Ella's Birthday

Hi, this is Isaac writing. Ella's birthday as well as her part were a success. We enjoyed Pedro's Special for her birthday dinner. Our whole family cleared out a 9x13 pan, which is unusual. We had a great time celebrating a decade with Ella!

We also enjoyed Ella's birthday party, which we had at Townsend park, were we enjoyed a great birthday meal of hot dogs, doritos, greek salad, and of course, cake and we couldn't find a way to keep ice cream cold, so we had cookies! Lime and sky blue streamers added the finishing touch.

My party's Saturday, so I hope to post on that too! Bye!

Museums, Birthdays, Lakes and Snakes

Our summer has been full of fun...

The Creation Museum was quite a treat...very awe inspiring! It was a good reminder that we are so small and fragile and our Creator is beyond description.

We also enjoyed a day at Lake Michigan.

Sam had quite an unusual 4th birthday. Around 3:00pm he stepped on a long, rusty nail and spent the next three hours in the ER...poor guy! He quite enjoyed having Mom and Dad all to himself! They did an Xray, gave him a shot and put him on an antibiotic which ended up making him sick after his birthday dinner. Nevertheless, it was a good day with fun memories. He enjoyed all of his presents and the day ended with a very cool cake (made by our dear friend Sarah)! He asked for a boat and a deep sea diver and that's exactly what he got. You'll have to see our picture collection to see the other side of the cake.

We took a trip to the nature center to observe, listen to and learn about birds. However the instructor brought three rat snakes along that stole the show! The picture doesn't do justice for how much Isaac is enjoying this moment! All four of our children held the snake, but the battery ran out before I could get a picture of Reuben.

Please enjoy many more new pictures on our family site!

Sam is so "t'yute"!

I often tell Sam how cute he is. Despite his ability to be so ornery, he is also just so cute! Recently, after a full day of pure orneryness and disobedience, I was very frustrated with Sam. I told him, "Sam, you are being so..." I paused trying to decide whether or not to finish my sentence. So he finished it for me, "T'yute?" And he walked out of the room with his thumb in his mouth and his blankie over his shoulder. I didn't finish my sentence.

My Blog

Hi! My (Isaac's) blog is officially started and running, with 3 posts! Please check it out! Have fun! :op Adress www.kingscreatures00.blogspot.com

Hi, everybody, this is Isaac writing, after a long time. I wanted to post some pictures of a bald eagle's nest we took a week or two ago. It looks magnificent, over 100 feet in the air overlooking a swamp (including a swan family with 3 cygnets).

We're about to leave for a 4-day trip to G-ma's/Creation Museum, and we've been busy packing and cleaning.

We were having fun with the Birmingham's hose this morning, and I was pulling Reuben and Isaiah in a wagon filled with water. Reuben got out for a little while, and as I was pulling Isaiah around, I told him he had his own little hot tub on wheels. After some thought, he replied, " It's not a hot tub, it's a Brrr Hot Tub... well, I'll just call it a Brrr Tub."

I have a fish tank with four fish in it, and unfortunately, it has been struck by disease, and I lost 2 fish, one died too quickly for me to do anything, and the other was going down the same path rapidly, so I euthanized it :o( The others are doing well and are making a full recovery. I'm a bit nervous, because we're leaving on our trip tomorrow, and I won't be able to monitor the last stages of their recovery.

I am hoping to start another blog. For those who want the address, please indicate so by leaving a comment. I have some warnings about this. The blog will circulate around my hobbies, projects and things that I am involved in. Be ready for high content of tropical fish topics and betta breeding topics, as that is what the blog will be based on. I might not get it started for a while though, and I need an okay from my parents, hang on I'll ask................ WOW, SHE SAID YES! I'm going to stop this post so I can get started right now!

What's happened since March...

Well...we sure do have alot of updating to do! We are still waiting to move into our house. It has been much slower than expected, but it is still progressing forward for which we are thankful. At this point we are just trying to get it to where we can obtain an occupancy permit. At that point there will still be some finishing to do, but at least we can start getting settled in. Because of some budget cuts we have had to make here towards the end, Ben decided to do the tile himself. That has kept him very busy, but he's doing a great job.

We have many new pictures for you to see in our family picture collection. The link is over on the left. I'll highlight some for you here.

Ben and Ella, at the Father Daughter Banquet, enjoyed some time together and a concert by Jimmy Needham.

Isaac loves to talk about freshwater fish and Sam always loves a good book.

A visit to Meijer Botanical Gardens...

...always inspires awe and wonder of our Creator.

Grandma and Grandpa's climbing tree in their backyard.

Enjoying the outdoors with Great Grandpa Herbie


Our little engineers...



...it's in their blood.



We recently enjoyed a trip to Dutch Village in Holland, MI. Isaac wanted so badly to purchase his own pair of wooden shoes. However, he was wise in realizing that he is growing so fast these days and would quickly grow out of his current size. We thought these would be the most appropriate choice!

Ella and Reuben would fit right in.

You never get too old to enjoy bubbles!

Moving week

Hello everybody, this is Isaac writing, and I am homeless. Yes. Homeless. We actually officially close tomorrow at 9:00, when the house will no longer be ours. Our friend's parents are in New Mexico, so we're staying at their house. We're very grateful to them, it's been SUCH a blessing. It's been nice especially since we're next door to some of our friends, a short drive away from others, and five minutes away from our new house. We are hoping that our house is finished up soon because our interest rate is only locked in till April 4.
Yesterday we moved my fish tank, which was an adventure. I didn't realize that they had grown so much, and the net I had was too small for all but one. So we took that one out, and left the other three in the tank, drained the water to about 5 in., and took the decorations out. Then we unplugged all the electrical equipment and moved it in a rubbermaid tub. On the way to where we are staying, we heard a loud CRACK!! We thought the fish tank had cracked in the bottom, and the water was still mostly held in by the gravel. I watched it for leaks while we drove the last 3 min. When we got out of the car, we found that it wasn't the fish tank that cracked, because it wasn't leaking, but we still wanted to know what made the loud noise. We carried the fish tank over to the table, and it turned out that the rubbermaid container had cracked. (Sorry Birminghams, I hope you knew this already). That was quite an adventure!
On Saturday, we went to the Stulberg International Strings Competition Semifinals in Kalamazoo. It was a little rough on the way there, because we were late. Bailey had escaped and catching her made us even more late. It was raining and we didn't have any directions. We made it there just in time. We listened to a double bassist and two violinists. My favorite was the bassist, who ended up winning! I talked to him for a little bit after he performed, and he said he started when he was in middle school, which is what another bassist I met said, and that's when I started. That was encouraging to hear. I hope I'm that good someday.
Are you getting bored? I hope not, because I'm just typing down my thoughts because I'm posting this for something to do, so I hope it's interesting. I'm working on my Dad's laptop, so I can't load pictures, but I wish I could.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that my latest hobby was reading about tropical freshwater fish. Now I read about fish and gerbils. I love gerbils. You should read about them and see how much better they are than hamsters and fancy rats. I'm ready to debate anyone that thinks otherwise. I thought it would be pushing it to ask my parents for gerbils and a new fish tank, so I talked my sister into getting the gerbils. I should probably end this entry, so good bye for now.

Sam Talk

Breakfast=Bressik

I'm going to get a toy= I'm doen det a toy

guitar=duntar

In Jesus' name, Amen= In Jesus,....... Amen later, in Jesus Amen

counting= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 23, 21, on and on randomly

here= haiwr

I want my G. I. Joe= I want mine Gee Ine Joe

Cinnamon Swirl Bagels=Camouflage bagel (this was from a long time ago)

Can I be excused, please?= Tan I be ex-tused please

And Many More

This is Sam's Steelers outfit he got when Reuben grew out of it. He LOVES it! He wears it and sleeps in it, and after putting up a fight, Mom can finally get it off to wash it, but even then, he'll sit in front of the washer and dryer and watch it go round and round. When we have to go somewhere in public, he wears it under his clothes! It's so hilarious.

I just now laughed because Sam just got out of bed, came downstairs, sat on the rug, and said, "Let's do pizza, Mom!" Pizza is Sam's favorite stretching exercise. Mom's in the kitchen making coffee, and immediately turned around and said, "No, you're supposed to be in bed!" Hahahahahahahahahaha........Sorry.

These are so cute! We all love listening to Sam's cute little voice. If we think of any more we will include them thoughout our future posts. I have to get in bed now. Mom and Dad don't like me listening to their conversations. Bye!

Reuben turned Six!!

Our precious Reuben turned six yesterday! He was so excited. He chose hamburgers and french fries for his birthday supper, chocolate cake with white frosting (he was very specific with how his cake was to be decorated) and superman and cookie dough ice cream. In the last week, he has told me at least four or five times a day how many days are left until his birthday! Oh, how I love the happy spirit God gave Reuben. His smile, which his face most often displays, lights up a room. I will add all of his birthday pictures to our family picture site. You can see the new smile he has been flashing lately. I can't believe you can still see his eyes for how big it is! He enjoyed every gift to the fullest. We almost missed cake and ice cream because they just didn't want to stop playing. You'll also notice that he lost his first tooth! It was three days before his birthday.

It's been a good week for Reuben.

When Ben and I were dishing up the cake and ice cream for everyone we were asking if they wanted superman or cookie dough. Everyone wanted to tell us their preference at the same time and Sam piped up above all that he wanted "Super-dough ice-treem"!

Learning great skills

Ben recently needed new tires and shocks for his truck. Reuben joyfully and wholeheartedly helped with the work. I'm sure he learned a great deal too...what shocks, struts and springs are, how to take a tire off, how to use many different tools and much more. I'm so thankful Ben is able to share his automobile knowledge with the children. So far Reuben has been the most eager to help. It will serve him well in the future and it's so cute!

A Nature Walk

Isaac mentioned a brief stint of warm weather in the previous post. We just had to get out and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. So when our friends asked us to go on a nature walk we happily joined them. Isaac captured some of the wonder of God's creation on the camera.

Sorry. I haven't written in a while, yes I know, but that's because I've been waiting for something to happen. And now something happened. :o) :o)

WE HAVE ACCEPTED AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE!!!!

It was very cool how God worked it all out for us. We had gone out to see the movie Bolt and eat at a restaurant. On our way from the restaurant to the movie theatre, my Dad got a call on his cell phone. Dad happily announced that our counter-offer had been accepted. Normally, we would've gone out to celebrate, but we were already "celebrating". After the movie, I was very confused, because my thoughts were still on the movie, but the rest of my family was bouncing around like a whole bunch of yo-yos and tops! We received the signed paperwork today, and plan to close on March 9th. If everything else goes well, we will be out of the house very close to when our new house is supposed to be finished. (Hopefully)

We enjoyed watching the Superbowl on our new TV for our new house that we got January 30th. After that, though, we had to put it right back away, because we didn't have anywhere to put it in our newly sold house.

I've been absoloutely crazy :P over freshwater aquarium fish lately. I have borrowed lots of books from the library on them and go on the internet to read about them maybe 5 times a week. I'm saving up to put a huge tank in the new house, if my parents will approve, which I think they will.

We've enjoyed temporary 40 degree weather and my friend just knocked on the door, so I think that I might stop and go play with him.

New Year's Eve Party

Loads and loads of food, lots of fun, plenty of games, and friends = a great New Year's Eve Party! We had buffalo wings, meatballs, salads, oreos, guacamole, etc. Everybody loved the air hockey table! We had a double elimination tournament, which was lots of fun, even though Dad won. :P If you would like to see more pictures, please go to Five People Somewhere, our friend's blog (check our list on the left) I hope everyone has a great 2009!