indian blood in him). Or when I ask him to identify a dime, he says it's a "Diamond!" And the list goes on . . .

Here's some pictures of Ethan, from baby to big boy. :-)

Isn't he adorable?!

 

Funny little guy!

Ethan and I at a waterfall in Wisconsin probably 6 or 7 years ago

Yes, his hair stuck STRAIGHT up when he was little!! :-)

Our family in 2002

After a meal at the Golden Corral a couple weeks ago . . . why don't we ever learn? Every time we go there, we can hardly walk out!

Ethan with his "twin," Aaron, who came over the other night and celebrated Ethan's birthday with him. :-)

Opening cards and gifts . . .

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!

The Boys' Cabin

Back in the spring, Caleb and Daniel started work on building a cabin in our backyard! They thought it would be a fun project, and they might even put some beds out there and move in . . . we'll see. :-) Anyway, they learned a lot while building, and it was really neat how the Lord provided good materials for them to use. For example, a neighbor of ours was getting all new windows, but the old ones were still in good condition. So dad asked if the boys could have them, and she said yes! They also got the wood, sheet metal, and shingles for very good prices. Here's some pictures, starting in the spring/early summer:

The frame

Putting up the walls

The windows

Up goes the roof!

The shingles are on . . .

 . . . and the sheet metal.

The inside of the cabin . . .

The loft

A job well done!

All that's left now is for them to finish some details on the inside - they hope to insulate the walls and put paneling up. They did a GREAT job, don't you think?! :-)

Coming soon . . .

Sorry I haven't been updating lately! I don't really have a good excuse (I guess I could say I've been too busy reading other people's blogs to write on my own!!). :-) We have a really busy weekend coming up, but check back soon for pictures and the story of something my brothers made last year . . . I'll give you a clue - it's made of sheet metal, plywood, two-by-fours and . . . well, you'll just have to wait to find out!! :-)

Promotional Video

This is a video I made for the Triple L Band using Adobe Premiere Elements. If you want to see it bigger, click on the button to view my photoshop gallery. Enjoy!

Could it be . . . Global Warming?!!

Just two weeks ago, at the beginning of January, the temperatures dipped to -33F (well, actually, fifty-five below zero was the predicted windchill). Brrrrr . . . that was cold. Even for us Minnesotans. As you can see, I had to dress very warmly if I wanted to be outside at all - any less than this, and I most surely would have frozen stiff. Yes, I know I look like an Eskimo, but in spite of all those layers I still got icicles on my eyelashes. (by the way - for you southerners, those are black snow bibs I'm wearing, and the thing around my face is called a scarf - we don't wear them for fashion up here)

But then, this week, the weather surprisingly warmed up to THIRTY DEGREES ABOVE ZERO!!!!! My mom nearly fainted just hearing that the temp was going to be over 0. We prepared for this heat wave by getting out all our summer clothing and buying lemonade. We even set up our pool (but when we filled it up, the water froze - funny, because I thought water froze at ten degrees in MN . . . guess I was wrong) Yeah, I know there's still snow on the ground, but who cares? It's global warming in action!!

Christmas and New Years

This year's Christmas . . . excuse me . . . LAST year's Christmas (I'm still getting used to the thought of it being a new year!) was a lot like other years to us. We love to just relax and spend time together as a family. :-) The funny thing was, most families had to do that this year (and really enjoyed it), because we had bad weather on Christmas day!! We got over 12 inches of snow, it was very cold, and the roads were terrible! But we had fun, all snug inside our house with the wood stove - we ate leftovers, watched movies, and played with our Christmas presents! :-)

On Christmas Eve we had ham, mashed potatoes, jello and all kinds of other good food.

After supper, we read the Christmas story. Dad read out of the Bible, and Lydia and a couple others read some children's story books we had.

We opened presents next - here's Ethan with his "new" train set (don't tell him we got it at a garage sale for 50 cents). :-)

Here's a couple pictures of our winter wonderland.

On New Year's Eve we had our friends the S. family over. We had a lot of fun together - eating, talking, eating, playing Pit, eating, playing outside, eating, watching Tim Hawkins (a Christian comedian) and . . . eating!! :-) My friend Andrea and I did a photo shoot in my room. That sure was a blast!! :-)

On New Year's Day we went to the Haining family's house, for the fourth year in a row. Sadly, neither mom nor I took any pictures . . . so you'll have to content yourself with me just telling you that we had a great time. :-) We ate, jammed, ate, talked, ate, played games, and . . . did I mention we ate these scrumptious pop overs!? YUM!!!

May you all have a happy and blessed new year!!

Oh, and, by the way, the Botkin family recently made a new documentary called Homeschool Dropouts. I haven't seen it yet, but it looks really good! You can go to Jasmine Bauchum's blog to enter a giveaway, or go to the product page to find out more about the movie.

New Header

A big thank you goes to Andrew Bartlett for designing my new header! :-) Don't you think he did a great job? If you want him to do one for you too, you can contact him at andrew@bartlettuniversity.com.

Christmas and New Year's update coming soon . . .