Ellen grew up today

I took Ellen, Calista and Sarah shopping this morning after dropping Samuel and Jacque off at school. We'd been shopping for a while, and Sarah had finally had enough of sitting in her car seat, so I got her out and started carrying her. I still wanted to get some photo albums to put a bunch of pictures in, but couldn't find any, so I stopped and asked two Walmart associates, one male and one female, where they might be. The lady told me to follow her and she'd show me where they were. As I we started to follow her, the man said, "Oh, so that's who was making all the fuss. She sure is pretty." I thought, that was nice of him, but Ellen turns her head and says in her funny tone, "Oh, stupid man!" The lady ahead of us laughed. Stupid is one of our naughty words at the house. We don't call any person stupid. Dogs might be stupid or something else might be, but we never call people stupid. I'm not sure what made her say it. Ellen was probably pretty innocent, and thought she was being funny, but I couldn't let her get away with it. I stopped the cart, bent down and said, "NO Ellen! That's not nice, you tell the nice man that you're sorry!" Ellen is not one who likes to do wrong, and her face went real serious. Just by looking at her, you could tell she was plenty sorry. The man said he didn't hear what she said, but I still wanted her to say sorry. It took only a minute before she said "sorry." I was so proud of her. I gav her a big hug and thanked her for saying sorry. I told her that I know it was a hard thing to do, but she did what was right and I was proud of her, then we went on with our shopping. I never told the guy what she said, but I'm sure the lady filled him in on it and I wanted him to know that she was sorry. In my eyes, Ellen grew up today!

Another fun video

This video was taken about four years ago. Jacque would've been 2 1/2, Samuel almost 4, and Calista was 1 1/2.

Cute video

I found this video and just thought it was cute. Enjoy.


Ellen dancing with a frog.

We got a piano

Aaron got a phone call a couple weeks ago from a guy at work. He told Aaron that his ex mother-in-law had a piano that she's been trying to get rid of for the last two years. The friend told her that he knew someone that might be interested. So Aaron went and looked at it and brought it home, for free! When we got it, there were several keys that were stuck down, which made me nervous because I didn't know how to fix it. Aaron took the front panel off of the piano and opened the top, then started looking around. It was then that we noticed how lucky we were. We didn't just get a piano for free, but we also got 5 marbles, several pennies, and several pieces of garbage. After carefully extracting these treasures, the keys popped right up!! There were several keys that weren't tuned real well, so Aaron used a socket to tune it. It still isn't perfect (according to Aaron) but its fine for me. My ears don't hear what's wrong unless it is really off. All in all, I think we got a steal of a deal!

Updated pics

Here's an updated picture of the four oldest. Sarah was sleeping, so she didn't get included. These are the dresses that I made the girls a few weeks ago from material I picked up at a yard sale. I think each dress cost $5/dress or less to make. You can't buy them that cheap. The girls all wanted to have their hair the same today for church which was pretty fun. I'm sure those days won't last long if I remember right.

My Boys Are Back!

My boys came back at 11 o'clock this morning! We were all really excited to see them. It turns out that the probably wasn't exactly the gas, but an electrical problem, and with Joseph's help, Aaron was able to get it running again. Samuel is feeling better, but Jacque woke up last night saying she wasn't feeling very good. She hasn't thrown up, but her forehead feels a little warm. Sorry Ivy!

Here's a picture of our little tractor that Aaron brought back with him. It's the size of a large riding lawn mower, but its a tractor! Isn't it cute! I can't wait to get it working and painted. It's small enough that Samuel could drive it. Joseph said that Samuel could make some good money rototilling other people's gardens next summer. It came with a rototiller attachment and a lawn mower attachment.

A visit to Ivy and Joseph

About a month or so ago, Aaron saw a small tractor for sale on craigslist that he was really excited about, however it was over by Portland somewhere. So Aaron called Ivy and asked if she'd be willing to go and look at it. She and Joseph went and looked at it and then picked it up for us in his truck. Aaron was waiting for me to have the baby before he left town to go pick it up. Well yesterday was his first free weekend, so he and Samuel took off at 8am. I talked to him at around 4pm and he was just getting ready to leave, although Ivy had told them that they should spend the night. Before he left, he asked Joseph where a good gas station was. Joseph directed him to one that was about 20 cents cheaper than all the other gas stations. Aaron filled up both tanks and then took off. As he was climbing up the on ramp to the freeway, his truck choked and died. Aaron called dad who told him that his truck got free towing, then called a tow truck to take him back to Ivy and Joseph's house. Next he called Joseph and asked Joseph if he'd ever had trouble with the gas from that particular gas station. Joseph said that he doesn't always gas up there, because he usually can get better gas mileage if he gases up somewhere else. Now I wonder why this gas station was 20 cents less than everywhere else...go figure! So Aaron spent last night and today trying to fix his truck and get back home. Samuel has had his own fun. He woke up this morning with a headache and went back to bed. When he woke up he was feeling fine and ate. After a while, Ivy called Aaron, who was gone to the store, and told him that Samuel just threw up. Poor Samuel. POOR IVY!!

So let this be a lesson to you all. If Ivy asks you to spend the night, you either need to accept the offer, or ignore the advice as to where to gas up!! Just joking! Ivy I really appreciate you taking care of my boys! Thank you so much.

Little Sarah Elizabeth

Sarah had her check up this week and she's now 8lbs 12oz, and 21 inches long!




So this wasn't the cutest expression, but this picture was the only one with her eyes open so far.

Samuel is such a great helper. Grandma taught him how to pick Sarah up and he does a great job bringing her to me when I can't get there fast enough.

I thought this one was cute of Sarah and Ellen, having them look at each other.

Sarah and Jacque. Jacque is a really good helper. She loves her little sister.