Family Update

Again, it's been far too long since we've posted. Trust me, it's not that there is nothing to talk about. Quite the opposite. So much going on, so little time to post. But what's new?

I'll tell you what's new. Most recently, the dogs treed a groundhog. Yes, thats right, and that's him below. Trouble is, we (and the dogs) had no idea what to do with it.


He was about 15-20 feet up and trying to keep his grip. The neighbor had a BB gun, but as soon as he walked over with the rifle, that groundhog made a break for it. At least I have a better idea of where his den is.

Next up is our superstar soccer player, Addie. Saturday was her first game of the season. The girls did well, and several of her teammates had made quite the improvement over the winter. It took Addie a bit to warm up, but once she did, the other girls couldn't stop her.


(That's her with the yellow ponytail holder) She ended up with 3 goals, and very nearly had two others. Once, she had the opening kick. With that, and a second kick she nearly had another goal - the ball missed by about foot.

After the game, Margaret and I went to run some errands and Addie and Emily went to an estate sale. Little did I know they'd come back with a surprise.... haircuts! Addie had been wanting to get it cut short, and we knew it would be easier on all of us.


Here she was reading a book in the living room. Did I mention how great she is doing with reading. She loves it, and it is so fun to catch her reading by herself.

The previous weekend was Easter. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with both sides of the family.

Emily and I have been busy Sunday nights teaching Financial Peace University at our church. This weekend was class 5 of 13. So far, our class has shredded 138 credit cards, and as of Sunday, two had payed off a car loan. That's a half-gallon Ball jar full of shredded cards.

We've also been busy with home repairs, though slightly less hands on as normal. This weekend, we ordered the shingles for our roof. We are planning to replace it in June or July this summer. A couple of weekends ago we replaced our boiler, and while we had the new one installed prefessionally, we did remove the old one ourselves. The old 'Majestic' incinerator left as well.

After an afternoon of hard labor, Ben and Tom and I agreed, were earned that $1600 that they knocked off the bill for doing this part ourselves. It was neither fun, nor easy, but nothing that the three of us couldn't handle. The new system is below.


Last, and certainly not least is Margaret. She's a busy little bee these days - talking terrorizing and getting into everything. The fun part is that she wants to interact with others more. She loves playing peek-a-boo (usually starting it herself), and she loves to raise her arm at dinner, hoping to get us to do the same.

The Universe and Other Stuff

After weeks of preperation and practice, Addie had her first school play - The Universe and Other Stuff. It was a very funny and entertaining play about science and history.

She had three roles in the play - Asteroid, Woodpecker, and a member of the Stripe Army. She loved every minute of it and did a great job. We were both so proud of her. She knew her lines and did a great job with each role.

After wards, we went out for lunch with family and friends. We had a great time, but discovered that Addie was broken out in hives. Apparently she has some allergies, maybe food allergies. We're waiting to hear back on the latest round of tests.

What is interesting, is that since being in the play, she now has several older friends. It's neat to see girls 3 or 4 years older than Addie wanting to talk to her and telling her how good she did.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

Our house was struck with two different kinds of winter illnesses over the past two weeks. We are finally getting past these nasty bugs and life is starting to get back to normal around here. I'll try to give you a brief update and then lots of photos of the latest happenings. As usual, there are a lot more photos on our flickr site so feel free to take a peak at them as well.

Michael has been working extra hard on the bathroom. We now have the flooring in, baseboard trim in, the toilet back in place and functioning, the vanity cabinets done and the blinds back up. Right now Michael is working on the vanity top. He is finishing cutting the cement board to size and then we will do a dry layout of the tile before cut it to size. We are getting really close to having a fully functioning bathroom! Our goal is to have everything done (minus the mirror and shelves) before Addie's play next weekend. I think that we will be able to get it done in time but it might mean a few late evenings this week.

Addie has been really busy with play practice after school most days. Her play is on Saturday and she is very excited. I'm sure she will do great. We will keep you updated on the play and maybe even post some pictures or a short video. At school Addie is working really hard on reading. Every night she brings home a different practice reader for homework. I'm constantly amazed at her progress.





Margaret has become a full time explorer! She is constantly into everything and is always running away from me and slamming the door in her a tempt to keep me from stopping her. Addie spends a lot of time playing outside and this drives Margaret nuts. She will either stand at the door or the window while banging and yelling. She loves looking outside and wants to be out there so bad. The other day we had a warm spell so Michael took her and Addie outside while I made dinner. Margaret walked up and down the driveway while holding his hand. You could tell she was in the height of her glory! Once spring is here I'm sure she will be outside every chance she gets, just like Addie.

Life has been keeping me really busy as well. Running Addie places, keeping up with Margaret, getting parts for the bathroom, bible study, starting Financial Peace University at our Church, making food for funeral dinners, and much much more keep me going non-stop. Well, I take that back, when I got the stomach virus and became extremely dehydrated two weeks ago I did come to a screeching halt for several days! But other then several illness I'm on the go.


Well, the baby is calling! Hopefully we will all stay healthy and I'll be posting again soon.

And the Snow Keeps Coming...

And coming, and coming... I had no clue just how much snow we would get when we moved here. At this point we are having issues with getting through our driveway because the snow just keeps filling back in. The deer are even having lots of problems getting through the snow. They no longer run from us since they can barely dredge their way through the deep snow. They are also starting to come right up to the houses looking for food. I'm actually starting to feel really sorry for my garden thieves!


Here is a photo of Margaret's mouth. It's hard to see them all, but she has six teeth coming in all at once. The poor girl has been a real trooper. The last time she let me look into her mouth I could see two of them have poked all the way through the her gums. Her teething has taken a toll on all of us. Hopefully she will start sleeping through the night again soon. We all could use some sleep.

Margaret still loves her food. However, she has now decided that it is fun to put her food in her hair by the bowl full! Oh yes, this does mean multiple hair washings a day for her. I'm sure this phase will pass soon.




Addie is keeping us busy. She is doing really good with her school work. Every evening she brings home a different reader from school and we practice together reading. At the moment her love of school has taken a back seat to her school play. She has 12 lines and is in at least 5 songs. She has play practice after school 4 days a week and is loves every day of it. Her play is on Feb. 21st so check back then for photos and maybe even a video clip.

Addie has been spending lots of time out in the snow when it has been warm enough. Speaking of Addie, it's time for me to go pick her up from school. We hope that everyone is staying warm and safe this winter!

Happy Birthday Margaret!

Today is Margaret's first birthday. We actually started celebrating the big day on Sunday with a party in Indiana with family. Everyone enjoyed themselves including the birthday girl. She finished the celebrating today with a small celebration, but was treated like a princess all day by her loving sister and friends. To see LOTS more photos of Margaret's birthday check out Flickr!

Masterpiece Puppet Theater

As luck would have it, Santa brought the girls each a 'special present' at the house. Addie was a bit perplexed by the puppet theater at first, but once she got inside, she was hooked. It wasn't very long before Marg and I were watching Addie's short productions and needing to 'sign up for the next show' (Addie's idea).


So far, I've seen The Pig in Town, Where are all the People?, and The Hopping Bunny. Emily was presented the original production of A Pig Jumping in the Mud. Too cute.



Margaret got a wooden doll pram (stroller). At first she tried to use it as a walker, but found that she couldn't put so much weight on it. Her walking gets better and better by the hour. On Monday, sh walked from the dinning table to Addie's bedroom nightstand, by herself, with no help, and without falling down. It's getting tough to keep up.

Break is Over!

Christmas break is over for Addie. Yesterday was a sad day for her since she had decided that break was to short. I think she would have been fine with going back to school if the day didn't start until about 10am! She loves to get up around 7am and get in our bed and go back to sleep for another couple hours. Of course, Michael had to go back to work also so that made it a little easier on her as well. She really enjoyed her daddy time over the four day weekend.

Margaret is growing and changing so fast. Yesterday she started calling her little friend by his name, Carter. It is sooo cute to hear her say "Hi Carter!" and wave to him at the same time. She is enjoying having Carter around in the mornings again. He plays at her age level and she loves it. It is hard to believe that a week from today she will turn 1 years old! Time has flown by fast.