Happy Birthday Mother!

To the woman who carried 8 children for 9 months each, the woman who has given us lots of playmates, to the woman who has taken the time to homeschool us, to take care of us when we're sick, to help us when we get hurt, and to the mother who has loved us all unconditionally -- Happy Birthday! Words cannot even describe the appreciation we all have for you. The only thing I can think to say is...Thank You! I hope you had a marvelous Birthday! :)

Homemade Blizzards!

We love making blizzards but we don't get to do it very often. So a couple nights ago I made blizzards! I made 5 different kinds...Reeces peanut butter cups, twix, snickers, M&M, and peanut butter banana!  Here are some silly pictures of our night together as a family! :)

Can you tell who's cheating to keep 

the spoon on?

Oops! Sorry Daddy! :)

YUM!

Look at that focused face! haha

We had a wonderful night of time together just enjoying our blizzards spending quality time as a family! We always treasure the times when our nights aren't busy and we can do things like this! Btw for those of you who couldn't figure it out...Emily is the one who's cheating! (Other than Olivia and Xavier who are too young to get them to stay.) She was the only one who couldn't get the spoon to stay! haha She didn't want to be the only one holding it so she just ran and grabbed a rubberband to put around her head to make the spoon stay! 

Thank you mom and dad for letting us have blizzards! We all greatly enjoyed it! :D

Happy 6th Birthday Philip!

Six years ago today we were blessed with a wonderful addition to our family! Happy 6th Birthday Philip! We are so excited to see how you are growing up to be such an young boy of God!

Today we spent the day at our Grandma Dittmer's house and had cookie cake and played on they're farm. It was definitely a fun and special day for Philip. Once again...Happy Birthday! :)

Xavier and his cheese and an update on Ella

A couple days ago was a really horrible day. It seemed like everything that could go wrong...did! And during lunch Xavier got a hold of the shredded cheese and...well you'll see below! :)

Xavier dumped the entire bag of cheese on his plate! 

Say "cheese!" ;) 

It totally brightened my day and made me laugh hysterically!
I mean seriously just look at his face! 

We really appreciate all of your prayers for Ella and we would like to ask for more. Ella is doing much better than she was but is still really struggling to eat. But praise God for what he's done in her already! 

Ella Hope Dittmer is here!!

After many many many months of waiting and more waiting the day has finally arrived. Our new baby sister has been born! Praise the Lord for a safe delivery! Mother and Ella are both doing wonderful. Ella Hope Dittmer was born today at 1:42 pm she weighs 7 lbs 4.4 oz and was 19-1/2 inches long. And she is absolutely adorable! (If I do say so myself...which I definitely do!) But I'll let you be the judge of that...So without any further a due here are some pictures.

Xavier so excited to see a "baby!"

Full room

Olivia holding Ella!

All the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Patterson.

All of the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Dittmer

All of the kids and Aunt Bev.

Caleb and Ella Hope

Emily, Xavier, and Ella

Me holding precious Ella Hope.

We are so excited with the brand new addition to our family! Welcome to the family of...Brad and Sarah, Alesha, Emily, Caleb, Anna, Philip, Olivia, Xavier, and now Ella! :) It was such a blessing getting to hold Ella for the first time and get to sing happy birthday for her on her true BIRTHday! :) 

On the way to Family Camp...

Well last week we went to family camp and we all had a very wonderful and blessed time! Unfortunately the ride there could have been better...our shuttle bus lost the suspension on one side and then shortly after that the van overheated. (Dad and all the kids went in the shuttle bus and I drove mother in the van behind so that the ride would be smoother for her.) We were still 2 and a half hours away from family camp. So we finally got the shuttle bus towed and the van was working again. Mitchell and Chelsy Bontrager as well as one of the staff from family camp drove up to get us with a 15 passenger van that a family sent up for us! (We hadn't even met that family yet it was so sweet of them to do that for us!) So we ended up getting at camp at midnight and completely missed the first day, but God is faithful and no one was hurt! So here are some pics of the bus.

I'll be adding some pictures from family camp later on I just haven't had time to get to that yet...I'm still doing lots of laundry from family camp and helping Anna and Philip get back into the swing of doing school again. :)

Hawkeye vs. Cyclone Game

Last Saturday was the Cy-Hawk game and it was a great game! Although the Hawkeye's fought valiantly and went into 3 overtimes for the win...The Cyclones won the game. So at least some of our family was happy with the outcome of the game. Since we don't have a television we listened to it on the radio and even listening to it it was an incredibly intense game! Here are some pics of us kids enjoying our time eating chips and dip, eating mom's famously made party mix, and frantically packing for family camp that we left for the next day during the commercials.

All smiles!

 We like different teams but we won't let it be divide us!

Silliness! 

Even though we are on different teams 

we still love and support each other!

Alesha, Caleb, Philip, and Olivia are all Hawkeyes. Emily and Anna are Cyclones. Even through the intensity of the game we all still enjoyed ourselves and had a wonderful day.