Give me a T, give me a H, Give me REE!!!

Today my baby turns 3! He is the best boy in the world. He is so grown up in some ways and still my baby in so many others. He still LOVES his mama and LOVES to cuddle. If he is upset, mama is still the only one that can calm him. Here are some of the things he can do:

• He can talk circles around most kids his age and many five year olds!
• He can climb anything, run fast and far, and hit and kick a ball.
• He is very happy boy (most of the time) he can find joy in almost everything.
• He is also can cry like NOBODIES business! He is LOUD!
• He can stay dry 95% of the time.
• He LOVES to swim.
• He has NO FEAR.
• He can take a tumble and jump right back up.
• He know the words to a lot of songs (even some I wish he didn't)
• He is shy sometimes and VERY friendly others. He will tell complete strangers his business, but he would never go with them.
• We can pretty much trust him to play in his room by himself or with his sister.
• He is funny and makes us laugh everyday.
• He LOVES to give me hugs and kisses

I can't believe he is three. I love him more then any other baby boy in the word and most of the girl (except one).

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.