Happy Seventh, Sweet Madelyn!

How can my baby be 7??!! (She often reminds me that she's NOT my baby.)



We celebrated Friday night with the girlfriends during a pizza, popcorn, pajama and pillow fight party.



We celebrated Saturday as a family at Lagoon. This is the new ride and Madelyn's favorite...the Jumping Dragon...

A Hero

I feel so lucky that my children are surrounded by people who are great role models and influence them in positive ways. Brandon Mull is Mitchell's favorite author. He loves all of his books. He loves to read because of talent like Brandon's. We couldn't pass up a chance to go to our local book store to meet him.


He was so kind...he signed all 5 books that Mitchell took, each with a personal message, he talked to Mitchell and posed for pictures.

Belated Easter

My Easter morning started with a beautiful sunrise service where Ellie sang and played violin.


We had a fun egg hunt with the Rosqvist family



and egg dying and dinner with the Wasden family

Ma went to the little school house

Pioneer Day for the 4th graders

They were able to spend an entire day doing pioneer games, crafts and square dancing.

Madelyn's New Friend

It was time to get Madelyn a new violin. She loves it...and I'm glad since she'll be spending so much time with it. I love it because the bigger the violin, the better the sound. She makes beautiful music.

Cousins & Friends

I love the relationship between cousins. There aren't the ups and downs that siblings have and unlike friends who come and go throughout life, cousins are permanent and part of an eternal family.


Ellie and 2 of her cousins were born within a few months of each other. They were the first grandchildren (she was the only girl) and they were very close. They enjoyed hours on the trampoline, Easter egg hunts, costume parties on Halloween, pinata parties on New Year's Day and Ellie's favorite, working in grandma's garden together.



When they were in the 3rd grade, the FATEFUL DAY OCCURRED!
It was just after Thanksgiving and we were all together making gingerbread houses. Ellie was working meticulously on her "Victorian Christmas Cottage." The boys started making North Pole battle scenes, which included, but were not limited to, ripping apart marshmallow snowmen, scattering their body parts all over their gingerbread and using all of grandma's red food coloring for the blood. I'll never forget the look on Ellie's face that day. Boys (cousins and the rest of them) had officially become DUMB AND IMMATURE!!



Fast forward six years. Now they are all teenagers and have so much in common. They love to communicate via Facebook, texting and talking about life.


Isn't it nice to see how much they've "matured?"