Ranger (written by Josh)

Our new dog (Ranger) is a excellent addition to our family. He loves to play and is very obedient. The problem my mom complains about is potty training. He won't go inside or out until he has to go. He's started to do better, but there are still accidents sometimes.

    There are still more pros than cons thou. He is playful, gentle calm, and protective. It makes it all worth it.

Happy birthday Elena

Elena turned 3 on May 9th.  We had a family dinner and then a friend party to celebrate.  She was so excited to have her "friend party"!  She wanted puppy cake.  My cake decorating skills are basically non existent, but I think they turned out cute.  She also wanted balloons and stickers.  I provided the balloons, and many of her friends brought her stickers. I guess it met all of the requirements and she seemed to have a good time.

Elena has a great imagination.  She has several imaginary friend that are constantly getting into trouble.  She quite often tells me that one or another of them is in time out.  She loves to imagine herself in different rolls, (as a puppy, a monster etc)  The only thing that is off limits is to try and get her to pretend that she is the baby.  She is a big girl and nobody better say any different.  She takes issue with the game "so big" that we play with Michael.  When we say "how big is Michael? So big" (Michael's favorite game!) Elena gets very upset.  We have had to change the words a bit to make it appease her.

She loves to be a part of things and drags a stool or kitchen chair around the kitchen as I make dinner so that she is ready just in case I need anything stirred.  (I have to watch carefully or she might add a few spoonfuls extra of salt or sugar to whatever I am cooking.)  She is very good at putting the silverware away from the dishwasher.  She has recently learned to make her own bed.  (a bit lumpy, but she definitely has the concept down!)

We love having Elena in our family!  Happy 3rd birthday Elena!!!

My green thumb

I know nothing about gardening and even though my parents always had a big garden, I always chose jobs inside rather than outside.  Thus, I never really learned and have been a bit scared to try.  In the past 13 years of marriage, it has always been my intention to grow a garden.  As with many good intentions there was always a good excuse for not gardening.  (pregnancy, new baby, moving etc.) This winter (yes, in San Antonio we have to think about gardens in the winter) I had another solid excuse for this not to be my gardening year.  (Hurray for baby number 5!) However in about the middle of March, my oldest, Joshua, decided to use his allowance to buy plants.  (Dang allowance)  So he bought plants and I bought the soil.  We decided to plant a container garden.  We used some buckets that we had and not knowing anything about what to do, planted away.

After about a month, our plants were flourishing!  This was amazing to me, but I was still not convinced that they were going to produce anything.  And then we found some small tomatoes!

So far we have a bunch of banana peppers some anaheim peppers, some jalepenos, and 2 tomatoes.  Sounds like it is time to make salsa!

It's a wedding!

Back in December I got a call from Rebecca's 1st grade teacher.  She said that they were going to have a wedding between the letters Q and U.  This is how they teach the concept that Q always has to have U beside it.  (Kind of a lot of work to teach this simple concept, but it's cute and fun) Anyway, Miss Barker said that of all the girls in first grade, Rebecca was chosen to be the bride, representing letter Q.  So of course we had a lot of fun trying to find a dress ("It has to be a REAL wedding dress Mom!")  and veil.  After looking in many stores we finally borrowed a dress and veil and gloves from a friend.

Of course Becca was really cute as she walked down the isle.  (Also about 6 inches shorter than any of the other kids) 

Here is a video of the ceromony.  It was pretty cute, but surely they could have taught this concept in an easier way.



Super big sister

Elena loves her little brother.  She has gone from being the baby of the family to being the big girl.  Not only is she a big sister, but she is almost potty trained.  Yeah!  She loves to help with Michael and with housework and anything else she considers big.

Michaels blessing

Michael was blessed on March 13th. He was 2 1/2 months old. Grandma and Grandpa Ellingson came along with Aunt Anna and Uncle Travis. Jonathan gave him a very nice blessing and it was a very special day. We love our little Michael, he is normally so content and easy going. It's a lot of fun to see him interact with his older brothers and sisters.

Elena's Snack

Elena is a wonderfully independent child.  She will ask for something once, but if she doesn't get it quickly, she will just figure out a way to get it herself.  I love this quality in her.  I try to instill independence in all of my children, and it is definately more natural for some than others.  Because of her independent nature, at 2 1/2 she is able to dress herself,(most of the time with a backwards shirt and shoes on the wrong feet) get her own water, wash her own hands, and climb the climbing wall at the park.  Every once in awhile the independence is a bit much.  When she is hungry, she will help herself.  This photo was taken after a bout of the stomach flu and so she hadn't eaten all day.  She was hungry and had already eaten one peice of bread.  I wanted her to wait to make sure she could hold it down before giving her anything else.  She decided to take things into her own hands.

Smiley Michael

Look who is smiling!  Michael likes to be played with and has a very cute smile with little dimples.