Elli's 6th birthday party, April 21st

 She asked for a hula hoop for her birthday and she is really good at keeping it going.  Awesome!

 We had a rainbow color theme along with little girl games.  We danced to cotton eyed joe, jumped rope, had a pinata, and wanted to do hopscotch but missed that one.  It was a blast.

 Kids getting ready for their jump rope lesson:)

 This pinata was actually broken wide open by Caleb and Andrew.  Candy really flying everywhere!

 Lots of gifts, including this globe from Gonga and Papa.

Grandma got Elli the hula hoop and showed of a bit.

Celebrations

 This was one of the craziest birthday parties we had for Brent.  Lots of family with lots of crazy kids:)  Happy 35th, Precious.

 Luka is smiling like crazy while Wesley is trying to figure out how to make it bounce.  He finally decided to just flap his arms and make it go.  They loved the trampoline!

 Playing on the swing set.  Lots of swin

 Wesley loves his Aunt Lori. I had a dream about him reaching for me and calling me "mommy" and he really does reach for me and call me "mama."  Love these adorable boys.

We celebreated Papa's birthday on April 20th.  He got some fun gifts including a computer game to teach him how to fly toy airplanes and helicopters:)

Hard Parenting and Funny Story

I can tell in many ways that Elli is simply getting older.  She is obviously growing physically, her vocabulary continues to increase, she is able to do more on her own, and she is giving responses that show more thought.  One hard parenting thing happened this week which I will attribute to Elli getting older. Brent had placed a $20 bill on the counter for me.  I left it there that evening but in the morning when I went to put it in my purse, it was gone.  I fretted a bit, then decided to ask Elli if she had seen it.  She replied, "Oh yes.  I did.  I sneaked into my room and put it in my store part of my bank."  I told Elli it was not her money to take and that she needed to ask before taking things that weren't hers.  She replied "Well, mommy.  I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to know."  OK, so I love the honesty of this response and the fact that she owned up to what she had done.  However, the hard part is seeing a sinful choice lived out with the selfiesh reasoning explained.  We talked about her choice and what it reflected of her.  She agreed she needed to ask forgiveness and did so of me and God.  Still, it was hard to come face to face with this decision of Elli's.
And now, the funny story.  Elli wanted me to get in her tent and play today.  I am continuing to grow, so I told Elli it was hard for mommy to get into her tent.  She promptly replied, "Well, I see you brought that big booty of yours with you."  Yep, Elli.  It seems to follow me wherever I go:)   

Easter Sunday

 The Masters, Raymonds, and Ferguson kids all dressed up for Easter Sunday.  The service was wonderful with music designed to point us to the resurrection truth and scripture passages describing Christ's love and sacrifice in terms of truth from Corinthians.  

 After arriving home, Elli commensed looking for her basket.  Her riddle said, "Play the piano, sing a tune, I am hiding in this room."  She found her basket under the piano.  She also had 16 eggs to find, filled with candy which she was quite effiecient at doing:)

 Family picture in front of our house, with newly mulched flower beds.  I am 28 weeks pregnant here.

 Easter brunch at mom and dad's was a little untraditional this year.  We skipped the ham and made breakfast foods instead.  Delicious!  Heather is taking the picture, Gloria is playing in the other room, and Leah is at the "kid's" table with Wesley and Luka:)

 Elli found her basket at mom and dad's.  It had some fun things in it.  (It was on the dryer)

 With another beautiful day, we had to get outside.  Lots of playing.  The adults however ended up being more worn out than any of the kids.  How does this happen?

 Luka gave me a big grin.

 Wesley was having so much fun with Papa...

 and then he gave me a sweet little smile:)

 We thought we would try for a picture of all the kids, but it is rather difficult with their ages right now:)

 Not too bad of all of us.

 Happy Gloria.

This is my favorite picture.  Mom really wanted a picture of her and all her grandbabies.  As you can see, it didn't go as planned!!!

Egg Hunt at The Club, April 7th

 The bunny this year was not nearly as scary as two years ago:)

 The eggs were hidden inside this year due to the wet frost outside.  At first, it appeared all the eggs were gone, then Brent noticed there were a ton in the locker room.  Elli found most of them:)  Then, I told her there were some kids that didn't get any eggs and she proceeded to dwindle her basket from about 20 down to 7 by checking all the other kids' baskets and giving them away to kids who didn't have any.  I love to watch her compassion.

 All of us with the bunny:)

 We didn't want to waste this sun on the course without golfing a bit.

 My first time watching Brent golf this year.  Looking good.

Elli has really been wanting ti improve and here she is getting a little coaching from her daddy on putting.  She put it in the hole!

April 2nd, Coloring Eggs

 We invited Emilee over to color eggs.  It was her first time!  The girls had a fun time and made some very pretty eggs.

Good job girls. 
Before we colored these eggs, we went through our resurrectgion eggs and told the story of Easter.  It was fun to have an interactive lesson with these girls and to see them ponder some pretty hard truths.

Time with Nieces and Nephews, March 30

 Wesley (orange plate) and Luka came over while Leah had a dentist appointment.  I have not gotten to watch them all by myself very often, but this was a fun afternoon.  They did very well and are enjoying watching Elli. When Leah came back, we spent some time at the Greene letting the kids run and enjoy the nice weather.

 I love how Elli is opening her mouth when she feeds Wesley.

Later that evening, we got to watch Aria while Jenna and Justin went on a long awaited date! She was so sweet and once again, Elli was all about caring for and playing with her.  Elli even went to put her pajamas on that looked like Aria's.
Even later that night, Kyle and meg came over for a quick visit with Seth and Rayna.  So in one day, I saw most of my nieces and nephews and super enjoyed it.  (Liam and Lillian were in South Carolina and Gloria was at the lake.)

Emma Grace turns Three

 Sweet birthday girl:)

 Blowing out her candles.  Emma Grace loves Dora, so of course, the theme was perfect for her!

Love that Elli has such sweet friends.  I am thankful for wonderful families and sweet times together.

March Activities

 We have been working on getting the basement finished.  Brent was adding some can lights that we forgot about when the electricians came.  Drywall is now complete and Brent has been working on getting all the boxes installed.  We will paint soon.

 Elli enjoys practicing golf with Brent now.  Of course, she has to look good while doing it:)

Couldn't resist a picture with our pretty pear tree this year.  Of course it also helps to have such a pretty girl in the picture too.

Elli also has some skills in the softball area.  Her first "at bat" this spring resulted in one fast, hard hit straight into Brent's chest which caused a yelp and a welt!  And again, she has to dress the part.  In fact, while at WalMart one afternoon, she saw some pink softball gear; bat, ball, glove and helmet.  She said to Brent, "Daddy, I need those things.  They will look pretty when I wear them!"

Leah's Birthday

 The kids were enjoying watching Brent and Papa fly their helicopters.

 Luka couldn't wait to hold the controls:)

 Elli and the birthday girl!

 The 4 grandkids being still, for about 5 seconds.

 These boys were not in the mood to sit for pictures, even on their mamma's birthday:)

As always, we get a picture of the girls.  it was a fun day at Leah and Matt's, celebrating together.