A Year Rolled By

My littlest girl, Ellie is turning 5 soon. She's the baby of the family. Does she really get to grow up, too? 

Time goes by too swiftly. 

Ellie certainly is a ray of sunshine! And, as most people that are youngest in the family often are, Ellie is a little comedian. One can tell that she actually makes an effort to be funny. Sometimes it just comes naturally, but other times I can see that she's trying something out to see if it makes a person laugh. Which, in itself is funny. Ellie's "love language" is physical touch. She is very huggy, affectionate and she likes to sit really close to people at times. Kite flying, making bows and arrows out of sticks and yarn, bike riding and just playing outside have been Ellie's favorite pass times lately. I do believe her best friend at this point in time is her sister, Lucy. I don't think she or Lucy would admit this, though. It seems that they think a "best friend" has to be someone outside of their family. (A side note about best friends: I encourage my kids to have more than one.) Ellie is learning how to read and really enjoys books. Her favorite cartoon is Curious George.  A few months ago she told Christian that when she grows up she wants to marry him.  (I think she has realized since then that brothers and sisters don't get married.) Of course, this simply means that she thinks that he is really great and she loves to spend time with him. Before everyone left for school this morning  Ellie made sure to give Shane and each of her sisters a hug good bye...Yep, there is that affection thing again. 

Ellie and I made pumpkin bread a few days ago while all her siblings were at school. It turned out super delicious. Pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice latte always reminds me of Ellie's birth. A few hours after she was born, Shane went to the Starbucks that is actually located in the hospital and got me a Pumpkin Spice Latte. (It was actually somewhat of a bribe, which is another story.) After Ellie and I returned home from the hospital, a friend of mine brought over a meal of chicken enchiladas. She also brought pumpkin bread for dessert. I had never eaten it before and thought is was so wonderful! 

It seems like a blink of an eye passed between me having an infant and enjoying the gift of a meal brought by a sweet friend to me having a young girl standing on a stool next to me in the kitchen in her little apron helping me make a special after school surprise for her siblings. 

Time. it stands still for no mom. 

Grandma's 60th and Ellie's 4th Bday

Our family is part of a pretty cool community of people.  We get the chance to meet lots of people from all over the place that really love God.  Some of these people end up becoming good friends...and as time flies by we realize...wow, we've known there people for years!

Above is a picture of Ellie with our friend, Dennis. They were setting up for a game of Battleship.  Ellie's plan was to be on a team with Dennis, playing against the lone Meghan.  Playing games and eating lunch was Ellie's -day before her birthday- plan.

Meghan made those great looking cupcakes for Ellie's bday.  Very sweet of her!

This morning Ellie went to visit her Grandma Beth because they share a birthday.

Later on in the evening, our family all had dinner and cake together to celebrate my mom and Ellie. One of our birthday traditions is to have each member of the family share what they like or appreciate about the birthday person.  This is always such a sweet and sometime funny time.

Above is a picture of Ellie and my mom blowing out the candles on their cake that Isabel made from scratch. It turned out great!

The gang...our family plus Anna's friend, Kaydee, who came to visit because today is also her mom and dad's anniversary.

I regret that I didn't get pictures of Ellie with her Uncle Jesse and Aunt Cheryl whom she loves to visit any chance she gets.  We went there on Monday and she had a great time eating goldfish and visiting.  She went out on the tire swing and Uncle Jesse pushed her as usual then she got to ride with him on the lawn mower.  I think that hanging out over at Uncle Jesse's house on Monday mornings while all the other kids are in school is about as spoiled as she gets!  She seems to think it's pretty fun to be the center of attention for just a little while!

I wish I would have taken a couple of pictures of Ellie with her dad, Isabel and Lucy as they played outside after dinner.  Playing outside with Daddy is one of the kids' favorite things to do. 
Shane also took Ellie out to McDonald's for lunch today.  She even got a Happy Meal, which is a very big deal!

I want to thank Grandma Jeani for the gifts she sent Ellie....here is Ellie in one of the shirts Jeani sent.  As I type this out Ellie and Lucy are lying in their beds with some light up toys that were also in the box of gifts Jeani sent.

And thank you to Grandpa David for skyping with Ellie and the other girls tonight.

Isabel 10

 Here is Isabel on her 10th bday.  She got to celebrate with 3 of her closest friends: Dora, Sarah and Isabella.  They had an ice cream cake, grabbed candy from a broken pinata, hung out at the house for a bit and then I drove them all to play mini golf in Tyler. (Isabel's gift from Grandma Beth.) I have some great shots and video of the girls playing mini golf but they are all on my iphone. 

 Above is Isabel with her friends that she goes to school with.  (Anna, Isabella and Sarah)  They were gathered for Open House.

The other morning before heading to school I found these two out on the front porch admiring the beautiful early morning fog and sunrise.  It was a sweet moment.

And lastly we have a picture of Isabel just after a soccer game with her two littlest sisters.

Isabel is a very tender hearted girl.  She is also a wonderful student and works very hard to get good grades.  She is simply fun and a joy to be around.  She likes to get a bit crazy sometimes....wrestling or going outside to play in the rain.  She is also a great cook!  One of her specialties is making pancakes from scratch for the family.

Aubrey 12

Aubrey!

The first two pictures were taken during Aubrey's 12th bday party. She had a few friends over for a sleepover in her new tent from Grandma Jeani. Here cake of choice (not pictured) was a Swedish dessert called Snooda.  Think chocolate, mocha and coconut.  Think tastey goodness.

The next picture is of Aubrey, Isabel and Aubrey's best CA friend, Adia.  Adia and her family came for a visit shortly before Aubrey's bday. The tent that Aubrey received sure came in handy when Adia and her family were here.  We had the girls sleep outside several times simply because we were all *squished* in our 4 bedroom house! We had 4 adults, 8 girls and one boy under the roof! Ah, but we had so much fun catching up with the Hoyle family!

And lastly another pirate picture just to show Aubrey's fun loving side.

Aubrey is incredibly smart, loves to read and relax, enjoys hanging out with friends & playing games with the family, is a great tree climber, such a detail girl, and very artistic. She also loves to organize things yet continually has a messy room....kind of like me!

Christian 14

I sure wish I took more pictures of this amazing guy with his family.  And better pics of him playing sports too.
Words cannot express how proud we are of Christian.  He's an incredible son, brother, friend, athlete and possibly...future Marine.

Lucy's 5th Birthday

In March Lucy had her 5th bday!
To the right we have Lucy with some of her friends.  They came to play a few games, do the Hokey Pokey, eat cake and celebrate Lucy!

 This picture is not from her bday, but I thought the flowers were pretty neat.  They remind me of flowers that one might see in a Dr. Seuss book.

Lucy with Grandma Beth and the gift she received from Grandma.

 And here she is with her cake...she must have helped with the cake because she's got her apron on.

Shane's mom, Grandma Jeani, sent Lucy some gifts and here is one of them...matching dresses for Lucy and her doll. So cute!

My Pirate-y Children

Above we have Aubrey, Isabel and Anna.  I have no idea what spurred this on when my 3 oldest girls did this a few months ago, but it sure was silly.  And the best part of it all for me was how much Shane enjoyed their silliness when he got home from work.  Making each other laugh is one of the best parts of being a family.