Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. My sister surprised everyone by coming into town and the girls had an impromptu sleepover at my mom and dad's with their cousins. They were SO excited! They went to bed about 1:00 in the  morning after the mom's finally left to go home and Lia woke everyone up at 6:00 am. They were a little tired the next day, but we still had a great day up at This is the Place State Park. Lia and Laura had a good time, but I have to say Josh had the best time. He could've stayed all day looking at the horses, riding the horses, and checking out all the baby animals. We spend most of our days doing things I need to do, or that the girls want to do, so I was so glad to see him having so much fun.

The kids and Nate look great, but could I look any more pregnant? Oh well, I have just nine more weeks to go... Really that doesn't sound short to me at all, but it will be nice to have some time to play with the kids before the baby comes and we stay in for a while. Overall I'm feeling pretty good (in case anyone was wondering), but I do have my times and days when I'm just plain tired and uncomfortable. I feel like I have so much to be grateful for though there's hardly room to complain. We are so grateful for our families and everything they do for us. We've really felt them watching out for us these last few months especially. I hope they know how much we love and appreciate them. 

Cousins, Preschool Field Trips, and Sleepy Heads

It's recital time again...

This time it was Laura's turn. She had her first dance recital a couple weeks ago and was so cute! She's done with dance for the summer and we'll see if she wants to do it again in the fall. We sure enjoyed watching her, she is such a cute little dancer!

Lia's First Piano Recital

Lia had her first piano recital a couple weeks ago (the same night as Laura's party) and she did great! It was a costume recital and because Lia played "Once Upon a December" from the movie Anastasia she dressed up like Anastasia. She was so calm, cool and collected before, during and after she played, I was so impressed. She's going to be taking a little break the next couple of months, but we're hoping to start her again after that. Thanks Jennifer for the great few months we had with you!


The girls always have to look in the mirror in my room before going out anywhere, especially if it's somewhere special. We happened to catch this last minute check in the mirror with our camera. I love the look on her face.


You looked beautiful Lia and we are so proud of you!

Laura's Birthday...Part 2

I forgot to put these cute pictures of Laura on the post about her birthday. They are from the party at my mom and dad's. I just can't believe how grown up she's getting!

Laura's Birthday

Last Friday we celebrated Laura's 4th birthday (she officially turned four on Sunday). The first thing she said to me when she woke up was, "Mom, we have to put the  tablecloth on the table!" When she saw that it was already done she ran in to tell Nate, "Dad, you have to see the family room! It looks so... birthday-ish!" I can't take credit for a lot of the birthday traditions at our house, they came from my mom (who has also given us some of our birthday supplies), to which we have added a few of our own traditions. Needless to say, my kids' birthdays are some of my favorite days of the year. Laura's enthusiasm lasted all day, as you'll see from the pictures. She was so cute and so excited about everything! She had an Ariel party with her friends and then we had Nate's family over that night. We then got to celebrate with my family on Sunday.  We love Laura. I love to see her excited. And because she happens to fall in the middle of the family, I loved it that we had a day (or two) to celebrate just her. She gives great hugs and kisses and is a joy to have in our family.

April

It's been a month now so it's time to update. We had a great April! We were lucky enough to go see Wicked with Nate's family thanks to his wonderful Aunt Luann, which we loved! And in addition to Nate's birthday, we also celebrated our anniversary. I don't want to let it go unsaid that I am so grateful to be married to Nate. While I don't profess to to know anything that is going to happen in my life any more than anyone else does, I have felt pretty strongly about a couple of things. One of those being that I knew long ago there was something different about Nate. I never dreamed that first year or two that I knew him that we would one day get married, but I knew there was something special about him that drew me to him. I love you Nate. We also had fun watching Lia, Laura and Josh get excited about Easter. I love that the second one holiday is over they want to get ready for the next and Easter was no different. So, there's the update and here's some pictures.

I love to look at wedding pictures, which is why I included this--in case any of you do too. I especially love to see the grooms, they're the ones who seem to change the most those first few years. Now if only that will stay true for the next several years.

This is how most of the pictures of the kids turn out these days, including the ones I had taken at a studio. Josh is just always on the move, especially when it's picture time.


Lia was a very efficient egg hunter--she ran and gathered as fast as she could. Laura couldn't contain her excitement over every egg she found. And Josh didn't know quite what to think about the basket or the gathering of eggs. But, they all had fun and didn't complain one bit about the candy.