Life here...

sneak peek

2012-01-17T11:14:00.003-05:00

We've been busy....

(And this little guy just turned 11 months old.)

October: Grayson pictures abound!

2011-11-04T10:45:00.004-05:00

My little guy is growing so fast! October 19th, Gray turned 8 months!!
He's been such an active little fella! Climbing up on things for quite a while now, he is traveling along furniture with ease. I guess he wants to keep up with the big boys!
I just love when he sits still and hangs out with me. What a sweet little lover-boy he is. Definitely a mama's boy, he likes to keep me in his sights most of the time, even at home. At first, I found this cumbersome. Don't get me wrong: I love my little guy so much! But I wanted to be able to put him in the nursery and such. After a few tries, I found out that I needed to change my ideals for this little guy's lovey personality. Now, I choose to be flattered by his affection and I love it! It won't last forever, after all! I'm sure I won't look back and wish I'd spent more time apart from him. He's my sweet treasure.
I also love this guy: Steve, The Cat-herd.
And there's that sweet baby face again.
He's getting a little happier to branch out to other family members now. He loves his daddy, too. Also Max is his big buddy.
Teeth!

2011-10-05T08:36:00.002-05:00

Hannah turned 12 this year. Apparently, it was the year for not being compliant with Mom's request for a nice smile for the camera...Also, instead of cake, she requested pumpkin pie. I had to call ahead and give my dad a heads-up so he could get used to the idea--with him being sort of a traditionalist and all...
This picture is sooo unflattering to me! Normally, I wouldn't post a picture of me with double chins but, hey, I have to get a semi-normal picture of Hannah in here somewhere!

August: Gray turns 6 months!

2011-10-05T08:27:00.002-05:00

Pretty much how we spent the month of August,
walking Gray around or spotting him while he clung to the sides of furniture and stuff.
What a fun time Grayson has with so many pairs of arms ready to help him grow and explore!

One more post for July: Ira!

2011-10-04T10:57:00.005-05:00

I would be remiss to post about July and not mention our houseguest for the month! Irina came from Ukraine to visit us again. She was a delight to host and it was sad to send her back because this was likely our last time to have her visit.

Her 17th birthday was the day after she arrived so we threw together a little party at my mom and dad's poolside.A few days later we celebrated the Fourth by going to a parade. Ira kept wondering "Why do they throw candy?" It's unusual for there to be any freebie stuff passed around in Ukraine. Nevertheless, she ran out like one of the kids and gathered candy to take home to her friends!

Another day, We went to Chattanooga and picked blueberries with Steve's brother Daniel and his family. It was a hot day but she picked like a champ! Again, she was surprised that we were allowed to eat while we picked. She looked at me unbelieving at first but she shrugged and ate her fair share!
Ira loved Dan and Bonita just as she has loved all our extended family members. We took her once again to the family reunion in Pigeon Forge. She loves it there and loves how everyone welcomes her with hugs and bright, warm greetings. I wonder what it would be like to be her and have no one. When she's here, she calls us Mama and Pop. She talks about "our baby" and "our family" and when we went to look at a few houses she asked if "we will buy this one" and so forth. She loved having a family, it was clear. I hope that someday we will be able to visit her again and that she can always count us as a kind of family that she has.. People 'out there' who love her and are praying for her.

We also did some other things like bowling, swimming, canoeing, My dad's 70th birthday party, and such, but mostly, we just hung out and did the stuff families do. The kids loved that she commandeered them in the afternoons to fry potatoes with her. They made all kinds of creations for me to try and we went through a LOT of potatoes but the memories were good and the kids even got better at their Russian!

There were a lot of sad faces around our house after she left.

July: Reunion 2011! Anderson's this time....

2011-10-04T10:23:00.009-05:00

What can I say? Fun times:

Lotsa family,

Lotsa fun,

lotsa food,

lotsa cuties,

LOTSA hugs,

Lotsa cousins,

Lotsa this game,

Lotsa food (again),

And lotsa love.

What a good time it is each year to get together and hang out for a few days, reconnecting, talking, playing, and eating too much! Haha! And, one of these years, I need to get some pictures of the late-night Mafia games...

Grayson at about four months (June)

2011-08-12T08:25:00.004-05:00

Hooray!
Learning to sit up!
Now he can play a little easier with the big boys, his favorite thing to do (besides hanging out with mommy, that is!)

Another favorite:
Bathtime!

Canoe!

2011-08-09T08:27:00.011-05:00

Also in May, Steve went and bought the canoe he'd been thinking about for some time. He did some other errands and when he got home, he stepped out of the car and walked in, forgetting temporarily the huge excitement potential he had strapped to the roof of his car. Misha, who had gone with him came in and found his brothers and spread the word instead.

A stir of disbelief and a rustle of kids moving out the door to check the veracity of Misha's report and then whoops of joy from the driveway followed! Vitali, who had recently mentioned to me that when he was big he wanted a speed boat, came bouncing back into the house, and while practically climbing up me with excitement he asked, "MOMMY! Did you KNOW my dream would come TRUE?!!" Apparently the 'speed' part of his 'speed boat' wish was optional! haha!
We went in two cars to the lake. Since the canoe only holds 4 passengers, Steve took the first wave of riders while I went and got pizza to eat by the water. When we arrived at the lake, the first crew was pulling the boat onto shore, ready to eat!
Grayson played on a blanket, practicing his rolling and gumming his toys. He also never lacked for a brother or sister to pounce on him with kisses.The boys showed my camera their muscles. Here is Max:I was trying to get Misha to show me his muscles but he wasn't really flexing. All of a sudden, Vitali hopped into my view and shouted, "LIKE THIS, MISHA!"
Silly kid!
But Misha got the idea:
All the kids had a good time. Mom and Dad, too!

In the end we enjoyed this beautiful sunset as we drove away:

This and that from May...

2011-08-08T10:04:00.006-05:00

In May, Grayson "enjoyed" his first haircut. He had all kinds of hair on top of his head, nothing around the top of the sides or the center in the back and then a fringe of long, dark hair around the bottom. He was starting to look like Mr T. Haha! I gave the sides a proper cutting but the top was only lightly trimmed because Steve couldn't bear to see all that 'personality' trimmed away. (In the end, I admit it, Steve was right! It has been kind of Gray's signature 'look'. LOL!)

June.

2011-08-07T19:40:00.006-05:00

It's been a while! I thought I'd begin catching you up with a few pictures of Gray from this past June having fun hangin' out with his Family --something he truly loves to do! He's 4 months old in these photos.

Since we've been to the beach he has learned to sit up by himself although he's still wobbly enough that we keep a steadying hand nearby. Or, we just squoosh him into the lineup of kiddos for some siblings-on-the-couch-with-books time like this:
I'm lovin' those little feet!

Snugglin' with Mama.

Hangin' out with Great Grandpa. Gray likes to watch TV with Grandpa. Most babies seem to get on Grandpa's lap and fall straight to sleep (It's Grandpa's special baby-holding secret talent!). Not Gray. He can sit there and enjoy an entire episode of The Virginian, smiling along with Grandpa and looking very proud of himself.

Look at the hands. Precious.

The Beach!! Photos in the sand.

2011-05-19T20:56:00.009-05:00

This past week we spent soaking in the fun of family and the sounds of the surf! We were in Duck Island, NC for a family vacation with Steve's side of the family. All members were present. 32, I think the count was! Steve is the fourth of 8 siblings. Now that those original 8 are all grown, Steve's mom and dad are adopting three girls. That brings the total of kids up to 17! You can bet that with all those kids and cousins, there was a lot of good times being had!

It was off-season so we were able to get a very nice beach house for a great price. We split the cost and took turns making meals. It all went very well with everyone chipping in to help and everyone got along so well! The house had a pool out back which was supposed to be heated but wasn't, I don't think. Anyway, that didn't stop the kids from jumping in! The breeze provided great kite-flying weather. Above, you can see Max taking a turn flying Aunt Lulu's kite.

The temps were in the 70s most days but somehow, it felt perfect in the sun most of the time and lounging, walking, and playing in the sand was very comfortable. Jeans were fine but so was a bathing suit. Perfect!

Hannah had fun digging a giant hole in the ground and laying her towel at the bottom of it. Trouble was, she didn't take the towel in with her and then the tide came in....
Below, you can see Steve and Annette helping her dig it out again.Can you see that little hint of orange? That's the towel. Keep digging!!Grayson even donned his swim trunks and sun hat for some sand and sun time.
Most of the time, this is what Gray thought of the sand.
He felt better if he just snoozed instead:Here, Steve came down to the beach and asked if I wanted to go for a walk. See that little red towel rolled up behind him in the sand? That's my boy!
When he wasn't in the towel, I carried him in my front carrier.
I really enjoyed walking along the beach.There's Steve's footprint and little guy's beside it. So tiny and sweet.

When Gray was awake, he posed for pictures. Yaaawwwnnnn.... All in a day's work for my little man.

Ivy was a little more energetic:Jenny and little Audrey, who really enjoyed the beach.

Bekah.
Look at those tiny toes...and the big ones...no, look at the tiny ones instead. Aren't they cute?
Annette
Selena
Hannah

I hope you've enjoyed our fun vicariously through the pictures! There are more, if you've missed them in the two posts below this one.

And, later, I may throw in a post with a picture of the sand castle that Bekah and I made. I took it on a different camera and I'm a little too lazy to go and find that right now. I also don't think that the pictures turned out that well, unfortunately, but, we'll see. It can be a surprise.

Around the beach house...

2011-05-19T16:25:00.004-05:00

One of the key things about the time at the beach was all the baby-holding! Grandma was in her glory! We never lacked for a pair of arms to hold the little ones. They barely touched the ground. Aunt Mary got some Grayson time in, too.
Grayson gets a little 'floor time' before heading out to the beach. I love his little red and white outfit. Perfect for catching some rays in the sand.

Grayson lookin' mighty sweet and beachy. Ooo! I need to find him and kiss him! ....

.....OK, I'm back...

I don't think Ivy's hair got brushed much. She surely had a good time, though! And never fear, she's tangle-free again now.
It was Mother's Day the day we arrived at the Beach house. Our family stayed the night before with Steve's sister Jenny and her husband, Will. Jenny and Will have a little baby girl, Audrey, who is one month older than Gray. It was fun to meet Audrey and to see the two babies together. Those two were together quite a bit that week! Below they are hanging out with Aunt Lulu, the nickname for Steve's sister Laurie. There are two Lauries in the family. Two Jenns too, for that matter.
Laurie made this outfit for Grayson in honor of his womb-name. Doesn't little Chicken Bob look cute in his chicken-print clothes? Even the buttons are little chickens!

Jenny led the get-in-shape club that I abstained from joining. Max was her Jiminy Cricket and made sure she got out her videos each day. They had quite a few members! I did don my front-carrier and take evening walks on the beach with the bunch. Gray really enjoyed those walks, or, as he called them, naps.Let's go to the Beach, Mom!

Annette loved the snacks...and the beach. We all did!

Beach trip group photos:

2011-05-19T12:55:00.004-05:00

Grandma, Grandpa and all their grandkids and granddoggies.
We all had matching shirts. Look at all the blue!

The whole bunch of us; all together!

More pictures of Gray. Yes. MORE.

2011-04-14T12:25:00.008-05:00

Everything stops when this little guy gets to cooing at us.
Well, everything except my camera, that is...

sweet mouth.

tiny toes.

The end.
I just can't get enough of this little guy.
Apparently, he can get enough of me!
Or, at least of me behind a camera.

Cute Chick.

2011-04-08T16:29:00.003-05:00

Baby bathrobes are so impractical but
I couldn't resist wrapping little Gray up in his.
Impractical? yes.

Adorable? Yes, and yes again.

Sleepy baby

2011-04-06T13:31:00.002-05:00

Sometimes just one picture isn't enough.

Playing with baby doll and baby brother on the front porch

2011-03-31T11:25:00.002-05:00

Ivy and Grayson share a moment. Aren't they sweet?

Grayson is a little bigger than Bitty Baby, just so you know.

Homeschooling advantage: Reading lessons in the hammock, complete with baby brother.

2011-03-24T20:12:00.001-05:00

One month old...ALREADY!!

2011-03-21T20:28:00.004-05:00

This boy gets a lot of kisses!

Grandma's visit

2011-03-20T13:17:00.005-05:00

We enjoyed a visit from Steve's mom this past week. What a good time it was for all the kids to have Grandma here! I loved it too. She was a great baby-holder. (Annette would say babyHOG! heehee!)

Grayson loved sleeping on or beside Grandma Eimers all week long. Isn't he a sweetie?

Hannah seems to have found a chance to sneak him away from Grandma.

He looks so content, doesn't he?

I tried to take a picture of him cooing and smiling at Grandma but this is all I got.

This one I just threw into the mix. Too bad it isn't a scratch-n-sniff picture. Once again, I am wishing I could share that fresh-from-the-bath baby smell with you all. Mmmm... so sweet.

Thanks, Grandma! We miss you!

Grayson around the three-week mark. Happy, yelling, and...what's that last one?

2011-03-15T10:29:00.003-05:00

Happy:

Yelling:

Happy:

Yelling:

Happy:

...Jewish?!...

A typical evening at our house. Grayson jumps right in:

2011-03-11T12:23:00.001-05:00

Babies are hilarious!

2011-03-06T12:09:00.003-05:00

I gave Grayson a bath in the bathroom sink a few days ago. I started with one boy following me in the door, followed by two more obeying my direction not to hang the door open so the baby wouldn't get cold. Then, Hannah squeezed in. Everyone wanted to watch!Hannah left the group as the parade following Grayson and I went into my room so I could get him dressed. What's cuter than a pink, little newborn in his birthday suit?! So, I got him (mostly) dressed and stopped to take a picture or two, wishing I could capture the fresh-from-the-sink-bath-smell. In a moment or two, Grayson turned his head towards the light that was shining through the window and painting a line of brightness onto the hiney end of Daddy, also on the bed.

This turned out to be even more entertaining than the bath. The boys could hardly contain themselves. They all were laughing out loud as soon as one of them pointed out the object of Gray's rapt attention.

As funny as they thought it was to see the baby staring at Daddy's backside, I thought it was pretty entertaining to see them all cracking up over something so ridiculous.

Boys!

Family Picture. All nine of us.

2011-03-04T18:24:00.001-05:00

Front row left to right: Misha (9), Annette (8), Vitali (6), Ivy (5), Max (11), Hannah (11),
Back row: Steve (35), Grayson (13 days), Melissa (36)

Around the one-week mark. Pictures of Grayson.

2011-02-28T10:41:00.004-05:00

Grayson Payne at three days old

2011-02-22T13:41:00.002-05:00

Vitali is home alone today with his new baby brother. The other kids are at co-op but Vitali has some nasty, leaking ear infections so he gets some quiet time with us. We laugh all the time at Vitali, whose main goal in life is to be big. Or, at least bigger than someone. Vitali is so proud of his baby brother because Grayson is little, and most importantly, Grayson is littler than Vitali.

Here, Vitali and Grayson are having a little back and forth. Vitali asked me if Grayson was wondering if Vitali's hair was bigger than his. I was sure Grayson noticed. He looks impressed, don't you think?
We're loving this sweet baby boy. We love how chubby he is and how soft his hair is. We love watching him open his eyes and look around. We love feeling him nestle against us all snuggly-like.

But, you know what I don't love? That he is already three days old! Seems like moments ago. I am so aware this time of the quickness of the passage of time. I am trying to soak up every sweet moment I can with him!

I just thought this picture was funny. It's not the best one in the world but I like the comical ones. Makes me wonder what his personality will be!?!

Grayson Payne Eimers

2011-02-19T08:47:00.002-05:00

10 pounds, 21 inches, chubby and sweet.
Born at home this morning, 5:48am.

Recent Snow

2011-01-27T13:02:00.003-05:00

We had snow again a little while back. Actually, this is still the remnant of the first snow covered with a second snow that turned into sleet/snow/ice. It was a light icing but pretty and so I made sure to go out and snap a picture or two.

The sky was so blue. I haven't even edited this picture. Pretty day but very cold!
The Chickens spent all day huddled up at the back door waiting for their people (us) to throw out food. Also, they don't like to dip their little chicken toes into the snow any more than absolutely necessary. Here, they are all turned to look at me because I was outside but the rest of the day, they stood there and looked in at us. It was really rather funny.
This is the backyard. You can see their frosty coop and run. As I was walking up there later in the day to lock them in for the night and they all launched off the back porch when I was halfway up the little hill to their run. Several of them actually ran into me mid "flight". I jumped! They don't usually fly much because, well, chickens don't, you know.

And this guy didn't like the cold, either. He is supposed to be an outdoor cat but he sneaks in pretty much daily and hides out if he can get away with it. He's good in the house, has yet to make any messes, but since he doesn't have a water dish, this is where we caught him this frosty day. Eww!

37 weeks

2011-01-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

Family pictures in the snow!

2011-01-12T21:22:00.006-05:00

Snow!!

All of the family. Steve is smiling and I am trying not to look like I had just been running back to my spot from setting the camera timer. Just as we were finishing these pictures, I remembered, AH! My mom and Dad gave me a camera remote for Christmas! Well, next time...

Ivy, inside, peeking out. Guess she got cold.

Vitali, always cold, plays anyway. Favorite snow activity?
Standing on piled up snow to be 'bigger' than anyone. (and I do mean anyone! Someone? PLEEEASE!)

The lovely Annette.

Misha, looking jovial.

Max, pausing in the midst of shoveling our quite long driveway. He worked tirelessly on that driveway. We really appreciated that later in the day! Steve and the other boys helped, but Max didn't stop till it was all done.

Hannah was mostly glad because the snow gave her a chance to wear the new
coat her friend Rachel gave her. I love the fur around the hood. So does she.

Now, let me back in the house so I can warm up!

Home in Ukraine

2011-01-12T21:12:00.002-05:00

We have received word that Ira and the other kids have made it back to their orphanages in Ukraine! I'm sure that she is relieved to be home and sleeping in a bed after the long hours in airports and on trains.

We had a nice visit with her these last three weeks. She said very teary goodbyes with hugs and kisses for all of us, but I think she was looking more forward to going home again this time than she was at the end of her summer trip. The kids have mentioned several times in the last couple days that they miss her.

Getting bigger...

2011-01-11T21:23:00.002-05:00

Our little guy is growing bigger and stronger! He kicks and wiggles and I really have noticed in the last week or so that he has gone from mostly squirming to more stretching, and poking, and kicking. Wearing that striped shirt at dinner that evening, the black stripes across my belly kept catching my eye. They were moving around like a wavy test pattern on an old fashioned, black and white tv! Haha!

5 weeks to go...

It's Christmas!!

2010-12-30T21:12:00.003-05:00

The Living room, pre-invasion:

The kids, eager to invade:
Snow! Perfect for Christmas! East Tennessee doesn't see many white Christmases. Annette says she prayed for snow. So that's one Christmas present enjoyed before we even begin! First, before the gifts and the stockings, we listened to the Christmas story. Steve read to all of us and then Irina read the same story in Russian. Pretty cool:
Stockings!
Gifts!

Happy faces!
The aftermath:

Christmas Eve

2010-12-30T08:53:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve at our house is a light supper of crackers and cheese type finger foods, followed by cookies, a Christmas movie, a couple of gifts being opened and bedtime.

Here are the kids at dinner time. The "extra" girl is Irina. She was our guest over the summer for four weeks and now is back for a three-week visit. Notice pouting Vitali in the corner of the table. He had been scolded for something. Before the next photo, Steve said, "Vitali, you'd better not be pouting in the next picture!"
So here is his attempt to look cheerful. Hannah seems to have thought the instruction applied to her as well. Over-kill.
After dinner we opened some gifts, and had some cookies. Then...Movie time! One last cookie in hand, we headed to the family room. This year we didn't watch a Christmas movie, we watched one of the gifts, Prince Caspian.

And now..

Good night everyone! Excited kids ran off to bed. Dad and mom got ready for the next morning.
What?! I am always surprised, seems that when I was a kid, Christmas just arrived. When did it start requiring so much WORK!?! Just the same, Steve and I were in bed around eleven. That is thanks to my mom, who took all the kids each Wednesday in December so I could get things done. What an awesome gift to me. When you homeschool, it is hard to find kid-free time to shop and wrap. Let alone get any other pre-Christmas stuff done. Thanks, Mom!

Merry Almost Christmas, Everyone! See you in the morning!

The anual Christmas tree hunt.

2010-12-28T17:07:00.006-05:00

This year's tree hunt almost didn't happen! So much going on that by the time Steve would get off of work, it would be closing time for the tree farm. Finally, though we had a day with an extra 40 minutes between working and closing time. Let's go! But we got lost. We do every year. Unbelievable. After all, we always go to the same place. We called and the guy said he'd stay a little late for us. They closed at 5 and we pulled up at 5ish. We looked high ; Misha looked especially high. Too high, it turned out.We looked low....Hannah loved the fluffy looking trees.

Ivy...not so much.Annette kept picking out "cute" trees. "Isn't this tree adorable?!!"
Yes, Annette, darling.
ahem...
Ivy, easily distracted had fun finding pine cones.
But at long last, the tree we could all agree on (it wasn't fluffy, but we wore Hannah down with our indecision. It was cold, and like any invincible eleven-year-old, she had under-dressed, putting fashion ahead of heat. Silly girl...)Cut it down, Vitali!
Steve told Vitali that he could drag the tree out. Vitali was happy to do so, but we thought the man who was waiting for us might appreciate it if we moved along. Vita made it a few feet, though.
Now, home to warm up! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's

2010-12-04T09:37:00.004-05:00

Preparing....

This is my only 'preparing' photo and it is of
Bethany just sitting around while we worked. ;-)

Waiting.....

Hoping....
Eating....

Playing....

Loving...

Mom's Birthday

2010-12-03T21:57:00.003-05:00

My mom recently celebrated her 60th birthday. She surely looks great still, doesn't she? I'm hoping I have inherited the 'ageless' gene...
Before she blew out all 60 candles on her birthday cheesecake, Grandma cheated a bit by asking for help from all the kids gathered around.
Who says cheaters never prosper?
Happy Birthday, Mom!

By popular demand...

2010-10-19T11:51:00.000-05:00

23weeks old and still no name!

What I did today:

2010-10-14T19:05:00.002-05:00

I love the food that comes along with fall and winter, don't you?! Soups, Stews, casseroles, pies, anything pumpkin.... Yum! today I made a batch of caramel apples rolled in peanuts because it is one of Steve's favorite fall treats. By using small apples, I was able to make enough for each of the kids as well. Needless to say, they are looking forward to enjoying them tomorrow after lunch!

2010-08-21T08:33:00.003-05:00

Here's our little cowboy...

He's a handsome little wrangler, ain't he?

For all the trouble he finds to get into, he does have a gallant side as well...

Dad's 69th birthday party

2010-07-24T19:52:00.002-05:00

My Dad turns 69!

Opening our gift....

....What we gave him.
(look closely)

...Mom's reaction...
...And Grandpa's reaction.

Family Reunion 2010

2010-07-18T19:55:00.004-05:00

We have just returned from a great weekend in Pigeon Forge! We so enjoyed spending time with our family. It's good to have a weekend like this so that the extended family doesn't feel so extended anymore! This reunion involved around seventy attenders, all there because Grandma and Grandpa Anderson started it all!!

Even though Grandma has been gone for ten years now, she is remembered at every gathering and this was no exception. I very much enjoyed hearing my Grandpa read his spiritual journey to us and to hear again the story of how he came to fall in love with my grandmother and then, a few years later, with the Lord. Certainly a special time!

Of course, the kids enjoyed swimming, playing with cousins, eating, playing with cousins, dancing, playing with... you get the idea!

It was a great weekend and, as always, I am sooo sleepy tonight. But I still have that smile on my heart that makes me look forward to next year!

Enjoy the pictures in this post as well as the two posts following.

Fun (Anderson reunion 2010)

2010-07-18T19:44:00.003-05:00

Faces ( Anderson reuinion 2010)

2010-07-18T19:34:00.001-05:00

A berzillian photos crammed into one non-chronological post.

2010-06-24T20:33:00.006-05:00

We recently spent a week in New York visiting Steve's
family and attending my good friend Heather's wedding.
(It was about time! But he was worth the wait!)

I took pictures but pretty much none of the wedding because I was so excited for Heather that I lost my mind entirely. That is my story. Extreme mental togetherness broken by periods of absolutely mindless lapses in thought.
Fortunately for Heather, other people remembered to take pictures and Heather will certainly post them somewhere where I can steal some. Right, Heather?

If you are a lover of all things chronological, and especially if you are obsessive about order of events and all, QUICK! click that little X up in the corner. What is about to unfold will scar you for life. (Yes, Dad, I am talking to you!)

For the rest of you...

Steve and his sister Laurie and Laurie's humongous but very nice dogs, Doug and Marley on the beach at Lake Erie.

All of us walking onto the beach at Lake Erie.

At the Creek. Laurie and I. And the dogs, naturally.

Brothers.

Annette and a dead fish.

The one and only picture I got from Heather's wedding! (and Heather isn't even in it!)

Hayseed Max in his new cowboy hat.

Ivy with a puppy. But not the last picture of Ivy and that puppy you will have the pleasure of enjoying. She loved those puppies!! Grandma had eight of them there.
Ivy preferred the girl ones, though.

All the kids in Canadaway Creek

Vitali wishes he had been adopted by Rog instead. Rog has this truck.

Ivy and a puppy. On her head. Where else would she put a puppy?

Hannah obsessively and in all her glory worked on renovating the old tree house in Grandma and Grandpa's front yard. Bekah helped. Aunt Laurie helped, too. I don't know if there were other helpers. I just know Hannah was soooo excited to play in it!

One of several creatures that Josh found and showed to my camera. Alas, it is the only one my camera focused on. I think I had the camera stuck in puppy mode.

Max, who loves animals; Aunt Laurie, owner of an animal; and Misha, pretender-of-loving-animals-so-people-will-be-impressed. All at Canadaway Creek.

What?! Another puppy picture?!! How'd that get in here?

Josh. I actually said to him while he was sitting there because he had hurt his toe, "Josh, pretend for a second that your toe doesn't hurt and give me a smile." He did. Then he forgot to resume complaining.

You thought this was a picture of Laurie, didn't you? Nope, it's me.
Right there in her glasses. Twice.
I am so clever.

Laurie can tell you this dog's name. So could I, until he got wet. I think that it's Doug. But don't bet your bottom dollar on that or anything.

The three oldest girls, Hannah, Selena and Bekah.

The end.

Young baker in the family

2010-06-04T13:43:00.002-05:00

Ten-year-old Hannah wanted to bake something all by herself today. She has an American Girl cookbook and found a recipe for which we had all the ingredients, Sour Cream Biscuits! Yum!

She did all the work herself and I barely said a word to her,
letting her learn and do it her own way.She did an excellent job, not overworking the dough and cutting very carefully. She worked diligently, only taking a quick break for a dash downstairs to change her outfit when she saw me getting out my camera--I mentioned she is ten, right?

When she had filled one full cookie sheet she had this left over:

So she rolled it into a circle and cut it into wedges like scones. The unanimous verdict? Yum!!!

Tree down! Well, part of a tree, anyway.

2010-06-04T13:28:00.002-05:00

We woke up to this after one perfectly normal evening with no rain or high winds. They say these trees (Bradford pears) are notorious for splitting.
The good news is that where that huge section of the tree is laying is where I "should" have parked the new car the night before but didn't. Phew! Now we need to go buy a chain saw...

Beach trip 2010 Kiawah Island, SC

2010-06-01T09:56:00.005-05:00

As soon as school was out we, and three other families that are friends of ours headed to Kiawah Island, SC for a week in the sand and the sun. What a great trip we had! We found lots of seashells and went bike riding. I, personally really enjoyed the long family bike rides the best!

The kids played endlessly in the waves which were perfect. Just right to play in but not so strong as to knock them over. Vitali wouldn't go in the water last year but this year we had to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't wander out too far!

The seashells were excellent on this beach. Annette found the first full conch shell but it was the first of many. We also found other shells that I don't know the name of and then, of course, sand dollars galore. All the good shells could found in bulk at the far point of the island which we spent one morning biking to. Great fun!

On the beach where we played the most, the kids and even the grownups, enjoyed scooping up net-fulls or handfuls of tiny little colorful shells. They were like little jewels in the sand. So pretty!

We had a great time as a family. A pretty near perfect vacation! No one even got very sunburned--that never happens, ha ha! Enjoy the pictures in the following posts!

Faces

2010-06-01T09:26:00.004-05:00

Me, Melissa, aka. Mom

Ivy Mae. This picture is so "Ivy". Love it.

Vitali, smirk-smiling. What else?

Misha. Always aware of the camera.

Max. To me, every picture of Max looks exactly the same.

Hannah. This girl is growing tall and beautiful (pardon my bragging).
It often reminds me how soon she will be all grown up...

Steve. Be still my heart.

Annette. This girl loves to play in the dirt. Sand is no exception.

waves

2010-06-01T09:15:00.003-05:00

Water

2010-06-01T09:01:00.001-05:00

Critters

2010-06-01T08:41:00.002-05:00

Annette caught this lizard that I call a gecko.
But it's not; I just can't remember it's real name.

Can you see the baby alligator?

I believe this is called a skink.
Not as exciting since we often these blue-tailed
fellas crawling around at our own house.

Sand

2010-05-31T16:41:00.006-05:00

Sand removal:

Overheard at the breakfast table...

2010-05-14T08:25:00.006-05:00

( I love this recent photo of my pre-teen. It makes me chuckle!
She was teasing me a bit with that eye-roll
but I think there was a hint of a thirteen-year-old in there as well.
She's really not so snobby. hee hee) *

Hannah (age 10, bragging to one/all of the other kids) :

"...In only eight years I'll be considered an adult! "

Me (age 35, pulling my nose out of the washing machine to call upstairs) :

"Well, only eight years AGO you were considered a toddler!"

*click on the eye-rolling photo to see Hannah's own blog.

Annette

2010-05-12T08:27:00.004-05:00

I enjoy taking pictures of my kids. There, my secret is out. Phew! Now I feel better. Confession IS good for the soul, as they say.

Wanna know something else? I like when things match color. Like that bow in Annette's hair that matches the pink in her lips and cheeks pretty darn perfectly. And how that blue in her eyes is the same as her shirt.

Another thing I can't help noticing is that she is growing up! She's losing a lot of that little girl-ness and is starting to have a pretty young lady look. I really enjoy watching her grow older, almost as much as I dread it. :-)

One of my favorite photo subjects:

2010-05-10T20:29:00.003-05:00

Sweet Ivy Mae.

I love having this five-year-old little girl in the house.

I love the braids and the flowers tucked into them.

I love the wispy hairs that float free and get bleached almost instantly in the sun.

And pretty blue eyes full of smiles

and this:
But, how could my youngest already be losing teeth???

(sigh...)

Not again!

2010-05-09T21:34:00.001-05:00

Bike. Face. Driveway. Ouch.

Blessed.

2010-05-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Pictures of me with my honey...

2010-05-06T19:39:00.003-05:00

Steve was out in the hammock the other day... ...and so I decided to join him.

I had my camera and thought I would take a picture of us:

A little close,

trying again...
Heh, heh. Not a good one but funny enough to publish!

Then Vitali, short, six years old, and wiggly, offered to take our picture:A shot of how we look to short people who wiggle--a little blurry.

Ah, well, we'll try again some other time!

Rainbow

2010-05-03T20:42:00.002-05:00

We saw this amazing rainbow the other night.
Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed my camera it had faded. I have seriously never seen a rainbow this bright! Even the purple was clearly visible. Awesome!.

Look who's riding a two-wheeler!

2010-04-29T20:19:00.003-05:00

It's Vitali!!

And what's this? A flower for Mommy that he picked at the end of the street in the ditch. Already driving out to get flowers for his Mama...what a good boy!

School Day.

2010-04-27T09:26:00.007-05:00

Once breakfast is put away each morning and the house gets tidied up, it is time to begin the schoolwork for the day. The older boys are good about getting their math books and getting started. The girls put it off and hope I won't notice. (I always do!)

Although we usually start at the kitchen table, sometimes the kids spread out to other rooms due to distractions from the others. Sometimes a certain child IS the distraction and then he/she just moves/is moved to another room.Sometimes I am the distraction, like, when I walk around with my camera clicking while they are trying to work...The nice thing about home schooling is that, with everyone in close proximity, the younger kids pick up some of what the older kids are learning. Even the chickens seem to want to be exposed to higher learning.

I have three in second grade and Ivy and Vitali are in a kind of Pre-K sort of thing. Ivy has been doing well and all of the sudden is showing that she is ready to start reading! Vitali, not so much. He still has a hard time sitting still! He is mostly interested in World Domination right now and would rather not be bothered with letter sounds and how they go together.

Although, sometimes he works quite diligently on his papers. He is easily encouraged by a few "Good Work!" stars scrawled beside his meticulously crafted letters.

And then there's Annette:
My little Annie speeds through her math but groans at the thought of too much writing in her language book. Schoolwork comes easily for her but she finds writing to be a tedious task. I see her eyes quickly develop red-rims when a page requires her to "write six sentences about..." Poor Annette. :-)

Misha usually works at the table but today went off to his room. As soon as I took this picture, I made a mental note to have the boys tidy their bedroom after school time. As soon as I walked out of the room, I forgot. It took a couple of days for me to remember.
School will be done in about a month. We finish the end of May. I CANNOT WAIT!!! I know I will have to keep up somewhat with the boys over the summer. Max and Misha still struggle so much with school and Max has a lot of catching up to do but it will be nice to have the daily grind behind us!

petal pink

2010-04-23T21:06:00.004-05:00

Remember that tree in the last post? Now, all those pretty pink flowers have dropped their petals and the ground under the tree is covered in a pretty pink carpet.

It makes a great place for a princess to play with her royal chicken.

Look at that happy chicken!

Or a little girl all dressed in pink might like to play there with her baby dolls
(also in pink; yes, on purpose)

The boys spend time in the petals, too. But for them, it is just the only way to get up into the climbing tree. Then, they track the petals in through the back door on their cowboy boots.

Even these ladies have pink petals in their toes. :-)

Six in a Tree

2010-04-15T07:32:00.001-05:00

Can you spot all six in the flowering cherry tree?

Taller that Tali

2010-04-14T08:28:00.002-05:00

Vitali and Ivy were playing with Legos the other day. Ivy made a car and put a person (lego girl) in it and was done. Vitali meticulously worked on a "house" (sans doors and windows). Filling the edges of a base piece to make his walls, he carefully and with great attention built his 'house' up until it was about eight inches high. He worked on this most of the day so that when Steve came home from work Vitali was bursting with pride to show off his creation. Steve complimented it with all the praise Vitali desired and then sat on the floor and said, "Let's make it bigger!"For several days, the boys worked, joined on occasion by the other kids as they faded in and out of interest. Finally, the tower was complete! It still stands in my living room and Vitali is still very proud of his "house" as he still calls it. Can you tell?!

Easter weekend.

2010-04-07T08:41:00.003-05:00

Our family, Mom, Dad, Grandpa Anderson, my brothers, sister, in-laws, and nieces, nephews and my own family are numbering 28 now with two new babies expected before the year is out! This past Easter weekend all were in attendance at my parent's house for a short weekend get-together. Saturday we had a cookout/egg hunt/run-and-play evening at our house. We had a great time but I had left my camera at my parents' house so I have to wait for some of those siblings, and siblings-in-law to post some pictures for me to steal before I can share that fun evening with you all. (yes, Lynn, Kari, and Beth, that WAS a hint! *wink, wink*)

I did take pictures, though. I just had to wait till Sunday. :-)

As always, there was visiting...

....pictures of each other all dressed up after church...

...playing with cousins...

...Snuggling with the newest baby
(this time it was Nathan and Elise's little Harrison)...

...and eating leftovers...

...or cereal.

And of course, moms (like me!) taking photos of
their little ones' happy faces.

An Outside Boy.

2010-04-01T08:24:00.002-05:00

Max loves to be outside whether it is playing basketball in the driveway, riding his bike down the street, hitting trees with sticks (or whatever it is boys like to do with sticks), or playing with the animals, he's out there in the heat or cold or rain and definitely if there is snow!

An early riser, he goes out each morning to unlock the chicken coop and let the chickens out to roam. Today he was giving some stale bread to the chickens and I decided to take a couple pictures:

Holding Kelsey, a floppy combed leghorn who is ~~slightly~~ very dumb, he's feeding Tit (Ivy named her), the bald-backed chicken. That's not a breed, just the after effects of a dog attack a while ago. She survived but lost all her back feathers and walks with a gimp. That gimp doesn't stop her from jumping up to get Max's offering of bread, though!

Over there to the side you can see the white and black rooster, General Tso, head down and pretending not to care about silly things like bread until....Hey! get back here!

There. That's better.

Signs of Spring...

2010-03-30T08:07:00.003-05:00

Like this...

...and this

...this...

...And these.

And, oh yeah, this:

The First Cookout of the Season!

2010-03-23T12:41:00.002-05:00

hi

2010-03-02T21:17:00.003-05:00

I thought I should post something. After all, it's been a while. Trouble is, not much is going on around here, I mean, we're busy but not anything that I'd take pictures of. Just schoolwork, chicken stuff, church, and that sort of thing. No one has fallen and cut themselves open lately, or won any large amounts of money (darn), or won the Nobel Peace Prize.

So, hey! What's up with you all? What is the most mundane thing you've done today? Me? I think it would have to be smearing Vaseline on a chapped kid. :-) Top that!

Knock on wood...

2010-02-06T20:16:00.007-05:00

...That's what I said to Steve last night after he commented that it is amazing we haven't had any big injuries or broken bones. But Steve didn't do it.(Vitali, Before.)

Today, little Vitali was dancing through the basement when he fell and knocked his eye hard enough to split it open on a wooden chair. The girls heard him crying and came running to get me, Hannah carrying Vitali up the stairs where I met up with my bloody-faced little guy.

(Vitali, After)

He had a split that would likely have needed two stitches if we had taken him in. I decided to see if it looked like it would hold together with butterfly bandages before we went in for the stitches. Fortunately, while there was a lot of blood at first, it also stopped quickly so I was able to get the bandages to stick well and not have to worry about them slipping off and opening the wound. Satisfied with how they were pulling it together I bundled my little guy up for a little snuggle, warmed a blanket in the dryer, and let him pick a movie (He picked Zoro--a nice, long movie) to watch with Ivy to keep him still while it began to knit.

Then, we all watched another movie together (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs--a very dumb movie) after dinner and he and daddy snuggled on the couch together.
He's worried about going to church tomorrow with bandages. He is always so concerned about looking perfect. I told him it would be cool to get to tell everyone about it. He didn't buy my story. Oh, well. Should've knocked on wood.

35th birthday party.

2010-02-06T11:19:00.007-05:00

Anyone from my family and those who have grown up with my family will appreciate this picture. In fact, I am glad I took it. A picture of dad getting his "arrival of the guests" video. I am pretty sure he was glad that my birthday was on a weekend so we could have the party midday for better lighting in the videos! Ha ha!

We were invited to my mom and dad's for lunch Sunday to celebrate how young I look for 35. Or something like that....

Mom made me this peanut butter frosted chocolate cake studded with peanut butter chocolate chips and what looked like way more than thirty five candles. Mmmmm....Then came the gifts! I think that in this picture I am opening Ivy's gift which was a pair of red plastic goblets with pink plastic hearts decorating the stems. Lovely! LOL! I love the gifts the kids pick out when given free range at the Dollar store!

Then we played this game, My mom, Dad, Evan and me. Mom won. So we played again.

I tried to win based on the fact that it was my birthday. But I had to settle for winning because I'm AWESOME!!!

This is what I looked like while I was busy beating the socks off of everyone.
We had this pretty view out the back door due to a freezing rain the night before. I am apparently not as good at capturing the light on the ice as I was hoping. This picture is not nearly as pretty as it was in person.

As we were leaving, I saw what the kids were doing while we were playing the board game.
Ain't he cute?

Green eggs and no ham

2010-01-31T12:08:00.003-05:00

Found the flowerpot egg this morning on the front porch and I walked in with it just as Misha came up the stairs. I suggested that there might be eggs in the coop too. Misha brightly offered to go and get them and stepped into Max's big, black barn boots which pretty much live by our back door. He clomped up to the coop and called, "Two eggs! One brown, one white!" then a moment later he puzzled his brow and called, "No, not white--GREEN!"
And there is the morning haul. Two more expected today, we'll see. I am sorry to keep posting pictures of eggs but I am just having so much fun! Haha! Who knew I would enjoy these chickens so much? Must come with getting older....

More talk of eggs and chickens and kids.

2010-01-22T22:49:00.006-05:00

We are getting a predictable three eggs per day now. Pinky (who is actually named Kelsey, the kids have corrected me) was the first to start but after a week or so of one egg per day, we came home in the evening and found another white egg in the flowerpot on the front porch! Then we were up in the backyard a day or two later and Steve noticed two eggs under the neighbor's work truck. A white and a brown! Now we had a mystery layer. We figured out that the flowerpot-layer is Mini, a brown chicken with a flopped-over comb like Pinky-Kelsey, but who was laying that brown egg?
I figured it out today. It is a black chicken named Toe White (like Snow White because her center toe on each foot was white when she was a chick). I "caught" her in the act today, sitting in the coop bawk-bawk-bawking for everyone to hear. She was apparently very proud.

I still have some store eggs in the fridge so I decided to cook them side by side and see if I could notice a difference. The store egg spread all over the pan. (Steve burned the butter before I fried this egg so it has brown edges; oh well.)
The egg from our backyard took two or three times of trying to crack it before it cracked into the pan. I had forgotten that free range chickens have much thicker shells. When it flopped into the pan it stayed all together. My mom, who poaches eggs, says the same about dropping them into the poaching water.

At first glance, they are obviously different looking. My egg (right) is orange-yolked while the store egg (left) is a paler yellow. You can see it clearly when they are both on the plate:
As far as taste, they seemed to me to taste mostly the same but the texture of the yolks was different. The store yolk being grainier and the home-grown egg yolk being smoother.

After I took this picture, I put them back in the pan topside down to finish cooking. I used to like the yolks runny but now I like to pop the yolks while the egg is still in the pan but that would have ruined my picture!

We arrived home from school today and found our flowerpot sporting a little white egg. A little later Max came running down from the coop laughing loudly and holding up another white egg. You would have thought it was a candy-filled Easter egg the way he carried on. It is fun to watch the kids enjoy this new phase of chicken-rearing.

And the kids really do their part happily with helping to take care of the chickens with Max and Annette doing an especially large part of the care. Each morning Max wants to let the chickens out first thing. He ASKS to go out in the cold/rain/snow(who am I kidding? We don't have any snow)/whatever to let the chickens out of the coop. At night, he is the one that most often shakes the few out of the tree beside the coop and closes them in.

And, I am not kidding, this is an actual conversation I had with Annette the other day:

Me: Annette, I don't want to bother with cleaning out the coop right now so can you just sprinkle some clean bedding in there on top of the old?

Annette: Oh, MOM! Do I have to?

Me: It won't be hard, just take this bucket of pine shavings and sprinkle them around.

Annette: (in all seriousness) But, Mom, PLEEEASE can't I just scoop out the poop?

Me: OOO-Kaaay, I guess so...
:-)

Another random, late Christmas photo..

2010-01-21T20:07:00.003-05:00

Egg #3

2010-01-16T13:02:00.004-05:00

Misha stood outside the chicken coop with us and watched as an egg fell noiselessly under the chicken who had endured an audience for the last ten minutes or so. He then held up four fingers and proudly proclaimed, "Now we have three eggs!" His mouth was right. His hand needs more practice.

Max displaying a still warm egg.
(In the background, you can see Pinocchio, the half-beaked chicken, shoveling
cracked corn and chicken food out of one of her precious buckets)

The egg on the left is a store-bought large egg. The one on the right is our egg-of-the-day. See how much smaller that is? I don't know when or if the future eggs will get larger but I think they do start out a little smaller in the chicken's first attempts to lay.

The Mama. Side view.

The Mama, front view. Yeah, she doesn't get any prettier from different angles. Besides having the huge knock against her that she is a chicken and can only truly be considered lovely by other chickens, she also has a problem because with that comically flopped-over comb nobody takes her seriously.

Random Late Christmas Photo

2010-01-15T21:49:00.002-05:00

Fresh from a Chicken's bum....

2010-01-14T13:02:00.002-05:00

Our first egg! (Oh, The excitement in our house this morning!) Compliments of a floppy combed white leghorn named Pinky.

Cutting the Tree! (alternate title: Yay! Snow!)

2009-12-05T13:33:00.007-05:00

Off to find our tree!

All lot of snowballs went flying!

Who likes this tree? Misha does.

Why God made boys.

Taking home the prize.

My pretty Hannah.

Watch out! She's got a snowball!

Hannah took a bunch of pictures too.

Ivy liked the "baby" trees.

We all really enjoyed warming up with hot chocolate when we were through. Mmmmm!

Good Morning!

2009-11-30T20:58:00.005-05:00

One of the big thrills each day around our house is playing with the animals. The Animals being 23 chickens and one very tolerant cat. Little Ivy has a favorite chicken and everyone agrees that Whitey is "Ivy's Chicken".

Good morning, Ivy! Good morning Whitey!

Houdini is our former kitten. Now he is officially a CAT. He has the prestigious title around here as being the most tolerant cat in the world.

See? He didn't complain one bit about this. In fact, he never stopped purring!
Steve says his purrer is just broken.

Another Chicken. Angel or Pinky, I can't tell.

Ivy loves all the chickens.

And we all look out for this one in particular. Pinocchio, with no top beak is even allowed in the back door. There she happily shovels her food while standing in the green bucket designated for that purpose. When she is done, she hops out of the bucket and looks out the back door until someone opens it. Here, Annette is feeding her grass which Pinocchio sucks down like spaghetti if we stick one end in under her nose.

We are weird. But we enjoy our weirdness.

Finally! Pictures of THE CHAIR.

2009-11-21T20:46:00.008-05:00

Any of you who follow me on Facebook may remember me working diligently on reupholstering an overstuffed chair recently. The chair was given to me as an adoption-fundraiser-yard-sale-leftover from our friends, Dominic and Tiffany Moro a couple of months back. My good friend from long ago and still into the present, Heather, helped me, well, more like directed me in a hands-on kind of way. I couldn't have done it without her help! Really!

Also, it was fun getting to spend so much time with her this visit. She was able to come almost every day of her ten-day visit (She and her mother stayed at my mom's house). Each time we slaved over this chair. Several times we enjoyed cappuccinos first, or as Steve calls them, Redneckachinos, because they come from the gas station machine.

I remembered to take a before picture. This is a major accomplishment. (sound of me patting myself on the back).A few during pictures to tell the story:
I bought a pair of fabric scissors. I thought this was funny, I actually needed scissors to get at them! I didn't end up using my scissors anyway because Heather brought hers and they cut like a hot knife through BUTTER.

We tore that chair apart, limb from limb. We made a mess. Actually, I think I will blame Heather for the mess. Heather made a mess. There.

Paused to admire the fact that Annette could fit a whole, live chicken into that little box. And the chicken loved it! Or so she said.

Heather finally made some excuse about having to go home. And try as we might, and hammering furniture tacks until the last moment, we didn't quite finish. This left me with the back to put on, a few more tacks to tap in, and the legs to refinish. None of these things took long but it did seem to take me forever to get to each individual task!

Finally I finished the tacking, then the back, and lastly, those pesky legs! I used a gel stain so that I wouldn't have to strip the wood first. It worked well and I am pleased with the results!Here is the leg. In this picture you will enjoy the I Spy game of finding two popcorn kernels and one white chicken feather. You will not, however, see the vacuum cleaner.

The finished product!! Oh! and in this picture, more I Spy! There is a My Little Pony toy hiding under the curtains! Oops. Now I told you. Sorry....

Nobody is allowed to sit in the chair. Ever. Heather said so. So don't tell her that I let Ivy sit there today while I took a million pictures of her because she has a dress that matches the chair and I just love matchy things.

Also, she's such a cutie. Ivy, that is. Heather's okay too.

Thank you so much Heather! I sit on the couch and look at my chair while I drink my coffee in the mornings. I'd sit in the chair, it does look comfy, but I might spill and besides, you said not to. Sigh..... :-)

2009-11-12T21:06:00.004-05:00

Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no change,
nor shadow of alteration.

James 1:17

A day on the farm!

2009-10-23T21:41:00.008-05:00

We had a great time with the kids a couple weekends ago when we joined our co-op on a field trip to tour the Mayfield Dairy and then to visit a farm that was all set up to entertain families for the fall season!
We enjoyed a host of activities on the farm including a hayride, animal-feeding, learning how the milkers work, a hay jump, seeing the sunflower field in bloom, a corn box to play in(think sandbox but with corn), pretend cows to "milk", walking in a silo, a corn maze, the faceless characters painted onto plywood just begging for little faces to fill them for photos, and other exciting things that I am sure I have forgotten!Vitali in the corn box. The corn box was a big favorite!

Even the big kids enjoyed the corn--for that matter, Steve was in there too!

Children of the corn.

Steve offered to take the day off and go with us.
We were so thankful that he did. It was a great family day!

One of the things I forgot to mention--a giant stack of tractor tires.
Perfect for a little boy whose main dream in life is to be
BIG!!

The hay jump! Max's favorite spot.

Ivy enjoyed it too.

And Vitali, AKA, Tigger, also loved the hay jump.
Though he nicely paused his bouncing to pose for a picture for mommy.

Ivy in a pumpkin. I love this little pumpkin head...
See? Told you.

The hayride was a lot of fun, too. Notice all the smiles?
More hayride-prompted grinning.

I am amazed at what huge strides Misha has made since he joined our family! Anyone familiar with sensory issues will appreciate the fact that it is a giant accomplishment for this little guy to let a donkey eat out of his hand!

All the kids. Look at Vitali. That pretty much sums him up in a snapshot! Haha! That boy is all entertainment and funniness!

It was a chilly day. I didn't notice how chilly till I got into the car and realized that my fingers were stiff! But no one wanted to leave and all were chattering and smiling on the ride home, overflowing with happy memories of the day.

From the shoebox blog

2009-10-15T20:50:00.002-05:00

A surprise in the mail!

2009-10-09T11:56:00.004-05:00

Steve asked me to clean off the front porch today because he was expecting a package. I didn't ask what it was but made sure it got done. I was hoping that he had ordered more rags because he uses so many this time of year.

When the truck arrived, I was in the back yard taking care of the chickens. I hadn't gotten dressed yet and so I was avoiding going over to the truck to get the package, letting the kids get it instead. As I walked into garage, I called, "Do I have to sign anything?" No, I didn't.

Then, I heard the boys say, "Who is it for?"
"Melissa Eimers." the driver read.
What? Curiosity got the better of me and I abandoned my scoopful of chick food and stepped out of the garage for a better view.

There was no doubt about it, that was not a box of rags!

Around me the kids were saying, "What is it Mama?" I felt a blush creeping over my face as I stated what would have been obvious to better readers, "Daddy sent me flowers!" I looked up and saw the driver grinning in amusement at my reaction.

What a fun and sweet surprise from my honey!

As we walked into the house, Max kept a steady stream of conversation going. To me he said, "Mama, you are going to kiss Daddy?" To Misha he warned, "Mama and Daddy are going to kiss. You will have to watch them!" (Misha makes a big giggly deal of it when he sees kissing.) To everyone else, "Daddy loves Mama! He give her flowers!"

Aren't they beautiful?

The flowers are beautiful! Once before he has sent me flowers. Other times he has hand delivered them. I am not the sort of girl who requires flowers all the time, but how fun it is and how flattered I am that he thought of me, ordered them and kept the secret until I was surprised today!

ten

2009-09-14T21:36:00.005-05:00

September 11 is a birthday at our house!

This year Hannah turned ten! I can hardly believe it!

The big news for this year was that Steve's brother Daniel and his wife Bonita welcomed a tiny 3lb, 15oz baby girl the same day!

We packed ourselves together and headed to Chattanooga just to be there. Of course, the baby went straight to the NICU. She was doing quite well and I am pretty sure she was the biggest baby there though we didn't really get to see her, just a glimpse. Tiny, just the same. The good news is that she came out crying and has been breathing on her own!
Since all looked good, we came home that afternoon and remade plans to party with G'ma and G'pa falk at their house. We stopped and got the stuff to make subs for dinner (Hannah's request) and bought a cake (Oh, happy day; I LOVE storebought cakes!). We watched Hannah's new movie, Enchanted, and ate the cake.

So, it's official now. I have a child in double digits! I think that is some kind of milestone for a parent. Unfortunately, no presents for the parents are involved. Well... there was cake...

We got Hannah a digital camera and gave it to her early in case she had a chance to take pictures of the baby. As I suspected, no such luck but she was pretty happy anyway! I love watching the kids open birthday presents. The other five all clamoring around the birthday child calling, "Open mine first!!"and "Mine next!!" I love seeing their faces light up with pride when the careful Dollar Tree selection is properly admired. I also love watching my Grandpa enjoy the show. He really gets a kick out of not being able to see a thing around the horde of small partiers! :-) He laughs and smiles the whole time. And my dad gets it all on video. Or at least he tries to. Its that way every time. And it makes for a kind of comfortable, cozy predictability that we all enjoy.

Family reunion

2009-09-07T20:12:00.005-05:00

We had a Falk family reunion this weekend. This included 27 of us to feed and one of us eating for two (not me!). Mom sent us all home stuffed!

We played a little of the new clue game. It is really quite fun. And Beth brought this game, Fill or Bust. We played it and had a good time.
John and Jude kept score while I practiced my stylish rolling of the dice. I am not sure I am ready for Vegas....
Jude switched jobs and started helping his mommy throw the dice.
Daniel working on a good dice roll.
Evan, who won so soundly I am suspicious that he must have cheated...

Ethan enjoyed his fried ice cream from Aunt Beth while second-in-line Isaac drooled nearby.

John, Beth and Jude came to our house for a bit before they left for home and Jude met our temporary pet turtle while his dad, mom and Uncle Steve did some shooting in the yard.
Moving turtle freaked him out a bit. Closed up turtle made him alternately hungry and quarterback-like.
The front steps were a fun place to play!

Before they left, Jude got to go and see the little chickies in the back yard. He really enjoyed them. From a distance, that is. A good, safe distance. Because you can never be too careful around peeping baby chicks.

Story Blog

2009-09-03T20:05:00.003-05:00

Hannah has started a new blog called Stories Galore! She reads a story onto the computer and, since Blogspot won't publish plain audio, she had the idea to make a Youtube video of her narration complete with pictures that she has taken herself! She is doing a great job. I recommend her first story, Little Red Riding Hood. Hmmm...doesn't that little Crimson-hooded darling look familiar?!

What chicks do for fun...

2009-08-31T21:52:00.002-05:00

Quote of the day (from the shoebox again.)

2009-08-26T20:43:00.003-05:00

funny for the day

2009-08-25T08:23:00.004-05:00

From the Shoebox blog this morning. (well, really from yesterday. Details, details) Anyway, I got a good, out loud chuckle this morning and thought I share it with you. It could just be that I am weird. If so, don't tell me. Ignorance is bliss.

Worst Back To School Items

August 24, 2009 11:12 am

* Thong gym shorts
* Overly-sharpened scissors that don’t close
* Powder blue Sissy-Boy brand sneakers
* Spine Mangler—the ergonomically incorrect backpack
* Blank ruler
* Vodka
* Switchblade
* #3 pencils
* Ryan Seacrest lunchbox
* Formaldehyde wipes
* Bully-attracting body spray
* EZ-WEDGE undies
* Temporary teardrop tattoos

A few random pictures of the young'uns...

2009-08-23T14:35:00.004-05:00

Ivy and the neighbor's grandson let some chickies play in the pony stable.
According to Ivy, the chickies love it there.

Max likes these pretty yellow chicks and also one that he calls "Penguin".

This boy has more energy than he knows what to do with!

My little girl is growing up fast. :-)

They're Here!

2009-08-21T15:02:00.006-05:00

Our baby chicks arrived today! Wow! The excitement around here was undeniable. I admit to being pretty pleased myself. What fun to watch the kids squealing with delight and amazement!Everyone wanted to be first to see the little fluffy ladies. I could hardly get them from the post office guy for all the clamoring and "Let me see!" pleadings.

Nobody wanted to sit down in the car but we had to get the little peeps home. After all, they had just spent days in that box without food or water!

The squealing started again with, "Can I hold one?!" added to the commotion. What fun!
Ivy still has her little chubby baby hands. Aren't they sweet?
And look how "cozy" that baby chick is!
Four at once. I am not sure how many kinds there are. Some differences are subtle and I am not sure if the difference is individuality or breed. We'll have to figure that out.
Temporary chick house. Blissful children.
This one is missing it's upper beak. I named her Pinocchio. What looks like a stub of a beak is actually just the nostril part. It is kind of soft, like cartilage. I really will be surprised if this one survives. Maybe it will find a creative way to eat. But it had better hurry!

One of the chicks arrived dead. I guess that was the extra. The rest, 25, including Pinocchio, were fine and frisky!

These are "Rainbow Layers". Several different breeds of chickens that lay different colors of eggs. Blue, green, brown(?) and I don't know what else. We'll find out. The blue layers, mixed with a brown laying breed will give pink eggs--at least that is what I have read.

Our chicks are all hens. That is what they tell us. They ship at one day old but I think that there is some way that they influence gender (rather than just determine it).
I will have to look that up.

Aww...Aren't they sweet?! Both of them!

:-)

2009-08-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

Another laugh from the Shoebox blog. Happy Thursday.

Sad again.

2009-08-18T19:54:00.004-05:00

A couple of mornings ago I noticed the lack of morning crowing coming from our backyard. I looked out back and sure enough, the coop had not been locked up the night before. After last week's removal of Indiana Jones, our only rooster now was John Quincy Adams. After noticing the quiet, I nudged Steve awake and quietly told him what I suspected. We went out to inspect. Mostly because we were trying to avoid having Annette find a mess. We didn't find anything at first and for a moment we were perplexed. Then we saw the feathers. Not on the bird. So we had a very, very sad little girl that morning. All morning. Fortunately, the reminder that we have 25 baby chicks coming this week cheered my little girl somewhat. And having a cuddly kitty to sit with you doesn't hurt, either.Unfortunately, little sisters like kitties too.

Ivy wins the kitty. Annette was fine with it, really.

Now to find a comfortable position to snuggle.
This isn't it...
I don't think this one will work, either.

Look at that happy kitty.
Hey, little friend, will you please sit still?

Ah. This is better.

And Annette? She was feeling better by lunchtime. Playdough always helps.

First fulll day of school.

2009-08-18T15:59:00.003-05:00

Misha is helping Vitali with his worksheet. Vitali was soooo proud to be in Kindergarten. He kept asking, "What am I, mama?"

"Kindergarten" I would say.

"Kindergarten, ah. Yes, that's right. I am getting bigger!"

"Yes, Vitali, you are getting bigger. But you are still very little."

"I am bigger than this cup!"

"Yes, you are bigger than that cup."

Vitali just beamed. Plus, he is 42 inches. He is very, very proud of that, too.

Misha was a very good teacher to Vitali. I was actually surprised because he normally thrives on opportunities to be bossy. But he very kindly showed Vitali what to do and waited while Vitali figured things out. Good job, Misha!

Hello.

2009-08-16T20:50:00.001-05:00