Goodness, blog posts are getting scarce aren't they? My fault. I planned on posting a while back but as you can tell I never got to it. Anyway......

We had a birthday party for our close friend Tatiana Beaver (she's now 13) Her family and 2 others came for stew and cake. So much fun!!! Happy really,really late birthday Tatiana!!

Oggie, Dash, and Erna had a piano recital. I wasn't there but I know for a fact that it sounded REALLY good. Dash and Erna just started, but Oggie has been playing for 3 years. They all are great musicians!

oggie

dash

erna

We also carved pumpkins!!! It is a tradition at our house. We started a new tradition too! Roasting the pumpkin seeds! They are SO good! And apparently they are healthy for you too. :)
About a week after that we went trick or treating for halloween. The weather was perfect and the candy was great, as usual.

my face looks weird because the texture of the pumpkin guts is not appealing.

Sadly, there is no pumpkin pictures because 2 of them got smashed/stolen. bummer.

I was a square dancer

Oggie was Robin

Dash was Batman

Erna was fairy princess butterfly

Bear was a football player. GO HUSKERS!!

Sweet little Squeakers was a bunny!

and last but not least (as she always will be) Squeakers is four months now!! She is getting chubbier by the second.

                 Bugg

Hennhouse Updates

It's been almost a whole month since the last time anybody posted anything!  That is just sad. Because you know in a month at the hennhouse a lot can happen..... So this will be a fairly long post. :)

In september we went on a church reatreat at Twin Lakes Christian Center. It's a great place with a lake, zipline, climbing wall, ball pit, just lots of entertainment. We all had a really great time and it was nice to just get away and hang with all of our friends! The only thing is I don't have any picture of it so you're going to have to just imagine it in your head. bummer.
Also in September we went to the Fairview schoolhouse with some homeschool buddies. That was super fun. We all got to dress up in old fashioned clothing, bring a praire style lunch, and sit in those fun desks that are nailed to the ground! And luckily I do have some pictures of that.

I say we make a great group of pioneers!

Just a couple more things. Earlier this month we went to this GREAT resturant called the Black Bear Diner. It was great to have family time together and we all had fun eating out.
Here are the pics.

what a great idea! you can sit over here and read books while you wait for your food!

Isaac and I sharing a milkshake

And last but not least, Squeakers is 3 months now!! she is getting sooo big! I just have post some pictures of her!

              Bugg

Blue Poem

Oggie wrote a poem and we wanted to share it with everyone.

Blue looks like a blue whale jumping out of the bright blue ocean.

Blue sounds like a fluffy blue jay chirping in the woods.

Blue feels like a cold blue lake splashing under my feet.

Blue smells like a fresh blueberry pie hot out of the oven and 

tastes like blue cotton candy melting in my mouth!

A dozen years have past!

I can't believe it but my baby Bugg is already 12 years old today.
Leave her a birthday wish in the comments!
Happy Birthday little bugg, Love, Daddy!

She was age 3 and now 9 years later...

just plain silly

Bugg and her buddy have been messing with the video camera.

this is the silliness that i found... enjoy!!

Vacation.....

Ahhhhh......relaxation, blissfulness, no scary E.R trips. How much better can it get? Yes, vacation is prime time. We had a great time on our little trip this year. Even though some of us (smile) didn't get much sleep! We had a great time just kicking back with no agenda, swimming, tubing, skiing the list just goes on and on. Giggles did great too, she had lots of cousins to play with! We also found a stray cat at the resort this year, Erna and her cousin Claira named it Sallie Jo! But to their dismay it wasn't actually a stray cat, it was the neighbors missing cat. bummer. Oggie and I both got up on skis this year and had a blast knee boarding! Bear, Dash, and Erna loved tubing. Erna, cousin Claira and I had a girls night, we watched a movie, made a tent, and had popcorn! Cousin Natalie brought her friend and she loved our crazy family.( I think) Our cousins the Taylors, Aunt Jaimee, and grandma and grandpa, and our family all went out to eat one night at a restaurant called, The Logging Camp. They serve the food family style on tin plates and you drink out of tin cups! It's almost like living on the prairie! Here are some pictures...

Erna in her purple car!

are you talking to me?

what's better than homemade doughnuts?!

All the cousins watchin' a movie

Korah: A repost

Our friends the Nordstroms are adopting from Ethiopia and have a blog, too.
They posted about Korah today and I'm reposting here on our blog because it is so so powerful and moving.
http://nordstromsadopt.blogspot.com/2010/08/korah.html

Korah is a community outside of Addis Ababa where the outcasts of society live.  (Read more about Korah by clicking here.)  Korah is located at the Addis trash dump.  The outcasts who live there are the lepers, the poor, the orphans, and the widows.  When you stop to think of what a trash dump must be like in a 3rd world country, it is staggering.  And to think of people living there, trying to have their physical needs met by what they can scavenge day after day, it is difficult to contemplate. 

The videos included below are both about Korah.  They both show the sobering need among these people.  They also raise a lot of questions.  How can we meet the needs of so many people?  What about their spiritual needs too?  Do we just try and meet their physical needs first, then work towards meeting their spiritual needs?   How do we balance all of this?  What would Jesus do?  What does Jesus want us to do?  These are the questions that roll around in our minds.



Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

HT: R Nordstrom