If a tree falls in the woods...

For anyone what has ever been to my house you have seen that huge maple tree that was growing in the middle of the back desk. It was a nice tree that provided a lot of shade. The only problem with it was that it had out grown everything that was built around it. It was starting to destroy the deck and the supporting around it. So, a couple of weeks ago my parents came out to stay for a couple days. While they were here I decided to put my Dad to good use. I took a day off work and we cut down that big old tree. It was a huge undertaking, but with a lot of prayer, everything fell right where we wanted it.

Here is a picture of the tree the day that we bought our house. This was before we cut any of the branches back.


The next two pictures are right before we cut it.



In this picture you can see how the wood that was framed in around the tree was being pressed by the tree.


Finally, after a long stressful day the tree is down. This is only the second half. I was to worried till the last one was down to even think about taking pictures of the first half. It actually fell right where this one did, but we had already cut it up and pulled it away. Notice also how the snow has mostly melted. This made for some rather large ruts in the yard. I'm going to have fun this spring. Notice in the first picture below how close it fell to the deck. Also, the in last three pictures how the tops fell right between the play set and the bird feeder pole. We couldn't of done any better. I thank the Lord that everything went well.

18 months old

These 18 months have flown by and our little girl has grown into a full-fledged bundle of communication. My Mom says Emily is very much like me when I was her age in that I would babble some phrase, someone would say "what?" and I would repeat the exact same phrase.

These days she likes to "wash" her forks and spoons in a plastic bowl I give her on the floor and she still loves putting keys into anything pretending that she's unlocking it.

Trip to Texas 2.6.08 - 2.13.08

Emily and I had the opportunity to visit my Mom and Dad and our other Aunt's and Uncle's in Texas this past week. We had a great time visiting and was thankful for the nice weather which allowed us to enjoy the outdoors the majority of the trip. Emily found she could do a new expression as a result of the plane ride - a look of surprise.

Emily sitting on one of the many live oak trees on the property of the house where we stayed.
Emily's favorite thing to do was getting in and out of the cabinet in one of the bathrooms.


Emily had fun riding in a car just her size, but her most favorite part was pressing the "radio" button and dancing to the music.

Mommy even joined in the fun.

We would take walks in the mornings and on one of our walks we passed a house that had a horse. Emily was not too fond of him.

Lots of cactus bushes in Texas.

Emily enjoyed many things while on our trip.
She especially enjoyed the brownies we had for Aunt Clara's birthday.

Congratulations Kristen and Jose

My sister-in-law and her boyfriend Jose recently got engaged (2/2/08) and Charlie, Emily and I were able to be a part of the exciting evening. Kristen said she knew something was up when she walked in the door of her apartment and saw her friends and also Charlie holding a video camera. Here are her reactions in sequence and then a picture of the ring. Thanks Jose for allowing us to be a part of the evening.

Matthew 24:27

For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be(NASB).

17 months old - Jan. 16

Oh, if we could only bottle the energy that children have and take a sip now and then. Emily was not feeling 100% again during this month's picture, but she still had the energy to squirm in the rocking chair.

She is our little "nut" and brings a smile to our face many times throughout the day. She definitely has a new found freedom now that she can walk. One of her favorite things to do is walk from the back door to the front door pretending with keys in hand that she is unlocking the doors. Another fun thing for her to do is help Mommy unload the silverware from the dishwasher. She would stand there for hours if she could, but eventually we run out of forks and spoons to put away. Her favorite foods are Oreo cookies, ice (that was a craving of mine while I was pregnant with Emily), Crispex cereal and pretzels which you see being shoved in her mouth in one of the pictures below. She can now say "ba-ball", "keys", "ice", "out", "down", "baby", "fish", "ches-cheese" and "bobble" (which we think means bottle).

Cool PC

Here is a little something for all you computer geeks out there. It’s a PC that is cooled by being submerged in mineral oil. I think that it looks pretty cool when its finished.

Friends

We had the chance to visit with the Humphrey's (John, Diane, Kaitlyn and Madison) while in Pennsylvania this past week. Here are some pictures from their visit back in August and a recent picture of the girls. Oh, how kids change in the blink of an eye.

Emily Favorite Toy

Emily got a ton of things for Christmas this year. Like all children she has her favorites. This is one of them. She likes to wiggle her hips to the music, as well as make the animals pop up. She even roars when the lion pops up. After she open this one we actually had a hard time trying to get her to unwrap the rest of her gifts. She kept walking back over to the box that this one was in and playing with it through the open part of the box. The part that is used to the "try me here". The video is a little long but it was too cute to cut anything from it. It is so fun to watch children having a good time. This toy has several different things on it and Emily goes from one thing to the next.

Christmas Surprise

To say that my mother is a huge “The Christmas Story” movie freak would be putting it lightly. While growing up, everyone living in the house would have to put up with it playing on the TV all December long. After recently reading an article in the December issue of Guide Post my Dad decided to get my mom something from movie. It is the famous Leg Lamp from the movie. I think she liked it but you can be the judge of that!




We also got her a trip to Hawaii, but all we got was a "Wow, Awesome".

16 months old - Dec. 16

Although this was no easy task since Emily didn't seem to be feeling well, we were able to take her monthly picture with some semblance of a smile. Check out the very last picture for her Grinch-like look.

Emily has really enjoyed things that come with the Christmas season, plastic ornaments, jingle bells and especially beads. Thankfully she's not interested in touching the Christmas tree.

She is gaining a little more confidence these days in walking by herself and definitely let's you know when she is not interested in something. We also noticed we have a little dancer on our hands. Pretty much every time she hears music she sways her bottom side-to-side. She can say shoe, bye and wa-wa (water) and can also play the "gimme 5" game.

Rainbow Bright Look-A-Like

Emily was playing with one of her favorite toys these days and also had a great pig tail hair day which was done by her hair dresser Aunt Randa so I had to take some pictures. I told her to give the frog a kiss just to see what she'd do, and was a little surprised when she actually did it.

Goosebumps

This is a great video. It shows how Jesus is always there for you and will always help you out of the hardest situations that the world can throw at you! I have watched it a dozen times or more and it still gives me goosebumps.

Lifehouse - Everything Skit

Fall Fun

A couple of weeks ago we had a Sunday School class fellowship over at our friends the Canode's and our friend Shelli took these pictures. Emily loved playing in the leaves.