Happy Birthday Caity Bear!

My girl is one today!  Happy birthday little sweetheart. 

I had no idea that I needed you.

We had no idea that our family wouldn't be complete without you.

I am so thankful for you!

 This year with you has been so fun! 

Happy Birthday Caitlyn Hope!

Baby's First Birthday!

Okay, meltdown is over, things are back on track.  Cait's party was lots of fun.  I will get around to a detailed post over at Fig &Ruby in a day or two.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the day.

Cait with her two friends, Emilie and Azraia.  They each got a giraffe stuffy and a matching bib with their initial on it for their favors.  I was pretty happy with the way the stuffies turned out and the kids seemed to love holding them, they are a great size!

Our Caity bear...little precious girl!

Head Barely Above Water

Hi!  So I am completely procrastinating. 

I have a few too many things on my plate right now.  

Let me share:

Tomorrow I am selling bows at a craft show all day.

My clips (the ones I attach ALL my bows and flowers to) did not arrive in time so I am frantically glueing flowers and bows to headbands and rubberbands.

While I am selling bows, Mike will be taking all 5 kids to three soccer games around town.

 This was last week, first soccer games for all three girls.  I never got around to posting the pictures.

Once the craft thing is over, I will switch modes to cleaning my entire house trust me, this alone is no small task.  Putting away everyone's "stuff" takes longer than the sweeping and mopping and vacuuming!)  Once it's clean, I can decorate for Cait's party, make the cake, print out tags and labels and make a banner and hopefull go print out some cute photos...eeps!  so much to do, so little time!

Here's a little peek at her birthday bib:)

Oh but wait, Sunday is Cait's party but also Mike's actual birthday and a graduation ceremony for my Mother in law.  We will go to church at 10, have the party from 2-4 and go to the grad dinner at 6:30.  No time at all to celebrate Mike so we will have a dinner and all on Monday for him.  Once Mike is properly celebrated, I will once again switch gears to Caleb.  His birthday is the 3rd and his party is next weekend.  

I am so tired and I feel so jipped that there are so many wonderful occasions all smooshed so close together.  I also know that i do this to myself and that half of what I am doing is completely unnecessary but I love it so i do it all:)

At the end of the day this is what matters...
God is Good
My family is precious.
We are healthy.
Cait is still cute. (just seeing if you were paying attention.  But seriously, she is pretty cute...)

Big Girl Drinking

I am pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to embed a video on the blog and for FINALLY uploading to You Tube so I may go a little overboard with the videos.  I hope that's okay.  I know it will be fine for Grandma Bev and Grandpa Russ:)

Here is our little bear drinking out of a cup.  This is what she prefers.  She is really not a fan of drinking like a baby.  She wants to use the cup like everyone else at our table!

New Movie of Cait Trying to Walk

Here is a little movie of our girl playing in the living room.  She is getting so close to walking!  Unfortunately, I have not been able to capture much action from her.  Anyways, here is a little something for your entertainment.

Bright Little Changes

I have been wanting to brighten up the kitchen.  When we were down in California I got a chance to pop into Joann's and I came away with some awesome fabric for really great prices.  I REALLY REALLY misshaving a great fabric store close to me!  (no offense Fabricland but seriously? $23 a meter is too much. And I don't think I should have to pay you a membership fee in order to get a STILL way over priced sale price.  No thanks.)

ANYWAYS...pictures...

So here is the before picture.  I have had these pictures (there are three of them) since we moved to Canada 6 years ago.  I really like them but I needed a change!

 Ahh!  That's better!  Nice and bright and FUN!

I love this pattern, I could stare at it all day. (This is a good thing since I seem to spend most of the day in the kitchen:)

Poupee Party Pics

I did a full run down on all the party details on the party blog but I thought I'd share the photos of us here:)

The girls were so excited to get to come to a grown up party!

 Usually for the Auntie's birthdays, us girls go out or have a dinner or do something fun.  My girls are always curious about what we are doing and they beg to come along.  When they found out they were invited to this party, they were thrilled.  They were very helpful and well behaved.  It was a pleasure to have them along!

They especially liked the candy!!

They tried on lots of accessories.

They tasted some delicious appies.

Poupee Friends

Here we are all dressed up for the Poupee (poo-pay means "doll" in french) We had a great time tonight at Terri's party.  I loved that my big girls came along and were so good and helpful and fun to have around.  They are getting to be so much fun in a different way.  I love it.  I am so blessed to have built-in friends for life wherever I go!

More photos to come!

Blossoms With Grandpa

I'm busy preparing for Terri's 25th birthday party but I still have lots of great photos to share from our trip to California.  We will be going backwards for a while...hope that's okay:)

We were a week late to catch all the blossoms in Fresno but we did find a field that was still blooming. (thanks Jen!)

Look how big my kids are getting!  

Wow!  

Stop growing babies!!!

This day my Dad treated us to a Red Carpet car wash ("Goldie" never looked so good inside and out!)  I tried not to be embarrassed when the employee whistled for back up and out came the industrial vac along with two more employees.  They pulled my van into a special area to handle the extra debris...and i was there well after many of the people who were behind me in line.  Eeps!

After the car wash we went to The Dog House for lunch.  YUM!

Then we hogtied Grandpa and forced him to participate in a photo shoot:)

(why is it that men universally abhor photo shoots???)

I love this photo...Caleb and Grandpa are big time buddies!

 Oh look- I was there too!

Awe! The whole gang! 

After this we watched two movies and ate spagetti at Grandpa's house.  

Thanks for the fun day Dad!

Park Day

We spent a day at the park with Grandma Bev.  The weather was gorgeous and the kids played for over 2 hours.  Oh- and I got some photos:)

Happy baby!

"No more pictures please!"

 My little guy loves to be outside.

 He also loved to be outside in bare feet.

Ew. 

So dirty!

Piggy Backs in the sunshine!

Taking a moment to play with sissy's hair.

 

A good one of all five! 

 

 And one with Grandma too!

 

 Mads helps baby through the tunnel.

 

 

 Bear in the tunnel all by herself!  What a big girl!

Thanks for visiting.  I am slowly getting through all the trip photos:)

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrate because Jesus is risen and we are saved!

We have been reading all about Christ's last days in the Illustrated Children's Bible Gretch gave Mikayla for her first birthday. (Great gift Gretch, 9 years worth of use thus far!)  Although I am sure my kids have an *understanding* of the blessing we celebrate at Easter, they still seem to be all hung up on the egg hunt and the candy.  Grr!  I guess it is much like my obsession over what everyone will wear on Easter.  Hmm, put it that way and I feel a little silly fussing about outfits:)  I have a long way to go myself!  This Easter the kids are allowed to wear whatever they please (mainly because it's too cold here to wear the outfits I chose and I got photos taken in the "Easter duds" last week in California.)  Here are my faves...

The Capital building in Sacramento is so pretty!  

We were lucky to be there when it was not too busy. 

Two of my monkeys knocking on Arnold's front door:)

Four pretty girls.

Kinda hard to believe all these little people are ours!

I like this one.  I love it when they have fun together.

Twirling at Sutter's Fort.

The girls each got to pick a pair of Converse and the ones they chose completely suit their 3 different personalities!

Our sweet babies.  

How can they be so big?

Stop growing!!!