My sister, brother-in-law and their two kids came out to visit last week. It was such a special visit because we got to meet Lauren Marie! Also, they had her baptized at my parent's church. My dad was the elder for the baptism and Andy and I were the sponsors. It was a very special day!

Getting Lauren dressed...she's wearing our family's baptismal gown that my great, great grandmother made. This is now the fifth generation wearing it.

Here's the whole crew. Timmy and his girlfriend Jill came down for the weekend, so they were able to be there for the baptism as well.

Sweet family of four! As a little girl in the grocery store pointed out, they have two babies now!

Joey and Hannah just love doting on their little cousins.

Poor Ben had a fever that day, but he put up with their attentions very well.

Listening to the children's sermon. They are super focused because the guy was holding a box of candy to use as an illustration. It certainly got their attention.

 And the baptism.

I think Lauren slept through the whole thing.

Proud cousin!

And another one!

These are some of the many people who were baptized in the gown.

I finally joined the rest of the world and got a smart phone, so I have quite a few random pictures to share. I love having a camera and video camera wherever I go now! 

 

Sometimes a hose down in the sink is the best option!

 This girl LOVES to play games. Candy Land is probably her favorite game. It's fun to play with her because she couldn't care less about winning, she just loves playing. One time she was just a few squares away from the end, and got a card with a muffin that sent her almost all the way back to the beginning. She was so excited to get one of the special "picture cards" that she didn't care a lick that it made her lose the game!

 She also LOVES puzzles!

 She spends a lot of time during the day playing with all the games and puzzles in our front closet. I love how independent she is!

A couple of weeks ago it was my mom's birthday so we had a little party here.

 Timmy and his girlfriend, Jill, were able to come down from LA. Ellie "read" them a bunch of books and pretty much stuck by Jill's side the whole night.

Our church had a fun movie night. Andy was the MC, and he got all dressed up for it. With his hair all slicked back, people at church barely recognized him.

I help in Hannah's classroom every Friday. She was chosen to be one of the "assistant teachers" as the kids were working on writing their numbers.

Ellie was pretty miserable during her stomach bug, but when she started feeling a little better, she was pumped about getting to watch TV on the controller aka Wii U game pad.

 Guess she got a little curious about the plant on top of those shelves.I noticed her playing with a leaf, but it didn't really register until the whole thing came tumbling down. The funny part is that I had just bought a vacuum for hardwood floors the day before, so it actually gave me a good opportunity to try it out!

Andy's dad came into town for a couple of days and brought some old slides and a projector so we had a fun little slideshow.

This was one of our favorites of the night! (Andy is on the right.)

A couple of months ago, my friend Haley, contacted me and said that she and her family were coming out to visit San Diego for a vacation in April. Andy and I were friends with Haley and Dan when we all lived in Albuquerque during our early married, pre-children days. I was so excited to get to see them and meet their darling kids. When the stomach bug hit early last week, I was worried about our plans to see them. Sure enough, the night before they were supposed to come over for dinner, I got hit with the bug. Thankfully Andy and the kids were still able to meet up with them at In-N-Out. I'm so sad I had to miss it! Hannah (6), Isaac (5), Kate (7), Joey (8), Ellie (3).

Ellie has some sassy style! (I hope I don't have to say that she dresses herself.)

 And, the stomach bug claims another victim. Sweet even when sick!

Thursday was "Take Your Child to Work" day. The kids had been looking forward to it for months! The only hitch in our plans was this:

 Ellie came down with a stomach bug earlier in the week. I thought she would be fine by Thursday, but she woke up that morning crying about her tummy and saying she didn't want to go to Google. I was just so grateful that Joey and Hannah hadn't caught it by then.

So, these three headed off to Google with their t-shirts and badges!

They ended up getting to Google nice and early so they headed up for some breakfast. Apparently the chocolate chip pancakes, smoothies and bacon were out of this world!

The whole day was organized into different sessions. There were speakers teaching the kids about different topics, demonstrations, and activities.

This guy talked about some of the cool Google products. He even flew a little drone in the room!

Lunch break.

In this session they had a really interesting demonstration teaching the kids how the internet works.

I'm not sure how much the kids really understood, but Andy said it was pretty amazing. They had different people pretending to be the internet backbone (router), the ISP (internet service providers), and then the kids saw how different packets of information were sent.

Ice cream sundae break!

They also learned how to make water filters for 3rd world countries using simple materials like sand, rocks, and soda bottles.

Then the kids got to try it out themselves.

What's a fun "Take Your Child to Work" day without Nerf guns?!

And paper airplanes!

Joey and Hannah came home really pumped about the whole day. That, or they were still buzzing from all the sugar.

Later in the day, Ellie felt a little better so she joined Joey and Hannah in spirit with her t-shirt and badge. Hopefully next year she'll actually be able to go!

About a year ago, Andy, Joey, and Hannah started going to the baseball fields and practicing baseball on Sundays after lunch while Ellie and I nap. They go at least a couple of times a month, and all three of them love it. This past Sunday, they went right before dinner, so Andy invited Ellie and I to meet them at the baseball fields afterwards for a picnic dinner. Ellie was so excited to find out that we were going to play baseball with Andy and the kids.

She got to practice throwing and catching with Andy,

fielding with Hannah (their brother hits it far!),

batting,

 
and running the bases. (Here is everyone cheering for her as she ran home).

Joey and Hannah of course get lots of time batting, fielding, and playing catch. That could be why Joey got two doubles at his last game and Hannah got three homeruns! (For real. Three homeruns!)

I love this crew!

Oh, and one more part of the tradition is stopping by McDonald's afterwards for ice cream. That could be the secret to why everyone loves playing baseball on Sunday!