Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody! We hope ya'll had a great year - we sure did! I'll do a post with pictures as soon as I can - but it may have to wait until next year. :-) Have a wonderful year!

An Interesting Day...

On Christmas Eve, we went to the house of some of our friends, the Ringers. They live up in a more mountainous area, so naturally the driving is a little more treacherous. Well.... we were rounding a curve and we headed into the ditch! Thankfully, it's not a LARGE ditch, only about a foot and a half deep. But if any of you are winter drivers, you'll know that a ditch, no matter what size, is not easy to get out of. Thankfully, we had the camera with us. (I always take it along!) We took some pictures... hope y'all laugh with us!
.

The view. I don't know if you can see the clock, but it was 1:20. We were twenty minutes LATE!!!!

The car. And the ditch. Not a good combination. However, Joe ran up the road a bit to see if he could get to a neighbor's house and he ran into Mr. Ringer! Mr. Ringer had come out to the end of the drive way to meet us, and when we didn't show up he started down the road! Thank God!

Aha! A great idea (Roberta gets credit). Pack down the snow in front of the front tire in the ditch and lay sticks and logs across the snow leaning up towards the road. Voila! You are out!

Finally, we ate a warm Christmas Eve dinner and played carols for a while. Abby took this picture - rather nice for a five year old!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope ya'll had a great day. We sure did! QUITE an improvement form Christmas Eve! HA! I took lots of pictures, enjoy them all!
♪

Excitement

Sarah and Zoe. Cats are allowed in the house on Christmas....

Acrobatic Cat

Roberta and her new, hand-knitted scarf from our Aunt. The yarn is called Sherbet. Rightly named!

Dad, with his package of hot sauce. He put some of the spiciest stuff on his Christmas dinner. Seriously!

Roberta, inspecting the new DVD and CD from the Botkin sisters.
These are really good - I suggest you look at them - http://www.visionforum.com/. The DVD is called the Return of the Daughters, about the rise of feminism in today's culture - very good - and the CD is called Strength and Dignity for Daughters.

Joe

Mom

Sarah and her favorite present - an Airsoft gun! She's used Joe's for a while... I guess he wanted an opponent!

Abby's favorite present. They were on sale, too!

Our Little Cowgirl

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOD BLESS!

Hugs from your usual reporter, Hannah

Fun With Our Friends

On Sunday after church, Mom and Dad invited the some of our friends over for the evening. They called and said they would come at 6:30. All us kids were so excited. We were a little worried, because there are 7 of them, our house is rather small, and it's winter time so we couldn't sit outside... but we fit just fine. We made up cookies, cheese, grapes etc. and they brought popcorn.

Then, in the middle of this all, Dad and Joe's volunteer firefighter pager went off!! Grroooaaann. Of course they took off, and we sat there and listened to them call the dispatcher, "Engine 52 responding with 2 on board." Then the call was canceled, someone from the fire station got there first, and said there was no need for anyone else to come, so the boys came home.

Here is Caleb, the cat wrangler, holding Zoe. Zoe let him do anything he wanted to her without even a squeak. He says a real way to test a cat's trust is to hold them on you lap, laying them on their back, slide you hands under your legs, then move your knees apart. The cat will fall, into your hands. Zoe completely fell for it.

Luke picked Stuart up, then crossed his (the cat's) paws and ankles. Stuart just sat there, so I ran to get the camera and take a picture.

Here's Caleb, with Zoe in a headlock. This is a candid shot, and I have no idea why Sarah is pointing and making that face.

Aleah, loving Stuart to death.

Dancing Lessons

Well, we all went to dancing lessons on Friday evening, the 21st. It was at the Civic Center, and we had alot of fun. It was really relaxed, and towards the end the kids were getting silly and having a great time. Hannah, as always, took the pictures, and she did a great job.

Joe and Roberta dancing swing.

Dad, about to teach Abby how to waltz.

Sarah, looking like she's having fun.

Sarah and Aleah.

Dad's Birthday

Since he was in Sudan over Dec 1, we celebrated Dad's birthday on Saturday night. (For all of you who have not seen the post of Dad's Sudan experiences, it's just under this subject.) It was great fun. Hope ya'all enjoy the photos - I took most of them. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera yet - I use the family one. Well, it all works out. Somehow...

Blow!

Art

Joe scoops ice cream. YUM!

A present for you!

Secrecy

The great Sarah, hiding behind her present.

The great Snickers lover

Dad brought us each a present from the trip. Sarah is playing with her necklace, made by Africa women in Kenya.

Frosty, the snowman

A new form of photography. Using a flash over snow at twilight will produce this effect.

What is this? A black high-heel shoe or a crazy dog chewing on a deer bone?

That's all for now! Check out Dad's post below. More pictures of Sudan will follow as soon as I can get my hands on them.

~Hannah

Report from Sudan

Report from Sudan: Dad spent about 10 days in the E. part of Sudan in the vicinity of Kurmuk, on the Ethiopian border. His job was to survey dirt airfields for possible emergency use by the medical team he accompanied to Sudan. The team, from Medical Teams Worldwide, was in Sudan to provide medical and dental care to the people in the villages. Sudan is a very desolate place, but the local people are friendly and hospitable.

When the alternator went out on our truck, the driver removed and repaired it on the side of the road.

His tool kit, in an old oil container.

A free lunch provided by the villagers in Deya Mansur. No tellin' what it was, but I ate it and thanked them...and I felt fine later!

One of the soldier hitchikers who climbed into our truck. "SPLA" is the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

A lady obtaining wash water from a dry riverbed. Life is "hard" here to say the least.

Dad's Home!!!

Hi, everyone!
This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Dad's home safely. His flight landed around 19:00 last night, Mom picked him up in Spokane. Thanks for all your prayers! I'll try to update tomorrow, with pictures of his trip and his birthday celebration tonight! (his birthday was on the first, but he was in Africa)
Hugs to all,
Hannah for the family

The Recital

Yesterday (Saturday) night, Joe, Roberta, Sarah and I played in our annual Christmas recital! It's funny, the similarities between the songs of siblings! Joe played a five-page song, and mine was in five flats (G flat). Roberta played Mary's Cradle Song and Sarah played Mary Did You Know. We had a great time, including the cookies afterward!

Anticipation

Will she mess up?

Sarah, playing Mary Did You Know. She did really good, I think the only one of us to play perfectly! She could tell you exactly where the mistakes were, I couldn't tell there were any!

Can you believe it? I actually forgot the name of the arranger while I was up and supposed to be saying it! It's not a hard name, either, Bock. Roberta's was Palmer, Manus, and Lethco, three arrangers!

My Oh, Holy Night

Roberta's Mary's Cradle Song

Joe plays On Christmas Night All Christians Sing

Art.

New Addition! (Are you a detective?)

Hi, everyone! Just in case you all are wondering (which I know you never do) Dad was heard from in Africa! He's doing well, and will return to us on the 14Th of Dec. Meanwhile...

Joe plows the driveway. Unfortunately, it rained today and washed all the snow away! :-(...

Roberta took this lovely picture of the woodshed with half it's snow on.

Okay, here's the part for detectives. We've a new addition to our household. He's a very brilliant and decorated person who's prickly on the outside and hard on the inside (Rather nice character, huh?). He helps decorate for and encourages the holidays, though he'll really stick his pins into you if you try to hug him. (Well, needles. Same difference!) I think one the only words to describe his stature are "tall" full". He's rather ... fat. He stares out the window all day, never talks, drinks a lot of water, wears a skirt, and was brought home from a parking lot by Sarah and Joe. Here are some pictures from our files. If you're stumped, his name is at the bottom of this post! Sarah and Joe with Our Guest.

Art

See what I said? He's a very brilliant person. And he's staring out the window, too! His name is Sir Douglas Fir. Merry Christmas!

~Hannah~(for all the family)~