Another Elder!

Our big news this Christmas season is that we are gaining a new family member. Scott was engaged on Christmas Eve and he and Becca are looking to a summer wedding. We are excited for them and will very much enjoy having Becca as part of the family.

Another Teenager!

Earlier this month Molly became the 5th Elder child to reach that teenage milestone. Her birthday coincided with our annual gingerbread making day so her birthday turned out to be one big day of celebration.





Thankful for friends who help with the younger kids!


Later that night we celebrated with family.

And even managed to get her ears pierced in the midst of the busy day.

And then the next day, Amy took Molly to camp with a couple of friends so that they could ride horses. A good 13th birthday!

Misc. November Happenings

The ballet company from the place where my girls dance has a big performance each year called The Gift. It is the Christmas story told in dance. This year Elizabeth was able to be a sheep in this performance. I had great expectations of being able to post the video but even Eric, who can usually solve all computer issues, was not able to get the video to load (sorry Nana and Grampa). We did however manage to get a picture of her backstage in costume so that will have to suffice. Maybe next year we will do better.



Thanksgiving Day began with Amy and me running the Atlanta Half Marathon. We both had a good race and I enjoy being able to run with her.


We did host Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but failed to take any pictures. It was however a lovely time with family and friends and we always look forward to everyone coming over.

Church Hiking Trip

A group from our church went hiking recently on Signal Mountain in TN. It was a beautiful place, the weather was great and we had a wonderful time of fellowship while enjoying God's incredible creation.

Life in the Clan

Matthew had a rather rough day or so recently. On Saturday morning he was standing on a stool in the kitchen watching Eric make pancakes. Somehow he managed to fall off and in the process bit his tongue badly. It bled and bled and bled....we held rags on it but the blood kept filling up his mouth. So he just starting spewing all the blood into the kitchen sink and it just kept coming. We had a childless friend over and right when Matthew was spewing blood into the sink, Eric handed her a plate of pancakes and said "here your pancakes are ready"! I am guessing she will choose in the future to eat elsewhere. Hopefully she will still have children. Matthew then spent several hours on the couch too woozy to get up. Later in the day I heard a tremendous crash upstairs. I went up to find that Matthew had somehow fallen (the story was a little convoluted) getting off the toilet and had smacked his head on the toilet seat, breaking it (the toilet seat, not his head!).
To follow all of that up when we were coming in from church the next morning Matthew straggled in last crying, his hand and his head covered in blood. He said that a scooter had fallen on his head. I know enough of the laws of physics to know that scooters do not jump up off the ground and hit someone in the head. And, no, we do not have scooters hanging from the garage ceiling on nifty little hooks - we are not that organized. Actually we do have hooks on one wall for scooters, but the kids never hang the scooters up and the hooks have long since been blocked by large containers which are there to hold outside toys. I'm guessing these containers are empty. The scooters are usually laying scattered around the garage floor and mostly in the walking path through the garage. I could say that maybe the scooters are possessed and my children actually do hang them on the hooks that Eric spent good time putting up and the scooters jump off the hooks in order to sabotage family members that walk through the garage. But I'm pretty sure possessed scooters are not something that Christians believe in, so that is not an option however much I would like to believe that my children hang up their scooters and my life is organized. So all that to say that I have no idea how a scooter hit Matthew in the head. But he survived, we weren't reported to Family and Children's Services, and all seems to be well.
As we focus on giving thanks this month (and always) these incidents remind me to be thankful that my children don't get hurt nearly as much as they could and that all days are not like this.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth turned 6 this October. She is my fearless, can do everything the older kids do child. We recently had a church weekend out at Camp Westminster and Elizabeth wanted to do the climbing wall and the zip line - and she did...fearlessly!

This is atop the 30 foot climbing wall.

Here she sits calmly waiting...when I did this several years ago I was holding onto the pole for dear life.

Off she goes!

Okay, she shows a little fear here...

But quickly recovers.

Mission accomplished!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Our First Honey Extraction

Eric was pleased with how his first extraction of honey went. It was neat to watch and the honey is very tasty!!

Football Begins

Peter is once again playing football for a home school team. This is their second year and they have won 2 games which already is a great improvement over last year. They have an ex-NFL player for a coach and he is doing a great job with these kids. Peter tried out for and received the kicking job this year (although he still plays on the field). Peter is number 20 in the pics. Katie is the team photographer and has set up a blog for the team pictures at (if anyone wants to look at football pictures):
http://northatlantasaints.blogspot.com/

August Birthdays

We had two August birthday which I did not get to acknowledge on their day (the story of my life these days..). However, we did celebrate - Anna turned 9 and Scott turned 22!!

Beach Trip

We did get to the beach in August and had a great time. I posted most of the pictures on facebook (in a more timely manner) but here are a few which I like.

More Vancouver

With vacation and the start of school I never posted the rest of the Vancouver pictures, so here are some more.....