rusty pick-up truck.

Isn’t it funny how different your kids can be from each other?! Haleigh has been on a kick lately. She says that when she turns 16, she wants to buy a rusty pick-up that she’s saved up for. Our friend Matt has a great truck and Haleigh has told him that if he still has it when she turns 16, she’ll happily buy it.

I was showing her pick-ups a few days ago and I pointed out one and she said, “That’s cool, Dad, but it’s not rusty enough. It can’t be fancy, it just has to run.”

When I was 16, I had dreams that my parents would see the wisdom in buying me a Pontiac Fiero or something else as flashy. I love that Haleigh sees the simplicity of having something that is paid for, that she wouldn’t freak out if she ran into a mailbox or snow-drift. She is content. She may be young, but she has some wisdom with that.

Funny girl.

A day of firsts

Today was a day of firsts. Today was a day where my littlest seemed to grow up a bit and a day where my oldest seemed to grow up a lot.

It began with Charlotte having her first taste of food, rice cereal.

She really gobbled it up.  Dad enjoyed finally being able to participate in feeding her.

Then, our day ended with…

Brie leaving.  Now, Brie has left before.  She will be gone for a week.  That too has happened previously.

She boarded the bus with her youth group.

She is off to Mississippi.  She will be working to help rebuild after hurricane Katrina.  This is her first Mission Trip. Brie hopes to go on many more.

How time flies!  I remember when Brie was finally big enough to enjoy her first bites of rice cereal too.

Haleigh’s variety show and making a slingshot.

A few months ago, Haleigh announced that she was going to sing in the Variety show for a fund-raiser. The money raised went to Pray America – a group going to Guatemala this summer. She began practicing her song and as the day got closer, she started to get nervous. The day of the show, she was all nerves. It was funny to watch her. She’d say, “I’m SO EXCITED, but I’m really FREAKING OUT too!”

Here she is, singing her song in front of 150 people.

She did a fantastic job. We are strongly considering adding voice lessons to her fall curriculum. Great job Haleigh!

Also, yesterday, while the girls were at a bridal shower, Eli and I had a “boy’s day.” We talked about making a slingshot earlier, so after the girls left, we went out to the woods to get a stick.

After we found the right stick, we went to the shoe repairman in downtown Rockford to find some suede for the patch/holder. The great guy there wouldn’t let us pay for the suede. From there we went to the hardware store to buy some surgical rubber.

Then we came home to assemble the slingshot.

We carved the stick so that it was smooth, then made notches for the rubber to fit in. Then we cut the suede and punched holes in it. Then we put it all together. And we got to try it out.

I covered the basics, like don’t aim at your sisters, or passing cars, or too close to the house, but I think we’ll have to set some parameters so that no one gets injured.

After the slingshot, we played some baseball. After 2 innings, we swithced to golf for about half and hour. Then we took a break in the hammock. Notice Eli without his shirt – it was even warm enough for that!

a birthday and a sick boy.

What bad timing. Imagine, the night before your birthday, you wake up in the middle of the night feeling nauseated. And you have to get up several times in the night to be sick. Ouch – that was Eli’s birthday this year. Well, you can’t choose when you get sick.

Regardless, I can’t believe my boy is 9 already! The years are flying by way too quickly! My mom or grandma used to say, “The older I get, the faster the years go by.” Man, so not kidding!

Eli is a joy to be around – he has the energy of 3 boys and loves to get outside and get dirty or play for hours. He’s always eager to tell me a story about his day, or do a “replay” of something that happened; something I just saw He’s the king of the replay – it’s funny! He’ll say something like, “DID YOU SEE THAT?! I totally just flew right off the couch! Here, let me show you!” Awesome!

Well, Eli, happy birthday son!

charlotte.

She is amazing. Each time we pick her up, she smiles at us – really big and cute. What a joy!

Here she is in a new dress!

And yesterday Eli thought it was high time that she started learning to play the xbox – funny boy!

Snow fort.

Last weekend, Eli and I built a snow fort. We had a great time. With all of this snow we’ve been getting, we have a fantastic mound at the end of our driveway. Check it out – it’s now big enough for both of us to fit inside with only my boots sticking out.

Here is Eli working on digging it out.

Awesome! What a great weekend!

7 weeks.

Can you believe it’s been 7 weeks already! Yes, Charlotte is 7 weeks old this week. She has been blessing us with smiles all the time. Especially, like here when Eli was making funny noises at her. He said, “Hey, when I make this face and noise, she smiles at me.” So I grabbed a shot.

It’s been quite a crazy several weeks, but we are all doing well and getting used to having her around. She is a joy! I love listening to her eat, or watching the other kids interact with her, or hearing Christy talking to her on the monitor. It’s all amazing.

bowling night.

Christy’s parents left today, so last night, they took us all bowling. We had a great time. It was fun to watch Lindsey do a little dance as she was waiting for her ball to come back up. And funny when Haleigh stood up on her chair and started singing the song at the top of her lungs – that girl has no inhibitions!

We forgot to bring the real camera, so I grabbed these with my cell phone. Thus the poor quality.

We all had fun! I scored a 150 in our second game – I’m not sure, but that may be the best game I’ve ever had! Steve, Eli and I bowled together and Betsy, Bri, Haleigh and Lindsey bowled together – there was one lane between us. Haleigh won the third game in their lane. Eli broke 100 on his last game. And Bri did fantastic as well. I think I was the only one to try the seated and backwards shot.

Christy and I decided that we should have a family bowling night more often – we always forget how much fun we have laughing with the kids as they bowl.

A fitting end to 2008.

This, overall, has been an amazing year. We’ve been blessed with a new person in our family, we got to build delightful memories with wonderful friends and we’ve also been through a few tough times.

It has been quite a winter so far in Michigan – I heard recently that we’ve piled up just over 60 inches of snow so far this year. Wow! I wonder what February will bring us?!

Christmas morning is always a fun time to watch the kids exude excitement as they open their gifts. Eli woke up at 4am and went downstairs to arrange the presents. Then at 5, he woke us up to inform us that he was bored and didn’t know what else to do. Then at 6, when he came in our room again, we told him to let us sleep until 8. By 7, he was sound asleep.

We had a wonderful day with them. We starting off the morning with opening gifts, then we relaxed until mid-afternoon when Steve and Betsy and Rich and Nancy came over for lunch. We had a traditional Jamaican dinner – curried goat over rice and beans. It was outstanding!

And we’ve all really enjoyed getting to know and having fun with our Charlotte – she is such a joy. We’ve all taken turns holding her, trying to coax out a smile and most of us have been blessed with one. It’s cute. You can see in the picture with Eli, she’s just finishing a smile.

We are excited to see what 2009 brings, but we are also very grateful for the lessons learned and experiences had in 2008.

Miss Charlotte Jane has arrived!

Our little bundle arrived November 23 at 8:18am. She is amazingly beautiful and everything that we expected. Here are some pictures to prove it.

We can’t fathom the changes that we will go through as a family in the next few months and years. But we are extremely grateful and extremely blessed.

Here is Charlotte, getting ready for her first bath with the girl’s help.