Little Artists

I know I haven't posted in forever!!  Been a bit pre-occupied with so much other on goings.  So this will be brief - just a few pictures of some of the little artists in this family.  More to come on the littlest artist.  Some of her artwork seems to end up in the most inopportune places.

She insisted on wearing this hat inside.

She is so serious when she is "creating".

I don't have nearly enough pictures of him lately and he's going to be out of the house before I know it.  Isn't he handsome?

He is such a big helper.  

Although he can get so frustrated, like when she insists on coloring over what he just drew.  :(  Notice the hand covering a certain portion of the paper.

Pretty Baby.

Christmas Time Family Pics

Christmas was so big and so busy with Daniel coming home and family coming to visit that I never managed to post much about it.  I think it was just too overwhelming and I didn't know how to go about it.  But I decided I would just post a few pictures of  the family.

Here are Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Nathan just before they left on Jan 5th.  They decided to take an adventure and they took the train to the airport in Philadelphia.  It sure was an easy trip for me as well.  The girls and I had a 10 minute trip to the Lancaster Train Station and a 10 minute trip back home.  AWESOME!!

Uncle Nathan with the boys before they left for their first day back to school from Christmas break.  No one at school knew that their Dad had made it home yet.  They had exciting news to tell.

The girls with Biscuit.

Ainsley sure loves that dog!!

I didn't send out Christmas cards this year.  I was really sad not to but I had to simplify because I was doing Christmas alone - no husband, no parents to help.  I had to do all the baking, shopping, wrapping, parties ....  all by myself.  So I cut out Christmas cards.  I had the best of intentions to get a family picture when Dan returned and send them out in January.  I even bought coordinating outfits for the kids.  Well this was our attempt at family pictures.  NOT GOOD.

Attempt #1 - Piper - NOT happy!!

Attempt #2 - Much better - but Ainsley's behind my hair and MacGregor is falling over.
Attempt #3  Piper won't let me hold her upright.  She is fighting me and leaning out.  MacGregor again with the leaning.

Attempt #4 - OK, Yep, All Done - Can't take it anymore!  Let's Go!

I think there was actually one more that I didn't look good in so I didn't post that one.  Too Bad.  Hope you'll all get a Christmas card next year!

A Lesson in Faith

Last Sunday Lancaster County had an F1 tornado hit near Ephrata.  I guess it was on the news and my aunt who lives in Maine sent me this email:

On Mar 30, 2009, at 8:52 AM, Eileen Gale wrote:

Hi guys -
Heard on the national news of a tornado yesterday - hope you're all ok and your homes faired alright through it............Eileen

This was my response and I thought that I wanted to keep this story for future generations so I am posting it here.

Aunt Eileen

Our house did fine although we stayed at our church building for an extra 15 minutes.  We were getting ready to leave about 4:45 (our congregation is meeting 1:30-4:30 PM right now) and we noticed the black sky.  The clouds were low and you could see dangling fingers and swirly rotation within.  We went back into the building after we had loaded the kids in the car.  No sooner than we got back into the building - the Thunder cracked BIG TIME.  We watched the black clouds and listened to the thunder for about 10 minutes then the rain came - buckets and buckets with pea sized hail.  The hail only lasted about 5 minutes - we ran to the car in the rain, but not pouring buckets, and drove home.  There was a lot of water on the road but the rain got less and less as we got closer to home.   My brother in law said they got diverted because Newport Rd in Lititz was closed due to downed power lines.  They live just off Oak Street.

So scary but no major damage.  Thank Heavens.  The cutest story - as we drove home MacGregor asked if we could say a prayer.  We asked him to say it.  Shortly there after Ainsley said - Can God make the bad weather stop?  Then MacGregor piped up saying - "We just said a prayer Ainsley, so I'm sure He's already working on it."  Now that's FAITH!

Hope you are well.

Brittney

Still in the Sink

Piper may be 2, closer to 2 and half really, and yes - she still fits in the sink.  We often bathe our babies in the sink when they are newborns - even in the little bathroom sinks.  One morning I  was in a big hurry so I put Ainsley in my shower and decided I'd try to put Piper in the sink and get the bathing thing done all at once.  It was a pretty tight squeeze and the faucet made little red marks on her back when she moved around and rubbed against it but we got it done and she actually enjoyed it much more than she does a shower.  She's just a little pip squeak.

*sorry about the blurry pics - this girl can't stay still.