Castle Tent

Here are the kids watching a movie in our homemade fort. They called it a castle tent! Too bad we couldn't leave it up forever...

Grandpa... I'm not a hot dog!

I was just thinking about this story of Rachel and her Grandpa today and thought I should write it down.

As Rachel as grown she has developed a very strong personality. Like most 3 year olds, she is quite opinionated and has no problem speaking up when she thinks someone is wrong. Well, this can be extremely frustrating at times. Sometimes grandpa would say that he wanted to barbeque Rachel.
We were visiting at Grandma and Grandpa's house one day and Rachel was sitting snuggling with Grandpa on the couch. Josh leaned over and said, "Hey dad, I bet you don't want to barbeque her now!"
Without hesitation Rachel popped up, punched grandpa in the stomach and said, "No Grandpa, I'm not a hotdog!"

She caught us by surprise! We didn't even know that she was listening! But of course, kids are always listening.

My new Dishwashers

These girls are getting to be pretty independent. If I'm not fast enough with breakfast, Liz will have the cereal, milk, bowls, and spoons out and everyone half fed (including Jorgan) by the time I get out of the shower.
She can also shower and dress herself and give herself her own medications. She doesn't want my help with anything anymore... oh, except cleaning her room... that is too hard to do alone...
Well, since they are growing up, we've decided that they can help with the dishes every night. So here are my new dishwashers!!




They rinse all the dishes and set them on the counter so that I can load them into the dishwasher. They also help clear the table and put food away. For now, it is almost more work to have them help than it is to do it myself, but hopefully the training will pay off soon! So I don't leave Jorgan out... he is excellent at unloading the dishwasher! Just beware of glass because if you don't catch him fast enough he'll throw a plate on the floor!

Why are boys so fearless???

The other day I put Jorgan in his high chair with a banana. I stepped outside for just a minute to look at the garden. When I came back inside, this is what I saw:



Scary!! What was I thinking not buckling him in!! I don't know... I guess I'm just used to little girls who don't climb all over everything constantly. Well, I guess it is my fault that I didn't hand him the cup of milk in the first place.

Where did she learn that?

So this is Elizabeth's newest game: Wyatt, Elizabeth's friend, who we now live across the street from (lucky us!!), has a big wheel. Somtimes when we go to the park the kids will take turns riding Wyatt's big wheel down the big grass hill. Well, the newest daredevil stunt is to ride 2 people on Wyatt's big wheel down the big hill that is our street!

Needless to say, after seeing their fearlessness, and Josh having a 4yr old boy in the ER with a concussion after falling off his bike, it wasn't too much longer that we finally bought bike helmets. Now atleast if they break something it won't be their heads!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

We are so blessed to have Rachel in our family. She has always been, and always will be, my angel baby. She is always the first to give a compliment and the most polite child I have ever met! She makes me smile every day.



We had Jorgan's birthday in February, and since then she has been really excited for her birthday. The girls spent weeks pretending to make birthday cakes and sing happy birthday to everyone. So when it came time for her birthday, Rachel was super prepared!



Daddy made her a tall birthday cake in her favorite color, blue. It is so fun to have a husband that likes to make birthday cakes! That's one less thing for me to do!



As a baby Rachel was always really quiet and not one to demand attention. As she gets older I can see her personality developing and I get to see her begin to lose her timidness. She was beeming with attention just on her.



I love this sweet girl so much! I hope that I can always let her know what an important part of our family she is. I am truly looking forward to see how she changes again in another year.



These kids are growing up so fast... where has the time gone? I love you so much Rachel! You are beautiful just like Giselle every day!

SeaWorld

Josh and I started a tradition with Elizabeth that we would take the kids on a trip for their 3rd Birthday instead of throwing a birthday party. So we took everyone to Seaworld for Rachel's 3rd Birthday!
Instead of paying for a hotel we decided to camp on the beach. We found a campsite right on Mission Bay, that cost almost as much as a hotel, but by camping we could save money by not having to eat out 3 meals a day! The kids also really loved camping. Bedtime was not a fight... they were so excited to sleep in sleeping bags they were begging us to go to bed!
Seaworld was awesome and laid back. You can't do anything fast with 3 little kids, so it took us 2 days to see everything there.. and the park is not that big! They had a little Sesame Street section of the park with tons of things just for the kids! It was fun that even Jorgan could go on the rides!
Since we camped on mission bay, we could just walk to the beach! The morning before we left we decided to walk down to the beach but the wind had picked up a little and it was slightly chilly. Josh thought that there was no way that the gilrs would get in the cold water, so we didn't put swimming suits on them. Well the first thing that they did when they saw the water was jump in! So, I apologize that the beach pictures are of little girls in panties and pajama tops.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the pictures!