So Sad...

Just found out today that slide.com is no longer. How will we create those cute slideshows now??? :'(

We are okay... it's been crazy!

WOW! It's been crazy... With Nicolas going out of town so much, Melissa watching 7 kids, trying to buy a house, school, piano lessons, dance lessons, homework and practicing we haven't had much time to breathe. We are hoping to get to the blog more once we are in our new house (not sure when that will be) and in a routine of everything.

The kids are getting big. Brichette is loving 3rd grade, Xander is loving 1st grade (although it's hard on him going all day), and Zain is almost 2. Nicolas has been made a Foreman at work. He likes it, and is great at it! Melissa is watching 3 more kids, so has a total of 7. She loves it most days... just not those days where NONE of the kids listen. We are hoping to get family pictures taken in a couple weeks, so watch for those pictures. We will be posting some pictures soon.

Easter Outfits

Here are the kid's new Easter outfits for this year.

Our Easter Weekend!

We spent Saturday with Nick's family, because Colleen had to work on Sunday, and spent Sunday (after church) with Melissa's family.


Saturday:

We had a BBQ and egg hunts. It was so fun because we were all there (us 5, Lichelle, Brodie, Alysha, Cris, Renee', Kaleb, Allie, Ashton, Sofie, Mieshka, Matt, Jacob, and Alex[we missed you Matthew]). After we ate, Zain and Sofie had an egg hunt. Then the rest of the kids had an egg hunt. Then it was the adults turn (except Dieter and Colleen... they hid the eggs). They always put money in the adults eggs. Every year we get the most money, but this year Matt and Mieshka got .50 more than we did. :-D


Sunday:

We had a BBQ and egg hunts with a lot of Melissa's family at her parent's house. It was crazy as usual, but fun. There were lots of eggs to find and the kids really enjoyed it. They let the little ones (Zain, Ryan, etc.) out first, then the older ones. That way the little ones had a chance to get some eggs.

We are so grateful that we have such wonderful family to spend the holidays with!

Yeah, he's only One!

So Zain decided that he is big enough to do everything the big kids do... including sliding down the banister.

Family Fun

So this years new toy for the family was a Trampoline. So far we have had so much fun on it, and can't wait for all the fun times to come.

Xander's Army Birthday Slide

Xander's Army Birthday

So Xander decided that he wanted an Army theme birthday. We sent out Camouflage invitations, and played "army" games.

When the children arrived they were given dog-tags with their name and ranking on it. It went by age so the younger children were Privates and went up to General (Melissa is very creative).

The first game they played was Capture The Flag. They were separated out into two teams (with an even of older and younger/ boy and girl). They hid their flags, then had lots of fun finding them.

The next game they played was Battle Ship. Melissa printed off battle ship pictures and made one giant board (with the help from Nicolas and their friend Juston). Once they sank a ship they all received a price (so their were 5 ships and they all received 5 prizes).

The last game they played was Captain Says. It's Simon Says, only you say Captain. :)

Than we had Ice Cream and Cake and opened presents.

Well we hope everyone who came had a great time. Thank you!

Brichette's Baptism

It is so hard to believe that our baby girl is 8. She is so beautiful, wonderful, special, amazing, smart, talented, caring, loving, happy, spirited.

We are so happy to have her for a daughter. We waited for a long time to have her and am so happy she's here.

We are so happy that she wanted to be baptized and is so excited about it. We are so grateful to have the gospel in our lives. It has helped us through lots of trials and helped us grow closer together as an ETERNAL FAMILY.

This is just one step she has taken to grow her own testimony, and show everyone how important and wonderful the gospel is.

We love you so much Brichette! XOXO!!!

*When Brichette was blessed Melissa and Vera found red shoes for her to wear. So Melissa decided that since she wore red shoes then, she needed red shoes for her baptism. So Melissa, Vera, and Lorena hunted for red shoes. Melissa told Brichette that whether she likes it or not, she is wearing red shoes for her wedding. :-D

Brichette's 8th Birthday Slide