I'm Back

Hello, all! It's been a long blog break - I couldn't believe it when I saw when I last posted. Things have been busy here with getting back into the routine of school and life. Frankly, I'm scared of taking any more pictures because then I'll have to organize them. :) But we have the birthday season kickoff tomorrow, so I'll be back with pictures from Shiloh's, Abigail's, and Nathaniel's birthdays. Until then, here's a picture of the whole family taken at Dunkin Donuts when Opa came to visit last week. Sorry about the sun glare!

Love,

Casey

It's Really Christmas!

Except that it's not in these first photos because I forgot to put up photos from Jamie's wedding on November 15th. :) So here are a few of our lovely evening. The captions are above each photo:

This first picture is the "kids' section," It was originally supposed to be an outdoor wedding and when the weather went sour, we were a bit squeezed in the beautiful refurbished mansion. No one seemed to know what to do or where to sit. Two ladies took charge (are you kidding? of course I was one of them) to sit the kids down so they would be able to see and so that they would be out of the way. They ended up having front row seats for the procession of the wedding party, so it worked out well.

Don't they look CUTE??

This is Shiloh dancing with Luke. I REALLY like Luke. He is a polite, happy, handsome boy who willingly gave up his seat to Adah so that she could sit with the girls in the dining room at their house. His mama is teaching him well.

Shiloh danced the night away, and Nathaniel got in on the action. That Nathaniel is a handsome young man as well. He really liked his tie.

Hey, now there's a handsome man! My man, dancing with my girl. What could be better? We stuck around longer than we planned in order to hear another slow tune because Adah REALLY wanted to dance with Daniel. He even took his shoes off in public to dance. (The mansion staff announced that if we wanted to dance we had to take our shoes off. We thought they were kidding. They weren't. See the guy behind Daniel with WHITE socks on? :) It's okay, though, because it was Jamie's dad and he had been wearing cowboy boots.)

Abigail was making up some...innovative...dance moves. They were all very sad to leave the reception. :) Looking at this picture makes me hum, "I could have danced all night...I could have danced all night..." (My Fair Lady)

This is Jackson. Jackson's face is saying, "Please take me home. I will smile for you, but I really want to go home. Now."

This might be my favorite picture from the trip. Jackson bunked in the boys' room when we stayed with a family. He started off in a bunkbed. I'm not sure how he ended up on the floor or why Joe is mauling him in his sleep, but we found them like this when we went to bed that night.

AND NOW FOR THE CHRISTMAS PHOTOS! ALL FIVE OF THEM! I was having too much fun Christmas Day to take many pictures, and now I'm sad about it. I don't even have a picture of the tree all decorated. I'll try to get one with the kids like we did last year before we take the tree down. But here's the story I promised:

Early Christmas morning Daniel awoke to a noise and thought it was Roscoe chewing on some candy (the kids' stockings were out in the hallway). The noise stopped, but he got up anyway to go into the bathroom. Our bathroom wall adjoins the girls' room, (Shiloh loves those 5:30 showers she hears every morning) and he heard banging in there. He told them through the wall to go back to sleep, but he heard more noises. He went to their room to investigate, and then I heard him laughing and saying, "CASEY! You've got to see THIS!" Then he opens our door and in come the children...Shiloh and Cora dressed identically (they were supposed to be reindeer) and pulling a plastic storage bin to which they've been tied with ribbon. Abigail and Adah prance in dressed identically with homemade elf hats on. JACKSON is inside the bin dressed as Santa Claus with our stockings in the bin behind him, and he's saying "HO HO HO, Merry Christmas!" I started making a choking/laughing sound and said, "How did you think of this? When did you do this? What's going on?" Shiloh said they'd been planning it since THANKSGIVING, and they had gotten up at 6:00 to get everything ready. They stored everything in a bin in the garage, and she had snuck down that morning to get the bin. They fashioned a beard, hair, and cuffs from quilt batting, and put Jackson in a pair of red tights and his wellies. And WE HAD NO IDEA they were planning this. It's impressive...and yet a little scary that we got no wind of this scheme for over a month. Jackson said at one time that he was going to be Santa at Christmas, but I had no idea he was serious. We were highly impressed with our children's ingenuity, and it was a great start to the day!

This is Jackson/Santa, and the look on his face seems to say, "I cannot believe I let them put me in tights."Ah - there's a smile. He's a pretty cute Santa.Cora the reindeer, Santa, and Adah the elf.The mischievious crew:
(I believe Nathaniel was not included because he would not be cooperative in any way in a complicated endeavor such as this. Maybe a year or ten and he can participate. :) )The whole crew later that day. Abigail came close to needing a nap since she was awakened at 6:00 to get ready. She almost backed out but pulled through for the team. We are so blessed by our children. They are certainly entertaining!

That's ALL, folks. I am signing off for the year 2008. I am officially caught up on picture organizing (I swear I won't procrastinate again, I swear I won't procrastinate again...) and now I need to go let my carpal tunnel heal. Thanks for coming along for the ride of the first complete year as a family of EIGHT. It has been a busy, fun, challenging, sometimes exhausting, but always blessed year. I am looking forward to what God has for the Houseworths in 2009!

God Bless!

Abigail Emma - ever blog-worthy

Yes, Abigail strikes again.

We listened this past Christmas season to one of the local radio stations playing Christmas music non-stop since Thanksgiving, and all the kids got to know quite a few songs (including Jackson, who I suspect listened to the radio instead of napping). Abigail started singing a few bars of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" because it was one of her favorites. She was singing the men's part about wanting the girl to stay because of the weather when she stopped and said sagely,

"He just wanted to smooch on her some more."

Oh, Abigail. So wise.

p.s. Christmas pictures and a wonderful story about Christmas SOON! :)

It's Christmas!

Okay, not in these pictures. But here are the Thanksgiving pictures, posted before Christmas. I have now achieved one of my goals for our school break. :) We had a wonderful time with our friends Jamie and new-husband-Jonathan (see next post below) from NC and our friends from church, the Rufeners. The Rufeners have an adorable little boy, Louie, who has such round cheeks that you might feel compelled to squish them. Cora got to feed him, and she did a great job. This kid is going to make a lot of money babysitting someday. We had a wonderful time of food and fellowship!
(BTW, the dressing-up was not my idea. They LOVE to dress up, and they decided to use their church headcoverings to accent the outfits. Jamie made the Indian headdresses, Abigail got stuck with a Bavarian dress, and Adah got stuck with a prairie dress - they thought it was close enough to count. :) )

Cora providing entertainment:

Shiloh also providing entertainment and using it an excuse to play Christmas tunes:

Jonathan tries to figure out something hard like "Jingle Bells." All kidding aside, he's a very talented pianist, and we loved hearing his playing during the time they were here.
Lis is making her magic in the kitchen. She brought all kids of Christmas cookies for us to snack on as well - thanks, Lis!

Okay, who looks like they're helping here and who doesn't look like they're doing anything? :)Daniel and Jonathan had to wrestle the turkey together to get it cut since Daniel was only 9 days post-surgery. And I do mean wrestle since it was a 25-pound turkey.

Daniel read Psalm 100 and then an excerpt from "Plymouth Plantation" to begin our Thanksgiving feast.

Shiloh set our table again - with placecards. Seriously, I could hire her out for parties. Notice my lovely china? If anyone has a set of china that they would like to donate, please contact me. I would love to set a pretty table. (I don't think the sippy cups help, though.)Shiloh helps Nathaniel to his chair. Nathaniel was VERY pleased with the mound of mashed potatoes on his plate. This time I didn't make him cry by mixing the vegetables in with the potatoes. He was SO sad when I did that with peas one time. I thought it would help him eat the peas, but really...he was distraught. It's like it ruined the whole meal for him. Poor guy.

Jamie captured an Abbadabbadoodle smile.

Shiloh looks like she could work at Colonial Williamsburg.

Here are Adah and Abigail by the "snack table" that held cheese and crackers, pistachios, and M&Ms. Since I was busy in the kitchen, I have no idea how much they actually ate that day. Jamie got all of these pictures. They're also having some wassail, which I tried for the first time from Shiloh and Cora's history unit book. It was yummy!

Adah is happy! She claims she was an Indian "because of my bwown skin," but she dressed like a Prairie Girl. We're a little eclectic with our history.

Cora feeding Louie. He is so cute, especially when we see him on Sunday and he is wearing his "Sunday" socks with the day of the week printed on the bottom. Jackson is a fierce Indian (Native American, whatever...)

I think Jonathan might have been reading the weather report here to put Abigail to sleep. He's a pilot and a weather nerd, so he checks out the weather obsessively. :) He could also have been reading Calvin and Hobbes, which we keep in the kids/guest bathroom. :)
Abigail knows a good thing when she sees it, and she claimed Jonathan's lap whenever he sat down. She's a charmer!

Can you tell I'm on a break from school? :) I'm on a roll now! The kids are sleeping in, so I'm not neglecting them. I will feed them breakfast, I promise. Next up are pictures from the NGIC Christmas luncheon. We've never done the "Santa thing," and we didn't really intend to on that day. We were told that Santa would come around during the luncheon handing out gifts to the kids. We didn't see him, so we went out to the lobby where we were accosted by people dressed as elves asking us if we wanted gifts for our kids. They have to have a picture with Santa to get the gifts. So...first ever picture with Santa. Hey - don't judge us for our materialism. It was for the kids! For the kids! :) Shiloh doesn't really care for anyone/anything dressed up (think clowns, Chick-Fil-A cow, that Chuck E. Cheese stuffed thing from the underworld, etc.) and it was funny that she was relieved that his beard was real. Cora liked the fact that he wasn't wearing glasses (??) and Adah pronounced him to be "vewy puffy! he's so puffy, Mommy!" within earshot. That's his real puff, by the way. Nathaniel was an absolute HAM when he got on his lap. He snuggled right in and patted his belly. I asked him if he was taking a nap with Santa and he promptly said, "yes," and closed his eyes on Santa's chest. The photographer was snapping away, and I do believe Nathaniel will be on next year's slideshow for his cheeseball show. Later when I was relating the story to friends from church, Nathaniel proclaimed, "I'm ham! I'm ham!" He is SO smart, and he's picking up new phrases daily. I'm so proud that "I'm ham" is one of them. :)

This is the tank sitting at the entrance to NGIC. Jackson REALLY wanted his picture taken next to it. So here are the boys with their toy(s).

And now I'm caught up! Just in time to get 75 Christmas photos tomorrow! :) Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas, everybody!

Love,

Casey

Not So Funny Now

Late-breaking news...
Apparently Abigail's discerning powers in the prayer realm were more on target than we thought - she just got the person wrong. Our former pastor didn't have rabies, but a good friend from the same congregation probably does. She was bitten by a stray cat on Sunday, started receiving rabies shots on Monday and was admitted to the hospital today because the bite has progressed into an infection. She's getting high doses of antibiotics to get rid of the infection. This is her first Christmas as a married woman, she'll most likely be in the hospital for Christmas, and her birthday is Christmas day! Yeah, not so funny now. We're praying for you, Jamie!
Love,
Casey

And one more thing...

...may I just say that it was 14 degrees when I got up this morning?

FOUR.TEEN.

Wah.

Catching Up

Ha! That title was just a joke. :) I am working on it, though, people. I got up with Daniel this morning in order to work on organizing my pictures even though I'm technically on vacation. That's some serious dedication. :)

So here are a few photos from Cora's and Adah's birthday. So far they think it's cool that they get to share a birthday party. That might change in future years. :) The first few photos are the fancy ones when they got to go out to dinner with Daddy. They loved using my scarves to look ladylike. Can I just say that my girls are stunning? I really couldn't stop taking pictures of them, as you can see. But more importantly...they are my most tender-hearted girls toward their younger siblings. Adah has a soft spot for Jackson, and Cora has a soft spot for Nathaniel. She likes to put his lotion on after bathtime and get him in his PJs (I do NOT take advantage of this fact, trust me. :) ). Adah likes it when Jackson snuggles with her in her bed, and she likes to read to him. How cute!

I'm off to make some pancakes and get ready for a big day of baking!

Love,

Casey

Shiloh made the birthday hats AND decorated the dining room. She's pretty handy! :)

Random pic of Nathaniel - he was just looking cute.

Cora stuck with the butterfly theme again this year, but I put two butterflies on it this time. Way to change things up, Mommy. :)

Adah requested a coconut cake, which had a Cool Whip/coconut frosting. I could not work my decorating magic on that surface, so she had to make do with "Happy Birthday" letters. The cake made up for it. It was a major hit. For a girl who likes sweets, a cake filled with a mixture of cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk was perfect. It got sweeter as it sat in the fridge over the next few days because the mixture completely soaked into the cake. She has already asked for it again next year. We had another family over for the cake and ice cream (for fun and to get rid of some of the cake!).

Next up: Thanksgiving photos! Right before Christmas! We're moving at lightning speed now!

What?

Our former pastor from North Carolina has pneumonia. This is what we overheard last night during family worship when Abigail was praying:


"Dear Lowd, we pray for Pastor Webb in North Carolina who has rabies."


*stifled giggles from the older girls before Daniel and I burst out laughing*


Apparently Pastor Webb has bigger problems than just pneumonia, poor guy.

(This picture doesn't have anything to do with anything, but it's one of my favorites of Abigail. I believe it perfectly captures her wonderful, yet quirky, personality. :) )

Adah's Observation

Last night as I was folding laundry, I had some little "helpers." They were enthusiastically "helping," and Adah said, brightly, "Mommy - it's a good thing you have six children to have so many helpers!"
Uh-huh. Exactly my thoughts. :)
I'm not completely sure that I'll be able to wear the socks they matched up, though.

Happy Gotcha Day!

One year ago today, we arrived home at 1:30 in the morning with our precious new children Adah Resilia and Nathaniel Erickson. We have been blessed beyond measure by their addition to our family. We have been challenged, stretched, frustrated, delighted, and awed by them. We are so thankful to be their parents. Happy Gotcha Day, Adah and Nathaniel! I can't believe it's been a year already. May the Lord grant us many more years together!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

This picture taken before the LAST flight home. We started our journey on the morning of the 7th and finally got home after three flights, a bus ride, and a car ride from Raleigh at 1:30 on the 8th.

The Farm

I have an added benefit of being married to my Daniel - his parents come with a farm. Although petting zoos are fun, nothing beats gathering the eggs every day, feeding the goats, and exploring many acres of land with no fear of being run over by anything except a guinea hen. Here are some pictures from Daniel's hunting trip to Tennessee with Abigail and Adah. (We've decided the kids will go in twos with him each year, and this year was the wonder twins' turn.) (And by the way, Daniel would probably like me to mention that he did get two bucks this year.) Adah and Abigail had a fabulous time and wore themselves out. They actually ASKED to go to bed at 7:00 because they were outside from sunup to sundown each day. Can't beat that. They also bonded quite a bit hanging out with each other so much, and it's nice to see the strengthened bond now that they're home.

This first shot is looking toward the long driveway to the road and the two ponds on either side of the driveway. (NOT a good driveway to learn how to drive a stick shift on, as I discovered)

My "A" girls - and look how tall Adah is getting!

Meeting Little Mac - more on the video at the end Adah gathers chicken eggs in the coop

In the goat pen with Grandpa checking out the goats

Hanging out with Grandpa in his favorite chair

Chatting over the day's events on the porch swing

The following two are my favorite - doesn't it look like they're looking for trouble???
"Let's go see where we can go and what trouble we can find!"

Adah feeds Little Mac (who will become (a) Big Mac, of course, when he gets bigger...)

Adah conquered her fear of going fast by flying down the hill in front of Daniel's parents' house on a Big Wheels they keep there. She fell off a couple of times, but it wasn't that far to the ground, so she got right back on. Since gaining confidence, she now flies down our hilly, bumpy driveway here. I can't watch anymore. :) She wants her training wheels off now - we'll see. :)