we start 'em out young 'round here...

Molly loves the treadmill. she's on there right now and she just told me she needs to use my iPod.

You go, GIRL!

shledding fun

earlier in the day (Christmas), Andrew thought it'd be fun to snowboard down the shledding hill.

Good thing he's still quite resilient...must be all that sweetened/condensed milk in his coffee.

Mooski

Tree Smear...thankfully, it looks much worse than it was....E is a bit of a daredevil too.

Beck says Two Thumbs WAY UP!

David, Levi and Nora

Nora

Will and Levi

One word: Waverly.

nuff said.

Ethan was very attached to this clothes basket. I even gave it a whirl a couple times and it was amazingly smooth.

we're nuts

My favorite picture of Becky...biting the powder! needless to say, she bounced right back and wasn't even sore the next day.

Will liked to scare us all and go down the ravine.

Becky, showing us her mad shledding skills.

Andy set aside his California ways (palm trees, 80 degrees and perpetual sunshine) to humor the Indiana Eskimos for a bit...he's a bit of a daredevil.

David, Will and Levi!

E and Nora

If it wasn't for Becky's feet, we'd have been eating tree bark.

Will was the official mule boy for this pack of females. running them back up the hill after a quick slip down the hill.

working on their model faces while shledding.

I will have to look thru the pix of the shledding adventure to put more on...there are sooo many. This is a good start, right?

As you have read, unless you are just here for the pictures, I have referred to this time-revered activity as "shledding". We have done this since our childhood. Don't ask why.

I think it goes back to our Michigan roots.

Anyways, I shall be back later with more Christmas day pix that Tom took...again, all these pix above belong to him. He takes great pix, don't you think?

Until then, more coffee is in order to get thru this toothache filled day of recovery....argh.

Left my camera at the cabin...

camera phone, good thing we have it at moments like this. We got about half way home when I realized, panicked, freaked out, that I had left it at my in-laws in all of the commotion to get out the door and safely home! The Christmas Eve PJ's...

glorious tree, all littered with gifts...good night!

this pic is from Natalie's FB...

so I'm either stealing pix from family members for my blog or uploading photos from my phone, which takes ungood photos. ha ha.

Hopefully, Tom will post all the pix he took on Christmas to Facebook soon, so I can steal them...we had such a great time freezing our bums off, sledding last night, after a delicious Mexican feast and too many presents.

For now, I must go get ready, for my big brother is taking all of his siblings and whatever spouses they have to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory....Merry Christmas to ME!

Chow for now...

Merry Christmas Eve...

The little angel and little shepherd send warm Christmas wishes to you and yours....

Today, we are supposed to get snow...lots of it. We are heading to Illinois at around noon...depending on that snowfall, we will be home around 10 p.m.

I'm so excited for the kids...they are ALL so excited. Even Will, in his laid back ways.

I, for one, will be slightly relieved when Sunday, December 26th rolls around. I sound like my mom. She always used to say that she'd be "glad when it was all over" and it'd make me so mad...Mom, I know what you mean now. And I appreciate you all the more...It's definitely more fun to have Christmas fun happen TO YOU than to be the one(s) that MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I get it now. hats off, Mom and Dad.

And all of you fellow parents out there...let's all take a nice, collective deeeeeep breath...I can see the finish line.......

I shall be back tomorrow with more pix, I am certain.

Merry CHRISTmas, Glorious Emmanuel, God with us, to you and yours! Let us not forget the most amazing gift ever given...JESUS CHRIST!

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time...

Our green lidded shepherd kept hiding behind the other shepherds. grrr.

Our unimpressed littlest angel.

this was the best nighttime shot I could get of David...

Molly wasn't all that fond of Will's "break neck, let's go down the ravine" ways.

Mel, catching some powder...

This kid likes to eat snow. We warned him that eating snow in the dark could be hazardous to his health. o well. we tried.

Will and Melanie

David, Levi and Molly...I'm amazed at how much she enjoyed sledding! it was so much fun...I even took my bum down more than a dozen times, very carefully, mind you...but I figured it was some good cardio for that day. No real daredevilry on my part. well, not completely.

Becky, trying to scare the holiday spirit right out of me...

Mel, Levi and Piper, carefully preparing their reindeer food for Friday night...Molly and Nora made some too, but by that time, I was elbow deep in dinner dishes and they were in and out so fast, that I failed to get their picture. yes, I am a loser.

I'm sure I've used this title before. I'm pretty un-original that way.

Quite honestly, in spite of how I "feel" physically or whatever...we are creating good memories...

Sunday was a very busy day. Kids' Christmas program at church, lunch there afterwards followed by Boyden's cake and presents for my 38th b-day at my sister/bro in law's house. We went sledding. All of us, except for Randy (spoilsport :D) and Ethan, who was ministering at a local retirement home with his Phos Ontos group (Will stayed home with us).

My kid brother, Andy, flew in from Sunny California yesterday so we all met up for dinner and reindeer food making at Beck's house...

I can't believe Christmas is in THREE sleeps. I am all caught up on wrapping, just have to get a few giftcards but otherwise, all is well.

I am so thankful for Emmanuel... God with us. I will cling to that today. Happy Wednesday to you...

past few days....

This is CeCe....aka Cyndy. She was one of my first friends in Indy. She also was a bridesmaid in our wedding. She also just happens to be the sister of my brother in law, Scott. So fun to think we share nieces. Funny how those things work out, eh? In this pic, we are at Nora's little Christmas program last Thursday. Last night, we attended Piper's Christmas program...Surely Tom will be posting pix on Facebook for me to steal. love ya, Cyndy. you're a good auntie.

so nice to see some siding on the ol' abode!

Bye bye Tyvek...you've worn out your welcome.

due to the frigid temperatures, Randypants hasn't been able to finish the siding. Plus, he's working for D's company...there's even more than this above pic finished and even unfinished, David and I are just in awe of what a difference siding makes. Green makes me happy.

This group of kids and their mothers bought supplies for 12 gentlemen...gloves, socks, toothbrush and paste, lotion, etc....to donate to the Wheeler Mission Ministry here in Indy. My awesome, compassionate friend, Tammy, organized this. love that girl.

In other exciting yet scary news, I had my first prenatal with our uber cool midwife, Mary Helen on Wednesday. I am 13 weeks+ along and since it's early, she told me we may not hear the heartbeat. It only took her 30 seconds with her Doppler to find #6's heartbeat and kapow! it was so strong.

so real.

so undeniable that, yes, there is another Young a-brewing. Kinda makes it seem real. She was really surprised at how loud, steady the little ticker was. I bet it's twins. She also poked my finger (youch) and I am slightly anemic, which explains the breathlessness even though I exercise 6 days a week. My liquid iron should arrive on my doorstep today. We are sooo very happy with our midwife. She is so much like our previous one (who just lives too far away from us now)...and such a calming influence....yah.

I shall return later on to hopefully post more pix but for now, Mel and I are ditching the four other kids here at home while we venture out to do a little Christmas shopping/hunting.

See ya later, taters...

Santa Baby...

As parents, we've never pushed the Santa theory.

We've watched all the holiday specials with him in them.

We've always put cookies, carrots, milk and oats out for him and his reindeer.

We've always enjoyed scaring them when they were little...Will was especially frightened of the man in red. Ethan's preschool teachers pulled me aside in the weeks before Christmas saying I might want to "talk to him" (as if) because he was upsetting all of his friends by telling them Santa wasn't real. (rebel rouser)

S0, Wednesday night as we sauntered around the mall, Molly saw this very authentic Santa and wanted to get her picture taken with him. Levi was a little more tentative but he gave in. David was a total sucker (so cute) for Molly's request...and here is the result. A 5 x 7 piece of immortality...

Molly sat there and told him all the things she wanted, fearlessly. I guess that's good.

Today's a busy day...our good friends are going out of town for a few weeks for the holidays so we are going to spend some time with them...David's working, Randy's finishing our siding, the kids are helping me with the littles so I can spend some time with Tambo....

and on we go...hope this finds you well. busy weekend ahead. pix of siding up soon.

Emmanuel...God with Us.

ever have one of these days?

this is how Monday makes me feel...

in all honesty....I'm home for the next 45 minutes before I run Levi and E to Karate. Levi gets done at 7 and then David and I are going to walk around the mall with him, take in some sights, sounds and smells of the season. With just our 3rd son, 4th child. A special time will be had, I am certain.

I am hoping to be able to post some pix of our visit to the Greatest Show on Earth this past Saturday...of which this pic above is from said visit. Tomorrow should be good, for I will be home waiting for our treadmill to be delivered.

Until then, hope this finds you staying relatively warm in this frigid coldiness.

this stuff...

this is what it's doing here today.

this pic is from last year...there's even more snow out there than this. I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

Anyways, David, Becky, her kids, four of our kids and I are going to the Ringling Bros. circus this morning...Levi would rather go sledding from what I can hear...he is so stoked about this white stuff.

Hope to be back later on with some great circus pictures, scratch n sniff style.

summertime....I miss you today.

Is it just me or did it get really cold, really quickly?

Last week, it was in the 50's-60's. This week, 20's during the DAY.

that is pretty drastic. even this snow bird can't handle that.

Just wanted to share a summertime memory, to see if it would warm me up.

I'm still cold.

this girl...

is, by far, one of the kindest girls you'll ever meet.

This is Rachel. We know her from our previous homeschool group. We've also had the pleasure of getting to know her better at Phos Ontos.

She came down to hang out with us. We visited, she gave Mel a bunch of amazingly handy, helpful tips for babysitting. We introduced her to Telestrations, ate salsa, swiss cake rolls and mint truffle Hershey kisses. She was caring and patient with all of us, even Levi when he got all questiony, Molly when she got all Molly, and me when I got all cranky with the two little whiners.

Rachel is a rare breed of girls today...I'm so thankful for her influence not only in my kids' lives but in mine as well. God Bless you, young woman of God.