Great Family Weekend

We had a great weekend celebrating mom and dads 40th wedding anniversary.  Thank you for being such great example of a wonderful marriage and unconditional love. Nat and I have said many times that we have a lot to live up to. Both of our parents combined have celebrated 85 years. Wow!

Going out to dinner with five kiddos eight and under can be pretty eventful. They all ended up doing great and we had a wonderful meal together. My oldest nephew was at camp. Logan, we missed you!

Miss Priss of coarse had everyones attention. She says "cheese" for the camera now. 

We also celebrated Father's Day and my brothers birthday.

Happy Father's Day! Nat, you are truly an amazing dad! You are their hero.

What a blessed weekend!

16 months old

We have had you in our arms for three months now and you are just so much fun! I cannot believe you are 16 months old already. I am loving that you are a mama's girl!

You have had a lot of firsts the past four weeks. Your biggest first for mommy was leaving you with Mrs. Vivian while mom went back to work after 13 weeks. You have done so well! You take your usual two hour nap just like you do at home. So far no bad reports! It was not too hard leaving you because we knew you were in REALLY good hands. Mrs. Vivian is like part of the family now. What would we do without Mrs. Vivi?

You have had your first summer swim and your first boat ride on the lake. You love the pool but you are a little unsure about swimming in the lake. However, you seem to like riding in the boat. You do not like the wind in your face so you bury your face into my chest and sometimes fall asleep. I wish you liked the lake water better though because it gets a little toasty not being able to get in the water when it is 97 degrees.

You have cut two of your baby molars with no complaints or fussiness. You are one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. You go with the flow! You are an awesome sleeper! When you wake up you sit, roll, and talk in your crib. You like making animal sounds and singing e-i-e-i-ooooo. You are just a baby girl loving life and it is such a joy to be a part of it.

Your brothers just adore you more everyday. You have several nicknames in our house lately. We call you Ella Bella, Priss Pot, and the boys laugh and call you Ella Smella because of your dirty diapers. Nolan usually always calls you baby girl and I love that. My favorite is Priss Pot because you just prance around the house so happy. Your little walk is so different than the boys. It is just girlie cute!

                                        You make us so happy and bring us so much joy!

                                                                   We love you!!!!!

My Second Grader!

My oldest is now a second grader! Really! Where has the time gone?

He had a haircut today. He likes it really short and I do too. 

He gets frustrated with his cowlick (just like his dad's) but today his barber cut it short and added some gel for a little spike in the front. He loved it! He looks so handsome. He asked if he could get it cut like this every time. He has thick fast growing hair like me. We would have to go every 2 weeks to keep this cut up. He even asked me to buy some gel. LOL! 

Nathaniel, you are still my strong willed boy but you have grown into a great big brother (x2), lover of sports,  country music, hunting, and the lake. I wish everyone knew your soft sensitive side but only I get to see that. Everything comes easy to you. When you set your mind to something you do it to the fullest. 

You and your sister have a special bond. She loves you so much! The other day you told me, "I don't know what I would do without her." 

Your dad and I are so proud of you!

15 Months Old

A 15 month old 

That does not like bows or shoes

That loves playing peek-a-boo

That loves her brothers and believe me they adore her!

That loves people and has developed some impressive verbal skills.  You wave, smile, or make faces to everyone in the grocery store. You melt hearts at first sight.

Your words you can say are:

mama, dada, bye, book, baby, ball, bite, puppy, duck, meow, nana, pop, ba ba (bottle) and you try to say your brothers names, thank you, and hello.

When we ask you questions you shake your head yes or no. You definitely know what you want.

You love books!

You are walking everywhere now. There is no stopping you! You are now a busy and beautiful toddler!

Ella's One Year Pictures

Since I had portraits made of the boys at one year and each hanging in the living room we had to have one of Ella too. I also had pictures with the boys at three months with me in white. So thanks to Amy Woosley we got our pictures!!!!!!!!!! Also, a special thanks to two great friends who surprised me and when we got there Amy told me our photo session had already been paid for as a gift. WoooooHooooo!

Here is what you really want to see.

Oh those precious little hands! I don't ever want to forget them. 

Chosen

My heart is full of joy today because I am so thankful to have three beautiful children to hold in my arms and for a my mom who taught me how to be a mother. Thank you mom!  Even though there is so much joy there is always a little sadness in remembrance of our daughter Cambell Grace but she is the reason I am the mom I am today.

 A new thought this year is a mother in Korea that made a very hard decision to give a better life to her daughter. I pray that she has peace in her heart that her daughter is happy. I am thankful she allowed me to be Ella's mother. I am sure she thinks of her little girl a lot. Also, I am sure her foster mother misses her as well. Even though these women are halfway around the world they will always hold a special place in our hearts and I will forever be grateful.

The most overwhelming part of Mother's Day for me is that God chose me to be the mother of His four amazing children. These babies totally belong to Him and he can take them as quickly as he gave them to us. I try to not take a day for granted but sometimes it's tough. Being a mom is the hardest job I have ever had and some days are pretty trying but I love every minute of it and it is so rewarding!

Today was also Ella's baby dedication. We know she is God's child but we are honored that He chose us to be her parents. We promised today that we would raise her to know the Lord and live in a christian home. That is one huge responsibility. May God grant us the wisdom and knowledge we need to do this.

It was so nice to have both sides of our family with us today.  I wish I had a picture of all the family that was here for the special occasion. I am sure Nat's dad was watching from above so proud of his new granddaughter.

The two gentleman with us is our pastor Steve and our children's minister Bruce. Steve has been there with us for each of our children. I have similar photos with my boys so I told him we had to get just one more.

How great is the love the Father lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3

God loves us and adopted us as His children. 

Ella Marie Su-mi, we are so thankful for you and love you so much! 

Not flesh of my flesh,

Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute, 

You did not grow under my heart- 

But in it.

How Awesome Is This!!!!!!!

A friend stopped by tonight to visit and she made Ella the most beautiful quilt! This is a new talent for her and she did an awesome job on it. This is such a special gift for Ella. I was in awe when I opened it up to see the story unfold. I love it so much! It means a lot to us that she put so much thought and time into it. It matches her room perfectly. It will forever be cherished. Ella even curled up with it in her crib tonight and went right to sleep.

We have been so blessed to have a lot of pictures and videos of Ella from her first year of life that we missed out on. In those pictures she is almost always on a quilt. They slept on a mattress on the floor with a quilt. Ella loved her new gift tonight. Check it out for yourself.

I will post my friends website when she gets it finished if your interested.

THANK YOU!!!!

Happy Easter!

Since I am off work with our little princess I have not missed a thing with the boys this easter. I usually do not get to go to their egg hunts at school and Mrs. Vivian's. It was fun watching them with their friends.

Nathaniel's class won the buckets of hope contest and they got to go to the park for lunch and their egg hunt. He was saying the egg hunt would be boring but check out his face.....he doesn't look bored to me!

Pop was also able to come! He and Ella had some bonding time.

We went to my parents this weekend. It was Ella's first time to spend the night at Nana and Pop's. She did perfectly. The boys were super excited about our night egg hunt with flashlights, headlamps, and glow necklaces. This is the thing they look the most forward to at easter.

Since Ella was not big enough to run with the boys for the egg hunt she got her own special basket.

Nathaniel found his basket early and I was not able to get his picture. But they loved what the Easter Bunny brought them.

We went to church with Nat's family. It was special that we were all able to be there together. It was the first holiday without Nat's dad. 

We went to Nat's sisters for lunch. 

Our niece and nephew planned an indoor egg hunt in the basement since it was raining. The boys have always looked up to there big cousins. Ella loves Leah because she is her mini mama. They are sweet together.