Re-purposing: Shirt to dress

Addie has this cute little rainbow shirt that has been a favorite of hers, but is getting small and stained on the belly.



Instead of throwing it out, we decided to try and revive it.
I started by cutting the bottom 6 inches off of Addie's shirt.

I found an old tank top of Evan's that was a similar knit material and I cut it off just under the arm holes. This will be the bottom of the skirt.
I wanted to keep the cute little heart. So I cut it out and pinned it in the middle then sewed some crazy circles around it with pink thread.
And here's the finished product. I think we can get another season or two out of it now!
Addie wanted me to show you a picture of her boots :)

Happy Birthday Addie & Tony!

Happy Birthday Addie & Tony!

Addie! You are 5!

God has made you beautiful-
I love your smile, your dimple, your belly laugh, your almond-shaped eyes.
God has put you with us and us with you-
I'm so glad God gave us a girl! You are a good big sister to Isaiah. He loves to do whatever you do.
God has given you generosity-
You willingly share your candy, money, food, gifts with your brothers. That is a good quality to have for when you become a mommy someday.

I can't wait to see how God shapes you into a young woman. Thank you for teaching me about girly things. I love being your mom. You teach me many lessons in patience and your little eyes on me make me run to God and seek His help to be a good example to you in how to be a godly wife and mother. I praise God that He is sovereign and powerful and can turn my mistakes into good. I love you Addie!


Happy Birthday Tony! You are 37! hahahahaha..maybe I won't do yours quite like the kids :)

I'm grateful to have you as my husband. You are considerate and unselfish. You put me above your own interests. You love God's word and take your role as husband, father, church elder, as a seriously call. Thank you for providing for us and loving us. The boys would do well to follow your lead. And Addie would be pleased to find a man like her daddy. May God continue to guide you and give you wisdom as you lead our family. I love you Tony!

The Christmas of '09

The Christmas of '09 has come and gone. What fun to spend time with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior!

The Christmas of 2009 will be remembered by the blizzard.
But what a beautiful blizzard it was!
It was like we stepped into Narnia.
Everything had already been covered in a beautiful, thick frost.
Then we received nearly 20 inches of snow....
... that blanketed everything....
even the vehicles.
Everyone was home for Christmas this year. And that means 28 of us!
We had our 3rd annual ugly Christmas sweater contest.
We recorded another video.
Can you guess what it might be?
It has to do with 7 brothers and their 7 brides.
And it was freezing cold, because it was blizzarding....
and the power went out during filming.
In fact, the power was out for about 13 hours. So we had Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight.

The kids did really well with the power outage and the close quarters!
Actually, believe it or not, this is a hug :)

Thankfully, the power came back on at 6:30 on Christmas morning and we all made it in to Grandma's house for lunch and goodies.
The rest of the time was spent playing in the new, abundant snowfall...
...sledding...
...making snow forts...
...playing card games, and board games, movies, eating too much. We were having so much fun and then, the unwelcomed guest, Monday, called and made us leave :(

Thanks Mom and Dad!
We had a great Christmas!
Bye!

Leech Lake

We were able to spend some time with Tony's folks at a beautiful cabin on Leech Lake about a month ago. And I realized I hadn't posted any pics yet, so here they are.
The beautiful cabin
The eating area in the great room
The great roomThe upstairs 'bunk house'. This place could sleep like 22!

View from the lake.Addie in the boat. She claims she didn't fall asleep :)
Her favorite part of the trip was riding on the jet skiis.
Evan in the boat.
Isaiah. He wasn't too sure about the boat.
Evan exploring Goose Island
Evan kayaking
Addie on the dock
Grandma Carol and Isaiah playing on the beach
Campfire and s'mores

Carol surprised the kids one meal by dumping it right onto the table. No plates allowed!

Then when everyone's finished, you just throw away the tablecloth and dishes are done!

The Coopers
We had a great time at Leech Lake!
We are so grateful to the family that let us use their beautiful place!

Speaking of random......

TIME: mid-afternoon

SCENE: kitchen of a family's home. Mother is loading dishwasher. Oldest son, Evan, is doing crafts at kitchen table. After a few minutes, the daughter, Addie, walks in and stands by mother at the dishwasher.

ADDIE: Speaking of swim pants....

MOTHER: Addie, nobody said the word "swim" or the word "pants". In fact nobody was talking.

ADDIE: Oh... [whispering] Evan, say "swim pants"!

EVAN: [without looking up in a monotone voice] Swim pants.

ADDIE: Speaking of swim pants, can you get out the sprinkler?

A Paralytic Parable

We've been going through the book of Matthew for our family devotion time. After supper Tony was reading from chapter 9 to the kids. It was about Jesus healing the paralytic. Here's the story....

Matthew 9

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

¹Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. ²Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."

³At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"

⁴Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? ⁶But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." ⁷And the man got up and went home. ⁸When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

So we were asking the kids questions to make sure they understood what was being read.

Tony: First of all, what is a paralytic?

Addie: rhymes with licorice (yeah, she's random that way)

Evan: A sinner!

Tony: Well, he was a sinner, but that's not what a paralytic is.

Heidi: What did we learn about him from the story? He was laying on a mat...people had to carry him....Jesus told him to get up and walk...

Evan: a LAZY sinner!

They did eventually get it. But aren't you glad Jesus has authority to heal paralytics and forgive sinners, even lazy sinners ;)

Addie Oakley

Evan: Addie, let's play 'rock, paper, scissors'

Addie: OK

Evan: 1, 2, 3, go- hitting fist on hand
Addie! What is that?... a scissors?...paper?...what? What is that?

Addie: A gun!

She's no dummy :)

Happy Birthday Addie & Daddy!

Saturday was Tony's and Addie's birthday.
We were out of town so this post is to wish them a belated birthday.


Addie-
I can't believe you are 4!
I love...
...your smile when you show all of your teeth
...how you help me with Isaiah
...your random thoughts
...that God gave me a girl
...that you love all things girly

Happy Birthday Addie! I hope you love God even more this year!



Tony-
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love....
...how you come home from work and make a bee line to me
...that you take Isaiah during Sunday School so I can listen
...when you intercept the kids ?'s when they all seem to start with "Mom?"
...that you are a godly man who seeks to do what it right
...listening to you play the piano at night
...talking to you and making plans
...that you are mine
Happy Birthday Tony! May God give us many more years together in Him!

Ayuda Me!

Everyday Addie asks me if she can put makeup on me....and pretty much everyday I say "no".

This is why....




I must say she did a pretty good job with the eyeliner around the eye, but I'm not quite sure what happened on the forehead or around the mouth.

God? Is that You?

I was talking with Addie during lunch the other day. We were talking about how God helps us make good choices. Here's how the conversation went.

Me: You need to listen to what God tells you to do.

Addie: Yeah, ...I don't hear Him.

Me: Well, it's not like you hear an actual voice like you hear me talking to you. You hear Him talk to you in your heart.

Addie twists her head slowly and tries to get her ear down to touch her heart to listen.

I don't think she's quite ready yet.

Mini Coopers

In our hallway are 3 pictures of Evan that i took about 4 years ago. Before the other 2 kids start to wonder why mom and dad don't put up pictures of them, I thought I'd better give them all some face time. So yesterday I took pictures of each of them. They turned out fine on the computer, but Addie's is the only one that will print right. So now Addie is the only picture in the hallway. Maybe we'll just change which mini cooper we spotlight in the hallway every 3 years or so.