A Special Christmas Present...

This year is extra exciting for the Dittmers because we have a special present from our parents this year...

It is true mom is pregnant!!

Our excitement is beyond words! 

Yes, we do realize we took the Bible verse out of context but I'm sure all of you will forgive us. :) We hope you all will share in our excitement as baby number 9 is on the way! 

Happy Birthday Xavier!

Xavier turned 3 years old on December 9th! He has really taken being a big boy very seriously!

Birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Visits... Oh my!

It has been such a long time since we've posted! Since you've last heard from us we've had 2 birthdays... Olivia turned 5, and Mother turned... Well she'd rather not talk about it. Happy very belated birthday to both of you!

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful time of...
- Cooking
- Family Time
- Eating
- Cooking
- Games
- Eating
- Playing
- Resting
- Good Conversations
- And Lots More Eating!
We all enjoyed the day with our Aunt Lisa, Uncle Sam, and our 2 cousins Eric and Luke!
Our meal consisted of mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus, corn, relish tray, cranberry scones, beets, stuffing, ham, and turkey. And our dessert consisted of cheesecake, apple salad  pumpkin spice pie, rice crispy treats, red velvet cupcakes, a pecan pudding pie and french silk pie!!! YUM!!

The Witzenburg family also visited us on Sunday last week! We all had a lovely time! It was such a fun visit and we can't wait to see them again soon!

We all enjoyed playing the table slapping game :)

Shooting!

We went shooting on Saturday! Dad took Emily, Caleb, Anna, and me; while mom stayed home with all the young ones. I shot 50 times with the shot gun and my arm is so sore it's ridiculous!

Here are some pics of our fun day! :)

Philip 7 already?

Yes it is true Philip is seven today. The years have gone by so quickly. Philip is such a blessing to us.

Some of the things Philip enjoys doing include,

Gymnastics
Riding Bikes
Climbing trees
and eating.

Happy 1st Birthday Ella!

We are so excited that Ella is now one! Happy birthday! We can't wait to see what God has in store for your future!

Family Camp Boats!

One of our families favorite activities that we did was watching the boys make boats out of card board and duck tape! And Emily and I made a flag! Here's our boat and some of the pictures of sailing across the pond... And no we didn't sink! :)

Family Camp!

We had an absolutely amazing time at family camp! It is such a joy to spend time with like-minded families and Godly friends.
We did so many things its impossible to list them all. But here are some of our highlights from the week...

-Archery
-Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle Challenge!
-Yummy Meals
-Wonderful Teaching
-Great Music
and my very favorite...
-Hours and hours of VOLLEYBALL! :)

The fathers and sons also did something fun and built a boat out of cardboard and duck tape only! It was so fun and hilarious to watch them race across the lake! And only 4 boats sank!

Packing for Family Camp!

Today is the first day of our vacation! We are so excited to be heading out of town. Tonight we're headed to our cousins birthday party, tomorrow we're going to be watching the Hawkeye Cyclone game with our grandparents, and on Sunday afternoon we'll be heading to family camp!! I'll continue with the updates throughout the week. :)

Here are a couple pictures of our packing process!

Happy 19th Anniversary to my parents!

Happy anniversary to the greatest parents who have ever lived! You've laughed with me and cried with me, trained me and corrected me, loved me, spent quality time with me, helped me, taught me to love Jesus with all my heart, rebuked me, and supported me! And not to mention you've given me 7 best friends! Thank you for being MY parents! I love you both with all my heart!

Love,
The Oldest

State fair!

Today is a special day as our family is at the state fair! We are having a blast! :)

Thanks for the ice cream grandma and grandpa!

Surprise!

Today father came home for lunch with a huge surprise for us... a kitten! We are all so excited! Here are some pics for you!

Such a cute little kitten!

Aww!

Here's the deal... We need your help in naming the little guy. Here are the options.

1. MouseTrap

2. BobCat

3. iPawd

4. Joshua (because Caleb wants to go to the promised land with the kitten.)

5. Suggest your own!

The name that gets the most votes wins! Start commenting! :)

Bontragers Visit

On June 24-26 the Bontrager family came to our church to sing on Sunday and stayed for a few days to visit and sing for the WHO Tractor Ride in Centerville. We had such an amazing time with them and were so blessed by their company! We had a total of 22 people at our house (they have 10 children and our family has 8). Cooking for so many people was so fun! We played games, ate, had devotions together, ate, went shopping, ate, had great discussions, oh and did I mention that we ate?! Here are a "few" pics of the fun time our families had together! :)

The Bontrager Family

The Huddle

Hey guys... Do you think we can manage that?

Sibling Cooperation II

Mission Accomplished!

A very intense game of chess

between Joshua and Denver

Taylor, Hudson, Caleb, Philip, and Anna playing

Jr. Monopoly

Lots of talking

At the Band Shelter

The line up of the family

A game of Mancala between Emily and Chelsy

and Mitchell and Joshua playing chess

Carson, Mitchell, Me (Alesha), Emily Caleb, and Joshua

played a long game of Monopoly on Monday night...

We didn't go to bed till 12:30...

Carson won

The bus in front of our house

Mitchell and Xavier saying "cheese"!

Emily getting some tips from Mitchell on the guitar

Food!

We all enjoyed racing in Sudoku while we ate

Such a full house! :)

Smiles from the little ones and one of the awesome

castles they built.

Getting ready to pray before they leave.

Hugs!

Philip showing Taylor and Carson how he manages

to climb the tree.

More hugs!

When the bus was finally out of view Xavier started crying as he

sat on the steps... He said "They left us!"

It was so sad but very cute at the same time!

Thanks again for the wonderful visit! We were so blessed to have you in our home for a few days. We all look forward to seeing you on Labor Day! :)