Ella's dinosaur presentation

Today we went to Ella's presentation on dinosaurs. She had done her research on fossils and presented a poster with her new knowledge. Her teacher is Miss Howell and Ella loves her. She told us Ella is an excellent student and fun to have in the class Way to go Ella!!

Blake is 2 1/2 months old!

Blake has been such a joy! He sleeps pretty good and is so content. He is smiling and talks to me. I love him! The kids have been loving him too and take good care of him. Even Kade is a good little babysitter while I am on the treadmill. I am enjoying every minute . Even in the middle of the night I can't help kissing his soft squishy cheeks!

Welcome Blake Ellis to our family!

A lot has happened since my last post. On February 7th we welcomed our little Blake into the world. He is pure joy! He was delivered by our nurses and they did a great job. The doctor came in about an hour later. Actually two of my doctors were in the hospital but they were both in surgery. Once Blake decided he wanted out he wanted to be out now! As a side note--the anesthesiologist forgot to attach the medicine drip to my epidural so I did not have the pain relief I so badly desired. She got there to hook it up just as Blake was arriving. Oh well--He is here and we LOVE him. The kids have been so excited and love to hold him and try to get a smile from him. I love to hold him and I've spent hours putting off my to do list just holding and looking at him. He really is perfect.

Picking out a name for him was a challenge. We knew we wanted Ellis for his middle name. That was my Grampa Baldry's middle name. Since he was such an amazing man we wanted to give our son a name he could be proud of. Hopefully he will look to his great grandpa as an example of the kind of man he should aspire to be. So with the middle name secured we could not decide on the first name. Here are some of the names that were in the running.

McKay

Emmett

Gage

Liam

Jude

Harrison

Braden

Sawyer

Gavin

Landon

Nolan

Miles

Micah

Beck

Luke

Brett

Owen

Also Kade's picks were: Kamodo dragon, Star Tours(after our day at Disneyland) and Back flipper.

We were still trying to decide in the hospital with Landon and Blake being the front runners. On the second day Matt reported to me that the kids had all decided on Blake--so it was Blake. Now I love it and it suits my handsome little man perfectly. He really is adorable. His hair is dark but super blond underneath. He also has the best dimples that come out on those still rare smiles. I will be posting more pictures soon. I can't believe it has almost been seven weeks since he was born. It has been a wonderful 7 weeks!

Secret

Kade's thing right now is to tell me he has a secret, then has me bend down so he can whisper:

"I love you, and you're my best buddy".

To Mindy he says:

"I love you, and you're my best friend".

What's better than that?

-Matt

Sleeping abuv Stars

Sleeping abuv Stars

(By Ella Hunter Age 6)

I kant go

to sleep

with out

a good

night kiss

and with

out

stars

abuv my

head.

the stars

are so

bright

and

shiny

and

the

moon

so

brighlty

shinying abuv my head.

It was a very merry Christmas

I know it was 2 months ago but I'm just getting around to posting these pictures I uploaded awhile ago. I've essentially quit blogging because it takes FOREVER with my slow internet. And hopefully I change it also tonight but I still have my cheesy harvest blog background up. Anyways, on to my happy memories of the fun time we had at Christmas.

My family stayed at a huge cabin this year up in Canada near Mountain View. It fit my entire family comfortably and made for a REALLY fun time. Here are some pictures...

Little Thomas doing his dancing with all the older cousins cheering him on.

We had a really fun program on Christmas eve. It really was so cute. Each family performed. Claire and Caroline had a few numbers since they put together the program:)

Grama Baldry came and had a blast. She went snowmobiling for the first time in her life and also went on the quad as seen here with Austin. It was so fun to have her with us. She also helped us make a delicious turkey dinner on Christmas day. She is the turkey dinner expert.

Dad and Grama

Christmas Bingo

My cute family

So as seen by the photos there was plenty of sledding, skating, snowmobiling, eating, eating and eating, games, late nights, laughing, salon day for the little girls--complete with hair bling, cookie train, and much more. I had the best time and I think so did everyone else.

We also released balloons with special notes to my mom. We wanted to feel like she was a part of our celebration. Of course, she is a part of all we do. She is the the one who made this what it is and us the way we are. My dad too. I'm proud of my family and my parents for doing such a great job. While I'm at it Karie is doing an amazing job of keeping things going in the direction my mom was going. She has her own ways but the underlying tones are the same. Love and enthusiasm for life and family.

Exciting news--well it's old news now but my baby sister Brett is pregnant. I'm so excited for her and have heard that she is looking adorable. Stephy is also due in a couple of weeks and I am so excited to find out if it is a boy or girl. No one in my family finds out before hand and it is so annoying:)

Surf Bread?

Today at Trader Joe's Kade saw this bread and had to buy it. He said "mom...buy this surfing bread!"

Whatcha gonna do with all that yunk?

As any good Dad does, I was flexing for my kids a while back. Ella got big eyes and was super excited. She said, "Woah! There's not even any yunk!". I hadn't yet learned the definition of yunk, so I asked her to explain. I added some photos here that depict her description. Apparently, you want to avoid yunk.

Say no to yunk.

-Matt

Who needs fall foliage?

We just had the best time at the beach. The weather was beautiful. It reminded what I love about California. The beach...in October. I'm just kidding about not needing fall foliage, though. I still love it. I love fall. As a side note--today I was talking to Ella about what kinds of things she could try. She is currently in Soccor and doesn't really care for it. I was suggesting softball and some other things and I said, "what kinds of things do you like to do?" She said, "I like going to the candy store." That is Ella in a nutshell.

Isn't the light so pretty? The weather was gorgeous-especially after about 10 days of clouds. Don't get me wrong-I have been loving the cloudy and rainy weather. It was just nice to see some beautiful sunshine.

Kade is pretty much obsessed with this sport. He was FREEZING but did not quit.

I love watching Ella spin

I love these two.

I love this picture.

Ella's Kindergarten Graduation

Ella had a great year of Kindergarten. She made lots of friends and was very social. I was really proud of how she made new friends and learned many new things. She loved it! Her teacher was Mrs. Harrah and the aide was Mrs. Guy. The ceremony was super cute and the song adorable.

Ella and Emily

Mrs. Harrah and Mrs. Guy

Ella's 6th birthday Party

Ella had a tea party for her birthday this year. She had so much fun. Claire and Cambria were the assistants and painted the girls nails, did make up and helped them with their crafts.

Here the girls are making necklaces, bracelets and decorating hats.

So the story behind this is that Kade was totally harassing Sophie who was in full princess mode. As seen here she was trying to fight him off saying "go away dumb prince, I'm a princess!" I was laughing so hard.

Sophie, Miriam, Joey, Sarah, Ella, Malia, Emily and Kaylee

The Birthday girl

Ella, making a wierd face.

Marshmallow cake

We also had a pinata which Kade kept calling the enchilada.

Two years ago today...

Two years ago today my mom went to Heaven. I can't believe it's been that long because it feels like yesterday. I think about her every day and miss her so much. These are our last pictures taken as a family. We just went out to the garden of the hospital. It was really emotional for all of us but what I love about these pictures is that I can feel the love we all have for our mom and each other when I look at them. We are a really tight family and going through this together with our mom brought us so close. We continue to rely on each other to help fill the void left by our mom. I love my family so much.

Aunt Jeane, Uncle Mike and Uncle Pat

Mom and Dad

I don't know what to say here...I love these girls.

My Family...

...will be together...

Forever.

I love you forever and ever Mom.