We made it safely! PRAISE the LORD! It was a little rough going from Avon to Minnesota, but David drove and took it easy! I took care of the kids in the back! For the most part they did WONDERFUL!

This is a picture of David driving...yep, you can't see the road in the picture and you couldn't see the road while he was driving.

Memphis had to show you his movie "La La" we were VERY thankful for our DVD players!

We arrived at the motel to find that the pool was under maintance so we couldn't go swimming, so we went swimming in the bath tub! Nobody slept to well, but that made for good sleeping the next day on the plane and in the car!

Once we got on the plane and Memphis had to sit still he was sleeping. We woke him up to get him off the plane. He missed the whole plane ride. Gage took it all in. He loved riding the elevator, escalator, and moving side walks. We would go on them and he would say "try again, please try again". He can't say the word elevator...it comes out alligator. So he is telling everybody he rode the alligator! We are at Nanna's and Papa's and we are loving it! Everybody slept well, including Julia and Mom! Today we are off to Wal-Mart and an open house to meet Julia!

Getting ready to go!

The Baker family is getting ready to head to Georgia. First we have to head to Minneapolis to the airport. The bags are packed and the boys are excited to go to the airplane. It is amazing how much stuff one can need or think they need for a trip! Please pray for traveling safety. It is 40 below here today!

Our last adventure with Mandy

This weekend Julia and I decided to take one last adventure with Mandy before she leaves for Singapore. Our adventures started wtih us heading to DesMoines to bring Mandy's bed home to her parent's house. We made it sucessfully to her parents house a little late, but safely. We enjoyed lunch with Jackie Saturday morning and headed out to visit Phil and Val Saturday afternoon. Carole and Andrew LOVED playing with Julia. Julia was a little fussy, but not for long...Andrew brought her great joy! He reminded her of her brothers....he pushed her in the walker, made funny faces at her and tickled her. She was SO happy to have a touch of home! So while we were having fun, back home was a little different story...my dad ened up in the hospital with a bowel obstruction(my boys were there and David had to go get them in the middle of the night), David ran out of heat while a blizzard was moving in! Mandy and I were a little concerned about getting home so we considered starting out at 8:00 Saturday night, but decided against it because both Mandy and I were to tired too drive a 6 hour trip so we headed out early Sunday morning in hopes to make it to Sioux City. But the storm moved in quicker than expected and our pickup gave us alittle grief...so we ended up staying in Fort Dogde at Ak's parent's house! Her parent's were so gracious and had soup ready for us and took good care of us. So Monday morning we again packed up and started on home....we made it to Yankton when the pickup gave a us a little grief again. So finally David came and rescued us from Tabor! We made it home with great friends helping us along the way, and getting heat back in our house! The motor placed just called and said that we were lucky to make it home because we blew some big part in the motor! The pickup didn't like that cold weather! Praise God that didn't happen in the middle of nowhere because it was darn cold (18 below regular temp and with the wind chill it was 48 below zero)! We could have had SO many more problems through the whole trip, but we finally made it home! Julia now looks at her car seat and screams....here is a picture of our pretty little princess in her carseat...

Our last adventure with Mandy was a memorable one! We surely will miss her!

Julia is 6 months old

Julia turned 6 months old on Saturday! We can hardly believe she is 6 months, but yet we cannot imagine life without her. She has such a beautiful smile and long eyelashes. She is rolling over and has figured out how to roll right in the middle of her brother's toys. She is getting them back for all the things they have done to her. She tries to sit up, but hasn't quite mastered it yet. She loves to squeal, blow bubbles and has stolen our hearts!

Christmas Card

So most of you will getting this picture in the mail with our Christmas letter, but I thought I would post it anyways. I love this picture because it shows the "truth" of our family. Nobody is ever "looking" in the same direction and Mom and Dad are busy trying to keep up with them! Julia's look is a classic "Julia look" it says "what are you doing and can I join in??" Memphis is ready to run and Gage just finished saying "No". My mom took a bunch of pictures to see if we could find the "perfect christmas card picture" and after about 5 minutes of wrestling the kids and freezing, she states "well, that is as good as it is going to get!" I have thought about this quote and thought about how my life is good and how blessed I am to be chasing my beautiful children even though I am exhausted and there are many days when I want to give up.

Christmas Already

Last night we got our presents from our Social Worker. I was going to make them wait, but than I decided they could open just 1 and than I like a child could not wait and let them open them all! What fun! Memphis's got his guitar! He has been walking around the house with a skillet as his guitar(he wants to be like Ralph off of Ralph's world) and he finally got a real one that plays real music! As he opened it he exclaims "FUN"!! He tried sleeping with it, but it kept playing music so we had to put it away. Gage got a horse farm! It has everything from a pick-up and horse trailer down to the pitch fork! He played with it for hours setting it all up! Julia didn't get any real presents, but she got the paper, which to her is the best toy in the world!!!

Gage started Tribal Head Start today. I work with the YST so I was able to be apart of his school day. He loved playing with the animals and playing outside. He also goes to preschool in Avon on Tuesday-Thursdays! This is the first picture I have been able to post of him because at home he never has clothes on!