Julie Starts Preschool

 Julie started preschool this year and she adores the whole experience.  She has the world's best teachers there that are so kind and loving.  She is always full of smiles and she bounces into preschool.  One of her favorite parts is that she has her own private cubby that she can store her stuff in.  Every day she brings a little toy or trinket to show off to her friends and then puts it away in her little space.

After watching her sister attend all last year she is so happy to finally be there herself.  She has a friend at school named Peyton that she always talks about.  Apparently they have a lot of fun playing together.  Each day of school she always asks, "Is it my special day today?"  She gets very excited for that occasion!

Lizzie Starts Kindergarten

Lizzie started Kindergarten this year!  She is doing so well in school.  She is a top reader in her class and a little social butterfly.  This child has no inhibitions and has always had confidence talking to adults so when I pick her up from school she is often trying to make jokes to make her teacher laugh.

She doesn't even know how smart she is yet.  One day she came home and was feeling sad because there was a little boy who in her words, "Already knew how to read everything and could read better than her."  I assured her it was ok and that she should just continue practicing.  Later, I found out from her teacher that she is so good at it that she was the only one paired up with a first grader!  I was able to explain to her later that he was so good because he was a whole year ahead!

Family Photos

My three little treasures!  They fill my days, nights, and everything in between.  In this phase of life, their needs are all consuming and never ending.  And it's worth every moment!  There's never a dull moment at our house. These girls make me so happy.   

                                                      Jamie did such a great job with these photos!  Her talents are priceless! 

Julie cracks me up!  She is in this phase where she tries SO hard to smile and it shows. lol.

She did it!  That's the beautiful Julie smile we all know and love! ;-)

All three of my girls are little beauties!  Inside and out.

Just me and my love. You don't see us without kids very often.  But THIS is how it all began! haha.

4th of July

This summer Uncle Trev came to visit us and stayed for the 4th of July!  We had such a great time with him and all the Stevens Family as well over the holiday.  We spent alot of time at the parks, went to the DuPont festival, and watched the fireworks being shot off over the Puget Sound from Chris and Linda's backyard.

All the cousin babies had on their adorable 4th of July gear so of course we had to get a group shot! The  Fantastic Four all together! :)

Car Museum

This was a random trip to the car museum.  It was a great time for Dave.  It was an opportunity to take pictures for me.  It was semi boring for the girls. lol.  The other day we were headed to the Children's Museum and Lizzie asked me, "Are we going to the museum with all the cars?"  Me: "No, not this time!"  Lizzie: "Good. That place is boring!"  

Easter

The older girls were so excited for Easter this year and just reveled in the excitement of egg hunts, coloring eggs, finding hidden baskets, and of course lots and lots of candy!!  Penny slept through the egg hunt part and was mostly unaware of the day's events, but she sure did look cute!  Wish she hadn't napped through the pictures part!  It was fun having our friends join us for the festivities!  

 One of my favorite aspects of this year's Easter celebration was celebrating for a whole week!  It's a tradition started a couple years ago and we discuss the life of Christ and the events that occurred during the week of Easter. The picture above was a lesson and dinner centered around learning about the Passover.  Hopefully the true meaning of Easter sticks with these girls!

Catch up for 2014

I am so behind in my blogging and it's time to catch up!  The year 2014 has been too amazing to let it slip by without note!  And THAT is precisely the trouble.  It has been completely FILLED to the brim with activities, family time, vacations, and church work that there is absolutely no time left to blog!!  One of the fun family vacays was DISNEYLAND!!  The girls were pumped about it for months beforehand....we really had the greatest time there. We did 4 days in the Disney Resort. The BEST part though was visiting family there!  Liz and Julie still talk all the time about visiting Dane and Grant and how much fun they had.  We always love seeing Steph and Blake!