Home Improvement

We have been doing a lot of work on the shop and house lately.  We've been replacing (or adding, the shop didn't have any) insulation and painting.

First we did the shop.  We lifted the paneling up on the outside and left it attached at the top so it would be easier to put back.

Then we put insulation up.

Joshua and I

Originally the paneling was attached with staples.  We were going to try just using the old staples but that didn't work so we had to pull all the old staples out and reattach with a nail gun.

Dad and I attempting to reattach with the staples.

Who ever built the shop was extremely staple happy.  They used so many.  It took forever to pull them all.

Deborah and I pulling staples.

After the shop we did a wall in the house.  We have been slowly over a few years doing one wall at a time.  This wall was the hardest.  We have everything attached to this wall.  The computer, TV, radio's, moniter heater, internet modem... lots of stuff.   But we finally got it done.

Dad and Quentin also reframed the window.

Quentin

When the paneling was first put up it was put up with glue instead of nails.  That made for a pain to chip off before we could nail them back up.

After the boys put the paneling up Mom and I painted.  We put on a white base coat then a blue faux.

You paint the blue on, then put saran wrap on it, squish it up then peel it off.

We've also been painting in the kitchen, the upstairs and working on finishing up the basement.  I guess the winter is a good time to get all that done.

Drumming

Four years ago Mr. D came out to Nondalton and did drumming workshops with the kids at school and some of the community (Christmas Drumming).  He came back again this year for two weeks.   He spent the day working with different age groups of kids at school then at night for the community.  If was a lot of fun.  Mom, Deborah, Quentin, Anna, and I all went up at night for class.  Every age group worked on a different song and the day before school got out we had a potluck at the school and we all played our songs.

Potluck

The preschoolers.

The high schoolers.

The adults and older kids.

The elementary kids.

Mr. D

Potlucks are always fun.  Especially during school break when all the kids who go to different schools are back.

Afterwards they had Christmas Karaoke.  The little girls were the only people who would sing though.

Susan's note - About four years ago we discovered that Jesus wan't actually born at christmas .  Since then we have been celebrating His birth at the Feast of Tabernacles, which from Biblical accounts is the much more likely time of His birth.  As our family traditions have been slowly changing, the well intentioned celebrations of other Christians can present difficult decisions.  This year we decided to go ahead and participate in the drumming classes even though we knew the program would be during the annual christmas program.  Abigail wrote a great blog post on what we believe about christmas a few days ago.  You can read it here  http://consumedwiththecreator.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas.html

Snow!

We finally got enough snow to get out the snow machines!!!  Going towing behind snow machines has to be one of the best parts of winter.  It finally started snowing last Saturday so we got the Bravo out and spent a couple hours out on the lake towing.

You can really get some air!

The best part though is knocking other people off their ropes so you can get the longest one.

It ends in lots of pileups.  Why go down peacefully when you can take everyone with you? =)

And if you do get your sled knocked out from underneath you that's no reason to let go of the rope.

This is Caleb while he was supposed to be taking it easy and making sure not to open
 his cut back up because he just got his stitches out.  Yeah...

Sorry for the terrible quality pictures. =P

19th Anniversary

Paul and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.  I love celebrating our anniversaries, mostly because our kids love it so much and make it such a special celebration.  There are no restaurants in the village we live in so every year they decorate a room for us to have a special meal in.  They go all out with the decorations and with the meal.

The kids love dressing up and serving us our food.  We ring them every time we need something and they come running to serve us.  They are so cute because they are so excited to serve us.

Benjamin

Sometimes we dress up really nice, but this year we had been out back digging in our hole all day and we didn't feel like dressing up.  So, we had a nice relaxed dinner :)

19 years, it's hard to believe!  If  somebody had told me what lay ahead 19 years ago, I would have had a hard time believing it.   But I wouldn't change a bit of it.  Well at least not much... :)  I love being married to Paul and the life we live together and I love our nine kids and the joy they bring us.  I praise God for bringing us to this place in life and I'm looking forward to the next 19+ years and all that He has in store for us.

Caleb serving lemonade.

The boys could only come with one tie between them so they had to take turns with it. 

Ice Boats

So... due to our abundance of ice and cold and lack of snow Quentin and Joshua decided to build themselves iceboats.  Ever since they've had them made we haven't had any good wind till yesterday so we spent all day out sailing them.  They're a ton of fun.  You can really get going across the lake.  Caleb had to get three stitches yesterday when a big gust of wind hit him while he was trying to turn and knocked the beam into his head.  But he was back out sailing again a couple hours later, tough guy.

Caleb, before he got smacked in the head.

Joshua

Joshua taking Sarah for a ride.

Joshua and Sarah

Quentin and Geronimo putting up the sail on Quentin's boat.

Quentin and Caleb

Deborah

The pretty moon.

Our neighbor Bob, landing his plane on the lake.