Welcome Baby Eliza!

Yesterday I took the kids to meet their new cousin, Eliza Susanne. She was actually born almost 2 weeks ago but with us being sick and all, we opted to wait until we were feeling better to make a visit. She is so stinkin' tiny. She weighed 5 lbs 7 oz when she was born.

Sara was very excited to hold her. Livvy just wanted to poke her eyes out. Ethan and Emma are her big brother and big Sister.

Sara turns 3!

Sara turned 3 on Saturday. Before her birthday, people would ask her how old she was going to be on her birthday. Instead of instantly replying "three", she would look down at her fingers, work them over until she had only three up, show those fingers and look cautiously at me and say something like "two?". How easily a 2, almost 3-year-old can be confused. Yeah, we're working on it. Old habits die hard, right? At least she has the fingers down. Now that she is officially three though, I think she has it figured out.

She had a big 12 dancing princesses birthday party on Sunday. It was a birthday party weekend and she loved every second of it!

This is her in the barbie princess dress we gave her to wear to her party. As soon as she opened it and got it on, she was dancing and singing around the house. Fortunately her lyrics have evolved since the "diahrrea" days. She belted out Cinderella and any other princess words she could think of. What a cutie. Please disregard the red devil eyes, I'm too tired to do any photo shopping tonight...

Birthdays are big events at our house. I usually make a big deal of out everything, decorate like crazy, make a fun cake, sing happy birthday all day, and the list goes on... We did pretty good with Sara's party this year- all except the cake. Being sick myself and dealing with all the mucky from my kids last week, I decided the barbie birthday cake I had conjured up in my mind to create for my little darlin' just wasn't going to happen. Making dinner for a bazillion people was really my limit for this party- So, I did the next best thing- headed over to Sam's Club to purchase a cake with her face plastered on it (not literally, of course). Isn't that what any non-cake-making-guilty-mom would do? She seemed to think it was fabulous. Happy Birthday Princess Sara!

Showing off some of her new gifts. I think this was outfit #3 during her party.

This picture I had to post only because it's too funny not to post! Aunt Nat woke up with a spider bite on her face and found this to be her remedy of choice. Bandaids are apparently the new cover up. Fabulous Nat, just fabulous.

All tuckered out in her new jammies with her new blankie, compliments of gma & gpa.

We love our little Sara so much! She is such a joy. It's fun to watch her learn and grow. She has so many big ideas and a big heart to go along with them. Welcome to being 3 little one, we love you!

For those of you wondering how my week has been going...

Taylor is going to bed with this tonight. Today he told me "Mom, you gave me your all-betters and I gave you my sick. We switched!" Then a few minutes later he decorated my hardwood floor with a gallon of spew. Apparently he's not done being sick. This poor easter bucket- I bet it never saw this coming!

I love my life!

For those of you thinking that Sara might have been spared this little bug- I know this is too much information but it was funny at the moment. She always makes up songs and sings whatever words come to her little mind. The other day she was lovingly serenading her doll to the words "diarrhea, diarrhea, diarrhea." Bless her little heart!

Back to School

Taylor had his first day back to school last Monday. I had to post these pictures because he is such a poser!




This was always my favorite back to school pose...

Welcome Home Daddy!

After 8 days (really 9) of having Dave gone, we were all very excited to welcome him home. The last couple days before he got home Taylor kept asking "Is dad going to be gone all days?" I know, it makes no sense but that is his way of asking if daddy is ever going to come back. We had a good time making him a welcome home banner!

Please excuse the crappy pictures- in my desperation of having no camera but still feeling the need to take pictures, I used the still-shot feature on the videro camera.



Taylor and Sara got a little frusturated with Livvy because she liked to be on the banner at all times.


Notice Sara's markers of choice? Pink, pink, purple, pink, and more purple. Oh, and this last week or so she has added orange to her list of favorites.


Somebody is a little excited! He really did a great job coloring all the letters in! I am very impressed.

The Wind Rivers

For any of you that have not been to the Wind Rivers, it is definately a must do. Here are some pictures of my recent excursion.

This is me backpacking by Steamboat Lake


This is an outlet from Deadman Lake. I learned to fly fish on this trip.

This is my brother Jeff with a fish that he caught. We went to a pretty secluded place so the fish aren't too hard to catch.

All the pictures of me catching fish are on Jeff's camera. I did catch some.

This is a view over looking Alpine Lake, and the continental divide.

Jeff and Dave at Deadman Lake. All said and done we hiked about 40 miles (20 in and 20 out). Very beautiful place. The most scenic alpine forests I have ever seen.

And yes, Natalie was kind and gracious enough to let me go.

Who do you work for?

Last night I was reading my kids the Busy Town book. It's one of those books that I love from my childhood and feel that I must force on my own children in order for them to have happy memories like I have...



Anywho, we were looking at all the different jobs each character is doing. Taylor pointed out the dentist office where a leopard (good guess anyway) was chatting with a beaver/dog thing. Can you tell how good I am at animal identification? I failed that class in college. Right. So we talked for a few minutes about how daddy is a dentist. Blah blah blah. Turning the page there is a line-up of other animals entitled "Everyone is a Worker". There is a mommy cat on that page. I, of course, am the mother cat. Sara will fill you in on all the details. Taylor turns and looks at me for a second with that "hmmmm" look. So I said, "And what does mommy do?" He thinks for a second and then says matter-of-factly, "Mom, you work for kids." I've never thought of it like that but that's EXACTLY what I do. I work for kids. Now that I have been informed that I have an actual job, I think I need a raise. Dave better get the memo.