Elle's First Birthday!

Saturday afternoon was filled with a big birthday celebration for Elle. There was lots of food and juice boxes.

A big beach ball...Olivia loved that!

Bubbles! Emma is really good at blowing bubbles.

I just love this picture of Marcus eating his dinner with the big kids...he looks like such a big kid himself! He's growing up too fast.

Olivia really liked the beach ball.

There's Giavanna! Such a sweet little face!

And there's the birthday girl! Happy First Birthday Elle! She loved the cake!

I think Marcus and Ceci loved the cake too.

By the end of the night we decided to try for a cousin picture. This was the only one I got of all 7 but Tracy's camera was clicking away so I'm sure she got at least one! Hopefully she'll post it on her blog (Three Monkey's on the sidebar).

Uncle Raymond's

When we got to Raymond's house, the boys had to run to the store to buy lunch. On the way they saw this fella. My camera just happened to be in the truck so they got a nice shot. Later that evening we saw a ton of Elk and one was huge, but I couldn't figure out the night settings on the camera so we didn't get any pictures of that.

We got a nice surprise at Raymond's...Poppie brought Sophie and Ceci over to play! YEAH!!!

The girls picked up all of the cotton from the neighhbor's cottonwood trees (it just happens to blow into Raymond's yard...that's a sore subject for Raymond though). They were building a house for the fairies. Sophie told the younger girls that it was very important to believe in fairies because when they lose their teeth the tooth fairy will come and leave prizes for them. It was precious!

Marcus found Raymond's toy guns. That's all he wanted to do was shoot the guns. Watch Out!

Road Trip

Can you guess where our first stop was? No, not Holland...we stopped at Grami and Poppie's Friday night. I just had to take pictures of the massive windmills. They have put so many new ones up and they are really close to the freeway. It is so impressive but almost surreal at the same time. Marc mentioned it almost feels like you are in a Sci-fi film when you go through this area. We figured out it just must be because it isn't something we are used to seeing every day.

We woke up bright and early Saturday and headed to Raymond's. The girls were in great moods and so excited to get to all of our destinations.

They are such great little travelers.

Marcus slept through most of the driving which was nice. It gave him lots of energy for all of our visits; that's for sure!

Daddy is #1!!!

We originally had plans to go camping and fishing this weekend but had to cancel due to our pump breaking which means no water. Marc finally got the pump fixed Saturday afternoon (after much frustration...it was a process). By the time he went to Home Depot, Lowe's, Ziggy's and spoke to a few plumbers, he found himself at Walmart. Why Walmart? Well, to purchase this of course...

A BIG POOL!!! Marc has wanted one of these pools for a while and after a few hard days of pump problems, he finally decided he deserved this and made the purchase. This pool is 16 ft around and 42 inches deep. The kids were so excited!

It took a while to get it full (it actually never did get full yesterday). Marcus was really good at making sure the water was on and also made sure his sisters were plenty wet. It takes a really long time to fill this pool! Let's just say the new pump got a pretty good workout.

We are all so excited to use the pool. Unfortunately the 90 degree weather from yesterday turned into 50 and very rainy today so we'll just have to wait (believe me, that is a hard wait for three little ones in the house...they keep begging to use it today, but I think we've finally convinced them it is just too cold).

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Car/Bike Wash

Last night Marc decided to wash his truck. I was in the house and happened to glance outside to see this...the kids washing their bikes...how cute is that! At first there was a lot of teamwork getting the bikes clean...

Olivia took this task very seriously. You can't have a dirty bike after all!

Emma was quite serious too. I'm not sure but I think there might have been a competition going on to see who could have the cleanest bike.

Marcus, well the picture says it all...he lost interest pretty quickly and just wanted to terrorize everyone. His idea was to see how wet and soapy he could get everyone including the photographer. Never a dull moment with this one...that's for sure!

Slip & Slide

It was almost 90 degrees today so out came the Slip & Slide.

Olivia and Marcus were two peas in a pod this afternoon. You didn't find one without the other. They both play so hard; it's fun to watch.

I constantly find it amazing how the kids have changed in a year. Last year they didn't quite get it; but this year they knew exactly what to do. They had a blast.

By the end of the day Marcus decided clothes were over-rated. This is something the girls never did either...what a character!

Hammock Time!

We finally have sun! Seems like a good time to bring the hammock back. I think the kids agree...

More Birthday Fun

Today is my birthday. Marc and the kids made it extra special.

They gave me the greatest card this morning and inside was a gift card. Olivia handed me the gift card and said "This card says you can shop all day!" She was pretty excited about that; I thought that was a pretty good idea myself. I received lots of wonderful cards, emails and even some chocolate bars at work! My boss took me out to lunch...I was basically spoiled.

I came home to a dinner of steak and potatoes (my favorite) and it ended with ice cream cake (Yummy!). What a great birthday! Thanks for making it special everyone!!!

Art Project

The girls got the neatest little ring painting/decorating kit for their birthday this year. Daycare was closed yesterday so we decided to try out the kit and make some pretty rings. There were 7 rings total to decorate and only one set of paints and paint brush so the kids had to take turns. It was Olivia's idea so she got to go first.

Marcus even wanted to paint one. He actually picked the one ring that looked like a guys ring. He only wanted to use the orange paint and the white paint. It was pretty cute; he wanted nothing to do with the pink and purple...proof yet again that this kid is ALL BOY!

He decided he had enough after that one ring and in true boy fashion, ended up on the chair to watch a movie complete with a big bowl of popcorn.

Next was Emma's turn. She concentrated really hard and made sure there were no spots missed. She used every color in the paint pallet. It took her a long time to paint just one ring.

Olivia waited as patiently as she could...it was really hard to wait...and wait...and wait...

FINALLY! It was worth the wait :-) Don't ask about the face; Olivia just wants to be goofy for the camera lately; I think it's hilarious! The girls each got to paint 3 rings. They all turned out very unique. We had to let them dry and the next step is to decorate them with jewels. We didn't have a chance to get to them today (the weather was too nice to stay inside today); but we will probably get them finished tomorrow (rain is in the forecast yet again).

Officially Four

The day started off with Marcus and me waking the girls at 7am singing "Happy Birthday". Emma sat up, rubbed her eyes and with a big grin said "is it my Birthday?" Olivia was snuggled in her bed but also had a big grin on her face. The girls had a gift for each other (their idea that we got ready the night before...just stuff they already had but they wrapped it up and had me tie a ribbon around it). They exchanged their gifts and said Happy Birthday to each other...it was the sweetest thing I've ever witnessed.

After daycare we drove into the driveway and Daddy had their presents out for them to see. I said, "What are those in the driveway?" The girls were so excited they couldn't wait to get out of their car seats to see...

They immediately hopped on their new bikes to give them a try.

We need a lot of practice, but I bet it will be no time before they have these mastered.

Then we went inside for pizza and ended with frosted brownies. We sang "Happy Birthday" once again and the girls blew out their candles.

They are so excited to finally be 4. They have been waiting a long time for this. When I put them down to sleep Emma said "Mommy, I'm 4 now, right?" I told her "Yep...say goodbye 3 and hello 4!" and she repeated that phrase word for word with the biggest grin you could ever imagine.