It's Great to Be Eight!

How has my little girl grown up so quickly?  She is getting so old, and unlike my boys she understands me!  She is such a beautiful girl both inside and out.

She is also pretty spunky!  You have to be with three older brothers who have very little tolerance.  She is incredibly social and can't live without her social life.  Tonight she managed to singlehandedly get company over to make s'mores with us.

She is also tender.  She feels the pain of others and is sensitive to what they are feeling beyond her years.  She has started to be quite a reader and always wants to read books about slavery.  It is beyond her sense of justice to understand how certain things were once accepted.

Just the other day she was little, and we moved to Alamosa right before her second birthday.  Now here she is a big girl!

They have all grown up over the past six years.

I love my daughter and am so grateful to have her in our family!

Family Reunion

We had a wonderful time reacquainting with all our Cherpeski family this summer, and I was really grateful that they had the sense to schedule a photo shoot with all our family.  What an amazing crew we have!  All because two people fell in love:

I love seeing Susan and Tyler as parents.  It has brought out a tender side of them that I enjoy witnessing, and it also brings back all the memories of when Nathan and I started our family.  They do it with a lot more style than we ever did!

Jeremy and Sarah are such great parents, and I am happy they are so happy together.  I saw a new side of Sarah after a long and grueling game of UNO.  She has quite the sense of humor, and I look forward to playing a lot more games in the future and laughing a lot!

I was happy that our kids all looked in the general direction of the camera.  We have a better photo that I am planning on using on my blog heading and Christmas cards in the future.

I love this picture of Jen and Jeff's family.  I was jealous that we didn't think of it, and I am already planning next year's photo shoot.  As usual it was fun to visit and watch their children who are growing up so quickly and are such great children.

I was anxious to meet our newest family members, Manda and Aunika, and I am happy to say that they will make an outstanding new addition to the family.  Manda is so kind-hearted and fun.  She reminds me a lot of one of my best friends, and I look forward to getting to know her better.  Nicole can't wait to play with Aunika again.  I also liked talking to Brittany and Kyle.  They are growing up way to quick, and they are turning into mature and smart young adults.

OVERALL WE HAVE A GREAT FAMILY!