Guest blogger: Future Aunt Stacie

My name is Stacie. I am Ellen's sister. I am married to Dustin and we have two children Tate, age 8 and Jill age 5. (Well almost 5.)

My favorite thing about Josh and Ellen is all the time they take to be a TERRIFIC aunt and uncle. My children adore them and it is easy to see why. Let me tell you some of our favorite things!

Josh and Ellen have a steady income and try to be generous. Keeping that in mind, they choose to use their time and money enjoying their family! Every time we are together, Josh and Ellen see to it that we do plenty of fun things for the kids. We go to the zoo, aquarium and children's museum. They seek out places where they can have FUN with their nieces and nephews. And it's not good enough to just go to the "kids places" they are in there making the magic happen. There is not a display at the children's museum that Josh and Ellen have not explored with the kids! They figure, what is the fun of pretending to be a newscaster if you aren't doing it with your nephew?
They believe you are wasting your time at a park if you are not pushing a swing, catching someone at the end of the slide or taking your turn being "it" for the game.

My son Tate was once cast as a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. I was really struggling with finding a costume for him. Aunt Ellen to the rescue! Ellen is a talented seamstress and she made the best munchkin outfit you have ever seen. Pants, vest and matching tie! Tate looked so good, that Jill even had to take a turn trying it on. We also had a year were we struggled financially. We weren't sure what we were going to do about the upcoming Easter holiday. Uncle Josh and Aunt Ellen sent us brand new Easter Sunday church outfits for both Tate and Jill! Jill spent the day asking people if they wanted to see her "twirl" and then spinning around in her cute dress.Personally, I think that Josh's greatest attribute is his caring nature. The guy would literally give you the shirt off his back if you asked. Say you need help and Josh will be the first one there. My sister Ellen is very loyal. She has got your back. When it feels like the whole world thinks you are crazy, Ellen says, "You want this? Then let's go get it!"

My family has been truly blessed by having Josh and Ellen in it!

Full Moon Rising

I have a dear friend who I always call on the full moon and howl with. It guarantees we talk once a month and let’s be honest, howling at the moon is fun! If my phone rings on the full moon, no matter where I was, I was howling!! I’ve howled some embarrassing places, but hey friendship rules over manners when it comes to shopping at Walmart, am I right?

With all the giggling this tradition has caused, I decided to share it with my nieces and nephews. It may now be one of my favorite aunty activities. Partially because I’m bad at following the calendar so I never know when the full moon is going to be so it is always a fun surprise but mostly, these kids are simply awesome!

Usually I get to chat with my sister or brother first, a little warm up if you will, and at some point I’ll say, “So it’s a full moon…..” They round up the troops and I get put on speaker phone and from states away we howl and howl! Now here is the awesome part, I get to talk to the kids. I learn things this way things that surprise even Mom & Dad. One niece told me she is going to grow up and have 80 kids – 10 boys and 70 girls. Hefty plans for a 4 year old! The other niece thinks her tap dance costume looks like a cheetah. I told her it was a jungle out there and she said, "No, it's a tap dance costume." This stuff is golden!

Yesterday was technically the full moon, but there is still time…go ahead, call the family! Release the howl.