Abigail is pleased, along with our neighbors, Amy and Tristan, to announce the birth of two new playmates. Mark and Tristan were born last Wednesday, and came home from the hospital on Sunday.

Abigail has been enjoying them, probably almost as much as their parents.

Mom is bribing her, when she gets her homework done, she can go next door to play with the twins.

Tristan, the baby that Abby is holding, is the bigger of the two. He currently weighs about five pounds (his parents know exactly how much).

Mark, the smaller one in front of her, weighs about four pounds. He has a dimple on his chin. His parents are happy for that. One of their concerns was that they wouldn't be able to tell the boys apart.

So, Abby is a happy camper for a while. She is really enjoying her time with the babies. She spends as much time as the adults let her just sitting and holding one of the babies. Yesterday, she even got to feed Mark.

Christmas Program

So, the kids were in their first Christmas Program last night. They are in elementary choir at school and they sang a few songs. They were also in a play as extras. Scott had to play tag for a few seconds, and he did his aprt very well.

This is their whole choir and class - from kindergarten to sixth grade. The boy standing on Chad's left is Jesse, one of his fellow basketball players. The boy behind Scott, looking in the opposite direction from everyone else, is the one this year who waved to his mom from up front.

Here is a close up of the boys singing. Despite the red-eye reduction feature on Dad's camera, everyone had it bad that night.

And this is a close up of Abby singing. She loves to sing, but gets very frightened at the thought of being in front of people. She has survived a few instances, though and is learning to love it.

Basketball tournament

Well, Chad's basketball season is over. His team won some and lost some, but for the most part, the best thing about the season was watching Chadley's game improve. He handles the ball better, he made his first shot, his team attitude has improved. He's very excited about playing again next year, and is going to practice on his own until then.

Unfortunately, Mom and Dad din't get any still photos of Chad's season. They did get some video of him playing, but aren't computer savvy enough to get it on here.

The tournament this weekend was very exciting. It was double elimination, so they had to lose two games to be done. Wings lost their first game, won their second and lost their third. But that third game was the most exciting game of the whole tournament.

For one thing, the teams were never more than two points apart. Sometimes, Wings (Chad) was in the lead and sometimes Fairfill was. Wings had had some opportunity to watch the other team play. One player (#1) had very quick hands. He would meet the opposing team at the halfcourt line, steal the ball and make a lay-up.

Well, Wings had decided that he wasn't going to do that during their game. Several times, as two of them were struggling with him to keep the ball, Chad sacrificed himself. When #1 tried to steal it, Chad literally threww himself on top of the ball. One time, he landed so hard he knocked the wind out of himself. But #1 didn't get the ball.

For the final several minutes of the game, the two teams were one point apart, just switching who had the highest score. It was very exciting. Mom and Miss Jenny were keeping score and running the clock. They said it was very hard to do their jobs because it was so exciting.

After we lost, Mom dragged us to the other games. She said it was good sportsmanship to cheer for the other teams, even though Wings was no longer in it. So, we did and it was a little fun. But Chad said cheering is not as fun as playing.

Abby's Birthday

These photos are a couple months old, but we thought we'd share them anyway. We went to the Dietzes' for Abby's birthday in August. That was her one request - "I want to see Kaitlyn on my birthday."

So, here she is with Mr. Dietze and Scott and her birthday sign.

And here's her birthday cake. Kaitlyn made it. Apparently, Kaitlyn likes making birthday cakes. So, Mom says we'll be going to Dietzes' for every birthday from now on. :) Not really.

Anyway, we've seen the Dietzes several times this year and we've had a good time each time. We are going to their house again for Thanksgiving. We can't wait.

Here they are - first day of school. Yes, they have uniforms at Wings, but we hadn't gotten Abby's yet. She had to wear other clothes for the first week.

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago after the Harvest Festival and Chili Fest. Scott, Abby and Mom all got our faces painted, so we thought we should show them off. That's a puppy dog, Spiderman and a rainbow with a yellow 24 (Jeff Gordon's NASCAR number), in case you were wondering.

These are for you, Ohma. This first one is Abigail and Eben. Notice her whole dress. It really turned out lovely. The only problem was that the sash wouldn't stay up where it belonged. I should have added some loops for it. She, and most people, didn't even notice that.

Here is proof that the kids really still have parents - Brian and Chad on their hike. Honestly, there are no photos of all five of us at the wedding. We were way too busy for that.

Hiking and Camping and Fishing, oh my!

To celebrate Chad's 11th birthday, Brian took the boys on a camping trip. They hiked a few miles into the wilderness and spent the night. This is a photo of Scott crossing a small creek. He was ready for adventure.

They camped at the lower of the Fuller Lakes. This is the view they woke up to on Friday morning. They said it was very wet and cold there. They hiked to the Upper Lake that morning, then headed home. I'm not sure exactly where the third photo was taken, but you can see that the mountain in the distance is the same one in the second photo. They had a good time.

Here she is - the prettiest girl at the wedding - with her brothers. They dressed up, too. Scott will not go to a wedding without wearing his "tuxedo" - his black suit coat.

Chad and another boy served the fruit kabobs and directed guests to the punch bowl at the reception. Chad actually worked very hard at the wedding. We kept him busy.

Abigail and the bride. While they were doing photos, Brian shot a few of his own. Suprisingly, they aren't all of the flower girl. Abby's dress turned out beautiful, Ohma. We added a burgundy layer at the bottom. Hopefully, someone got a photo of that and I'll post it later. If not, I'll get Abby to wear it again, so I can post it. Abigail was very nervous, but she did great.

This is after the wedding. From left to right: Jacob, the best man; Amy, the bride; Eben, the groom; Abigail; and Brandon, a groomsman.

The wedding was beautiful. Amy's grandfather officiated. He was very excited about doing that. I think he got a little choked up a couple times.

The reception was nice - a little crowded. More people showed up than the bride expected. We had to do some juggling to get everyone seated. Thank God for Brian and a couple other guys. They kept running to get more chairs for us. Overall, it was a wonderful day. The bride and groom rode away in a red convertible covered in decorations.

More From Vacation

The greatest part about vacation was seeing all of our cousins - we have twelve now. This photo is of Crabby Abby and Dennis the Menace - er, Abigail and Mason. Mom and Dad really loved Mason because it gave them a chance to laugh at Uncle Alvin and Aunt Kate's kids like they used to laugh at us. We thought he was pretty funny sometimes, too.

The photo below is of Chad mowing lawn - not. The lawn was already mowed. He was just riding for fun. Now he wants a tractor - or whatever that thing is - of his own.

Baptism July 29, 2007

Chad and Scott got baptized, along with four other people, this past Sunday. The photo above is Chad coming up out of the water. He has been under conviction about baptism for a couple of years and is thrilled to have that off his heart now.
Scott just decided to do it. He has not mentioned it or anything before, but Sunday, when the subject came up, he said, "I'm saved, and I'm gonna do that." We said, "Okay."
This third photo is of Bradley, the third boy who got baptized. One of the reasons I love this one is all the background. A kayak and a ski-doo got into our service at the same time. It was a beautiful day to be on the lake. After the baptism service was over, the kids all went swimming while us adults talked on the shore.

More Photos

Scott under the water. That's Bill Wood doing the baptizing. This photo is from vacation. We went to Smethport,PA and participated in a Civil War reenactment. Brian and the kids are fourth thru seventh from the left. They swore in to the Union's army, then marched off to war. This was actually at the end of the march. They lined up for a final thank-you from the organizers.

We're Still Here!

We'll be posting every day for a couple of days, trying to catch you up on our summer. We've been very busy. This first photo is of Scott and Cocoa - the Woods' dog - at the beach during Amy Wood's graduation party. That's Mt. Redoubt in the background.

We have been to a wedding, gone fishing several times, spent a day with the Dietzes, helped out on the Church property and of course, Mom's work, among other things.





This photo speaks for itself - Abigail getting her cast off. She kept it for a few days after that, but then Mom made her throw it away.

More Vacation

The day before Easter, we had an Easter egg hunt. This is the photo of us taking off.

All the kids found lots of little eggs and a few bigger prizes. Here is Abigail
showing off her loot.













After the hunt, the kids decided Uncle Kenny looked like a jungle gym. He's still young enough to handle it. The horse ride was rpobably the easiest part of it, since we have a few photos of them pulling him in six different directions, too.

The First of Vacation Photos

Well, here goes. Dad has decided some of his photos need to be on this blog, too, so Mom will do her best to show you our vacation without boring you about Jeff Gordon too much :) This is, of course, Dad in Virginia with one of Jeff's race cars. Mom didn't take the picture of Dad hugging the car and crying all over it. HaHa!!






This is the Harley kids and the Bell kids at Battery Park in New York City. This is at the beginning of the day. We had a blast. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Trinity Church and Empire State Building. Oh, and we walked millions of miles. Well, that's our take - Mom said it was only a few.

This photo was taken at the beginning of the day.




This photo was taken closer to the end of the day. We were starting to get pooped. It was a tiring day, but we had a lot of fun. Aunt Shay said the next time we're in Jersey, maybe we'll just spend the day lounging on a beach or something. Sounds good to us.

Blogging Trouble

Mom is having trouble with the new Blog site. Until she gets it figured out, you'll just have to live with sideways photos of Chad picking a fake nose, and such. We're going to try to post a couple more photos today. Let's see how this goes.

Some New Photos

Christmas

Photographically, we had an interesting Christmas this year. While there are a few photos of people, Scott got hold of the camera for most of the Christmas party and we have a "Christmas through Scotty's eyes" collection. 100 Photos to be exact. Here are a few of them.

This first one is a picture that hangs on the wall at the lodge - where we had our Christmas party. Apparently, Scott likes that picture.

This second one is Scott and Sam Wood. Not real sure who took this one.

This one is the M&M dispenser. The kids love this thing but I have managed to convince them that it is a Christmas decoration. Hence, I only have to fill a couple weeks a year.













Scotty's favorite photo of the day - the dessert table.

Brian, Scott and Abby at the Christmas party.











And there it is - a sample of our Christmas.

73 and counting

Only seventy-three more days until our vacation. No school for a whole month!!

Scotty is looking forward to going to Hershey Park.

Chad is looking forward to being with family, New York City, Hershey Park, and "What else are we doing down there?" He is in that stage where he wants to do it all.

Abby can't wait for Hershey Park, too. And of course they can't wait to meet all the cousins and see Grandmas and Grandpas, again, too.

For anyone who is interested, we are arriving in Allentown on Friday, March 30. The kids will be staying with Oma and Pop-pop for a weekend while Mom and Dad head to Virginia for a NASCAR race, and some R&R. Then we'll all be in Lehighton until Monday afternoon, April 9. Then, it's off to Dan and Shay's and we'll spend Tuesday the 10th in New York City. From there, we'll head to Grandma and Grandpa's farm. We'll stay with them until Sunday the 22 - probably leave after morning church. We'll be in Lehighton until Thursday April 26, when we fly out for Anchorage.

Some of this is still unsettled, so if you talk to someone and they say - "Oh, really, is that when they're getting here?" it may be because they don't know any more than we do. But at this point, it looks like it will happen something like that.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

Holy Cow!! It's 2007

What happened??? Obviously, Mom is writing this post. We know where 2006 went. Let's see. Mom got a job and dragged us to a fishing lodge all summer - that started about the time our blogging ended. (It was a pretty cool place, though. Us kids took some photos - we'll post a couple of those.) Then, Chad went to summer camp, we all went to Exit Glacier, and we moved. It was a good move - to Soldotna - closer to Mom and Dad's work, and to church. The apartment is smaller than our old one, but there are a lot more kids near us now. And there is a playground and sledding hill across the street, so we can go snowboarding anytime. That's GREAT!!! Well, here is a photo of us at the glacier, and we'll be back soon.





This second photo is one of Mom's favorites of Scott and Dad. "Look how tall Scott is!!" she says everytime she sees it. By the way, that is glacier water Scott is wading in - very cold!