Beautiful Day!

On Monday it was such a nice day that we decided to take the day and rake the yard! We all had such a fun time in the beautiful fresh outside air! Here are some pics of what we did outside! :)

Emily and I raking away all the leaves!

Lots of helps from the little ones! Yay!

Philip carrying a "big" pile o' leaves :)

Who said you can't have fun while you work! 

"I dub thee raking Alesha!" haha fun times! 

Praise the Lord for such  beautiful day! We can't wait for more like them! :) 

Spring is "Hear" :)

Last week we had a great time planting our seeds for our garden. We spent lots of time together and had a blast getting our hand dirty with dirt! :) All of the kids had a great time and so did Emily and I. On Friday we went to Leon and were able to visit with the Bontragers! It was so nice to get to see all of them again.

All of the egg cartons that we were going to be using.

Lots of seeds!

Caleb and Anna working hard to put the dirt in the cartons.

Emily working on getting the lettuce planted and Anna

planting some peas.

Lots of seeds and dirt.

Olivia, Anna, and I planting some seeds.

We woke up and Anna had put these "Spring is Hear" papers

everywhere! It was so cute and then my dad had to say something,

"I didn't know that spring had ears!" haha only my dad! :)

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:11

Long days

Well its been a long time since I've last posted and a lot has happened since then. On Tuesday of this week it started with Philip having a terrible earache! The earache was so bad that he was crying and literally screaming it hurt so bad. So we had all been praying since it started which was after dinner, and then he finally fell asleep. When he woke up it was completely gone! God is so good! Then Wednesday came and I was at youth group and I (Alesha) started having troubles with my neck but it wasn't bad enough that I told my dad about it because I thought it was just a little stiff or something. And then when we got home, Anna had an earache. So she was crying and we were all praying and everyone eventually got some rest. I also decided that it would be a good idea to put a heating pad on my neck so help with the stiffness. Then came Thursday, this was the hardest day for me out of the whole week! I woke up and I couldn't move my neck...at all! So as I sat up I also realized my terrible headache and I felt sick to my stomach and it hurt incredibly to swallow. So it was a long day I tried to take a bath and read some of my History but that didn't help any so I just went to bed. I woke up and I still was feeling awful. So then I just decided that I would have to suck it up and make myself feel better (great idea Alesha, what was I thinking?) I also had to babysit that evening... 3 boys 5, 3, and 1. Yep, I was a genius! NOT! Well I babysat the boys from 6 to 10 at night and they had loads of energy! By the end of the night I was grateful that I hadn't thrown up because I felt like I needed too. But I got home and went straight to bed. Oh, and Caleb threw up on Thursday night. Then I woke up on Friday and I could move my neck but it was still a little stiff but definitely better. Also dad and Caleb left for Des Moines because he had to go to his classes for ISOM. So then I got up on Saturday and I was much better still a little stiff and hurts to move if I turn it too far but God is faithful! Dad and Caleb got home and Emily, Anna and I had worked really hard to clean up the laundry room and make it a surprise for dad. And I think we did a great job! We definitely caught dad off guard! :) So that has been our week. Unfortunately we didn't get any pics of it all but here are some random pics that were either from last week, or sometime. haha :)

This was from last week. Yes, we love ravioli...

especially Xavier! haha ;)

This was from today. Olivia was so cute after breakfast

she got out the uno cards and set it up for everyone to play!

And then Philip wanted to help with

the great idea.

God is our refuge and strength, 

an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, thought the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

thought its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

The Lord Almighty is with us; 

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46:1-3,7

Praise God!

Beautiful day at the park!

We went to the park yesterday and it was so beautiful outside! It was 71 degrees! So we took the opportunity to go the park and the kids had a blast! Here are some of the pictures of our fun day!

Fun on the swings!

It is such an interesting playground!

If you look in the background Philip jumped from the rock

and looks amazing!

All 7 of us kids!

So cute :) 

Jump!

Going down the slide!

Olivia climbing the ropes.

Caleb going down the slide and Emily helping Xavier.

Praise God for the beautiful day and the opportunity to slow down as a family!

Happy Valentines Day! :)

We just wanted to tell all of you...

Happy Valentines Day from all of the Dittmers! :) <3

Long Weekend, and Tiredness

We had a very busy weekend. We had a marriage banquet for couples in our church, and Alesha served and prepared all of the food with another girl from our church. Emily stayed home all weekend with the kids and did a wonderful job watching them while mom, dad, and Alesha were at the church preparing and serving. On Thursday Emily, Alesha and 4 other ladies from our church came and decorated for the marriage banquet. We didn't get home till 10. Then on Friday we left for the church at 4 and the night was filled with spaghetti, meatballs, toast, desserts; like, chocolate cavity maker cake, pecan pie, and raspberry pie. I served and that was a lot of fun, what wasn't fun was the huge pile of dishes (we had over 20 people there) that we had to wash afterwards and we had to be extra careful because we used china dishes to make it extra special. Then mom went home as soon as it was finished around 9ish to go help Emily with the kids, dad and I didn't get home till 11 from cleaning up and talking. We were exhausted! Then we woke up on Saturday and got to church around 8:30 and I didn't have to serve till around 11:30 but we (Alyssa the girl I was serving with) had to prepare the food and get everything ready. Overall I think it was great! Mom and dad both said that everyone enjoyed the food that we prepared and thought the decorations and candles made an excellent touch. I would like to say that Emily really wanted to help out and serve (which would have been a huge help) but she needed to stay home and watch the kids. Here are just a few pics of what our weekend held for us. :)

Some of the tables and couples that were there

Some more couples.

Alyssa and I after everything was done!

The front decorative table that we put together

The chocolate fountain and some of the food that went with it! :)

Overall this has been a fun, exciting, tiring, eventful weekend. I just wanted to say again thank you to Emily for sacrificing and watching all of the younger kids while we were gone. I love you Emily and thanks! 

Babysitting and Lots of Cookies!

Well Alesha got the privilege to babysit two boys Jayden and Ethyn. All the kids love it when she babysits because we always play lots of games and have extra fun! It had just snowed a bunch, so we decided to go play in the snow and they had a blast. Then all the kids came in and had cocoa and ate lunch. After that we all made sugar cookies! Here are some pics of our adventures of the day.

Fun in the snow!

Snow angels! 

cocoa after playing in the cold snow.

Yum!

Getting ready to decorate homemade sugar cookies.

Happy Xavier

Say Cheese!

Look at those artistic kids.

Emily rolling out the dough

Very pretty

Each child got to make their own plate of 3 cookies.

Emily made this and it was a great idea!

Alesha (on right) and Emily's (on left) plates.

This was Alesha's idea, first you have the wedding bells,

then a heart, and then BANG! 7 kids haha :)

Overall we had a very eventful and fun day! Praise God for friends to come over and play!