WATCH OUT fellow drivers!!

So ever since my brother-in-law, Michael, was here in October and let Raegan drive around the block... the words "Can I drive?" have some out of her mouth regularly. And not so regularly are my words "I guess". Of course she has only been allowed to go around the neighborhood and occasionally outside of it within one mile. And of course mom or dad are with her(putting our lives in danger). I can say that Raegan is naturally talented in many things but driving is not one of them. Sorry Raegan.
We recently were on our way out to dinner with our friends(the names in this story had to be changed to protect the not so smart), Jim and Jan. They only live three houses away. Anyways, they picked us up in Jim's car(fun,fast, and all the bells and whistles) and we were off only to notice that the fuel level was past E. Jim proceeds to tell us not to worry because he has driven long distances on empty many times. OK. Well, we are about a mile out and had just turned onto a very busy street when the car starts slowing, lurches, goes a few more yards, lurches and then comes to a stop. I don't think I have to tell you what the problem was. Yes, out of gas!!! Not only was there no shoulder on our side of the road but it was cold and windy out as well. We were all laughing about our situation until we started calling people to come and help and no one was home. As you may have guessed, desperate times call for desperate measures!! So Raegan was called. She was instructed to find any and all gas cans from the garage and drive them to us. I was extremely nervous about this being that it was dark, we were on a busy street, and our relief driver was inexperienced. To make a long story shorter... she did just fine. Thank goodness we have 6 months of practice before the license though. DRIVERS BEWARE!

My Brother's Keeper

The last 5 days have been quite miserable for Cade. He has had a bad sinus infection. We were able to start atibiotics yesterday so today was a little better. Around lunch time Cade finally felt good enough to venture out into the back yard. Well that was very short lived, here's why. Brigg was out there with him and Brigg was playing on this tractor that you sit on and push with your feet. Then Brigg decided to bring it over to Cade's bike ramp to try out. The next thing I hear is Cade crying pretty hard. So I look out the door and see Cade over the front of the tractor, at the bottom of the ramp, face first on the cement. I console Cade only to find that he split his chin open about a half inch. It appeared that he could use a few stitches. But after growing up with six brothers and butterfly bandages... I decided I could handle it myself. That sure brought back memories of putting them on my brothers when they did something stupid and mom wasn't around. That happened often!! The doing something stupid part I mean.
Anyways, so when I asked Cade what was he doing, he said, "I was taking the tractor down the ramp to make sure that it was safe for Brigg". I just hugged him and laughed. At least he was looking out for his little brother.

Happy 14th Halli!!

Today is Halli's 14th birthday! She didn't get to sleep in due to an orthodontic appointment mom had made. What was mom thinking! But mom made up for it by taking her to the mall right after to do some birthday shopping. Her best friends, Cameryn and Benson, decorated her room with streamers and balloons while we were at the mall. So that was a fun suprise for her when she got home. We had a small family party(Cameryn and Benson are considered family)that involved all the children making their own dinner and cake because mom and dad weren't feeling well(dad is alot wimpier than mom). They didn't seem to mind and had fun just hanging out and being silly. Halli got lots of birhday wishes over the phone from distant family. She even got a call from Africa!! (Rich's parents are there on a mission)
We love Halli and are so grateful to have her in our family.

Our Live Nativity

We spent Christmas Eve watching the kids perform the nativity for us. It was quite entertaining! Our friends, the Ehlerts, were kind enough to put up with our crew. Some of the highlights of the performance: the little shepherd boy wearing Mardi Gras necklaces, Mary got upset shortly after her and Joseph arrived and she fled leaving poor Joseph alone with the baby, the angel looked more like the Statue of Liberty. But through all the drama, we were reminded of what we were celebrating; the birth of Christ.