Just Do It!

So, Emma's been watching her sister ride the bike for a while now and every time we ask her if she wants to ride she just says "It's okay, I don't know how." This morning when we woke up I said "Emma, do you want to learn to ride your bike today?" and she said "Okay! Let's do it!"

And she did it! She watched Olivia go in circles and then did just like Olivia did. She was so proud and had a ton of fun. I was pretty proud too. Great Job Emma!

Of course as you know by now, whatever the girls do, Marcus has to do too. I know it's a purple bike and a pink helmet...we just used what we had readily available at the time. He did pretty well...doesn't quite have the pedaling thing down, but I don't think we'll be waiting until he's 4 to get him a bike. Oh and he is doing AWESOME with potty training too! I never thought I'd see the day, but really the girls were fully trained at 29 months and Marcus is only 32 months old so he's not that far behind them...I think he'll have it down before he turns 3 which was our goal!

That's my Boy!

Last night the kids were playing outside. Suddenly Emma and Olivia ran in screaming for Daddy to come out quick. Marc went to see what was up and came back in for the camera. I guess the kids saw this bug and Marcus immediately "saved" the girls by stomping on it. He then proceeded to pick it up and chase them around the yard with it. Daddy was so proud.

Speaking of proud...Marcus is finally interested in potty training. I have to thank daycare for this. He refused to go for us and I didn't want to push for fear of it being a negative experience and backfiring. Well this week daycare decided to give it a try. They set the timer every 40 minutes and then Marcus goes potty...he gets a gummy bear if he goes. It worked like a charm. He was in big boy undies all day, no accidents! We tried gummy bears and the timer at home tonight and he was all over it! YEAH!!! A step in the right direction!!!

Olivia Can Ride!

Olivia decided yesterday that it was time to ride her bike. We have not seen her do this since we got these bikes (back in June). She figured it out right away and she hasn't stopped. She rides in a circle in the driveway as much as she can. I have to wonder if her cousins taught her when they were here??? This is true Olivia fashion though, she decides to do something and she goes full board! I decided to get some of this on video this morning. Go Olivia Go! (Emma and Marcus are just an added bonus). :-)

Huckleberry Pickin'

We took a trip to the mountains today to pick some huckleberries. The kids really got into it right away. They decided they were on teams, Olivia and Daddy were one team and Emma and me were another team...Marcus just ate the huckleberries so he really wasn't on a team.

Emma really wanted to win, she's so competitive.
She did stop for one quick picture with Mommy. Then she promptly told me she was done with pictures and instructed me to start picking!

Emma tried to solicit some help from Marcus too.

"Look at my fingers Mom! They're PURPLE!"

There was a big bear in the woods too. I was trying to get pictures of Marcus but he didn't want his picture taken. As you can see by this sequence of pictures though, he finally did warm up to it. What a little ham!

The girls wore their cowgirl boots...we found out while getting dressed that our tennis shoes no longer fit! The cowgirl boots worked really well though.

We actually skipped naps for this trip so by the time we were done (we left home at 10am and left the mountain at 4pm) the kids were done! Marcus actually asked for a nap at 3 so I put him in the back of the car and he fell asleep right away. We had a successful trip too...we got almost 2 gallons of huckleberries. They have been washed and are in the freezer waiting to be made into something yummy! Who were the winners of the huckleberry picking you might be asking? I think Emma gave Daddy a run...they both picked until the end and their buckets were full.

Play Date

This is Deanna and Jonny. We went to their house this morning for a play date. Deanna has been begging her mom all week to call us and invite us over to play so she called last night and we were there first thing this morning.

The kids had a blast together. Everyone took turns driving the John Deere.


Marcus was a good little driver and especially liked driving the girls around.

The boys were working hard in the play area. So cute!

We had such a great time! Thanks Deanna and Jonny for inviting us over. We'll have to do this again sometime soon!

Great Weekend

Today was a quite day compared to the rest of the weekend. Raymond stuck around until after lunch to help with the party tear down. He decided to try out the pool...it was hot this morning so the pool was refreshing after all his hard work.

The kids just love Uncle Raymond. Emma was trying to get him to dive under the water to get her toys that were on the bottom of the pool.

I just had to share this picture of Olivia. Talk about growing up! Remember the wedding she was in...well we had to get white sandals and I waited until the weekend before the wedding to get them. I found out the hard way that August is not the time to look for white sandals. We found some cute ones for Emma in her size (9). It was a little harder to find shoes for Olivia. Come to find out, Olivia is now a size 11 and toddler shoes end at size 10! She found her sandals...she just HAD to have them. I wasn't as excited; they just looked too grown up...but after going to every store, literally, they were the only ones in town so we had to buy them...she hasn't taken them off since!

The BIG 4-0!

Yesterday was Marc's 40th birthday. We invited all of our friends and family to help celebrate. We had a great turnout and beautiful weather too!

Marc did all the cooking...that's what he wanted to do for his birthday! He did a great job, hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone!

Cake and ice cream too! It was almost a cake disaster...I went to Costco to pick the cake up in the morning and luckily I looked at it. It said "Happy 45th Marc!" I looked at the cake and the lady at Costco said "Is there a problem?" to which I replied..."He's having a really hard time with 40...he's going to FLIP if I show him 45!" They promptly corrected it...all the ladies in the back were laughing so hard I could hear them. When they handed it back to me they said "Here you go...Marc's 40 again!" :-)

We had a cake there for Marc's sister, Tracy, who happens to have a birthday on the same day as Marc (and no, they are not twins).

The kids had a blast playing together. Here is our friend Noah with Marcus.

We even had games for the adults!

I tried to put the kids to bed but they were very upset that Daddy had not opened his presents yet. So we had Daddy come in and open presents. The kids went to bed and the party went on into the night. It was a great success! HAPPY 40TH MARC!!! Thanks to everyone that came to make it so special!

Weekend of Birthdays!

We had a weekend of birthdays! It stared out with a Friday night Turkey fry. Here are the boys sitting around and deep fat frying a whole turkey! They also made sweet potato french fries and regular fries...YUMMY!

Elle and Gia check out the little rocking chairs...just their size!

All the cousins were there. The turkey and fries were a hit!

We did an early birthday celebration for Auntie Tracy...we even had yummy banana cake for the occasion!

High Tea

Remember Amber? We had a baby shower (see here) for her about 2 years ago. Today we did a surprise baby shower for baby #2.

My co-worker, Crystal and I told Amber we were taking her to lunch for her birthday (which is today) so she didn't suspect a thing. When we got there some of our co-workers were there to shout "surprise"!

We went to the cutest little tea shoppe. Crystal (above with Amber and me) arranged it all; she had been here before and just couldn't believe none of us have ever had "High Tea". It was great! Complete with scones, cakes, sandwiches and all different kinds of tea of course.

Amber's Mom and little sister were even there. It was a successful surprise...she had no idea. I just LOVE surprises!!! :-)

The Wedding

Beautiful Flower Girls.

Groomsman and ring bearer.

We arrived at 3pm sharp! The day went
so well it was almost scary. Everyone got in a good nap and everything!

Family Portrait.

Hanging out before the wedding.

Marcus wanted to do everything Daddy did. He woke up from his nap and said "I don't want to cry, I want to be good. I'm going to do everything I'm supposed to do."

Here is Jordan, the groom.

Marc and Jordan went to Line School together and now both work for Avista.

Here are all the kids waiting to get their picture taken...they were all so cute!

The wedding party with the bride and groom's parents.

Here they are practicing.

Kallie, the bride. They are "hiding" before the wedding. The girls thought that was pretty fun...they kept saying, "We're hiding Mom". They would peek through the doors to see all the people...they were so excited.

Marcus had stage fright. Olivia tried so hard to get him to walk down the aisle, he wanted nothing to do with it. I finally peeked around and he spotted me and sprinted to me. Oh well...he tried. Everyone thought it was cute anyways :-)

The girls were so concerned about Marcus they forgot to throw their rose pedals down the aisle. The wedding party reminded them as they got to the front and the girls proceeded to toss them in the air...it was perfect! They sure did put on a show.

They were the perfect little flower girls. I couldn't have been more proud.

It was a beautiful ceremony; complete with a downpour but they powered through it. I hear rain on your wedding day brings good luck...they got a lot of good luck, that's for sure.

This is the groom's sister, Sophie. She was so great with the kids...they just loved her. She said she would babysit anytime...I think we'll take her up on that offer!

The cake...and cupcakes in the background. It was yummy!

The kids were dying to play in the woods. Eventually they did.

Aww...Emma and Marcus show some love...well, actually they insisted on tackling each other and falling to the ground...but it looks like they are hugging, right?

Can't keep them clean for long...there was a great dirt pit that really attracted the kids. Oh well...let them be kids.

Even the girls were attracted to the dirt. The loved to jump off of these drain tunnels. They had a blast!

Then there was dancing...lots of dancing.

Father and daughter...so sweet.

Look how grown up Olivia is. She loved every minute of this.

Emma looks pretty grown up too. She also had a blast.

Things were winding down. This was a long day.

We left around 10pm. After less than 2 minutes of driving I looked back to find all three kids sound asleep. It was a very quite ride home. What a great day we had though.

Congratulations Kallie and Jordan! Thanks for letting us be a part of your big day!