Independence Day!

Meliah and Aaron dressed in white ready for her baptism

The kids before the baptism

Some of the cousins that came to her baptism


What a wonderful day it was! We started off the day with Meliah's baptism. It was a really nice experience for everyone. She was so filled with joy after she got out of the font that she was bouncing. She had the biggest smile on her face... she just sparkled! There was so much family and a few faithful friends that were able to attend (4th of July made it a bit hard for some). After the baptism, family came to our house for lunch and visited! But then came some real dare devil fun out at Ian's parent's house. Right when we got there, Kat and Aaron pulled a tick out of their dog's head, which was pretty gross, but it gets worse. Aaron smashed the tick and it splattered dog blood on his face. It was really wierd but funny now!

Christian with his best buddy, Ivan

Meliah loved the outfit that Kathryn helped her put on (it must be fun if she gets to wear pink). She had a very careful first ride with daddy running behind her. After a while he said "she is going so slow it's not even as fast as she rides her bike!" He didn't seem to worry as much after that and neither did I.

Lizzy with her daddy!

She was all smiles the entire time.

The boy's had been riding the quads for awhile but Lizzy kept saying that she wanted to ride one. I was hesitant but told her as long as Daddy drove. Then Meliah decided she wanted to ride too.
My thought was... "I don't want her to die the day she got baptised!!" Well, they all rode and had a blast! Christian has had several opportunities to ride with his cousins and loves it so much he wants to save his money to buy one. Funny Boy! We told him we don't have a place to ride it or keep it, he said we could keep it with the Pietz's quads. Kathryn just said, "or you can't just ride ours!" It was such a fun day. We ended the evening with so many fireworks that Ian said we would be there for a couple of hours! It went a bit faster than that and thankfully no injuries occurred. There's just such a great feeling being in a wide open space like that, the kids can roam and explore and feel a bit of independence! It was a great reminder of the freedoms we do enjoy in our country! It was a wonderful day for our family.

Happy 4th of July!

The 3 kids dressed up for Sunday!

We got a new concrete slab laid out this morning. This is the kids putting down their handprints. I'm very excited about it, it's been something I've wanted for a few years. Thank you to all the guys that came and helped out! We really do appreciate you!

This is Skip and Aaron doing the finishing work when I finally got the camera out.

What's up?

Elizabeth has been waking up coughing every morning. After I give her some cough syrup or a cough drop she seems fine for the rest of the day and even into the night. I always thought coughs got worse by the evening. If anyone has any ideas of what might be going on let me know. I feel really bad because it's being going on for 3 days and I haven't done anything about it because I forget... until the next morning! I've tried the humidifier but it just makes her cough deeper sounding. Has anyone had this before?

Has it really been a decade?

Happy Birthday Christian! We are so grateful for Christian in our family! He has been a wonderful start to our children. He is such a great example to his sisters. He is very calm, quiet, sensitive and has a mind that never stops. He is curious about everything and often says, "I have a question". Many of his questions need to be looked up. One time, I found out that Aaron ran back to the internet, found the answer and then looked real smart that he knew the answer. He loves his cousins and he loves boys! It is such great day for him when he gets to spend some time with dad or with one of his boy buddies. He is a great musician and loves to play the piano. Christian also loves mathmatics, and recently was given the invitation to test out of 5th grade math for next year and start 6th grade math. He has been studying the 5th grade math book this summer so he can do that. He also loves scouts, baseball, basketball and playing video games. He is growning his own pumpkin plant this year and is hoping for a pumpkin by halloween. We love our gentle giant!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More of Disneyland!

I thought this picture was really cool! Ammon and Meliah were pretty excited that Tigger came and patted their heads! So, I must post this picture because there is a hilarious story behind it. We were watching a parade, the kids were all sitting on the curb, and unfortunately we sat in a position that we all had to look to our left to see anything. There was a lady standing right on the edge of the curb that was standing up impeding the kids from seeing a whole lot. Davis is sitting by her and I was sitting in a position that I could see all the kids trying to see around her. It was really a funny sight! After the parade, Davis' sword thing ended up missing! Evidently that same lady thought it was her son's and grabbed it and put it in her bag. We asked her if she had seen it! She was a bit embarrassed when she realized she had two of them. Davis was happy and we now have a funny story!

Disneyland and our visit!

Grandma with the kids before she had to go! : ( More Disneyland pictures will be added tomorrow!



The cousins hanging out at Disneyland!



On Friday, with our little family at disneyland.



See, I did have some fun!

Our family with pooh! Check out Christian fake smile!

The Ellers new couch

The Blondies looking like twins!

JUST SUCH CUTE AND FUNNY KIDS!


The cousins all had a blast spending time together. Elizabeth and Sophie just loved each other. Liam and Preston had a crush on Meliah! Christian really enjoyed spending time with his boy cousins.

We loved getting caught up on everything with Holly and Stephen. It was really great to see how well they are doing and how happy they are! We sure do love them and wish we lived a little closer!

All the kids in their life jackets getting ready to go on the paddleboats!

We had a paddle boat race! Holly and Stephen smoked us! We loved to see the ducks, turtles, fountains and hang out on the water.