Flufferman

One day, when we were driving our car- actually, we were just waiting at a stop light- we saw a baby bunny run by. We were pointing it out, when it ran into the road. We were thinking about how skinny it looked, when it ran under our car. We were running out of the car to get it, when the light turned green. Then we got honked at, cause' we were at the front of the stop light lane we were in. Eben got a PVC pipe and got the bunny out from under the car. It was wedged not in front of, not in back of but under the side of the tire, so that if we moved at all we would kill it. Eben picked it up and we put in in a cardboard box to take home, because we didn't know if it was injured or not. I held it on the way home, and we stopped by the pet store and picked up a water bottle and some bunny food. It was actually more like bunny treats, but it helped fatten her up. We found out she was OK, but probably couldn't survive in the wild. We played with it for a little bit and made it a little cardboard box-house.

After a few days, she kept almost jumping out, so we moved her to the kitchen and put a fireplace gate at the entrance. Some of our friends said it was a girl, and we named her 'Flufferman Butterscotch Charles Baby Bunny Caramel Buttercup', Fluffy for short. After about a month and a half, we moved Fluffy to Mama and Dada's bathroom, because it's really big, under construction and is not in the way. We had originally planned to keep her until she died, but this is about three months later and she's three times the size she was originally! Mama loves her and lets her go outside every day for like eight hours. She loves her so much that she ate her for dinner one night! --> Just kidding.

 She never leaves the property, except for one night when it was dark and we found her frolicking in the middle of the road at the foot of a raccoon tree. She's not the smartest of rabbits. 

Now Flufferman is really big and comes right up to you when you call her. We hope she lives a good, long bunny life (without getting eaten!).

This is baby- Flufferman, to the left and 

now- Flufferman below.

Basket of Presents

Every time Nonnie and Poppie come,
They bring a present that's usually gum.
For Opal, that is, but for Berg something dandy-
A medium bag of sweet cotton candy!
For Kivi and Jasper, some animal crackers -
No wait, those are Tuff's, Jasper and I get some whoppers!
While Eben gets balloons, to fill up with water,
Pella gets a rake, Dada's cute little daughter.
Before we accept these gifts of small size,
We must dance a dance made by Larry LaPrise.
We call it basket of presents,
For the best of grandparents,
Put it all in a giant basket.

Youth Group!

Just a few weeks ago I graduated into middle school! At church, when you graduate, you get to go on stage and get a bible and they (Mr. Heath and Mrs. Nikki) tell you that you can't go back to Promiseland unless you are helping and that now you can either help in Agape Land, the little kid classes, or you can stay and go to big church with your parents. On Wednesday nights you are now allowed to go to youth group, which I have actually been going to since last summer. They let me come because I do sixth grade work and Mama says I am mature enough. At youth group we play games, then go upstairs and worship, and then somebody, usually Mr. Heath, talks. Mr. Heath is the youth group leader. Twice a year there are also camps. There is the summer camp and the winter camp. I haven't been to either, neither has Eben, but most of our friends went and said the camps were great! My excuse for not going has been that I am saving up for a trip to Mexico, which is true, I just have no idea when it's happening. In a few weeks, wait, maybe it's next week when we are at camp... I mean in a few weeks it will be ice cream social night where we welcome all of the new sixth graders to middle school, which will be fun. I think that middle school is great!

Nonnie and Poppie

Nonnie and Poppie are our grandparents. We call them Nonnie and Poppie because we already have a Grandma and Grandpa and everyone on Mama's side of the family is named something different. We have Dodie and Buggy, our Aunts, Unka Cheese and Uncle Cookie, our Uncles and Mimi, our great-grandma. Nonnie and Poppie live in California, but come down to W.A. every two weeks and stay for two weeks. They always drive, and sometimes take Mimi. They own like six rentals down here and more up in C.A. They helped us fix up our new house and work on our old house too. They also help us with our rentals. Poppie is a handy-man and Nonnie paints and watches us kids. They are very fun Nonnie and Poppies and I love them.

The Cast Party!

This year at our cast party for the Spring pageant, almost everyone in the play came! It was at our house instead of at the gym like last time. First we ate hot dogs and chips and cookies, and then we all piled on the bean bags in the basement to watch the play on the projector. It was fun and everybody knew everybody else lines, and so we were doing the whole play in unison! The middle school kids went on a kayaking trip to one of the rivers while we watched because Mama said they could and they had already seen it a bunch of times. They didn't get back for a few hours. After we were done watching, we all went outside and swam in the lake. It was the first time we swam in the lake for the fun of it! Dada got rid of most of the seaweed and there is sand about four feet out from the rocks. We also had a water balloon fight, curtesy of Squishy and his birthday, and I got hit in the head from a foot away by all of the boys. We also jumped on the trampoline and after everybody else left we built forts and had a nerf war with the Well's boys. Chuggy and I got to ride on Mr. Evart's boat while Dada, Mr. Everts, and Mr. Wells wake surfed. It was a fun day!

This Year's Spring Pagent

Every year our church, LC3, all of us kids kindergarten through fifth grade do a musical if we want to. This year it was called "Kidz Under Construction" and was about a lady named Monica Fisher, who was played by me, and she is news reporter who comes to know Christ. This Sunday there will be a cast party and all us actors will watch the play for the first time. There was one scene in the pageant where Woody and Piper (Jasper and a girl from church) were fighting and they had a whole stomp routine with their crews (Opal was on Piper's and Berg was on Woody's). It was fun and I had my own make-up person, Sally, who was played by Bethany, my partner last year and I really like her. I personally think that last year's play was better, but this one had longer songs and I got a bigger part. Mama also moved up from Dance Coordinator to Director, and Marlee moved up from assistant Dance Coordinator to the Dance Coordinator! It was fun, but also scheduled for the late months of Mama being pregnant, through Mama's due date and the play happened when she had a newborn baby! Our good Dada was in charge of Coal, Tuff and Pella. He was rocking Coal in his car seat with his foot while feeding Tuffy snacks and making sure he didn't disrupt the musical while Pella was enjoying the play and trying to wave to us. He did really good, but finally had to leave right before it was over because Coal started crying. Or was it Tuff...? Anyways it was a good play and I think a good one for being my last year. I will go into middle school officially soon, and then I won't be allowed. Oh well. By the way, Nonnie, I am sorry you didn't get to see it. I'll try to get Mama to email it to you once we have it. Bye!

Berg's Star Party!

On Saturday Berg turned six and we celebrated with a star party! We hung stars everywhere and put glow in the dark star stickers on all of the walls. During the party Joli found a dead catfish floating in the water under The Bush and tried to catch it with her bare hand, but it was to slipery and got away. Then she used a Chinese food to go thing and we showed all of the adults, who suggested cooking it up and eating it for dinner (which we didn't do)! We also bought Berg a pinata because Eben didn't finish the one he was making by the night before. We all lined up from shortest to tallest to hit it but it wasn't the strongest thing and only about five kids into it the pinata broke. We had fun hitting the remains, and for all of the other kids that didn't get a turn before Joli and I kept the pinata line moving after dinner. We made sure that everyone got a turn before we let Carl do it- in two blows the cardboard had literally exploded. Instead of a cake Berg wanted cobbler, but it didn't work out and we bought cheese cake and pies. We had a ninja star making and throwing contest for the adults, and I forgot who won. I think Mr. Schock made the most stars. Cute little Squish has had lots of fun party's, and personally I liked his marshmallow party the best, though this one was super fun too.

The Ducklings are Back!

Every year in spring, we see the ducklings. Because we live on a lake, we see a lot of them. Most of the time they are brown, but on the old lake we saw a few that were adopted by another duck who were yellow. Unfortunately, because of their bright yellow fluff all but one were soon targeted and eaten by eagles (which we had three of). The brown ones are just as good though and have been the only kind we have seen so far at this house. Every year at spring, I make this goal to catch a duckling. I never really succeed, but I've spent hours trying. This year I told Eben that I would give him a free trip to Mexico if he can catch me one. He has til' the end of summer, but I don't think he will be able to do it, especially since they won't be ducklings for much longer. This year we also named two ducks Felicity and Joe, and they came up for a while and we fed them. Now they have nine ducklings who swim by twice a day with Felicity, which is nice because then we can see them more often. They are also growing like grass, they get bigger every day. I can't wait for next year when they return, with their kids.

The Weird Club

The Weird Club is this club that Eben started awhile back. You see, it all started back at Seaside when I wanted to start the slug club ( which never worked out, by the way). The boys decided that they wanted to start clubs too. Jasper wanted to start a cool club, where all of the 'cool' kids at church could get together and... do stuff. Eben wanted to start a weird club, and unlike Jasper and I, actually built on his idea. When we went home, I forgot about my idea and Jasper recruited some boys for his, while Eben typed and printed out I.D. forms for any kids that wanted to join the club of weirdness. He became the president, and soon had two elders and about a dozen kids. I joined, and Jasper eventually quit his status as president of the cool club to Austin, second in command, when he found out Eben made I.D.'s. Now every one in our family, including some aunts and uncles, are all members. The weird club is now thriving, though we have never had any meetings and there is really no point to joining, except it's fun to say that you are part of a club. It's funny, though, because we kind of forgot who all joined, so you could ask a random kid at church if they have heard about the weird club and half the time they will say that they are members while the other half of the time they's look confused and then walk away, or ask you about it and later become a member. I think it's a fun and good-for-nothing club, and would recommend it.

Seaside

At least once a year, starting a few years ago, our family goes on vacation to the beach at a place called Seaside. Once Grandma and Grandpa came with us, this time Poppie is coming. Dada rents out this little house from one of his friends at work. It's really fun to go there, and I feel like us kids get a lot more freedom because we are allowed to ride our bikes on the street and do the family's shopping at this little store close enough for us to walk to! We also have memories there, like, once I wanted to start a slug club, because at Seaside banana slugs are everywhere! Seaside's also the place where we found out Mama was pregnant with Tuff, and where Opal and Berg learned how to ride their bikes!
At Seaside, it is important that we all know how to ride a bike (except for the two littlest's, who get to ride in a bike trailer), because once a day we all pedal to town where Dada buys us each a one dollar ice cream cone at this cute little candy shop. The shop is famous for it's 170 flavors of taffy, but they also have tons of flavors of ice cream and a wheel you can spin to win a free taffy or some other big candy. Another tradition at Seaside is getting sick. And it's always either me or Dada, or that one time it was Mama because she was pregnant. When Grandma and Grandpa came with us, I was the one that got sick. Grandpa lost Opal when they were bike riding and I wanted to go look for her so badly, but I wasn't allowed to, and was stuck laying on the couch. On Friday we are going to go to Seaside again, with Poppie like I said earlier. The house there has three bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room and a living room, and is nice and cozy, so I don't know where Poppie will sleep yet. Normally there is a boy's room, a girl's room and a Mama/Dada room, but I don't know what there will be this time.

P.S: I forgot to mention that we also go to a Goodwill where we are each allowed to pick out a five dollar or less toy to play with while we are there.

Sphero

Just the day after Easter, we got a sphero. A sphero is a little robot ball that can roll in water and on land. It can do cool jumps and stuff too, and it comes with two ramps. Eben is obsessed with it, though then again he is obsessed with everything electronic related. He is actually the one who talked us ( all of his siblings) into getting it. You see, in our family, if you really want something, you have to petition Dada for it. It always helps when we use fancy words, and start with a title for Dada, like,''Dear loving, caring, handsome Dada,'' because, .... I don't know why. Anyways, this time when we petitioned him for the sphero, he agreed that if we payed for all of it, and were completely good for two weeks, he would let us get one. The being completely good for two weeks part was hard, and I think it took us five weeks to do it because everytime one of us just groaned because we didn't want to do something, the whole two weeks reset. We finally got through it because Dada took away some days from our weeks when we did jobs, like cutting off six feet of ivy on all of the trees in the front lawn. When we finally went to Barns and Nobel's to get our sphero, Eben was so excited he threw away the receipt ( And we're talking about a $130 item!), and had to go back in and get it. Tuffy and Eben still really like it, but I think that I have gotten board of it. It should last a while longer ( the people that invented it dropped sphero from an adult's waist height thirty times to test it's durability), so I'll probably get interested in it again. Eben would reccomend getting one, and I probably would if I was asked. P.S. We named our sphero ''Dave".

This Resurrection Sunday...

Just a little bit ago, on Resurrection Sunday,

All of us got on our clothes, and then got to go and play!

Mama took our Easter pictures and little man got cold,

We bundled him in a blanket and we went inside ( to home). 

We went to church (Coal's first appearance), 

And then went home and found our Easter baskets! 

We had an Easter egg hunt, that was fun,

 Then the silver egg was found, by Eben's friend, Ian.

(The prize for the egg was a giant chocolate bunny, 

And when Mama awarded it, we laughed, it looked so funny!)

This Resurrection Sunday, or Easter as it's called,

Was a lot, really, truly, fun, all in all.

Opal Poem

Opal is sweet, Opal is kind.

Opal is my sister, so she is mine.

Cause' once upon a time...

Opal was born, in the birthing inn.

In the purple room, in the bathtub...

 BOOM!

There was Opal, sitting right there,

Mama was happy, the receptionist was scared!

 (The receptionist and Dada were the only others there.)

Well, now it's eight years later, and cute Opie is now grown,

By that I mean she's older, because she still lives in our home.
My Opal, you're my sister. I love you, you are mine.

You should stay here til' you're married... but that shouldn't be for a time. 

The Bush

In our backyard, there is mostly grass. Go a little farther, and you will find a three foot drop to the lake. A little to the side, and you'll find a dock. Go to the other side. and you will find The Bush. The Bush is a giant bush that acts like a property divider on the outside, but on the inside it is a giant climbing mansion! Dada says that it blocks our view of the lake, which is true, if it weren't there we would have twice the amount of lake to.... view. The Bush is one of our favorite parts of the house, partly because it is one of the first places we made memories in at this house (We just moved). On one side of the bush there is a rock wall, with lots of little holes and stuff, so when we play house in there, that is the kitchen. On the other side, there is the three foot drop to the lake. I have made a little seven level ''house''over the drop that I call Pumpkin Point, because there is a little window that looks out over the lake, where there is a lamp post whose light reflects on the water and makes the shape of a pumpkin. We have only discovered part of the bush ( not all of the top yet) and hope that we will continue having a lot of fun in it.

Coal!

Up until recently, I have had four brothers and two sisters, and the order of our birth has gone like this: boy, girl, boy, girl and so on. However, on March 10, our new little brother Coal was born! He had to be born early, because our good midwife found out about five weeks ago that Mama had this liver problem that would kill Coal if they waited till' he was nine months old. That meant that he had to be born at the hospital, which we are not used to. Eben, the oldest was the only one born at the hospital, because after that Mama decided that she did not like to be surrounded by machines and doctors. I was born on our kitchen floor, Jasper at a friend's house, Opal at the birthing inn, (Me and Jasper were planned for the birthing inn but never made it) and Berg, Pella and Tuff at home. When Coal was born, he was nice and healthy and a good size. Unfortunately, five minuets later he stopped breathing! The doctor said that he was dead, because he couldn't find a heartbeat, but the nurse said that he was still alive and called in a lot more nurses and doctors and Dada said that they kept working on him, got him breathing and took him to the NICU.

 He stayed there for four days, and came home on Monday, where we finally got to see him. I had kind of gone a little crazy, because normally I get to first see my siblings when they are about an hour old. Now that he is home, whenever we are around him we have to wear yellow masks, because we don't want him to get any germs because he is a premie baby, and we have all had this cold for a while. All of the people at our church have been really nice, and have been bringing us dinners since Sunday, I think. I love Coal, and hope that we will get more siblings!

Pella's Ballerina Birthday!

This year, for her birthday, Pella wanted to have a ballerina birthday party!  She has been looking forward to it so much that she has been planning it since the day after her last birthday! Mama has stopped making really complicated cakes, ( such as microscopes, alligators and whole scenes!) and has reduced to just sticking stuff on the top of normal cakes. This is Pella (or as we call her, Chuggy) putting the candles in her cake.

Once at an auction, Mama got a free ballet lesson, and she decided to use it at Pella's party! But when she called, we found out that the teacher would be in Portland, Oregon and couldn't make it, we called in our next best choice: Dodie. Dodie, our aunt, has been in ballet multiple years and agreed to step in as the ballerina teacher at Chuggy's party. She is the adult in black. We transformed our basement into a ballet studio by setting up a bar and lining the walls with mirrors! I was Dodie's assistant, and everybody copied what we did (or tried to). 

Eben and Nathaniel Schock did the music for us, and projected it nice and loud with speakers. When the boys found out that there were boy ballerinas too, they rushed to get changed (Berg was going to be the ''Rainbow Ballerina'', who dressed just like a girl with a rainbow tu-tu!).

Along with cake, we also decorated cookies in the shape of ballet dresses! Mama and I made lots of bags of powdered sugar and water frosting. We added food coloring and it turned out great!

This is our group photo.

After the dancing, down in the basement we took turns letting Unka Cheese carry us across the basement with us frozen in a ballet position. This is Opal, who I thought was the prettiest (besides Dada, shown below) being carried across.

At the end Jasper and Pella did a dance together. Chuggy had a fun party and has already started planning the next...

Tuff's 1st Birthday

           At the end of two years ago, in November, our little brother Tuffy was born! He has been growing a lot, and he just recently turned one!

 When Mama was pregnant with Tuff, we called him Baby Bear. So for his 1st birthday, we threw him a bear party!

This is the Tuffy kissing picture. We take a kissing picture of each of us on our birthdays. 

 He really liked it, especially the cake. He ate more of it then the rest of us did when we turned one (He actually got past the frosting!). Above is before... below is after.

Tuff also liked his presents, although I don't think that he payed attention to the gifts themselves, as much as how they were wrapped! He liked the concept of ripping tissue paper and wrapping paper apart. After a while though, the opening of presents got just a tad bit boring.

The game that we played was kind of like a scavenger hunt! First you had to choose a partner and decide who was Mama bear and who was Papa bear. The game was, you had lost your babies (gummy bears) and had to find them, but first you needed to find a plastic bug and a bag of Knot's berry farm cookies for food and then carry them to an adult. Jasper and Gracie won.

This is Chuggy carrying her cookies in her mouth, and below is the great migration of bears.

This is our group photo, and below are some cute pictures of Tuffin Muffin before his birthday.

We love our Tuffy, and hope that his next year of living on this world is as good as his first one!

Moving

This year, unlike any other year that I have been alive, we moved. Moving is a complicated process where you move to a different house. We moved because our old house only had two bedrooms and there are eight (soon to be nine) people in our family! We still miss our old house, though the new house is awesome! It is on the lake, like the other house, but it has five bedrooms and a basement! I did not like the process of moving, we had to spend a few nights in sleeping bags, but it was worth it.  I like the new house except for the fact that I can no longer say that '' I was born right here'', like I could say in the old house, where I was born on the kitchen floor in the hallway. We all love it and it will continue to be our home for hopefully a very long time.

Berg's Marshmallow Birthday!

This year Berg decided to have a marshmallow birthday party! It was a lot of fun. Me and Opal got to give marshmallow samples, Jasper and Eben set out marshmallows and toothpicks for a building contest and Mama hung up marshmallows on a string and we had to see who could eat them the fastest! Dada won for the adult round, and I think I got second place for the older kid round. I forgot if Berg won or not. I liked it! Poppie made marshmallow guns too, and we had a war! At the end of the party we went down to the lake and made s'mores, though by then we were all full of marshmallows. I think that that was the most sugary birthday ever!

Pella's Pig: Part III

'' Well,'' said Pella,'' I was looking for my lost pig!'' Super pig looked around. '' What does your pig look like?'' Pella thought for a second, and then answered,'' She's black and pink and as round as a sausage, very cute and looks like you.'' Then super pig dropped down from the sky, saying,'' I am your piggggggggg!'' Then Pella ran to where her pig was laying, and took off his cape and mask. '' Oh pig, it is you,'' she cried. Then her pig stood up, oinked, and walked to the pig pen. 

       And that is the story of how Pella found out the true identities of pigs. So, if you have a pet pig, you have a superhero.

The End

Jasper's Birthday

This year for Jasper's birthday, he wanted to have a building party! We just moved, so we had a lot of boxes for building forts and playing games. We played one game where Mama hid candy in some of the boxes and we had to find it! I didn't get very much. There was also a game where the either the boys or the girls would make a wall of boxes and the other gender would throw little white boxes and try to knock it down! We played two rounds, so that everyone could try doing everything. Jasper wanted a cobbler for cake, and it was a really nice day so we ate outside. We also climbed trees. Joli and I had a climbing competition and climbed to the very top of our tallest climbing tree! It was the first of many birthdays in the new house and couldn't have been better!

Camp

This year in August, Eben and I went to Black Lake Bible Camp! It was so much fun, especially since our friends, the Schocks, went too! Eben slept in a wagon, and I got to sleep in a cabin!

It took a really long time for all of our siblings to say goodbye and later they baked and sent me cookies.

This is me with my counselor, Pacasa.

This is Eben, with his counselors, Jenga and Radagast outside of their wagon.

 In my cabin, we had three Graces, so we gave them nicknames. We had ''Speed Gracer'', Thing One and Bandana. This is me in my bed. I was the first one there, so  I got first pick.

This is Eben, in his nice,''warm'' wagon.

Camp was awesome! Every meal we had to line up and compete in silly contests, or answer questions to go get our food! Every day after breakfast, we also had ''cabin clean up''. I think it kind of just made our cabins and wagons ( and some tepees) look messy.  Along with that, every night, we had fireside, where we all sit around a big campfire and sing silly songs like '' I like Bananas'' and '' The Milk Song''. Then we read verses from the Bible and roasted marshmallows. I really enjoyed it. One night, after lights out at 10:00, all of the girl's cabins snuck out and had a silent midnight pool party! Another one of my favorite places was the camp store. Our assistant counselor, Gibson, worked there. I loved camp and hope we go back next year.

Dodie's Wedding

                                    Dodie, my aunt, just got married in June! It was so much fun.

This is Dodie and Unka Cheese.

 Opal and Pella were flower girls and I carried Tuff down the isle, because Dodie wanted him to be apart of it too.

                                    Also, Mama was a bridesmaid and Dada was a groomsman.

The boys were supposed to be ring bearers, but instead they carried a sign that said ''Here Comes the Bride''. 

                                                           Squish-bot carried the bible.
                                                                       

This is us getting lined up to go down the isle.

                                                  This is us with Nonnie, our grandma.

                                                                      Group photo.
         

Afterwards, the bride and all of the bridesmaids got hot and started dancing in the fountain! I joined them later.

         Dodie wanted a home-made wedding cake and she asked Eben & I to make it! This is them cutting the cake. We filled it with neon pink frosting!

After we walked down the isle, we all waited patiently through the service... eating skittles.

This is us with the bride and the groom.

And here is all of us. It's so hard to get everyone to look at the camera.

The entire wedding reception was dancing.

We sent them off on their honey moon with sparklers! Their wedding was super fun and I loved it!