A photo shoot in Kansas..

A couple of weeks ago we drove up to Lawrence to visit Mike's family. It was a great time and one morning since we were all clean I thought it would be great to attempt a family picture! I love the way they turned out as in everyone is looking at the camera. When you have 3 kids under 5 it is quite the feat. We love going to Lawrence and seeing grandparents. Our girls are so blessed with fabulous grandparents! Some fun things we did was go to the indoor pool, park, sno cones, grocery store, church, and seeing KU (Rock Chalk Jayhawk). A highlight was getting to hear MiMi play the bells on campus. She has taken lessons and now climbs to the top of the high bell tower to play. It is right by the football field and the girls are still talking about MiMi climbing the spiral staircase to play the bells. It was such a fun trip and great to get out of hot Texas!

Conversations in the minivan and important stuff....

The girls have really been making us laugh lately with their amazing insights and childlike faith!

I love how Mike is the best story teller ever and is basically like a big kid. Most mornings he sits down with the girls to eat breakfast and I get ready/read Bible in 20 minutes these days!

Anyways, Ellie out of the blue said "Daddy, tell me the important stuff". Mike said "Ellie, what is the important stuff?" She said you know a Bible Story. It was a quick reminder of how they yearn for truth and important stuff at the young age of 4.

Yesterday, I took the crew to the free movie cause Veggie Tales Jonah was playing and I knew it would be okay if Mary was crawling around. In the middle of the movie Ellie says:

"Mommy, I want the real Jonah".

Me: Ellie. what is the real Jonah. Do you mean the Bible Story?

Ellie: Yes, Mommy there are no veggies in the Bible.

The minivan is always full of talking and wonderful conversations most of the time. We recently drove 9 hours to Kansas to visit Mike's family. It was a great trip, but Ellie does not stop talking all 9 hours. Anna sucks her thumb and looks out the window. She's the best traveler ever. On the way home after we learned our lesson on the way there. Mike told Ellie she could only ask 5 important questions before lunch. She tried so hard to think of what her 5 important questions could be and when to ask them. After, about 30 minutes she says

" Daddy, God made me to ask questions and that's the way that I am"! We could not stop laughing at our sweet talkative little girl.

The last one occurred recently as we were driving by the high school close to our house. Ellie asked when she will go to that school and I said well, I am not sure Ellie. If we move to a new house you will go to a different school.

Ellie: Mommy, we need to pray for someone to buy our house. She started praying in the back seat. It was so cute.

Anna: Mommy, I think Jesus will buy our house. Then, there was an argument about how Jesus could not buy our house cause He was in heaven!

Love these girls even though today I thought they were going to send me to the crazy house!

Anna at 3 1/2

You love all thing princess and enjoy playing dress up!

The faster/scarier the better for you! You loved all the "scary" rides at Disney.

I love this picture of you cause it reminds me of your sweet spirit and all of your potential.

You are a monkey and can climb up anything. You are really strong and will start gymnastics soon!

You sometimes can show lots of attitude and have a stubborn personality aka not wanting to take pictures for mommy.

You are a beautiful girl whom I know God has wonderful things to accomplish.

Anna here are some things about you at 3 1/2 in no particular order:

You've grown a lot over the last 6 months emotionally and in maturity. You've pretty much outgrown separation anxiety! There for awhile you really did not like it when mommy left your side. You've gone to art camp and two different VBS weeks this summer. You loved each one and did great.

You are still our climber and you are really good at it. You end up in some crazy places at times, but you always figure out how to get down. You love to hang on the monkey bars or any bar for that reason. You love for daddy to push you super high on the swings and to run really fast.

You are in love with Mary. You are so kind to her and it really shows us that you have a compassionate heart. You love to share with her and often times find her milk for her. You also love to share your blankie with her when she is upset. You still love this one blankie that has a tage. You tend to not care what the object is as long as it has a tag that you can hold on to while you suck your thumb.

You tend to not care for food. Lately, you've told us I don't like food! You do like crackers, cereal, eggs, spaghetti, mac n cheese, ice cream, bacon, yogurt, fruit. However, you just don't eat very much of it. You might finish 1/2 a cookie if we gave it to you.

You and Ellie still share a room and you love your new bunk beds. You all talk a lot at night and it normally takes 30 mins. to an hour of talking prior to sleep. We start early with bedtime.

You are still our best sleeper. You still love to take a nap and it can last up to 3 hours if you are really tired. We often have to wake you up which you do not like.

You are still pretty determined and I know one day that determination will go a long ways. You are determined in what you wear each day, taking toys everywhere, not holding our hand etc...

You respond well to discipline and you tend to easily ask for forgiveness.

You did great at swim lessons this summer and we are thankful that you are loving the water this summer.

We love you so much Anna and it has been so neat to see you grow into an awesome little girl. You will do great things for God and we can't wait to see it all unfold!

Mother's Day Tea

Anna always loves a tea party.

LeeAnn and Grayson. Anna's favorite classmate

Ellie and Aubren loved carpooling all year to school!

The girls preschool had a Mother's Day Tea in May. I am so far behind on blogging:) The children served us punch and cookies. Ellie's class sang a few songs and did a great job of making us feel special. I love our school and am so thankful for all the work the teachers do with our girls!

Mary's First Birthday Party!

Anna and her friends. Can't believe they were all smiling!

Ellie loved this float.

Family picture attempt-Anna who did not want in it.

Mary was not to sure of the cupcake that was half melted cause it was 100 degrees that day.

Singing happy birthday and she was so sweet.

We had a fun first birthday party for Mary at a local pool. It was perfect cause it was 103 degrees that day (June 4th)! It was super fun and easy. I love pool party birthdays. Ellie will also have a pool party in August. We had popcicles, water, and cupcakes. She loved the water and was happy for her first party!