The best gift of the year

Meet Miss Ella Catherine Edison

Our sweet baby girl joined our family on November 23, 2010. She weighed 7 lbs and was 20 1/4 inches long. At just 4 days late and a 3 1/2 hour labor, she had the best arrival of the four kids.

She has a great personality - very easy-going and happy. She is also very tolerant of her siblings and their multitude of affections that they shower upon her at any and every opportunity.

She was grinning at Daddy here, but I couldn't quite capture it in time.

What a crew!

We have loved every minute with her, and are so thankful for the gift of new life that God has blessed us with. It is so special to have a new baby at Christmastime as a visible reminder of the gift of Jesus, who came to save us from our sins so we can have eternal life. This year that reminder was even more poignant, as heaven has been on my mind so much this year. Just as we are blessed with Ella's new life here on earth with us, we are thankful that we have the promise of eternal new life so we can be blessed with a heavenly reunion with Dad someday.

Family Additions

This is our sweet dog Macy and her thirteen beautiful puppies, born Tuesday May 11. She is doing a great job mothering them and the kids can't get enough of them! Give them a few weeks to mobilize and it will be pretty chaotic around here. :)





This was our family Easter picture taken at my parents' house this year. You can't tell in the picture, but we are going to be having a new member added to our family this November. We are all very excited for our new baby!

Remembering Winter

Spring is finally here and I am way behind on winter posts! :) At the end of February I took the kids to a place called Bremen Bounce. It is a very fun place for kids and great for burning much pent up energy from being inside so much. The girls loved it immediately, while Lance needed about an hour by my side before he was off and running. Once he was acclimated, I had to drag him out, kicking and screaming when it was time to go.







The girls wanted to "camp out" in our basement. We figured it was pretty harmless, and they LOVED it. They thought they were such big stuff to be able to sleep outside of their room, in their sleeping bags no less. It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but they had a blast.




Michael found a place in the woods that was covered in sheets of ice. He scraped off the snow and the kids had a great place to slip and slide and skate around.






Above all else, everyone loves riding on the four-wheeler. Lance would live on that thing if I let him (as would Michael, probably!).




Now that our winter fun is done, bring on the warm spring weather and activities! :)

Daddy's little princesses

Michael took the girls to their first Daddy/Daughter Dance last night. They were SO excited! It was the first thing Brooke asked about when they woke up in the morning. I had to explain that they had breakfast, Story Time at the library, lunch, naps, dinner, and getting ready time before they would be going. I'm sure that seemed like an eternity to a three-year-old.






The girls really got into getting ready for their first "date". I painted their nails and curled their hair. They loved being primped and pampered. They couldn't keep the grins off of their faces.



They even got to wear their special gold lockets from Aunt Sarah's wedding. I love that Michael did this with them. Some of my most treasured memories from growing up are from "dates" that I had with my own dad. He often went out of his way to make my sister and I feel like his special girls and, in doing so, we had an amazing picture of our Heavenly Father's love for us as well. I pray that my girls will know they are loved for who they are, both by their earthly father, who would die for them in a heartbeat, and their Heavenly Father, who sent His Son to die for them.