Mother’s Day Weekend

My mom turned Matt, Ashley and me into slaves on Mother’s Day Weekend. Well, we volunteered, but it was hard work. On Saturday, all 4 of us worked in the yard from 1-7pm. We all worked on several projects. Matt buried the sub pump pipe and dug a little pit for it to drain into so that dirt will not back up into the pipe.



He also dug a hole for a tree and a bush in the front yard.



He dug up the grass and moved it from the front to the back so that we could make another flower bed. Ashley and I weeded and planted a new flower bed on the side of the house. We got several shade loving pants into the ground where they will thrive! I mowed the side yards and back yard while Ashley and Mom raked the front from earlier in the week. Then I mowed half of the front yard and Mom finished it. I ran the weed eater all along the house and areas that needed it. The Ashley and I raked the front yard again after the mowing was completed. We finished up all of our hard work with a nice pork roast dinner including salad, corn on the cob, and potatoes. We all worked together and it was very good! Matt and Ashley stayed at the house until about 9:30pm. It was a long day, but we got a lot accomplished and the yard was on its way to looking good. We even found a little turtle while mowing. I captured him, feed him strawberries and I wanted to keep him until Brighton and Kiana could see him, but Matt stole him from his new home and put him back in the yard!

A Mother's Day Gift from Matt and Ashley



On Sunday, Mom and I got up early and got ready for our day. We went to the St Louis Zoo for the morning. It was a very nice day and the Zoo was already busy when we arrived. We saw tons of stuff, but our favorite was the Baby Elephant, Maliha. She is nine months old now and just plays like a kid! She was sleeping on the ground went we got there and her mother was covering her with hay, but in a few minutes she was up and walking all around. We even got to see her nurse from her momma, which was amazing! She just lifted her little trunk right out of the way! It was fun to watch the her.





We wanted to make it to the monkeys and the Red Rock area of the Zoo, but we were hungry and ready to eat. We rode the train around and finished our morning listening to the train engineer Zoo tour!

On the way home we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some food for lunch and dinner and we also went to Lowe’s. Wal-Mart had Alberta Spruce trees on sale, so we bought 10! We also bought a new hose and many more plants to get in the ground. So as you can imagine, we spent the rest of the day outside getting the new stuff in the ground. I dug 10 tree holes and got them all in. I also completed the mowing on the back hill. We really wanted to get some stuff planted up there, but we decided to call Dig-Rite first. So we planted a nice row of trees instead. I am sure we will buy a few more the weekend. I did find 3-4 small trees on the hill while I mowed. We are going to nurture them and hopefully they will grow into nice big trees!

Our row of trees now starts 4 feet from the road and goes althe way to the back of the house.



These are some of the flower pot arrangements we put together this week end. This one has Elephant Ears, some type of yellow daises, phlox, and other green and pretty stuff!



This one is kind of a mystery. We planted some petunias seeds and a seed mix, as well as the green spiky grass.



Lavender flower bed.



Ivy under the deck.



The side house flower bed. Includes all kinds of things that love the shade.






Trees waiting to get in the ground and a floer pot to decorate the drive way...


New flower bed under a bay window



David's Tree

Happy Birthday Xander!

Today we welcomed another precious child into our world. Xander was born at 10 am. He weighs 7 lbs 11 oz, the same as his mama and his big sister! He is 20 inches long. He is perfect!

Please pray for quick recovery for Brandi after her C-section today and a good night's rest for all.

Here are the first pictures I have. More to come soon!

Brighton talking with the nurse about when Xander would be getting his first bath. She was very excited to talk to the nurse about her baby brother. She is so grown up!

Through the glass.

Sleeping away while being passed around to his family in waiting!

Look at this hair, not as much as Brighton had, but its very dark.

Little feet!

Look, that's me and Xander!

Ana is a BIG sister! She just kept saying "baby, baby, baby" she also said " I love baby!" I wasn't around for Brighton's first look at Xander, but I am sure she looked just as proud! I will post some of those when I get them.

Stretching out after nine months of confined space.

Amazing!

This is a long story! My best friend is pregnant and her baby is due in September. She is having a scheduled C-section, which is a good thing for her, but kind of sad for me because I thought she was my last hope to see a baby being born. (in real life, not on TV). Well one day, I was talking about it with a group of people from church and one of them was also pregnant. She said that this was her third baby and she was OK if I wanted to come and watch her baby's birth. YEAH! So for the past few weeks we have all been waiting, day after day, for Jacob Ellis to make his way into our world.

On Monday morning at 5 am I made my way to the hospital and starting around 10am I got to see the most amazing thing I have EVER seen! Jacob was born around 10:10am. I have thought about this over and over since Monday and it is still amazing to me. It was such a cool experience and a reminder that God has perfectly designed our bodies. God used Jacob's birth to remind me of His perfection and His works.

Thank you James and Jennifer for allowing me to witness the birth of your beautiful little boy!
It was a wonderful gift!

Jacob Ellis
August 28, 2006
10:10am
Weighing in at an incredible 9 pounds and 9 ounces!
He looks tiny in the first two pictures,
but check out how big he is compared to his momma!

Bracelets and Reptiles

Making bracelets with the left over supplies from the Witness bracelets. Make sure that you not the huge pile of trash right behind the children. By the way, this is Wendy. She did an excellent job with the children while we were in Mexico.
God worked through her in mighty ways this last week.

This reptile was brought to me by a group of boys after I took a short little nap on a church pew. I as so tired! I was still a little groggy from my nap and they brought and held him right in my face. It was awesome! They giggled and carried on for a long time about this little guy. He was very small. The bottle of red liquid is a 20 ounce bottle of water (That is refilled with Gatorade!) and the little hand is that of a 4 or 5 year old. Later in the day I captured a larger one and carried it around for quite a while. Now as to the name of this animal, its a mystery. Some say cameliion, some say horny lizard, but the most popular answer was a horny toad. Any ideas? Post a comment!