Two of my favorites...

Ava says a lot of cute things, but two of my favorites right now are:

1. Yes, I'm ma'am (Yes I am)--she says this countless times each day!

2. Meyogurt (Yogurt)--probably stems from me asking if she'd like 'some yogurt'

On a side note, Miss Ava has potty trained herself! Yay! As of two or three weeks ago she has been in undies and only wears a pull up at night!

She has also started saying 'Hey, Mom' and 'Hey, Dad' every time she addresses us instead of the usual Mom and Dad. And let's not forget her 'What???' which she says with the inflection of an AARP member whose hearing aid needs to be turned up!

We love you Miss Ava! You make us smile.

Elyse's Baptism

Today we had Elyse baptized. It was a beautiful day and such a precious ceremony. I am always touched deeply by the official welcome that baptism is into the body of Christ. Amazingly, we had four generations (on both sides) present--We were blessed to have dear family and friends with us (and others with us in spirit) to witness her baptism and enjoy a yummy brunch at Illahe afterward (thank you mom and dad!). A special thanks to Mark and Michelle Mhoon who joyfully accepted the role of her godparents--we are thankful for their faithfulness and friendship. It was a day to remember...



Elyse with Mark and Michelle



The wide angle view of the ceremony



The actual 'baptizing'


Our first photo as a family of five!




Four generations of the Freres side (please excuse the bluriness--we realized after the fact that our little camera had a dirty fingerprint on the lens--hmmm I wonder whose that was...)



Four generations of the Sanders/Rupp side

Lovin' it!

This spring Henry was on his first organized soccer team. He LOVED it. Watching him play it is clear that he does not lack self-confidence. Even though he was the smallest on his team (it was 5-7 year olds), he muscled right in there to get at the ball! Being goalie was not his forte though and he spent more time playing with the net than paying attention to the game. The weather was dry every week--a small miracle for spring soccer in Oregon!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter Day. The Easter Bunny visited then we went to church, had brunch at Illahe with my family afterward and had Beryl, Louise, Mary Ann and Jim for Easter Dinner. We welcome the Easter season and are thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus, our savior.





The best photo we could capture of the 3 of them!

A Taste of the Town

Carl took Henry and Ava to Seattle (all by himself for 2 nights!). Elyse and I had a quiet time--long walks (without worrying about anyone running out into the street), organizing around the house, and...my semolina incident. I cleaned out our pantry and dumped an entire jar of semolina (flour for making pasta) down our drain. It expanded and exploded our pipes underneath the sink...semolina went everywhere (and so did the water). I had to bring the Shop Vac inside...never a good sign. Two and a half hours later I had it all cleaned up and pipes repaired. Who knew I had plumbing skills? Not I...

Anyway, Carl and the kids had an amazing time in Seattle and went to see many sights in the city including The Columbia Center (the tallest building in Seattle), The Space Needle, the Seattle Aquarium, the Science Center, St. James Cathedral and Pike's Place Market! They spent one night in a hotel downtown and another at Tim and Lissy Stuart's home (Tim was Carl's Best Man). They had an amazing time. They loved riding the monorail and thought it was so funny! Here is a video recap of their adventures....

So many moments, so little time...

I am so very behind on keeping the blog current. I have some photos and stories from November forward that I would like to post--but there is not enough time in the day! There are several new posts below and if I get the others done I will post with a link if you are interested. It has been a full and wonderful start to 2009!