Variety of pics

Erika looks like such a serious supervisor here. I love how she has her little hands together. 

She like Daddy brushing her hair. 

She's so tired that she fell asleep hanging out with big sister on the couch. Her little scowl makes me think she was trying so hard to stay awake with the big kids. 

We had to take our new car back to the dealership so they could install a hitch (for our bike rack) and Tysen wanted to sit in this really fast car. 

Erika enjoys her sink baths. 

She sure does look like Alexa did as a baby. 

Tysen is always loving on Erika. 

I tried to get a good picture of Bowen and Erika. Bowen had been wearing a mitten in the house to catch footballs. He didn't want to take it off when I asked. Well, Erika couldn't pay attention to me and the camera because she was too interested in his mitten. 

So I grabbed the mitten :)

Now they are watching me dangle the mitten near my camera. 

This is Erika's tough girl pose :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Sweet baby girl

I quietly peeked on Erika this morning. She was so beautiful that I couldn't stop staring. 

Today at lunch, Erika tried asparagus for the first time. Her brothers thought her funny faces were hilarious and entertaining!

Erika has discovered the dog. She will roll next to Gabbi so she can pull her hair. Gabbi isn't sure what to think. Luckily Gabbi is a very sweet and gentle dog. Pretty soon Gabbi just gets up and goes to find somewhere else to relax in peace. 

The kids wore red on Feb 6th for CHD awareness. 

Alexa is such a great helper. She loves to help feed Erika. 

Alexa loves Erika so much. 

A Sad Goodbye

September 30, 2006

We've just said our marriage vows and I am officially Mrs. Matthew Briggs.  We are just exiting St. John's Church.  It's been an exciting and emotional morning- a day we'll never forget.  But there's something extra that Matthew doesn't know....

He sees it first at this moment.  He later tells me that his first thought was "Impossible! Oh, it must be a rental."

It's a brand-new Ford Explorer Sport Trac.  This has been Matthew's dream vehicle since they were first made.  He would talk about them daily and always point them out on the road.
We're walking around the truck.  He looks at me.  I'm grinning like a fool.  I'm so bad at secrets, but I did good with this one!

He sees the OSU trailer hitch cover that I added to the back.  At this moment he knows.  He starts crying.  I didn't expect that!

Wiping away his tears of joy! (It's a good thing Matthew never reads my blog because he would hate this!)

This is such a wonderful memory and I'm so glad that I pulled it off.  Throughout the wedding reception, Matt kept leaning over to whisper, "Did you really freaking buy me a Sport Trac?!"  And of course he wanted to skip the dancing and go drive it, but we didn't want to be rude to our guests :)

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our beloved Sport Trac this week.  Although Matthew wanted to keep it forever and teach our kids to drive in it, it was starting to become very expensive to maintain and we needed a more reliable vehicle.
Matthew and I were both surprised by how sad we were when we removed the license plates and left it behind at the Ford dealership.  So long, Sport Trac....Thanks for all the good memories!