The Messick Family

We had so much fun going up to Sellars Creek on Saturday. There was lots of GOOD food, and great company!


It's amazing we have such beautiful children!
Grandpa was enjoying those s'mores!
Great spontaneous pose, Mary!
Quincy, Caleb, and Cannon "hiking."
Watch out. She has a gun...and she doesn't really know how to use it. Yes, I need to work on my form! It was fun to practice shooting our new guns while we were up there.
He's always asking for kisses from his girls!
We were glad to have Grandpa and Grandma Messick come up, too!


Playing with Papa's hat.

Ahh! Finally, we have warm enough weather to play in the water!
I told them to go put their arms around each other for a picture, and they forgot to face me! I thought this was cute enough to post anyway!
Mmm! Yummy water! I think we must have thrown away our little kiddie pool, so we had to improvise! We filled these two sleds up with water, and they actually turned out to be perfect for Elsie to play in, and the other kids had a blast splashing in them, too!
Splash!
Elsie has been getting brave and trying to stand up on her own.
Check out those thighs!
Surfer girl! Look at that form!

"Cheese!"
Good day for shades! It's bright out here!
Thumbs up!

I love how Ruthie slides her glasses up on her head!

I was watching this from the window and was just waiting for someone to put their mouth over the hose while the other let go of the "kink!" Sadly for entertainment's purposes, I must report that they were both too smart to put themselves in that position!
It still cracked me up to watch this interaction.
Especially when her face looked like this! Poor girl. Big brothers can sure be a pain! Seriously, though, I get so sick of the sound that comes out of that mouth! She is tough when she wants to be. And ONLY when she wants to be!

I LOVE this picture of Elsie! And I love this bow that Aunt Kate made for her for her birthday!
With this bow and a few red, white, and blue outfits that she got from Grandma, Elsie will be quite the little patriot!

I don't know why I can't figure out how to get these on in the right order...oh, well. Sort it out yourselves!
Quincy and Ruthie were pretty excited to have Elsie open presents. She didn't care too much for it, though, as usual.
She did love this doll from Mimi, though!
She immediately started kissing her.
And telling everyone about it! She was pretty excited about all the attention she was getting!

It's hard to believe my baby is one! That year went by so fast. Elsie is the sweetest baby and so easy. She pretty much entertains herself all day. That doesn't mean I don't play with her, though. She is so fun to make giggle and to hug, love, and kiss.
It has been fun to have a baby that I get some credit for! The others have such a strong stamp from their daddy, and so does Elsie, but I do get a lot of feedback that she looks like me, too, so that's fun!

Feeling so pretty in the flowers!

Great minds think alike! When Brinn saw us, she wondered why she didn't get the memo? Really, though, we didn't plan it. I promise!

We had to take advantage of the overcast skies and Aunt Shelly's beautiful backyard, and tried to get family pictures. Why is it so hard to get everyone perfect at the same time?

Elsie was fascinated with the fountain.

And kept trying to climb over. She is getting to be quite the little climber. I really have to watch her close in the bathtub because she tries to climb out and gets her little toes hooked over the edge! She could topple right over without much effort.