Pictures

Here's a few pictures, most of them are semi-recent!

Daniel has started taking guitar lessons and can already play quite a bit!

Emily and Lydia playing with carrots. ;-)


Lydia helping Mom cook.

What Really Matters

My mother says she doesn’t care
About the color of my hair
Or if my eyes are blue or brown
Or if my nose turns up or down.
She says she doesn’t care for things like that.
It really doesn’t matter.

My mother says she doesn’t care
If I’m dark or if I’m fair
Or if I’m thin or if I’m fat.
She says she doesn’t care for things like that.
It really doesn’t matter.

But if I cheat or tell a lie
Or do mean things to make folks cry,
Or if I’m rude or impolite
And do not try to do what’s right,
Then that really does matter.

It isn’t looks that makes one great.
It’s character that seals your fate.
It’s what you are within your heart, you see,
That makes or mars your destiny.
And that really does matter.

Hello everybody!
We are CLOSE to being finally on the mend. Lydia had the flu bug, and Matthew, Joey and Ben had ear infections. And Moms foot is really sore, she dropped a can on it and people (us people!) have been stepping on it. Here (below) are pictures of our Valentine tulips that daddy gave us girls!
And a picture of a bow-tie Daniel made out of a dollar bill---you really CAN do it! It is hair pined to Matthew’s collar!
Hmmm, what else are we doing, oh yes, Daniel is taking guitar lessons, and Robbie is taking trombone lessons and mom is teaching me flute, Megan and I are playing violin! And we're still all taking piano!
Well I guess that’s all for now,
To-da-le-do! Emily
P.S. We (Megan, Emily and Lydia)had more than one tulip!



just a cute one!



:-)!!!



There was a blue and red stripe on a petal!



Emily's tulip!



Lydia's tulip!



Megan's tulip



Mommy's tulips

Love!

Valentines day is a big deal around here . . . for the girls. The boys have their special time during hunting season, so don't feel sorry for them. But this holiday is all about showing love to the ladies, Jeff always does such a good job with that! He has always gotton a flower vase of beautiful flowers for each of us girls, and spoils us rotton! He is such a good example that he is setting the bar high for a future son-in-law, and making a future daughter-in-law very happy!
I have never questioned Jeff's love and loyalty to me, so even though it's a special day, it's just like any other.

Megan adding pictures - the dress Lydia has on used to be mine. :-)

It takes a Blonde

It's been a few weeks since the event . . . it's taken a while to gain sufficient emotional distance from my trying experiences, but I believe I have sufficiently recovered that I can now tell you about it.

You see it was like this. I got up at the unearthly hour of 7 in the morning and went out in the unearthly temperature of 3 degrees to carry water to ornery goats. I should mention that Robbie was actually the one carrying the water. So to reward ourselves we decide to get breakfast. McDonalds being my brother's place of choice, we pull in and I park. "What're you doing?" Robbie asked. "Um, I thought we were going to eat here." "No, go through the drive through," he tells me. "Then we can listen to Glenn Beck while we eat."

So being the nice sister that I am, I go through the drive through. I have a secret dislike of drive-throughs, but I don't want Robbie to know that, see. I later found out the feeling is mutual - drive throughs don't like me, either.

So I order the sandwiches and push the gas pedal to pull around to the window. Nothing. "What's going on?" I turn to Robbie. "Dunno," he replied. "Give it some gas."

I gave it some gas. Motion did not result. I had to face it - I was stuck. Stuck in a McDonalds drive through. With no fresh snowfall for 4 days. Me. Stuck. In. A. Drive. Through.

Robbie got out and tried to rock the Suburban. "Gun it!" he yells. I gun it. He comes around - "You're not supposed to keep gunning it, you're burning tires." How am I supposed to know? He says gun it, I gun it. And gun it again.

"Hello and welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order please?" The cheerful voice comes out of the speaker. "Umm, it's still me. I'm, uh, stuck." "Oh," came the reply. I'm sure she was mystified but she made no further comment.

"Here, let me try it." Robbie slid into the drivers seat. And wouldn't you know . . . he reversed and pulled forward and we were suddenly unstuck.

I got back behind the wheel and pulled around to the window. "How do you get something this big stuck?" the cashier asks incredulously. I don't know, I really don't. Like I said, it takes a blonde.

I came home whining piteously, "Mom, I don't try to be blonde." My Mother replies "It just happens naturally, right?"

So yes, this is Megan. Your friendly, neighberhood blonde.



And the voices of my friends continue to haunt me. . . .
"No way! You got stuck at Mickey D's?"

From the mouth of Ben

Being 3 he has quite a lot to say;

Coming in from sledding and taking off his boots, "My boots LOVE my socks!"

Sitting next to Joey when Joey asked to be told a story, "Now tell a story to me!" 'I just did.' "No you didn't, you just told a story to Joey!"

"I have to come snuggle you in your bed in the morning, because I'm so precious!"

"I just made you a white tail horse!" Maybe we talk too much about white tailed deer around here? ;-)

It's fun to be us!

When a family doesn't watch TV or play video games, you have to be a bit creative. So tonight I think Jeff reached all the way back to 1977. Jeff did it first. You stand in a door way with your palms to your side. Then you lift the backs of your hands until they hit the doorway and push for about 30 seconds. Then step out of the door way and your arms sort of lift up all by themselves. Really! The kids thought we were just joking at first, and laughed so hard as they tried it. The little ones couldn't quite fit, but did a good job imitating and getting laughs just the same. Then they wanted to try it with their feet and see if that would work - oh my!
The rest of the evening was spent jumping over the couch pillows, that was quickly brought to a halt when Lydia joined the pile of couch pillows!
Jeff calmed them all down with a Bible study and a chapter out of the book he is reading to us "Winter with the Moody's". Now all is a bit quiet at the Kunkel house, it really is fun to be us! God is good!

Emily's First Deer

January 23-(Friday) I, Emily got my first deer! –a button buck! I got it in Ohio with a cross bow, in a tree stand, with my dad of course! We had three deer come behind us, scented us, and ran back in the woods. Now EVERY time we’ve been hunting, deer ALWAYS came behind us, but never in front. So after the three went back into the woods, another buck, from the same woods came behind us, came out and walked toward the corn piles that dad set out,(dad said I would have to shoot a deer SOON because we might have to sell the vehicles to get more money for corn!) then another buck followed. They were both button bucks. This deer saw us or scented us, were not sure, and ran away, another one kept on eating.
It was about 3 minutes before dark, and I could see the pin on the snow but not on the deer, so I put the pin on the snow, then slid the pin on the deer, and shot it. It ran 30 to 45 yards and dropped. We got down from the tree stand and walked to the spot where I hit it.
So we tracked it and I saw a brown spot up ahead and said:
“Do think that’s it Dad”? And Dad said: "I think it is Emily! Go get you’re first deer!” We had hot dogs, breakfast sausage, and Canadian bacon made from the meat and it's all been delicious! Goodnight! Emily