Fall Pictures

I know...fall's been over and done with since November, but I still haven't posted these. So sorry.

 Lucas raked up a humungo pile of leaves for the kids to play in. Unfortunately we had a lot of rain that week so the leaves were not dry enough to play in for a while, but when they were dry, the kids were having a blast!

Here's a good picture of how big the pile was! A good size for even me or Luke. Minte wasn't too sure about it.

Uhh.. Min wasn't too ethusiastic about being thrown in the leaves. He stayed covered long enough for me to worry about drowning in leaves. I fished him out. 

 The kids love climbing trees. They do need a boost, but they are pretty content up there. They like it best when Luke's farther up there throwing bark on their head. Well...maybe not that part especially, but they do like him climbing trees with them!

And something completely random and strange. Minte was embarrased that he didn't have pants on so he was walking around with his shirt pulled to his ankles. Actually it was more like hopping.

I hope you had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!!

A Video of Minte's Reaction to Snow

Sorry about the quality of the video. Not the best. :-(
But anyways, since the video is pretty self-explanatory, I will go on to my Christmas tidings..

Merry Christmas to you all! And to all a good... err...day! Or night, depending on when you read this!

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

"Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"

He's the Cutest Thing Ever!!!

 I dressed Minte in my bball uniform! It was so big and SOOOO cute!

Don't Mess With Him

One guess who took this picture AND posed him! :-)

Why oh why, Anie?

(Anie's my nickname for Ana. Just in case you were confused.) :-)

I would like to know WHY Ana is SO serious during our "serious" conversations and yet ends up getting our entire family to laugh hysterically.

Just now Ana comes up to me with a picture she colored and I remark about her lady's purple skin. She replies with, (and totally serious), "She drank too much grape juice."

Last night when we were putting up ornaments we put up a special ornament with a story so we all sat down to listen to the story. The story talked some about how Jesus was born to die and Ana speaks up and says, " I hate dying! I like dying in bed rather than like.. dying some other way." At this point all of us have lost it as she talks like she has died several times and she's comparing them. Mom could not stop laughing. I am serious. But since Ana was so serious about it all, she became very upset that Mom was laughing at her, (Earlier that day she had mentioned that she was never marrying a man that laughed at her.), so she started getting upset. Mom really could not get herself together and all of the rest of us were having a difficult time not laughing ourselves at Mom and still Ana's comments. Once Mom had controlled herself partly, she covered her face to hide from Ana and Ana continued with, "Because like, a sword goes through your belly and it really hurts, and like guns go in your nostrils and that really hurts...".


So yeah we had an interesting night last night. Ana's too cute and curious. She thinks so deeply and funny sometimes!

Minte's Reaction to Snow!

Today, December 1st, we have had our first real snow! It's cold outside. Actually it's freezing outside. And the snow is actually sticking!

When we had some snow falling a few days ago, Minte went out to play in it with the kids. It was very cute as he didn't like it when the snow hit his face and made it cold! He kept saying he was having fun though!

Today when we woke up there was actually snow on the ground so everyone wanted to show Min right away. Mom told Minte it was snow as he looked out the window at all the snow but his reaction was, "No! Ergh! MESS!" When asked later about who would clean up the mess he pointed to himself and said, "Me!". It was adorable!

About an hour ago Ana opened the door so that Min could pick up some snow. His reaction to the snow on his hand- lots of shaking and wiping!

In a little bit Minte is going to go OUT in the snow! It should be interesting to see if he plays, screams, runs inside, OR cleans it up!

Thanksgiving Post

So..what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Visiting family? Having family over? Doing your own Thanksgiving? Creating a Thanksgiving dinner for others?

So, although I can't say that it's starting  to smell like Thanksgiving, (partly because it's not even Thursday yet and partly because we won't be making the Turkey at our house), it does have the Thanksgiving air around the house. Right now I'm typing on Mom's laptop, (that makes cool clicking noises when you type fast!!) about Thanksgiving, Luke's finishing homework in anticipation of a hunting weekend with Papa, Dad and Mom are trying to relax before the rush to get things together to go in the morning, the kids are giggling excitedly in their room, and my apple pie's juice is burning on the bottom of the oven.  The night before Thanksgiving!

Today Mom and I went to the store and saw people with their lists grabbing turkeys, pie filling, and stuffing mixes! Then in the evening I went to the store and it was PACKED with shoppers. All doing last minute Thanksgiving shopping.

Thanks...giving... Thanking God for what he's given us... and giving? Being thankful for the giving? Giving good attention to the food? Giving? What's that part in there for? Hmmm...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Mr. Attitude

 I hope this video turns out. It's so cute. I know Minte is being naughty and a stinker, but he's SO cute while he does it.

Mom and Dad say they've never seen a two year old with such an attitude or who pretends so much to be depressed. He rolls his eyes, sighs, throws his hips around, puts his hands on his hips, gives a "really?" look, and is just such a stinker. But this video makes me laugh everytime because I love the part when he sticks out his lip and pretends to hit me. Naughty!

(Notice how very quietly at the end, Minte says "cheese." just to get me to leave him alone. I love winning!)  :-)

"Bow Away!"

This is one of the cutest phrases Minte says. I love it! He can't go outside in the wind because he might ...

To make you laugh...

For your entertainment, may I present Mr. Ethan Vander Hart's story. Written by him, and imagined by him. Enjoy.

Amy and Anthony
By Ethan Vander Hart

A couple was leaning over a crib. It was made of wooden boards that were possibly the most well cleaned boards ever made.
In the bed were two bundles so soft, you would want to cuddle them and never put them down again! But the couple had already cuddled them for a while.

The husband was thinking of names for the babies like Carlos or Maggie. The wife looked thoutfully at the bundles. "My names Amy, and your's is Anthony. Let's name them after us!" the woman decided.

The man named Anthony hesitated. "well I guess so. But how will you ask me something if Anthony's around? I mean he might think you're talking to him."

Just then Amy the baby started making noises that interrupted there conversation. Amy said, "She is going to be a pain." Anthony said, "of course she is. That's our last name." Mrs. Pane sighed. "Anyways, they will grow fast." And they did.

When the twins were three, they were 3'1''. When they were six, they were 4'0''. They were always getting into trouble. Today for instance, they pulled down the curtains and made a tent!

There was more to the story, but it kind of turned into a name calling game that wasn't too nice.

Here is a second story. This is one not made up, and it has to do with my driving which can be usually found entertaining.

So a while back my math class was canceled so I got to spend most of the afternoon at home instead of our tutoring place. However I did have to drive back to pick up Lucas and someone else from their classes. So I was driving along on the highway when this big truck pulls next to me and the guy is grinning and pointing to the van. After a while he drove off laughing and I settled back thinking what a weirdo he was. (I had glanced in the side mirror though to see if my gas door thingy was open, but did it very subtly so that he wouldn't think I had fallen for his trick.). Suddenly though it dawned on me that the kids had been playing outside and oh my goodness... I quickly pulled to the side of the road and got out. Sure enough, the kids had hooked the handle of an umbrella to the trailer hitch and I had been dragging that thing everywhere!!! Meanwhile, as I pull off the umbrella, an entertained semi driver blows his horn to show his amusement and makes me jump. Oh wow! What an experience. The poor umbrella had quite the experience too. It won't be used anymore for keeping the rain OUT!

This isn't the second time I've dragged something on the trailer hitch. About a year ago I went to piano and made Ethan sit in the van with me because the strange guy mowing his yard next door stopped and was staring at our van as if waiting for us to come out. We waited for a long time and then finally I let us get out. He yelled something and when I looked behind me I found Ana's pink coat dangling from the trailer hitch by the hood. I was going 55 some of the time, so I have no idea how the coat managed to still hang on!

From now on I will be checking the trailer hitch AND not thinking all other drivers of big trucks or mowers are out of their mind. Well... not usually.

Finish up these COLD pictures

In anticipation, (yeah, right.) of coming winter, I must finish with these pictures of the end of our summer. So, here goes.

 His first time in a big lake of water. He wasn't too sure at first, but a little bit later he loved it!!

 Luke loves the fishing boat and gave our cousin, Alli, a ride.

Tubing behind the pontoon. Nothing like behind Uncle Tony's book. I love tubing!

 Helping Ethan float.

 While we were with some friends skiing, (or me trying to), Dad and Mom took everyone else to the beach. Sure...  It was Minte's first time at such a HUGE lake, (Lake Michigan), and he wasn't scared a bit.

 I guess he kept pumping his legs to get deeper but Mom  would only let him in so far.

The kids had a lot of fun! And I think Minte is going to be the swimmer of the family.

These pictures make me shiver!

Just some pictures from this last summer. Actually today wasn't too cold, but we've had some really cold days within the last week to remind us how cold, cold gets! I prefer WARM, windy, fall weather with the smell of leaves burning in the background, and bright colored leaves on the trees!

 Y-M-C-A! Love you, Aunt Jody!

 Love Ana's face!



Arm Wrestling!

One day we decided to try arm wrestling eachother! We won't go into who won against who, because is that really that interesting? No, I didn't think so. And sometimes we must keep things like that secret.

 Minte could not pass up the opportunity to show Luke who's boss. Sort of.

We also had Ethan and Ana try a round.

 Course Ana needed instructions on what to do... (By the way, never ask your opponent how the game works or how to win. It's sometimes not very reliable information!)

Ha Ha! Notice the tongue and lips. VERY hard!

Minte is ADORABLE in glasses!

 Min got a hold of Luke's old glasses a while ago...

 Isn't he super cute?????

And I'm sorry, but this is WAY too cute!

Okay.. the video. But only because I promised it.

As time has passed, my goofiness has passed and therefore I am no longer completely fine with sharing Rachel and my videos, but because I want to keep my promise, I will post one. The one I like most is at Rachel's and I am waiting for it to be sent to me, but you can get the point with this one.

The background behind this song. On the way to Iowa, Rachel had a couple c.d.s that they played on the trip. This song was one of them. In the beginning of the video you will see us look at eachother in confusion. That would be because the song was in spanish in the parts it was English before. So we tried singing in spanish and..yeah...

Oh, and the background of clouds stinks, but try to ignore the bad quality.

So... enjoy. And meet the Emily that's usually hidden. Sometimes. The Rachel part... is pretty normal. (I added that to make Rachel laugh).

P.S.(AND don't feel bad if you choose not to watch the video. )

P.P.S. When I watch the video, it speeds up our actions and not the song. And it ends early. So if the video is wacky, that's an extra good reason to turn off the video.

Back From Minnesota!

We are back!! I didn't mention our trip on the blog because it was a surprise to a certain person and since the person reads this blog, I obviously couldn't mention it!!
So, where did we go? Dad had a conference to go to in Minnesota. My mom spoke to an attachment specialist who said that Min shouldn't be so long without Dad. It could cause problems. So they planned on Mom and Dad and Minte going to Minnesota. Then they decided that they could take all the other kids but me with them. THEN they decided that if my class at Valley was something  I could miss, I could cancel my babysitting jobs, and the families at Battle of the Books could move the battle the next week, then I could go as well. Everything worked out, and we took the long, 9 1/2 drive to Minnesota, Tuesday.

While Dad was in his conferences, we stayed in the hotel doing schoolwork, swimming in the pool, and waiting for him to come home. One day Mom took the younger kids to the zoo. They had a lot of fun, even on the 2 mile long trail they got stuck on! It was fun to have some time in a new place to hang out in!

The biggest part of the trip for me though, was that I got to visit my best friend who recently moved to Iowa. (That's the person we were surprising!) We went to Applebees and met Rachel and her parents inside. I went first and walked in front of Rachel but she didn't recognize me so I started pulling out a chair next to her. She looked up at the weirdo and found it was me!! :-) Then she saw the rest of our family and was especially excited!!

 I went home with Rachel that night and we spent the next day being goofy, taking a walk, taking Senior(or rather Junior) pictures of eachother, and making green, red velvet cake. It was yummy. Just green!

We had so much fun. We made a few videos to a couple of our favorite songs. I'll share at least one with you next post!! You're in for a treat!!

Beware of the Child

I will warn you that if you ever come to our house, you should never crawl around on hands and knees in front of Minte, ( not sure why you'd do that to begin with, but anyways...). Minte LOVES horsies and LOVES horsie rides. He gets excited everytime he sees anyone that looks like they're offering rides. Even if you aren't.

Minte and Hats

This child loves hats. My goal is to get him a Elmo hat for Christmas, (don't tell! It's awesome he can't read yet!) :-) He adores Elmo and would wear hats all day if they didn't make him all sweaty!

 This particular day he decided to try on Ana's swim cap. It was slightly tight.

 His face looked so cute with it on. I didn't get a good picture of it, but his face was all squished and wrinkled like a pitbulls. I loved it!

This is Luke's old sailor hat. It's so old that the rubber band to keep it on was no longer stretchy. We had to cut it off! But anyways, Minte loves this hat!

His other favorite hat is one he got for his birthday. It actually matches a couple of his outfits too!

Not many little kids like hats and will keep them on, but this little guy does!

Good-bye Curlies!

See those darling curls? Minte has the most beautiful curls in the world. I love to rake my fingers through them, (the poor kid!) and they're fun to pull out to see how long they actually would be if they were straightened! He would have some LOOOONGG hair!! I tried straightening his hair with water and he looked really weird!!

The problem with these curls is that they're a bit too long. It makes him hot and then some of the curls are longer than others making the spirals stick out more in different areas. So... Mom is talking about cutting his hair. (sob!) In Ethiopia, they cut his hair so we know from pics what it'll kinda look like, but I love his curls!

Below is a picture of Minte with shorter hair in Ethiopia and another of him with longer hair from a couple months ago.

I hope his hair grows fast!

Funny!

So of course after I write the post below, within minutes funny things start happening. (Thank you, God!) And after dinner during devotions, we start in on belly laughs and those laughs that just make you cry. Mom couldn't breathe. Yeah, that's how hard we  were laughing.  And all because of one, little, six year old girl who has very serious, strange questions.

First random question- "Does God have legs? Then how does he get around?"

Second- "How do we become real? I thought God just drew us on a paper!" (laughter, so she has to add one more thing to make us laugh), "Oh I get it! God made us from trees." An exasperated Dad who wants to get back on subject about temptation says in desperation, "Yes!" and continues on!

"So God throws magic on the mommy and she becomes fat?" Oh Ana.

Dad was desperately trying to get back to the devotions, so he said, "We're not going to talk about that right now." To which Ana replied with crossed arms, "That's my point. How did the baby get in there?"

Then suddenly in the middle of our laughing.. "I've got hair in my bellybutton. Dad, why does hair grow on our belly button?" (Later she had Minte employed with pulling it out.)

And the last one, (well, not the last one, but the last one I'll share). We were talking about Jesus being tempted and Dad asked why Jesus didn't follow the temptations, "Because he was from California!" Ana mutters under her breath.

Oh Ana! Thank you for the laughs tonight!

I need something funny.

I feel in the mood for telling you some funny stories that happened here. The only problem is that I can't think of one. It's not that nothing funny happens here! We laugh quite often, but I can't think of anything to share. There are always Anie's looks, Ethan's stories, Min's words, and Luke always thinks he's funny, but none are coming to mind right now.

Oh, I could share a video Rachel sent to me that made me laugh hard for a long time. But she'd kill me! Course, she's gone 8 hours away right now, so I could probably escape being killed, but I might get a phone call. Course that'd give me an excuse to talk on the phone with her, but she'd probably scream murder in my ear. And I don't want that. So I'll not share the video.

My Dad says I could share the fact that I got lost on the highway the other day, but I think that happens too often enough to be funny anymore.

But I could mention that Dad left the yogurt at MEIJERS last night. Not sure why that's funny, but laugh anyways. Thanks, that made me feel better.

Here's a short story for your interest and entertainment... Ana was staring at the calender the other day when she asked a very serious question.Looking at December 31, she asked,     "So is that the last day when we all go to heaven?" Cause after all, when the calender ends, so do our days.

Maybe I'll think up some more stories tomorrow. Maybe.

School Days About to Start Officially.

School is beginning again. During the summer I sat around doing nothing, wishing I was doing something, and now I will have to be doing something, and I'm not happy with HAVING to do something.

I am a junior this year, Luke is beginning high school, Ethan is in 3rd grade and Ana is in 1st! We sort of began school last week. My chemistry class at KVCC began last Tuesday and Luke, E, and Ana have begun math. Mom tried to go on a field trip every day, but between Min's naps and my using the car, we only went on one Monday to the museum, Wednesday to the library, and Friday they went shopping for material for cloth napkins.

I will be taking pretty much all of my classes at KAT, a tutoring program for homeschool students on Monday, and Lucas will be taking a few there as well. Ana and Ethan will be taking an art class at KAT which will be every other Monday. They are very excited!

Mom is working on school material right now to make sure she's prepared for Monday. It's hard to believe Ethan's in third grade! He's doing harder work!

So, yeah, we start school Monday. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, and I might not be able to write as much here once school starts again. I'll try, but I'm going to be SO busy running here and there and doing homework! BUT I'LL TRY!

Twist and Shout!!

Minte Gabriel loves cards that play music. Like he likes them a lot. He twirls, jumps, falls, and moves his lips to the music!

Rachel and I- Best Friends

I am SEVENTEEN!!!

I can NOT believe it!!! I am 17! TODAY! How sweet is that??? :-) Of course I know that in 6 months I am going to be longing to be 18, (and an adult), but right now I am thrilled to be 17!

I have my whole day planned. I even get to pick out Ana , Minte and Ethan's clothes. I've even attempted to tell Dad that I get to pick his clothes, but that didn't get very far! ;-)

We are having bagels and cream cheese for breakfast and Pizza Hut deep-dish pizza for lunch. Somewhere I need to fit in mac n cheese... But anyways, so I'm writing this post on the 1st, (my cousins birthday actually!), because I am SOOOO excited to be 17. I even texted my Dad at work to remind him!

So, I'm tired, and that is why I'm extra weird tonight!!!

Oh, annnnnd we're going up north to my grandparent's cottage with three of our friends!! It's supposed to be in the 60's, but we'll still have fun!!!

I'm hyper.....

The Cupcake

Yeah... I think these pictures basically tell the story. Well, maybe there's one part that may be of interest to you. See, I said whoever got the ugliest award should get a cupcake stuffed in their face. It backfired when I was voted ugliest. Thanks guys.

But on to a more intersting subject... Minte!!! Minte is ADORABLE. I know.... you might be tired of the subject of his cuteness, but I rarely am. Except when he's screeching or spitting at me. Even Minte knows he's cute. The world revolves around him and when you ask him if he's cute, he sweetly answers, "Yes!"

Right now his favorite song is the itsy bitsy spider. We ask, "Do you want me to sing Itsy, Bitsy Spider?" He answers, "Yes!" so we sing and he quiets down and listens. Then he quietly says, "Bug!" to get us to sing his song again!

If you ever want a kiss from Minte, you have four to choose from. A regular kiss, Ethiopia kiss, eskimo kiss, and a butterfly kiss. Ethiopia kisses are a kiss on both cheeks. An eskimo kiss is rubbing noses and a butterfly kiss is brushing eyelashes. This one freaks him out sometimes! :-)

Let me leave you with an adorable picture...

No Reaction??

I got only one comment from my crazy picture!!!!  Did I make any of you guys gasp? Did you scream? Did you faint? I'm kidding! ;-)

A couple months ago we had a game night for our friends and the theme was fashion fail. And the picture I shared was my outfit! Scary, huh? It won the ugliest award!

Here's Luke's outfit and LindseyMaries... (I have their permission to share it with you!)

We had a great time!!! All of us had a lot of fun laughing at eachothers' choice of outfits and we annoyed a few people at some local stores from our phone game! ( In two different teams, we called different people and stores to ask stupid questions. Then we texted the answers to Dad. The first team done won! It was SOOO much fun!)  

That was our second game night, and I hope we do another soon!