Aaron has arrived!

We're happy to welcome Aaron into our home.  He was born on October 27 at 7:26 am and was 8 pounds 8 ounces.  He's doing great and we are really enjoying getting to know him.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pictures of Aaron...

And his amazing mommy...

 

 

 And his cute little feet.

 

...and we're home...

with our new little boy.

The Day Before You

About 9 hours before baby time! 

Getting there

Just a few more short days until our newest arrival (hopefully). 

Happy Birthday!

Joel and the boys helped me celebrate my 35th birthday by taking me up north to a cute little cottage on Lake Michigan.  The water and the clouds were so beautiful even though it was very cold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Love Daniel!

Daniel the Dragon


Being a dragon is very serious and real to Daniel.  October 31 can't come soon enough!!


Daniel the Boy

 

Sweetness

Joel had some very ambitious and mean bees this year.  Their hard work produced about 25 pounds of honey this year. 
Here is Joel using a hot knife to cut off the capped honey.

Then the frames go in this thingy-ma-jig and it spins really fast to make all the honey fly out. 
I'm sure Joel would use these very technical words to describe the process too.

The honey is extremely dark this year but still tastes good.  Bill (the man pictured above whose equipment we used) has kept bees for about 25 years and says he's never seen honey as dark as this year's harvest.  He thinks it is due to the drought this past summer and that the honey is very concentrated. 

Still Blogging

Possible causes of infrequent blogging? 
Pick the correct answer
1.  The regular blogger has bad heartburn. (yes, irrelevant to blogging, I know)
2.  Joel is a lazy sack (he suggested that just now, not me!)
3.  Passwords are hard (Peter just suggested that one)
4.  Our camera battery charger is lost
5.  Our larger than life experiences are difficult to capture with conventional photography and the limitations of the English language.


So here is what we've been up to:

Peter is enjoying his new plasma car.  Turns out you don't need to know how to use it when you have an older brother.

 

A visit to the fair with Gramps and Gram to see all the animals.

 

A party to celebrate Randy and my birthdays.  Yes, Randy really is turning 353 this year. 

 

Meeting "The Girls". 
Estelle Marie and Elaina Mae joined the family on August 16.  Given that they were born when they were only 4 lbs, I postponed the big introduction to "The Boys" until recently so that the boys wouldn't give the girls their cooties.

 

On Saturday we enjoyed the beautiful weather and leaves during a 4 hour canoe trip.  Who knew that boys could sit still that long? 

We did have several intermissions for the pregnant lady's back and the wiggly boys.

On Sunday we visited a train museum of sorts.  We rode the big, medium, and small steam engine trains. 

 

We all agreed that the small train was the most fun to ride!