Happy Birthday Daddy!

It is Chris' 37th birthday today. It happened to fall on his Wednesday afternoon off, so he and Ethan went fishing and shot their new BB gun. I was a bit nervous about the gun part, but Chris said he is an excellent marksman! We then had dinner followed by an illusionist at our church. I think Chris enjoyed his day spent with his family! Oh, and I obviously do not have a number 7 candle yet, so we improvised. :)

Super Family

I love my family so much. I cannot imagine life without them. Somehow, I convinced Chris to let me take pictures of him and the children in their superman shirts back in February. To say he was none too pleased is an understatement. I thought some of them turned out really cute even if I didn't realize that Emerson was cross eyed in most of them.

Chickenman

Back in January, we made a visit to my mom's house for the weekend. We went to visit Grandpa John and Grandma Leda while we were there. John (aka, Chickenman as Leda calls him) has been raising chickens for a while now and it just so happens that while we were there, he had just gotten baby chicks. The kids were elated! Their house is such a fun place for kids. They fed the chickens, held the chicks, collected eggs and ran up and down their huge hills. I did not get any pictures, but we visited again in March and he had "Easter" chicks. They lay different color eggs. They are not quite old enough to lay them yet, but we at least got to visit with them. :)

Christmas 2011

Christmas was even more special than normal this year. My sister and her family came from Memphis as well as my mom. We knew that we would not be able to have this happen again for a long time since my brother-in-law is being stationed in Washington. My mother went above and beyond with all of the gifts and the kids were in awe. It also snowed the day after Christmas, so they were all able to play outside together. Together, that's all they wanted! Since Eden was so young and I was exhausted, my mother and sister really handled all of the food preparations. Thank God! I hosted Christmas, but they did all the work!

We waited to open our gifts from Santa until after everyone left. We let the kids know that Santa did deliver them on Christmas Eve, but he emailed us to tell us where he would hide the gifts. It was a blessed Christmas to say the least!

Eden Loren

On November 17th, we welcomed our second little girl, Eden Loren. After seven hours and three failed epidurals, Chris received the surprise of his life! The midwife turned her around and said, "What is it?" I will never forget hearing him say, "It's a girl?" He was shocked to say the least since he was convinced that she was a he the entire pregnancy! Eden came 4 weeks early because I was in the early stages of preeclampsia. Thankfully she was 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She was born at 8:36 pm, so the children met her the next morning. They were SO happy to meet their new sister. To say that they were gentle is an understatement. Eden is probably my easiest baby and is always happy. We are so blessed. I am not sure why my photo album is not uploading pictures, so here are a few from her birth.

Yellow Belt

Ethan recieved his yellow belt in Karate just before his birthday. He loves going to Karate and has a wonderful, Godly teacher which makes it that much better to make it there on such a busy Wednesday.

Six

It has been a long time since I have posted, but I think I have a few good excuses! I will do my best within the next few days to cover the major events in our lives. We had Ethan's sixth birthday party at the roller skating rink this year. He had about 25 children and had lots of fun. For some of the children, it was their first time on the rink. For our children, it was their second. However, Ethan and a few of his friends took their skates off and just ran around dancing and sliding in their socks. Pretty expensive "sliding" party, but he had tons of fun! Since then he has been skating again and now wants to practice during family night...every week! We also had a small party at his school the day before his party and I'll also upload some cute videos from then. Here are a few photos of his day and the rest are in the album.