Building up a relationship (By Michela)

Mekenzie and I had been BFFs since we were little, but as we got older that relationship started to fade. Eventually the relationship was gone. We told ourselves we couldn't be with each other. That all changed at Mekenie's baptims when it brought the memories back through a video of her life. It touched my heart to realize how much she touched my life. At the end of the video I burst into tears. I couldn't believe I let that go. At the end of the baptism I made a goal to build a relationship with this beautiful girl. This goal is now accomplished. I love Mekenzie and hope she lives a wonderful life with the gospel. - Michela

Summer 2010 - Back to School

This year we had a great summer!! Lot of family time and swimming in the pool. We didn't sign up for any activities this year we just enjoyed each other. The girls had a great time together and got along so well I just decided to go with it. I don't know how many more summers they'll want to hang out together. We went to the pool every morning, it was like having our own pool as people wouldn't start showing up till 10:30 - 11:00 which is about the time we were leaving for Jonathan's nap. Jonathan is really taking to the water and all the girls are swimming really well. Monet still needs floaties, but she is doing great. We will definitely miss the pool.

It is now back to schoo, homework, and school friends. I try to promote sister time as much as possible. Here are the girls on their 1st day of school. Madison is getting so big. She is really smart and reading well. Michela is the big 5th grader, queen of the school. Mekenzie is full of laughs and fun.

Monet is adjusting to it just being her and Jonathan at home. She has started riding her bike without training wheels. She will be starting a little coop preschool with a few of the moms in the ward this next week, which I think she will really enjoy. Jonathan is growing fast and moving fast. He is a really happy baby.

I have started a 300mile Nike challenge with the ladies in the neighborhood. It is a contest to see who can run 300miles first. I am trying to finish in 30 days. Zak says I'm getting a little obsessed, but it's fun. We'll see how it works out.

We are all enjoying life together. I love being a Ballard! - Deann

Jonathan's Blessing

Jonathan Tyler Ballard

Sunday January 17, 2010 Zak gave Jonathan a name and a blessing through the power of the priesthood through which he blesses our family each day.

Blessing

You are a choice spirit.

You are chosen to serve in capacities in your life to bless the lives of others.

Blessed with a desire to fulfill the milestones of the church - baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, serve a mission, go to the temple, and be sealed.

Blessed with health and strength and growth as Heavenly Father intends.

Serve as a protector to your sisters.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to have the gospel in my life and be married to a husband who holds his priesthood with honor.

It was great to have my sisters and brother and his kids join us for Jonathan's blessing. The cousins had so much fun together. They are all growing up to fast. Thanks to Ellen they are all laughing and having fun. They love to sit on her lap and do horsey rides.

Jonathan has been a great baby. I hope I can be a good mother and raise my son so that he to will be able to hold and honor the priesthood like his father.

He was such a good baby the whole day. Here he is smiling on cue. That night he let me know he still knows how to cry, but he put on a good show for all the company.

He will always be surrounded by girls. I'm sure he'll learn to hold his own and give them a hard time, but now they just can't get enough of him.

We love you Jonathan and are so grateful you are in our lives.

Enjoying Life

It's been a busy last few months. We made it through the end of school with fun run, field days, and kindgergarden graduation. They didn't do a kindergarden graduation for Michela but it was really cute to watch Mekenzie. They are both growing up so fast.

Speaking of children, we found out that we are having a boy and Zak couldn't be more excited. The girls were thrilled when they found out but when we took away some of their furniture to set up the boys room they weren't too happy. Madison especially didn't think that was cool. When we found out Zak was so excited that we went out the same night and got all the stuff for the boy's room. Zak and I spent that night setting it all up. When Madison woke up the next day she found her dresser and table from her closet in the baby's room. After a few weeks of shopping around all the rooms are finally set up. Madison and Monet have the cutest pink girlie room. Michela and Mekenzie got the bunkbed they've been hoping for with the agreement that the other two can also play on the top bunk with Michela.

The summer has been going by quickly with cheerleading champ, morning swimming, reading, library shows, and alot of just playing together. It is so cool that the girls all get together and play really well. It's always fun so see what game they come up with next. We have speakers setup in the backyard and they love dancing for hours to Kid's Choice. They also love fighting over the hammock Zak got for Father's Day. The only chance we get to spend time in the hammock kid free is after 9 when they're all in bed. Over all it has been a great summer to far, not too hot with nice breezy evenings. Oh, and Zak had his 34th birthday with his favorite Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

The 4th of July was another story, being here in South Carolina we were looking forward to creating our own little fireworks show. Then three weeks before the 4th, Zak was called to head up the activities committee. He was informed that not only would he be in charge of the annual Fort Mill Ward 4th July party but that they were extending it to be a stake event. It was alot of work and not alot of help. Three weeks is not long to cordinate this large of event. It turned out great according to several attending and Zak and I were crazy busy all day, luckily we have such good girls that kept themselves out of trouble. About 600 people showed up and we had just the right amount of food. The firework show was amazing. (Thanks to a few generous donations) It's still crazy that you can purchase that level of fireworks at the local store. Especially coming from California where you can only get poppers. We were very exhausted for the next few days and I'm just glad it wasn't my calling and I didn't have to worry about a thing, HAHA!!. We told the stake they have to take a more active role next year if they want this to continue as a stake event.

The next thing we decided to do is go camping as a family. We have the camp ground reserved for the first part of August and Zak has been enjoying finding and purchasing all the things we could possibly need. We already had alot of stuff that we bought when we first got married. We went and got a tent, lantern, stove, etc - and they have never been used. The tent is now too small for our growing family but we will finally get a chance to put the rest to the test. I'll let you know how it goes.

Fun times in the Ballard clan!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Bithdays!!!

The last few months have been crazy we had four birthdays and fun times with morning sickness. We also had busy season, Science Fair, Easter and Spring Break. We've really been enjoying each other and our home. Here are a few picutres to get everyone up to date.

Here are my birthday girls!!

They had fun with Easter and the aprons from grandma.

Monet had the funnest time with her new slid.

The birthday cake was a quick last minute. Monet was really excited as you can see. Once she saw her slid that was all she wanted.

Fun with the dress-up box.

Kenzie loving her big bike. She's always been my bike rider.

Kenzie with her birthday cake. This was my best attempt. She saw this picture in Madison's birthday celebration book. It was a busy fun day and covering the ice cream cones with chocolate was interesting but she loved it.

Madison with all her outdoor toys. We are all very excited for spring with out new big back yard.

Madison with her birthday cake. Madison when to the library a few weeks ago and I said she could pick out a few books. The only book she wanted was a Disney birthday party book. She spend the whole week looking through and finally decided on the Winn-the-Pooh cake. This was my first really homemade cake. It actually turned out pretty good.

Kenzie with her class science fair project. They won the kindergarden award. She had lots of fun trying to make their eggs float.

Michela's first science fair project. She ran the whole project. It was really fun figuring out how to make it all work when things didn't go quite the way we had planned.

My beautiful babies. They were having so much fun posing for pictures before church. It was a beautiful February day. I am so blessed to have such wonderful girls!!

Dentist & New Baby

Ok, so I have four girls with Michela (9), Mekenzie (6), Madison (4) and Monet (2), I finally decided we really needed to get to the dentist, for the first time. We found a local pediatric dentist that was covered by our insurance and made the appointments. The girls all did great. Great news, NO CAVITIES!! I was so excited. I have vowed to do better and have already made our 6 month appointment.

In other news I seems as though we will be enjoying the sounds of a new baby in November. We are Pregnant!! I'm really excited. The girls say it great as long as it's a boy. They say Daddy needs to have another boy in this house, there are just too many girls. We will be excited either way. I think this will be the last one. Fun times! Now I'm ready for a nap!

Snow Day!

The day started with a 5:45 phone call letting us know that school was cancelled due to snow. We looked out the window and snow was coming down but the ground was just barely covered. In Colorado or Utah this was be nothing, but in South Carolina they don't have any snow equipment so they close down. Apparently it only snows maybe once or twice a year so when this happens the kids get a snow day. The girls loved it. We haven't seen snow in a while after living in Southern California for the last five years. The kids loved it for about 30 minutes then came inside because it was too cold. By midday the snow was going. Here are a few pictures of our snow fun.

Kenzie was the most excited. She stayed out for over an hour. She used all the snow she possibly could.