FIVE!!!!! That is right, I said FIVE!!!

My baby girl is now five. I have written 5 birthday blogs about her and spent 5 wonderful years being her mama. I love watching her grow and change. She is no longer a baby, a toddler, or even a preschooler! She is a girl. A little girl mind you, but she is getting bigger everyday. She still likes to get cuddles and hugs from her mama though so I can handle it (sorta). This year has once again brought about a lot of changes for her.
She can do a lot of new things. Here are a few of here 5 year old skills:

• she can hop on one foot (we found this out after we told the Dr. she couldn't and she looked at us and hopped across the room)
• she can write her name and copy other words. This is still not one of her favorite activities, but she will do it.
• she can read some small words and repetitive books. This is something she DOES enjoy.
• she can spell small words if I help her break it down. I have HIGH hopes that she will be a great speller unlike her mama.
• she is starting to color more carefully and stay in the lines better, but she does not like to draw her own pictures to much.
• She STILL loves to use her imagination and will play for a long time with her brother while he pretends to be one character from their show of the day and she pretends to be the other.
• She choose quiet sitting/thinking activities as much as she chooses loud rambunctious ones.
• She can comfort her brother when he cries as long as she wasn't the one who MADE him cry.
• She STILL closes her eyes when she says "cheese" which makes her very hard to photograph.
• She can take an idea or thought and make it into a full sentence for a letter or a story.
• She loves playing with her friends and her brother, but is also content playing alone.
• She is still taking ballet and will join Daisy Scouts this year and MAY choose to play a sport (don't worry we will make sure she is not over scheduled!)
• She is getting braver and braver in the water. We also need to sign her up for "big girl" swimming lessons where I don't have to get in the water with her.

I can't believe she is doing all these things and turning into such a big girl. I am proud of her. She is off to BIG things like Kindergarten and she is taking it in stride. I on the other hand tear up at the though :P

Preschool Graduate!!!

This is Lorelei 2 years ago on her first official day of preschool. She didn't want to look at the camera, but we do have proof that she was there.




This is her today at her preschool graduation. I do not know where that time has gone! She is now onto the big world of KINDERGARTEN!!! Let's hope her mama can handle, because I KNOW SHE IS READY!!!!!!

Receiving her diploma


Freshly graduated showing off the goods.

Just thinks she looks beautiful here.


With mommy and daddy. Sagen was to busy eating cake.


Notice my red nose. I didn't SOB but I did cry.

Baby Birds!!

A few weeks ago we notice a humming bird sitting on a nest by our front door. When she went away for some food we check and there were two eggs.



a few days later we check again and found these cuties. We of course didn't touch them or even breath on them, but we checked on them everyday.


Last week there was only one and then none. They had grown up and flown from the nest! We are so happy.

Speaking of birds growing up and moving on stayed tuned for pictures of our own little bird as she leave the nest of preschool. That's right! OUR BABY GIRL WILL BE A PRESCHOOL GRADUATE!!

Lorelei is a punk rocker!!!

Last week was spirit week at our school. Lorelei and I decided to go punk and give her a mowhawk. Each pony was a different color. Needless to say, she won the prize for preschool that day (and no neither Brain and I were judges).

Spring Break!

We had a great spring break. We went to the zoo with Shannon and her family, the Desert Museum with Molly and her sister Ali (I don't have pics of the zoo), went to the safety fair and got new bike helmets (for free!), had a kite flying day, and Easter! It was a busy and fun break!



Desert Museum

Riding the turtle statue at the Desert Museum



Lorelei the bat.


Sagen the bat.


Lorelei was into making faces that day!

Dying eggs

When we dyed our eggs we used the whisk trick that a friend of mine found. We stuck the eggs in a whisk so the kids could get them in and out of the dye easily. It worked great!


Lorelei showing off the whisk trick

A day outside


kite flying




playing ball






Easter

With their baskets.

A gift from the Easter Bunny. We did have a egg hunt, but all those pictures are on the video camera.



posing for pictures





Giant eggs from Gramma


While all the boys were running around Lorelei sat quietly playing with her new Polly Pocket from Lisa. It is VERY uncharacteristic of her to miss out on the rough play so she obviously LOVED it.


Dress up!

They also played a lot of dress up.

The rest of Christmas...

Here are the final Christmas pics (late of COURSE)!


Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve we went to Butch and Karen's to see all of that family (minus Lance's crew who we saw a few days later). Lorelei and Sagen LOVED playing with Wyatt. I have NO pictures of this cause as soon as I would go in the room with a camera they would all hide or scatter!
Sagen Did sit still for a little snack.
Lorelei did too. I think they enjoyed their floor picnic with the Santa mat.

Then we headed back to Gram's and put out our cookies for Santa.


Christmas Day

The kids got a LOT of presents (not ALL of the ones pictured are theirs). They could barely stand to pose for this picture before opening their stuff!

Lorelei's big present from Santa was a dollhouse! She LOVED it! Although she did LOVE feeding her dollhouse people to Sagen's new dino!
Sagen got a robot truck from Santa. It is voice activated and very cool. He also got a voice activated dinosaur from Grandma and Grandpa. It is also voice activated so we had fun making them talk to each.


It was a loooonnnggg day for Sagen!!

The morning after
We hit the "slopes" in Gram's back yard for a little sledding. Both kids loved it this year. They were able to do it by themselves after we made some paths. We just had to be at the bottom to stop them!




The day after that we had a BIG family meal (see the pics below) and Lorelei enjoyed a turkey leg.

Chritmas a time for friends....

This Christmas we were able to see some of our Iowa friends. Some we had never met and ohers I have know since they were born.

Sammy, Sophie and Ruby were one of our first stops. We started babysitting for the family when Sammy was 18 months olds and have babysat Sophie since she was born. Ruby is about a year younger then Lorelei. It was so nice to see them. Sammy and Sophie were my first babies and I can't believe how big they have gotten!
Nest we stop to see Caitlyn. She is now a senior in High School and doing very well!

Then we had lunch with Kameron, D, and their little boy Michael. He was so cute! It was the first time we meet him since he is only 9 months old. He is such a sweetie!