Mia

 Mia and I spend a lot of time together. We sure love each other. It's fun to have a buddy with me while I run my errands. She is a great helper to me. We play lots of games like Life, roll and play, and battleship. She holds her own in all of them. Life would be boring without Mia.

 Mia had a field trip to the fire station with her pre-school class. I was lucky enough to get to go with. I love how she is holding her face in this picture. She made sure to tell the fire men that her Grandpa Egbert is a fire man. She felt a special in since she had that connection.

 I just love her freckles and curly hair and smile. She has a strong sense of style and knows what she wants to wear. I have to take her shopping with me for her own clothes. She loves this owl dress she found at costco.

 She is the first one out to play in the snow.

 What she wanted to wear to church one Sunday. 

She bought these bunny ears at Target with her own money. She wore them once. I need to teach her the value of saving money. Although I am still working on getting her to take the college route in the Life game. She refuses, despite my lecturing. She is a darling 5 year old girl. I think you all should know her.

Justin is 7!

It's hard to believe that Justin is 7. 7 seems so old. I'm sad my kids are growing up. Justin played basketball at the YMCA with 2 friends from church. He's not the most aggressive kid out there, but he runs back and forth with enthusiasm. He's a great dribbler and a team player. 

Brock, Cannon, and Justin.

 Justin had his birthday party at the Brunswick Zone. He invited 3 friends and had the added bonus of having Grandma and Grandpa there since the party was scheduled the day after I had baby Liam. They played 2 games of laser tag, ate pizza, and played in the game room. It seems like he had a really great time.

 Justin loves whipped cream. He doesn't love most treats, but spray can whipped cream he loves. 

 Celebrating his birthday at school. His birthday was a half day at school. Hans was able to volunteer for reading groups and then bring him home. He took sugar cookies and strawberries to share with his class.

 Justin dressed up for his school music concert. He did a great job singing.

 I took Justin and Mia to a play place when the girls went skiing. They had a blast. Justin especially loved this baseball thing. He has great aim!

 All Justin wanted for his birthday was cash. He got a lot of it. He ended up buying an iPod. If you want him texting you or facetiming you daily then send us your contact info.

 Cute 7 year old toothless smile. I sure love this face.

Justin is a very sweet boy. He has a great heart. He knows how to include everyone around him in fun games. He goes with the flow and is happy to just be playing. He still roams the neighborhood looking for friends and is willing to play whatever games to be with his buddies. He loves playing mine craft on the xbox and kinect. He loves science projects. He loves sleep overs, forts, and swimming. He loves cash. He always has a smile on his face. He has a lot of love to give and I'm so grateful I get to feel that love from him. He is so much fun!

Valentine's and I am old

We had a fun valentines day this year. I was able to go to the kids parties at school and help Katelyn make gluten free sugar cookies to decorate in her class. We also heart-attacked the kids doors and made a fun snack package for Hans. Lots of love to go around in our house.

 Red pancakes for breakfast. We had steak, red mashed potatoes, and red jello for dinner.

 Heart hair.

 For my birthday Hans treated the girls to pedicures. We had so much fun. Then I went to lunch with my cousins and enjoyed time with the family for the evening. I am a spoiled girl.

Katelyn is 9!!

After quitting gymnastics Katelyn had a lot of time on her hands. She wanted to explore the world. She started with flute. It lasted 2 weeks. She was so cute playing the flute and was getting the hang of it, but she hated the breathing that went a long with it. We decided to pick activities that didn't require any practice.

Katelyn and 2 friends dissecting a sheep's eyeball at school. She loves this stuff.

 Katelyn is in tennis lessons and loves it so far. She is a great little runner and looks so cute out on the court in her teeny tiny gymnastics shorts.

 We took 2 of Katelyn's friends to color me mine for her birthday. Justin painted this little wood airplane. He took this project very seriously and did a fantastic job.

 We took Katelyn to Lulus for yogurt on her actual birthday.

 Painting at Color me mine!

 Katelyn made her own birthday cake this year. It was incredibly chocolatey and incredibly delicious. She has turned into quite the gluten free baker.

 Birthday breakfast. 

I love Katelyn so much. She brings a lot of joy and laughter into our family. She is light hearted, quick with a joke, and a hard worker. She loves projects and has learned to find her own projects and then carry them through. She loves arts and crafts, sewing, baking, duct tape projects, and more. She loves playing games and running around outside. She also loves babies. She has great friends and everyone at school loves her. She is a joy to be around and I am sure grateful to have her in my life. 

Winter Fun

 We have had a very fun winter. The weather has been so great and we were able to participate in lots of fun activities. 

Katelyn's hamster Aspen died and she was able to use birthday money to buy this cute hamster, which she named nacho. Nacho has been a lot of fun. He is cute and doesn't bite, which means he gets lots of play time. 

We played the starburst game for family home evening. No gymnastics means we can actually have FHE as an entire family. It's been so great.

 We have had lots of time for projects. Here is Justin holding his fleece he got to make a blanket. He did a great job making it.

Justin and Mia were great skiers this year. They loved playing with their skis and boots the nights before we skied.

Justin and Mia took swimming lessons for 2 months this winter. They are great swimmers and loved it. Both of them can swim 50 meters without touching the ground. I am proud of them!

Katelyn has been our project leader. She always has great ideas. She helped all the kids make fleece blankets like this one.

 Mia with her rock star stuff on from a rock star birthday party she went to. We had lots of birthday parties this winter.

 We had lots of sleep overs too. Justin and Mia took turns sleeping in the trundle bed and in Ashley's bed. Lots of fun.

 Justin with another science project. He loves to bring home science experiment books from the library. Here he is making a battery circuit.

 Rock climbing at Life time. We did this a few times a month! The kids are so great at it.

 Mia was excited to be 5 so she could rock climb this year. She made it to the top!

 Hiking in Palmer Park. With the warmer weather we did lots of family hike days. We also discovered red rocks, which was beautiful as well. The kids are great hikers and especially love 'scrambling,' which involves any hiking off the trail. 

I love being outside.

 This is how I found Mia one night before I went to bed. She woke up enough to tell me she was hot. She was too tired to get her shirt all the way off though.

 We played outside in the yard a lot this winter too. We went to the park, walked the dog, rode bikes, and played with the neighbors.

 36 weeks pregnant.

 Justin has asthma. Here he is getting allergy testing to try and figure out what is triggering asthma. Nothing is triggering it, as it turns out. He spends lots of time with his inhalers. Poor guy.

 Katelyn and her friend Annalise at the park. Dressed like it's summer, not winter. Katelyn made good friends this year at school and had time for play dates without gymnastics!

 Ashley and Katelyn took a cupcake decorating class at Michaels. They learned how to use fondant. They had a blast. They both love to bake and there is no shortage of treats around my house.

 Hans taught the kids how to suck helium out of a balloon. It was very funny.

 Hans helping me wind the bobbin on my sewing machine. And by helping, I mean he did it for me. Every time. Justin told Hans that he didn't know men sewed. Hans told him that only real men sew. 

 TCA does lots of "specials" days at school. Here Katelyn is in her Native American costume for a fun day at school.

 Justin had colonial day at school. He just wore his uniform though. 

 Ashley trying to get a few minutes of piano practice in before school. She doesn't like to sit down.

 Mia ready to be dropped off at Hans' office before I go to work. 

 Justin with one tooth hanging on by a thread. He asked the tooth fairy if he could keep his tooth and if he could have 10 dollars. She said no.

 I sewed these skirts for the girls. We had a great time making them.