Exciting April, Calm May

       I am finally posting some pics of Zady's baptism last month.  She was very excited!  She is number 2 in our family to be baptized.  I am always humbled and grateful at these times.  It helps to remind me of the covenants that I have made and I remember to "have joy in the journey".
      Also, Jeff was recently called to be the 2nd Counselor in our Branch Presidency.  That means they asked him to shave his Van Dyke (I guess that is what it is called).  He didn't mind, and I certainly like to kiss him more without it!  Well, okay, I like to kiss him no matter what!:)

Zady was lucky that the water was not green this time!

 Zady also had the opportunity to play her violin for her music class at school.  I don't know if the video will work this time, but I'm trying anyway.  She had fun and the kids loved seeing her small violin.  They were shocked when I told them that they come smaller than this.  Hopefully, Amelia and Claire will get to play next week before school ends.

My Big Boy Collin sitting at Zady's baptism.

Happy Easter!

  We had a busy Easter Weekend.  Friday everyone was out of school to celebrate Good Friday.  So, I took the girls shopping for Easter dresses.  It was fun to be "just the girls".  I think the girls also liked trying on all the clothes.
  Then we celebrated Zady's eighth birthday on Saturday with a friends party.  Her birthday cake was a baby chick in an egg.  We had a TON of cake leftover, since only a couple of girls had any.  This was the first time I've had kids say "no" to cake and ice cream!

  For her party, her friends made a "party dress" out of tissue paper for her.  I think they were pretty creative.  There was definitely a lot of giggling going on.  Then they painted an egg that we had blown the insides out of .  They made the eggs into little birds that they could hang up.



                                                                                                                                                                                      Collin ended up being our Easter Bunny for the day.  Sunday, we had the Elders and our Senior Missionary couple over for dinner.  It was very enjoyable and we even got to play a game of Ticket to Ride with Bro. and Sis. Stith.  They are finished with their mission and will be leaving us on the 18th of this month.  We will miss them so much!
  I also want to mention that my sister-in-law, Holly, had her baby boy last week.  We are glad that all went well and look forward to meeting little Benson this summer!
  We hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter.  Amelia gave us a FHE lesson about The Saviour and His Atonement.  I know that I am humbly grateful for the gift of the Atonement in my life.  And I am very grateful for the internet that helps to keep us connected with all our family and friends.  We love and miss you all!

Spring Break

  For Spring Break last week, we went to visit my sister Kelly in Louisville.  I think they should change the spelling to "Louvul", because that is how everyone pronounces it.  On Monday we went to a park at the riverfront.  The kids played at a playground there, and then we walked around for awhile.  It was a beautiful day!
  On Tuesday we went to the Louisville Zoo.  Here we gathered the kids for a picture with the Pygmy Hippo.  Zady was trying to "hold" the hippo in her hand.  I got a pretty good angle, but she is in a lot of shadow.

Ross still doesn't like the smell of the animals!

We relaxed on Wednesday at Kelly's place.  Then, Thursday morning we loaded up and started our drive home.  We stopped in Sellersburg, IN, to see Kelly and Derek's new home they are buying.  It is a beautiful house and they are very excited to move in.  Sophie showed us her pretty blue bedroom that Kelly is going to paint a mosiac on the walls.  Collin is sitting in the living room with big beautiful windows.

Happy Baby!

  On the way to and from Kelly's, we drove past Henryville.  It is the town that was practically destroyed by tornadoes recently.  On the side of the freeway, you can see piles of trucks, buses, tractor trailers, and such.  Also, most of the homes had blue tarps covering what is left of their roofs.  The people are busy trying to rebuild their lives.  It helps to keep the rest of us humble and to remember the Lord in all things.  We are grateful to have family living within 4 hrs of us. It was a wonderful week!

Goats and Cows, Oh My!

On Sunday, we had the opportunity visit our friends farm.  They raise goats, pigs, and cows for the 4H program out here.  They just had baby goats born and so our kids were able to help feed them.  They even helped to milk the mommas.  Ross was not particularly thrilled when we first got there. He kept covering his nose and telling  us that it smelled bad!

                               Claire also lost her first tooth that night as well!!! We love you all!

Lazy Winter

At least I think it has been winter--the calendar says so.  It has been a very mild winter here as well as the rest of the country.  We are all doing well and I have just been so lazy as to not update our blog.
I really feel there hasn't been too much going on, but here are a few highlights of the past month and a half.  On Friday the 13th of January, Ross had his 4th birthday!  I always love to reflect on my children at their birthday time.  Ross definitely took a little more work for Jeff and I to get here and we are so grateful for his energetic spirit that adds to our family.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he kept replying that he wanted a Spiderman cake.  So, trying to be a "fun" mom, I complied.  Then when we got ready to light the cake, he says "But, I wanted Batman!"  He actually hasn't see either character in shows or cartoons.  It made us chuckle.
I'm including one picture of snow to prove that we did get a little--even if it melted a few days later!
Kelly, Sophie, and Ava came and visited us again at the beginning of Feburary.  We all loved hanging out together.  My girls love having their aunt put makeup on them one night!  We look forward to visiting them over our Spring Break at the end of March.

I also thought these pics of Collin were funny.  The girls like to put things on him; like sunglasses and tiaras.  He also likes to pull his socks off and chew on them.  He is growing so fast (as all kids do!).

 The last pic is of "my boys".  I love to see them together!  We love and miss you all!

Unusually Warm January!

This winter has been warmer than usual.  I guess the whole country has been that way.  Today Plymouth will be in the upper 40's and maybe 50 tomorrow before dipping down and snowing again.  Maybe this snow will stick around.  The last snow we got was just enough for Jeff and the girls to make a small snowman--a LEAFY, small snowman!

We are all doing pretty well right now.  Ross and Claire had ear infections this last week, and Jeff had a sinus infection.  But, we are at the end of the medication and they all seem to be feeling better.

I was recently called as the Young Women's President in our branch (I don't have any counselors, yet).  We have 3 young women and only 1 of those regularly comes to church.  It is definitely new for me, since the YW program I grew up in had about 30-40 girls.  I do love the girls and hope that the Spirit can help them to come closer to their Father in Heaven.  Jeff is still in the middle of basketball and so I have to take the kids with me to our activity nights.  But, I am very grateful for my kids.  They aren't perfect by any means, but they do try to be good at the church.  It also helps for me to put a movie on for them!

Our family is trying to keep up with our Roper Family Scripture Reading Challenge.  I just finished the book of Ether.  I am always amazed that the Jaredites could be so hard-hearted that they completely destroy themselves!  But, then Jeff and I talk about our day today, and I am almost amazed the the Lord hasn't given us harsher punishments for all the wickedness going on today.  Maybe he is holding off for the sake of the "few righteous", like with Lot and his family.  I love to read and learn from the Book of Mormon.  Amelia has been a great inspiration as she reads and asks me questions.  The kids are also good about reminding us to read as a family.
Nothing else is new during these dreary months of January, February, and March.  We look forward to having my sister Kelly come visit this month with her girls, and then we will go to her place for Spring Break.  It is nice to be close to her.
I hope all is well with everyone else.  We love to hear from all of you!

Merry Christmas!

I know it has been awhile since we've posted, but I just wanted to say that we are all doing well.  We had a very wonderful Christmas yesterday.  Up until now, our kids have not awakened early on Christmast morning.  Well, this year they finally did.  I think there is an internal clock that kicks in at 6-8 years that tells them when to wake up.  We heard them tromp down the stairs at 5:30 am.  Jeff finally went and herded them back to bed for another hour or so.
We had church at 10 am.  So, we let the kids open their stockings, but they already new that we would have to wait until after church for the rest.  We also had our traditional "Santa Pancakes", made with strawberries and whipped cream.  Yumm!
Church was wonderful.  Our missionaries sang "O Holy Night", and my friend and I played a medley of songs from the hymnal.  It was enjoyable.
We had fun opening gifts afterward.  Jeff especially enjoyed his mailbox my parents gave him.  Jeff's parents gave me a shirt that brags about "finding my husband at BYU-Idaho".  The kids recieved many fun gifts from their Michaelis' cousins, Roper cousins, Christensen cousins, and Rogers cousins.  Thanks to everyone for the time and effort to mail things out to us.  We love you all!
At dinner we had our "grandparents", the Stith's, over for dinner.  It was so enjoyable to have their company.  We also played a few games of Blokus with them.
We were able to skype with Rope cousins and see Scott's surgery scars.  We are so thankful he is doing well. And got to skype with G&G Roper and see everyone at their home.  We chatted on the phone with G&G Michaelis (the kids were disappointed not to skype with them).
I better end this long post.  We recieved many nice and wonderful gifts, but we are always most thankful for Family!  We love you all.