Evan's Room

Sorry for the hiatus around here. Life's been busy with sickness after sickness after sickness, followed by some sickness. Then we decided to re-do Evan's room. Isaiah and Addie got bunkbeds and moved into one room. Which left Evan with this.....
...plus imagine a 16" farm scene border connecting the grass to the sky. It was good when he was 2, but he's almost 10 now...WHAT?! We have a young man on our hands and he deserves a respectable young man's room.

So, between him and me and Tony here's what we came up with...
...a snowboarder jumping out of the paint into a scene of mountains and snowy hills.
I think it turned out quite well and was a lot of fun to do together. Everybody helped out.
And Evan and Addie had fun adding these little stick men hiding all over his room.
This one dropped his lunch off of the light switch.
I think this room will fit his adolescent years quite nicely!

Happy Birthday Evan!

NINE!
What?!
That went way too fast!

Here are some pictures of how we spent the day celebrating Evan's life.
We went to Lake Elmo Park Reserve, which was AMAZING!
They have a HUGE play structure!
The kids played while we got lunch ready.

Then the kids all ate in the van because the bees found our spot and they all freaked out.
Next, we headed over to the Swim Pond.
It's a large man-made pond that is filtered and slightly chlorinated.
Most of the swim area is only 3 ft deep which is perfect for our kids.
The deepest part is about 5 ft, and even out there you can see the bottom because it's filtered water.
Wish we would have found this place at the beginning of summer!
We also played in the sand.
And made a castle? or river? It kept changing.
Then we went orienteering.
The park had compasses and a map available to use on their trails.
The map showed where different posts were located and you had to find them using your map/compass reading skills.
We found it!
Then we came home and did a scavenger hunt...
An obstacle course....

A silly string fight....
A pizza party...
...and finally some birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Evan! Hope you enjoyed your day.

I can't believe we are half-way done with you!
I know you say you'll never leave us, but something will change in these next 9 years and your days wanting to live here will be gone as you mature and move on to your next phase of life.
We have so much more to teach you and you have so much more to teach us.
I'm so grateful God gave you to us, Evan. And we love you very much!

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!

eight

This weekend we celebrated 8 years of life with Evan!
Festivities started with a trip to the Mall of America where we went through the Amazing Mirror Maze! We all made it out...except Tony...he's still there :)
Next stop, Lego Land where Evan purchased the AT-TE Walker with his birthday & chore money.
Then off to Punch Pizza for supper, cupcakes, and presents!

Gotta have Lego Star Wars themed cupcakes!


A closer look at Han Solo, Boba Fet, and Princess Leia. We all had fun making these from marzipan that we colored with food coloring, then cut out and formed into characters.

Happy Birthday Evan!
So glad God gave you to us!
I love your eagerness to learn, your helpfulness as a big brother, and can't wait to see what God has for you in your 8th year!
We love you!