March 2013

I was thinking of skipping December, but I have had all the pictures ready to go and half the captions written for a while so here it is. It's hard to believe that this post marks the ending of another year. It's been amazing to look back at all the adventurous the Lord has brought us through over the year.

The thing I love about putting produce away are all those plastic bags you put the food in. If you have to put groceries away you might as well find something to like, right? Mine is popping them and now William and Philip love it. You can't get a more cost effective form of entertainment then this!

There I am minding my own business and a dinosaur starts to chase me!

Gathering for the Niednagel family picture we set up and test the lighting.

I saw this kind of picture on pinterest and thought it would be fun to try out... I love how the boys came out, but wish there weren't so many shadows... I'll have to try it again sometime. Stay tuned...

Mum taking a picture of me taking a picture of the clan.

The Niednagels 2012

Philip was so cute constantly making sure Mr. Niednagel was looking at the camera

I think the grandparents were more entertained by the faces being made to make the kids smile then the kids themselves

Enjoying one of the last warm days reading in the field

These boys really get into their play

William was glad to hear his heart was still beating

Jordan's first daughter arrives

Mother and daughter.... no, they don't look alike... yet.

Marian and I have three things in common from when we were babies: We are both the third child, we were the biggest baby, we both had hair when we were born

The happy Mama

Philip meeting Marian for the first time. He would just touch her and smile.

Princess Chub

William's first meeting:

Us: do you know who it is, William?

William: It's Marian
All through Melissa's pregnancy if you asked William if he thought his mom would have a girl or boy he would say,"It's a girl.... Marian."

First family picture of 5 Niednagel

She looks so royal with her little hat a friend made for her.

The world meets Marian via blogs and facebook

More local introductions are made to another uncle, aunt...

...grandfathers...

... and cousins.

Continuing the tradition of taking a picture of the baby in the basket that Kathy made them. Here is William and Philip

The next question in our family following, "Boy or girl?" is, "Which brain type does the child have?"

I love how light and little they are when they're just born

Doing our "breathing" together. These little things may look ridiculous, but they have helped us so much! You can read some of the health benefits here

New baby = not much sleep

Pa and I went up to St Louis for the weekend to be there when Michael and Rebekah arrive.

We went a day early to go to a Scottish Christmas ball

With the Z girls.

The ball was in the basement of the church.

After church we tag along with the landlord...

... to make sure everything is ready for their new tennents

The newly finished kitchen.

This is the unit #9, the one Marscel and I helped work on back in October

An apartment just wouldn't be complete without a working bathroom... and it turns out right after we left there was a leak that ran into the hallway where the brand new carpet was... late at night. So they turned it into a "party" as the resident plumber put things right

They're here!

Showing them the apartment and hearing how the road trip went.

Entertaining ourselves with string of cranberries

I've always wanted to string cranberries and now I have.

One of my favorite ways to spend Sunday afternoons: sitting around the fire going over the message from church, memory verses, singing... such rich fellowship

Monday morning the apartment fills in... little did they know they'd be moving again in a few weeks to the new place at Watson

Our merry little group at Watson unloading some of the work equipment.

Jeff admiring some of Micaiah's work

A shower head properly installed... such a handyman, Micaiah!

The week after they closed on Watson there was a three alarm fire in one of the basements there. Thankfully everyone made it out of the effected units safely.

Showing us the damage...

I don't think those were black at one point.

How come time always seems to speed up when with good friends?

Starting her own line of silly faces.

Always plenty of volunteers to burp the babe

"Talk to the hand" "Ok... So you see..."

The emergency pacifier always on hand... literally

Cuddles from Scooter

Angelic

Taking the annual Niednagel family picture.

Aren't they beautiful?

The guys

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, this is the one they chose as their family picture

We tried making this great dinner and everything that could go wrong with the chicken... did.

Thankfully the rest came out great.

Watching some of Jordan's old movies.

Sleeping Beauty

New baby means lots of pictures... I'm sure you're used to that by now. If not you will be soon.

The two youthful moms

She's happy even in her sleep

People who say that newborns don't give eye contact haven't met these kids.

After three months of being away things build up

Kathy is here!

Crazy fun friends

Since Marscel was at the boys and they were at a meeting, he joined us via skype to see It's a Wonderful Life

Niece meets uncles for the first time

Sharing things we've come across since last time we were together.

All together for the first time in too long.

William started a taxi service with his tricycle

Pa teaching them how to be men of valor

I've known Kathy my whole life and am so glad my niece and nephews will too!

Henry sharing

The ladies all gathered for a beading class with Kathy...

While the guys went searching for geodes in the river bed.

"Country roads, take me home

To the place where I belong..."

This is definitely the best way to bead

He wears almost as much as he eats

"Oh hun..."

Family worship.

We don't usually get a picture of us doing family worship since we do it after supper each night, but it is a great blessing having a father who values the importance of gathering around the word of God and sharing it with us.