David's 8!

Wow does time fly! I can hardly believe that my little tiny baby is now a big 8 year old boy. For some reason when you have a baby you are just not prepared for that day to come. This year David requested a "cousin party" because he was the only one that hadn't had one yet. Each of the previous years we celebrated his birthday with our friends and their kids, and some of my family members. Last year he had a classmates party. 

Thankfully the day of his party was a warm 60 degrees. We had a fun day with 2 of  Mark's sisters and their families, Mark's parents, my mom, and Mark's cousin from Ohio, his wife and 2 kids. We had 12 kids all together ranging from age 2 to 17. Most of the day was spent outside on the playground, the sandbox, playing badminton in the back yard and basketball on the driveway. Our official party activities included painting small wooden race cars and racing them down the track Mark and the kids built and painted. 

We did the usual present opening, pizza and cake eating, and general socializing. The kids had a blast playing together. The adults enjoyed conversation and a few great laughs. We really enjoyed the day and our extended family. Luke's observation at the end of the day kind of summed it all up. He said, "Mom, that was a great day, wasn't it?"

Long, cold winter

Welcome to March! It's almost spring and we are still way below freezing here. We woke up to -4 wind chills this morning and it's currently 17 degrees out there. You'd never know it for the sun is shining and it looks like you could just go for a walk without gloves, hats and winter coats. We spent the rest of January, and all of February (save a week of warm temps) playing in the snow, shoveling snow, driving on snow covered roads,  and generally freezing. We did take a short vacation over winter break to an indoor water park just north of Chicago. It was so nice to forget about the weather outside and swim, waterslide and have fun with the kids. We didn't leave the water resort for 2 1/2 days. It was a shocker when we left the last day and it had snowed the night before.

I took some more photos of our land and the surrounding on the 22nd of February, the last time we had significant snow. We got about 4-5 inches and it was gorgeous outside. 

I enhanced these in photoshop to bring out the color a bit and brighten them. 

I also got a shot of Luke helping us shovel the driveway. He's wearing the new "Igor" hat that my mom brought back from her trip to California.

The kids have been good. Hannah is almost 2 1/2 years old. We started potty training her last week. She's doing well, but we are still not completely there yet. She is growing up so fast and starting to look like a toddler and not a baby. Although she still has that innocence and softness that babies have. I wish she would stay this way forever sometimes. She is talking a lot now. She is speaking in sentences more and more and is even saying prayers with the boys at night. Her's go something like this "Waterpark, Jesus, Mommy, Daddy, David, Luke, Church, Amen".

 

David started playing basketball through the Upward program here. He is doing great and is learning a lot. I am enjoying his games. They are fun to watch and sometimes really entertaining. First and second grade boys are a hoot. We are so thankful for the program they run here. All of David's games are at his school and he gets to play with and against some kids in his class.

Here are the silly kids who would not pose for a photo yesterday before church. Try as I might, this is the best that I could do. 

Signs of spring are just around the corner despite the temps. Mom just bought a cold-frame to start her garden and the seeds got planted today in cell packs. Hannah was her little "helper". She took her job very seriously. Tomatoes, chili peppers and brussel sprouts were started. We should be able to transfer them to the ground in 6-8 weeks. Hopefully the frost will be gone by then!