Lost pictures

I was on my snapfish account, ordering some pictures. I had an album downloaded that I had never ordered pictures from. I pulled up those pictures, and I found this one. It was from about 3 years ago on the day Howie got blessed. My kids are so cute. (I know you were thinking it too!)

I was sad for a minute, thinking about how fast they grow up. But then I snapped out of it. Although it was fun having a baby around, and I miss Ella's curly hair, things are pretty great at the phase we are in now. Bailey is so responsible, and he gets along so well with his brothers and sister. They all look up to him so much, I am just so glad (and lucky) that he is a good example to them. Calvin is a bit of a daredevil, and is so entertaining. He is easy to make laugh, but you have to be careful, he will pee his pants. Ella has so many questions, but they all have to do with her getting a pet. I used to just say "uh-huh" in response to whatever she was saying. But she takes that as an agreement, and apparently I told her she could get a hypoallergenic dog if we won the lottery. Howie is at, what I think, the funnest age. He is mimicking all of us in the things he says and does. He is such a smart little guy, and has been my easiest toddler. He isn't too hyper, he doesn't have too many questions, he doesn't get into things, and he has never started a fire. Anyway, what I am trying to say, is that I have a freakishly good time with my kids, especially as they are getting older. We are getting ready to go on our family vacation, and I feel as excited about it as I used to when I was a kid myself. I LOVED our family vacations and I have the best memories from them. My mom and dad were always good about planning great family vacations. Two years ago we took the kids to a bison ranch in Arizona, and we had the best time. But Howie was little, and it stopped us from doing a lot of things we would have liked to do. This year we are going to go to San Diego. We have so many things planned, my only worry is we may have planned too much. We even changed our route on the way home to be able to get in a quick visit with Sam and Michelle. They have Emu's, so we are going to refer to this vacation as the one where we went to the Emu ranch. So, I will be taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not that you will notice much. But I will have plenty to tell about when we return.