Quilling

This is what I have been doing lately. It is called quilling. It is an art that has been around for ages and I found a kit in Hobby Lobby and wanted to give it a try. You wind thin strips of paper around pins or needles. There is also a tool that you can use. I find it easiest just to use my fingers. They work better than the tools. Mom, you would enjoy this. This was a design that I came up with on my own. It really is pretty simple. Grace and Eliza have also been making some creations. I'll have to post some of theirs too.

Baby Kae

I love this picture of Katherine. It was hard to get everyone smiling in the family photo, so I wanted to post one of her with her great smile. She is a fun baby and really sweet. Eliza started calling her Baby Kae and that has seemed to stick. Also, "K-K" has become a nickname. We sure love having her in the family.

Family Photo

After seeing everyone's great family pictures, I was inspired to try and do something. Well, I was reminded why we rarely do this! What a pain, but worth the effort. A friend of mine, had given Katherine a really cute dark red dress with snowflakes on it, so we went from there. The boys had sweaters from last year, and David had a great red shirt from an Eastman Conference. I pulled a few other things together and came up with a good-looking bunch! After bribes, threats, whining, crying, about 100 attempts, and a VERY patient friend, we came up with some great photos. The kids were pretty good sports and we look like we are all fairly happy. Boy, it is ever hard to get that many people in a good mood all at once!

Gingerbread Houses

David really outdid himself on this one. He went shopping and came home with bags of goodies. Here we are making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and lots of CANDY. We invited some great friends and had a fun afternoon. The frosting wasn't quite the right consistency, so we had lots of trial "runs".

Merry Christmas!

I'm back. I can't believe how fast the last month has gone. We had a wonderful Christmas and really enjoyed being together as a family. We played games, ate, read, relaxed, did puzzles, watched movies and got some great gifts! Here are some pictures of the holidays. The kids loved the John Deere shirts from Grandma and Grandpa Cannon. They wear them for days and then finally relinquish them to the laundry pile. This is a pretty typical scene at our house. Everyone playing with Dad sacked out on the floor. The kids all love to be around David. We've had so much fun being together.

Sinterklaas Dag

We had another successful Sinterklaas Dag this past year. I was in Holland again for work (ha, ha-see below) and brought back some Dutch goodies; "If ain't Dutch, it ain't much!"

Children Helping Children

David here...
As you know, we have a few kids. Many people ask us if it is easier with six now that the older kids can help out. Well, our older kids still aren't old enough to completely help out. That is, until this past week. Marilyn and I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to the sound of Michael (seven years old) dry-heaving, screaming "Oh, sick!" and laughing; all interspersed. What we soon discovered is that he had gotten our 2 year old (Peter) out of bed and was changing his stinky diaper. Marilyn and I laughed hard during the whole ordeal, but tried to keep quiet so we wouldn't have to go help. Needless to say, Michael took care of it with no problem. What a kid!