Vacuuming

Ella loves vacuuming our stairs with the handheld vacuum. I don't love vacuuming the stairs with the handheld vacuum. Win-win!

Note: she is wearing an anklet on her right ankle in the picture above.

Double Birthday Party!

On Saturday we had a double birthday party for Ella and Karis. We celebrated at Campbell Valley Park. On the way to the party Ella asked if there would be any camels at the party. We later realized that she thinks the park is called "Camel Valley".

All the little party guests sat so nicely for the picture. From L to R: Maddie, Amaya, Karis, Ella, Natalie, Reese, Juju, Hudson (with his arm around Juju), Hailey, Moriah, Ethan, Eli, and Luke. 

Ready for her 1st party!

On our drive to Campbell Valley Karis was thrilled to be in her front-facing carseat!

We played the usual game of putting the pictures in order from newborn to 12 months.

Instead of gifts we raised money for Guatemala. Thanks to the generosity of our friends we will be able to sponsor 2 wheelchairs.

We blew giant bubbles.

We played bean bag toss.

Karis was very happy when her little friend Hailey arrived.

Karis holds the record in our family for making the biggest mess with her first cupcake. Well done, Karis!

And our gracious guests sang "Happy Birthday" two times.

At the end of the video when Ella is getting her cupcake, her little friend Amaya says "she's 4 just like me!". So cute.

1st Watch

Ella has been wanting a purple watch for quite some time. For her birthday, we found her a purple digital watch. The next 10 minutes around our house sounded like this:

"it's 4:02..... Dadda- it's 4:03 now.... it's 4:04, look Momma it's 4:04... now it's 4:05..."

Happy 1st Birthday Karis!!

Our baby girl turned 1 today. Happy Birthday Karis!

We celebrated with a traditional cinnamon bun birthday breakfast and an outing to the park. Karis LOVES the swing, so she spent her morning swinging and giggling. We love you, Karis!

More reading...

Ella is making more reading progress. It's a little hard to hear with the background noise, but we know the grandparents are interested so here it is:

Dedication

Last Sunday we dedicated our three girls to the Lord. Here is a link with a few pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.624425687568341.1073741837.122321047778810&type=1

Happy 4th Birthday!

This morning we woke up and our little girl was 4! It seriously feels like it happened that way - I can't believe she is 4. And while we sometimes want to stop all of this growing up, I also love the little girl she is growing into and love this new phase of life.

Cinnamon bun breakfast. Complete with 4 candles.

Fielding her birthday phone calls while she drinks her smoothie.

Such a good sport - Juju was happy to celebrate her sister's birthday and has been ok with parcels arriving for Ella and Karis. She says "mine is coming in September." We love you Juj!

Turning 1 on Friday!

All ready for their dedication.

More pictures before the dedication.

Lunch with both grandpas! 

Happy Father's Day!