Random Willa

Willa is a strong personality. It causes a lot of feelings, often hilarious. 

What she hears:

How she sleeps. 


And, she loves her dino and her jammies. She changes into them as soon as she gets home. 

Month-end Notes

Whoops!  My beautiful intention to document our life every weekend fell through again. So now a monthly round up:

Date night concert with David. Music too loud?  TP!

Valentine's Day—chocolate fondue, if you drop the strawberry in the pot, your neighbor gets a kiss!

Next is a set of photos from a text chain with my siblings to David. I was teasing him for his supposed forgetting of Valentine's Day. 










Willa’s 9th Birthday!!!  

Heavy, heavy hangs over thy poor head

What do you wish this person with a [bump, kiss, shake, etc] on the head. 










Something special this year, usually our kids just get small, fun gifts like gum and cereal. This year David found and fell in love with an extra large stuffed dinosaur for Willa. Despite my protests, and with the help of his brother-in-laws (we were all together at the store) David bought it. 

She doesn’t know what’s coming. 


But her brothers do!




The drop.




The tackle!!!


“It’s so fluffy!!” 

The birthday party. Emma put it together because she couldn’t be there for the actual day. 

Emma’s amazing dragon cake. 




Picture booth with Pin the Fire on the Dragon in the background. 






We also had a scavenger hunt and did a craft. Then we ate the cake and opened presents. 


Enoch was there too. 


Another Enoch win, this time literally:  

8th Grade Science Fair

His team won 2nd place. They developed the hypothesis that sports played in real life produced higher heart rates than sports played in video games (wii). 

Favorites from my phone

Selfies on the floor with my two youngest while the others were at school. This picture is sweet because I was always so busy running around the house but this day I took the time to just sit and be silly. 

That same day. Picnic with the animals. 

Me and my sisters (missing Jennifer and Cheryl) in the church foyer of my youth during a family reunion. (2012ish?)

Willa and the way she often sees the world. About 6 years old. 

Weekend Notes

A news story that ran in the local paper about library events. 

Enoch at the library making shrinky dink art. He loved it even though he was sure he wouldn’t. 

The shrinky dink making continued at home. Oscar displays his plunger. Asked why he made a plunger, “Because I wanted to.”

Another newspaper item. Just a picture this time, but of the shrinky dink event. 

Calvin at one more library program. ‘‘Twas the week for library programs!! Here he proudly displays his LEGO marble run. 

Favorites from my phone

A picture of our first days in Madison, SD. David would come home everyday from the wax plant at AH Meyer and Sons covered in carbon. This was one of his cleaner days. But look at those pants. 


Emma stands next to her favorite teacher, Ms. Kunkel, after a community theater production of Oliver!  Emma played the young friend. She was a sophomore. 

A lazy Saturday morning selfie. 2014?

Calvin in his Minion hat knitted for him by his aunt Kristi. Love that face!  Maybe 7 years old?

Oscar just after being potty trained. Why?  I must have opened the bathroom door after being requested to help him and was unable to resist preserving that moment. I’ve lived it so many times with all my children and must have realized that this was the end of an era. 

Weekend Notes

Enoch has started guitar lessons, but does not have a music stand yet.  Calvin steps in as an obliging brother.

In church Oscar learned how to do multiple digit addition. The process of numbers increasing was absolute excitement. That wonder is expressed with explosions. BOOM!

David came home from swimming one night as I sat on the floor reading for my master’s class. I snapped this picture of my studly, manly man.

Willa shows off her fashion stylings for her zombie dog, “Bones.”  We sent this picture to Amy, the creator of the dog.