Homestyle New Year's Eve- and some FUN news!

 A first picture of baby eight.  It was fun to go for an elective ultrasound with Joel over Christmas break. A friend gave us a gift to enable us to go to this place in the city to have it done.  She even watched the other kids for us.  We had a nice date night.  The main purpose of this was to find out what color baby we were having, pink or blue............................................

 Guess what color it is?

 If you are as smart as our children, you can easily figure it out based on our New Year's Eve party dessert!!!  I can't say that I was surprised by this. A few of us were hoping for pink icing, but this is just one of those things that God uses to show how much we are NOT in control, and that all his gifts are perfect.  Seven sons!    Now off to look for a name, we haven't any idea of what we should name this little one, but we have a few more months to work on that and I am confident that God will give us a name for this little boy that just fits perfectly. 

 We have had a fun tradition for the past few years of having our own New Year's Eve party.  Somewhere along the line we decided that we didn't enjoy going out somewhere with the kids, and it seemed that we weren't often invited out anywhere either.  But that doesn't bother us, we are our own party anymore!  We buy fun finger foods, and have an dinner of nothing but that.  This year Joel went to the market and came home with honey bbq chicken bites, cheese quessidillas, mozzarella sticks, and pizza that we cut up into tiny pieces.  We ate our dinner, got into our jammies and snuggled in the living room to watch a few episodes of Little House on the Prairie on our new DVD.  We tried to put Luke to bed on time, but he wanted to be part of the party, even though he wasn't feeling well. 

 Here are all the children snuggled in sleeping bags (Elijah is especially fond of his new! green bag).  This year they were all "camping out" under the Christmas tree with Daddy and they were all excited about that. 

Luke snuggled in with Elijah and friends.  Luke and I slept upstairs.  Well, we didn't sleep much.  My excitement of having the whole bed to myself for a night and the prospect of a good night sleep were quickly dashed.  Jeremiah's asthma was making it difficult for him to sleep in the sleeping bags stored in the basement, so he joined me in my bed.  Luke was becoming sicker and I spent more time in the rocking chair with him that night (and the next weeks' worth of nights) than in my bed.  The other children had a good time, waking up to look at fireworks out the window at midnight and then going to sleep gazing at the pretty lights of the tree.  They were, thankfully, not grumpy for church the next morning, and this fun activity might be added to our annual New Year's Eve celebration. 

Looking forward to this new year and all the blessings that God has for us.  Thanking God for our little baby and excited to "meet" him!

~Luke is starting to feel better.  He ran a fever through Friday, and is still rather tired and subdued.  But his mood is improved and he is slowly starting to eat.  Now he has a yucky cough and we are praying that it doesn't progress to anything more.  Thank  you for your prayers.