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! :)

Happy Fathers Day!

June 17 is always a special day in our house because not only is it Fathers Day but it is also our fathers birthday! Happy birthday and Happy Fathers day to the best dad in the world! . . . You are there for us in the good and easy times but most importantly your are there to help and support us during the hard and trying times. Yes, we all know you haven't been the perfect dad (but no one is!) so I'm very grateful for the one you are to us and I wouldn't ask for a different one! Thank you for teaching us, directing us, leading us, providing for us, rebuking us, correcting us, helping us, training us, crying with us, laughing with us, and loving us! And most of all thank you for being MY hero! :) We Love You!

Philips first missing tooth!

Today we celebrated with Philip as he lost his first tooth! Here are some pictures of his toothless smile! :) We've been super busy lately for many different reasons but I'll do a post about that here in the next few days explaining why we've been missing in action. :)

Mothers Day

Happy mothers day. We are so blessed to have the mother that we have. She has truly been an inspiration to me. Thank you for taking your time and energy to raise all of us kids. Knowing that you are always there to talk when we are struggling or just ready to play a game is the kind of mother I want to be.