Welcome Aria Grace Dodson, Aug 18, 2011

The proud mommy and daddy about 15 hours after Aria arrived!!!
Two of Aria's 3 cousins. They love her already:)
She is such a sweet little cuddly girl:)
Elli was excited, to put it mildly! We did a "It's a girl!" dance when we heard about her that morning. So excited to meet her:)

My twin nephews!!! Aug 13, 2011

Sweet Wesley's smile!
Love this face of Wesley's too!
Funny face from Luka:)
Check out his cute little tongue! hehehe

I love these little guys. So sweet.

Catherine Turns 3!

The birthday girl at her fairy garden party!
Heather did such a great job of making all the decorations so sweet. What a fun day.

Memories Forever

I walked in to kiss Elli good night and this is how she was sleeping. I LOVE watching her sleep. She is so very sweet. Look how she is holding her baby:)

Look Mom, no Wheels!

Look closely, we have taken off her training wheels!
We decided to try to teach Elli to ride without training wheels. She was totally against it a few days ago, but got excited about it tonight.
Brent and I took turns holding onto her while she practiced. I do not see her taking off on her own in the next day, but she is at least learning to balance more. Also, at the beginning of the summer, it was a fight just to get her ride her bike. I'd say she has grown, a lot!

A couple of stories:

1. On Monday, I had training all day at Cedarville and actually didn't see Elli at all that day until 8:30 at night. When I was putting her to bed she said to me, "Mommy, I was with you all day." I asked her what she meant, she replied, "I could hear your song." I asked what song that was and she said it was the song I sing to her each night, since she was a baby. "I want to hold you, I want to kiss you, I want to hug you, because I love you!"

2. Elli came into the bathroom to see me while I was getting ready and she had her big horse with her. She said to me, "Hi Mommy. I rode my Royal Steve all the way here." hehehe

3. We have been reading the Old Testament and I think she is paying attention. The other day while playing, she was pretending she had leprosy!

The boys come for a visit!

Elli with precious Wesley. She loves these boys and they are getting more used to her. They mostly like to watch her dance and spin all around them:)
As you can see, Luka likes his berry cherry dinner much more than Wesley! He was chowing down:)
Elli with sweet Luka.
Luka's adorable smile:)

We had the best day just being together, watching the kids play, playing with the kids, and even letting the boys nap on our chests. What sweet moments and memories.

Entrepenuer

I had talked with Elli about possibly selling some of our vegetables. She helped me pick and wash some of them on Thursday night. Then, that next morning, 2:30am to be exact, she woke me up to ask if she could sell watermelon and vegetables.

So, Friday morning, I set her up outside with onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and 2 cantaloupe. She made $12! One man walked by and we offered him some KoolAid. He asked how much it was and Elli replied, "a quarter or $0.99." He gave her a dollar, I told him he didn't need to, then he said it was a business decision he was willing to make. Another neighbor walked over to se what we had and Elli simply said,"Do you need cash back?" and offered him some money from her container. He hadn't purchased anything:)

Overall, it was a good experience for her. She ad a great time!

Sleepover!

Lily slept in a sleeping bag on Elli's floor.
Lily has asked me for a few months now if she could spend the night and make strawberry smoothies! We added some blueberries to these, and they were delicious:)
The girls and the sunflowers.
Playing together. It is fun to see them be such sweet little friends. We are thankful for Lily, her family, and their friendship to all of us.

Definition of Equality

On my run tonight, I was having some mathematical thoughts. It went something like this. From day to day, Elli changes little. However, from month to month I can see definite changes. From year to year, it seems impossible that I missed her growing up. So, 1 day + 1 day = 5 years. Then I was thinking that 5 years + 5 years = 18 and heading off to college. Then it hit me again, 18 years + 18 years = 40 and independence from Brent and I and hopefully her own family. While I was processing that, I realized that 40 years + 40 years = eternity. So when I apply the definition of equality, 1 day = eternity and what have I done today to impact my little girl's life for eternity? It just so happens that today was a good day for eternal prospective things, but then I reminded myself that 1 day + 1 day = tomorrow. What we will do tomorrow? For that, I must start planning today.

Our Sunflowers grow Daily!

Look how unbelievably tall that sunflower is!!!!!
Our garden. Elli is standing by the rogue cucumber plant, outside the fence. We planted a row of sunflowers, nine in all. 7 are currently blooming. Not bad:)
This is the largest head on any of the flowers. Also, do you see the size of that bee? I looked up online how to harvest the seeds. We may have a new snack soon at the Ferguson home. I have learned so many new things this summer by having this garden.
When we planted our sunflowers, Elli couldn't wait for them to grow so we could take a picture with sunglasses on the flower and us. We saw this at a sunflower field last year and she has talked about it several times. So, out we go with sunglasses on. (yes she is posing) I love her little memory and imagination!!!

Caleb's 6th Birthday, Cowboy Style:)

Ready for the cowboy party!
Caleb showing his moves to the kids. Such fun this gang is:)
Trying to lasso a cow. Not bad form if you ask me!
Travis helping Elli lasso a cow.
Blowing out his candles. I cannot believe he is 6. I do remember this boy as a baby, a 1 year old, 2 year old, etc! The years go quickly, but so thankful for this day to celebrate Caleb!

Produce!

Elli took a picture of the rain storm. She said she thought God was putting on a show for us.
6 jars of pickles and they all sealed this time!!!! I had one cucumber that was so large, I couldn't fit all of the spears from it in one jar!!!! These cucumbers have been growing so quickly. I will totally pick the garden one day and then by the end of the next day will be able to pick 2-3 more!
The produce from our garden since Wednesday. 12 cucumbers, 1/4 of this bucket full of beans, 2 tomatoes, 2 peppers, and 2 onions. There was a bit more, but we have been eating it:) Have I mentioned I love having a garden? :)

Pool Day with Friends

Lots of kids during the "break" in the baby pool.
Abby showed Elli how to slide down the hill on a boogie board. Just another aspect of the fun to be had when playing with friends.
Lily and Madilyn.
Elli in her new suit with goggles on. She took off to chase the boys!
Some of the crew. We enjoyed the afternoon with the Hollins, Masters, Raymonds, Deasons, Campbells, Stahl's and McDowells. (There were others there that some of these couples know, but I was there because these sweet families planned a great day.) Must do it again!!!!
We have thoroughly enjoyed our summer, but especially once the weather warmed up and quit raining! We have spent much time in the pools of the area and were able to spend time with our friends at Brookview in Bellbrook yesterday. I am amazing nearly every time we go swimming at how well Elli does in the water. She loves it and is good at it. It is especially fun though to watch her with her friends.

My Little Kitten and Family Date Night!

We were playing kitty and Elli was taking a nap. I thought she looked so cute here.
We went on a family date night. I thought it was National Lasagna Day at Brio, but I had the wrong date. The manger came to our table and told us he would make it work for us. Thank you!
We played in the fountains a bit afterwards. Such a fun, spur of the moment time with my family.
All wet:)

Pretty Face

This sunflower showed it's pretty little face just today!
This pretty little face is sporting a new loose tooth.
This pretty little face is posing, a common occurance.
Where's the pretty little face? hehehe If you could see this from the other angle, you would see two very happy faces!

Claire's Luau for her 5th Birthday

The birthday girl:)
Andrew finally got the pinata to open. Look at that face:)
Elli was helping Claire with a couple gifts. We had a great time and were very excited to be able to celebrate with Claire.

Big News at the Ferguson Home

After several months of guessing, thinking, hoping, and looking, Elli finally has a loose tooth!!!!! It is big news here. Ever since her friends started losing their teeth, she has told me several times a week that she thinks she has a loose tooth. She has had me wiggle the one she feels may be a little wiggly, she had me check her mouth, and she has complained about tooth pain from getting her big girl teeth. Last night we went to Claire's 5th birthday and saw that Claire had a loose tooth. So, this morning when Elli says to me, "Mommy I think I have a loose tooth," I told her it was only because of Claire's tooth last night. She urged me to feel it and see if it was loose because she was sure it was wiggling. So, being the kind mother that I am, I obliged and sure enough, it wiggled!!!! She called everyone in my speed dial on the cell phone and was a bit discouraged only person answered! (or as Elli says, "Leah didn't call.) (Sorry Paula, but you got an ear full because you were the first to answer her exciting news phone call!)

In Sunday School class she raised her hand with a prayer request, stating proudly, "My tooth that is wiggling is bothering me." (Elli's way of letting everyone know she had joined the crowd of awkward smiles:)

By tonight though, she now has two loose teeth. My precious baby girl will soon loose her two, middle, bottom teeth and will no longer look the same. I know the days of awkward smiles, crying when eating, fear when brushing, and tooth fairy visits are in my near future. I am teary as I write this, because this is one more reminder that I have a bigger girl than I did yesterday. I so wish I could save time in a bottle. I guess that is why we have memories, pictures, and warm fuzzies.

And with that, I say goodnight. (It is quite late as I am writing this because we just finished off an amazing weekend of friends and family with the movie Secretariat and I cannot go to sleep just yet)

I will close with a "blast from the past" phrase of Elli's at 2ish years old.

"Night, night, mommy. Budge ooo." (Night night, mommy, Love you)