These got mixed up, but here they are anyway. This first photo is of the Harley kids and the Woods twins. Of all things, the twins like watching Tom and Jerry. Our kids do, too, so the other day, they brought the twins home with Tom and Jerry DVDs and watched for a while. Mom just loves watching everyone laugh.

And another one of Scott's famous self-portraits. Can't wait til he has a girlfriend to show them to.

One nice thing about a small church - depending on how you look at it - is that there is plenty of opportunity for service. We have a ladies' group which kept getting smaller and smaller. So, Abigail was asked to join. This is the week she sang her first time. From left to right, Rosa Blooflat, Mom, Abby, Rebekah Wood. Yes, Abby is standing on a crate.

And the twins again. We think Scott is going to be a photographer. Every chance he gets, he whips out the camera. And the twins are among his favorite subjects. That's Mark on the left and Tristan on the right in case you've lost track.

YAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!

Dad got a phone call from the realtor today and the closing on the house is next Thursday - that's eleven days early!!!!!! We are SO excited! Mom is especially excited because she was going to have to paint four rooms, move everything and clean the apartment in four and a half days. Now, she'll have fifteen days to do it.

Basketball Trip

Mom and us kids went to Wasilla this weekend for two of Chad's basketball games. We had fun, though we took a whole school bus for nine people - that seemed a little weird. So here are some photos from the weekend. Abby took this one of Scott.Yes, that's snow in the background.








And here's Chad during a game. They lost both
games. Chad gets pretty bummed when they lose. He enjoys playing, though. And this last photo is of Scott at Wasilla Lake. The church that we spent the night at is right there, so we walked down to the lake and looked at it. Literally, that is all we did - it was too stinking cold to do anything else.

Miscellaneous

Just a couple random photos of the kids. The boys like to play chess. Maybe they are hoping to be good enough to beat Pop-pop next time he's up for vacation. Look out!!



And this is another one of Abby at the Ladies' Retreat. Mom told her to smile and this is what she got. Nice, Abby.

Ladies' Retreat

Abby and Mom went to the Fall Ladies' Retreat this weekend. We had a really good time. It warmed up enough that we were able to enjoy a walk in Seward on Friday. This first photo is of the view from our hotel room. Sorry about the window casing being in the way, but I couldn't get a good photo right up at the window.

The second photo is of Abby standing outside our hotel on the boat docks. You can see the ramp comes down almost right from the hotel. Our room was on the top floor, to the left of this photo. We also took some time to enjoy the pool.

The craft project was a scrapbook cookbook of the recipes that we were served at the retreat - and a few others. Lasagne, Heavenly Chicken Salad, Four-layer Chocolate Dessert, among others. Abby made her first cookbook, and plans to make the recipes someday. The lady to her left is Dawn from Sterling Baptist Church. There were a lot of babies this year. One of them, his mother had him on Sunday and she was leading songs at the retreat on Friday. Mom had all her kids in church on the first Sunday of their lives, but that beat all. Mom was very impressed with Chrystal (sp?).


And this was our speaker, Ruth Cynereski. She and her husband started Resurrection Bay Baptist Church twenty years ago. Her son is now the pastor there and that is the church that hosted the retreat. We had a very good time, and are looking forward to the Spring retreat.

So, we had a meeting today with our realtor, signed all the preliminary paperwork - we accepted these terms, seller accepted these terms, etc.

And we went to look at the house again. The boys hadn't seen the inside of it yet. The realtor laughed at the kids' enthusiasm. Brian wasn't nearly as amused. It is a very tiny house. The listing says about 1425 square feet, but we suspect that they counted the floor all the way to the walls upstairs - which are two and a half feet high. So, while there is that much square footage, you can't stand up in all of it. And the fact that there are three bedrooms and a loft take away from the size of the living area - kitchen and living room are tiny. There isn't really a dining room.

One of the reasons we went to look at it today was to discuss which rooms would be which downstairs. Brian refused to give up the bigger room for our bedroom, so the smaller one will be the office. Since none of them actually have built in closets, it really doesn't matter.


I have no idea why some of these photos turned out so small. I was going to take photos today and I forgot. Smart, huh? Anyway, you can see the outside here, and the corral. There is a total of 2.17 acres. We are planning a garden and a few pets over the next few years. The kitchen is small, as I said, but bright. I hate dingy kitchens. And the bedroom pictured here is Abby's. I will post more photos later, probably after we get painting. Thanks, everyone for praying for us. We are so excited to be taking this step - and of course, Brian is already planning an addition and a garage. Our closing date is set for November 10. So, if you want to come see it for Thanksgiving, come on up. You may have to help hang pictures and shelves, though. :)

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!! Wasn't it nice of us kids to remember? We should have - Mom's been reminding Dad for two weeks, now. And guess what - he's working. Haha!! But they've got a hot date planned for the evening. Us kids are gonna go watch cartoons at some friends' from church.

Eleven years - whoo!

Kitchen Duty

So, it's official. We're slave labor. Mom has turned over evening Kitchen Patrol to us. Originally, one of us was supposed to do it per night. But we didn't care for it that way, so she said we could all do it together. And here is proof that we can be in the same room without fighting. We have a feeling Mom is going to bring this up more than once.






And since all work and no play makes the Harley kids dull boys and girls, we had to have a little fun. By the time we were finished, all we had done was make more work for ourselves, because we had to mop the floor besides our usual chores. It was worth it, though.

Blast from the Past

So, Mom and Dad are coming up on their eleventh anniversary. This has put Mom in a bit of a nostalgic mood, and we have done absolutely NOTHING interesting lastely, just school. So here are a few photos from the past - no idea if we've posted them here before or not.

Scott (who goes by Mikey or Michael now) in his sumo wrestler outfit.









Abigail at church - we think she was about five years old. Mom made the dress for her.

Abby and Mikey with her "new" Doll House. She loved it. Mom found it at a garage sale for $5. This summer, we sold it for $5.


Chad was into building card houses for a while - think we posted some of those at the time. He really wasn't bad at it.