Spring Has Sprung!

Well the snow finally melted and we made it through our first full Michigan winter. We had quite a welcome. This past winter was in the top 5 all-time snowiest and coldest winters on record. The plow truck came in quite handy with all the snow that kept piling up.

But even more exciting than spring is how well our favorite SUPERHERO is doing in his battle against Leukemia. check him out at prayfortommy.blogspot.com!

We have been having fun with some special visitors over the last few days. Janna's Sisters, Tami from Pittsburgh, and Sarah, along with her daughters Saija and Belle from New Jersey, have been hanging out at the farm.


We have been having loads of fun. The girls all went to an inflatable playplace and had loads of bouncy fun.

We have been very busy with school and church. The big kids are getting great grades with only one 'B' for the whole group at last report. Shelley just started preschool and will be starting full-day kindergarten in the fall. Michigan just changed the rules, so now the cut-off date is December 1st. So much for starting her next year. Ali is starting to talk pretty well, and we have fun trying to translate the rest into English. Jenni is old enough to get her learner's permit, so we have had fun letting her drive on the dirt roads that are all around us. Danny has been growing like a weed...take a look at the picture at the top of this post and tell me who is taller!

We just went through a small flooding episode in our basement. A combination of frozen ground and a lot of rain made the water table raise to the point where we had a half inch of water in portions of the basement. Most of what is down there is either on a pallet, on a shelf, or in a plastic tote. However, there are table legs and wood framing that was getting wet, so we spent about 24 hours babysitting a small 1/2 hp pump- 2 hours to pump the water down, and one hour to fill back up. FUN! Luckily, no real damage and it didn't happen at all over the last year, and we had one rain that dumped more than 5 inches overnight with no flooding. Hopefully, we are not starting a trend...

We are looking forward to warmer weather and spending lots of time outdoors. We are also looking forward to having more family come to visit. We have lots of room and lots to do! We might even take your picture and immortalize you on our blog (now that IS exciting...NOT!)