Slow Days

Things are warming up around here. The kids have been roaming the neighborhood without shoes and jackets. The grass is getting green. Soon there will be blossoms. We spend our time playing with friends, indoors and out. Adley is a favorite chum of Scarlett's. They spend their days riding bikes to and from each other's houses.

Charlie has his own crew. He and Madden and Cooper are best buddies. The made a fort out in the fields by our house. They also like to wrestle on the trampoline and play swords in the basement.

Scarlett and I made the journey out to the boys' fort a few weeks ago. She wasn't jealous. She'd rather not be trekking through the bushes.

Birthday Girl Juliette

Juliette is two! Hooray. We love this girl so much. People like to tell us that she looks like Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We agree.

Juliette likes to ride her plasma cars and her kick bike. She likes to play with her sister and brothers. She likes to follow me around the house, sucking her fingers and carrying her blanket. She likes to go potty in the toilet. She likes to swim. She LOVES her Da-da. She likes nursery. She likes to climb the shelves in the pantry and help herself to whatever she wants. She's super chatty and can carry on a conversation with the best of them. Some of the favorite things she says are:

* She'll walk up to us wearing just a diaper with her little skinny legs and bony ribs sticking out and say, "I hungry Mom. I so hungry."

* When it's time for a bath she'll come up to us and say, "Hot tub time, Mom. Hot tub time."

* When we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do (like wear a certain shirt or put on shoes), she'll shake her head and say "Don't want it!"

* If one of her siblings hurt her, whether on accident or on purpose, she'll come up to us and say, "Mom, Charlie hurt me." The culprit always gets in trouble. Don't hurt the baby!

* She loves to meet people. At church she wanders from stranger to stranger, waving and saying, "Hi. Hi. Hi."  Sometimes she'll say it in a whisper yell, which always makes people laugh.

Juliette is such a special part of our family. I love that she is brave and outgoing. I love that she is adventurous and athletic. I love her.  I'm so thankful to be her Mommy.

Dancing Queen

This little girl had a dance performance. This is actually her 3rd performance, but we had to miss the other two because we were in Hawaii and Utah. So for her, it was her first. She was so excited to wear makeup and put on her costume!

Little Brides.

Layers of Pink

Sleeping in style.


The picture below is just a picture, not a video. I just love her face, this was at the New Year's Eve party with my family where she performed the a Little Mermaid song.

A trip back home

We went back to California on a long weekend. I was scared to go back, I didn't want to be sad and miss it too much. We visited friends in our old neighborhood and drove past our old house. I was glad to know that I didn't feel a pull to our old residence. I think we have happily moved on. The only time I felt sad to have moved was when we visited our friends that live in the country. It is so beautiful and green and fresh. I would love to live in the country in NorCal one day. We stayed with Jenn and went to one of Conner's basketball games. We saw lots of familiar faces there.

Juliette and Hudson are cute together. We frequently caught them in the pantry, stealing chips together. They played together all weekend. Hudson also likes playing with my boys. He loves all little kids.

I didn't get pictures of all the friends we visited, but here we are with the Packard's.

Four kids sleeping on the floor.

We caught these three relaxing in the hammock.

It was cute seeing their little heads poking out.

Scarlett made friends with Tanner because he had the cheese balls.

My friends planned a birthday lunch for me. We went to sushi. I miss these ladies so much. I will never be able to replace them. I think I'll always have to come back to California when I want to spend time with kindred spirits.