6 Years Baby.

Yep, married 6 years. Here's to the next 6 being just as lovely. The longer I know J the more amazed I become at just how perfect he is for me. We go together like a wink and a smile.

The Regular Zoo

The Artsy "Zoo"

 J's parents took us here. Click on my link if you would like to read more about it. Such fun folk art. I really loved it and so did the kids, especially L.

Birthday

 These three cutie cousins all have a birthday within a week of each other.
We celebrated with a Dr. Seuss themed party.

Green eggs, but no ham.

 These cupcakes were cute at one point, in this photo they look just sad. They are Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes. I used blue cotton candy to represent the hair but I think it melted in the heat? I don't know what happened. I am having bad luck with birthday cakes lately.

I had to put this picture in. Itchy, sleepy and silly.

L was trying to water the plants with his sippy cup.

 Croquet anyone?

Fun Run

 

The morning after we arrived at J's parents we took part in a 5K Fun Run. I raced in it. R and Grandma ran the first mile (without stopping once) and then walked the rest. Miss R is a runner, maybe she'll run cross country like her dad used to.

L chilled with Grandpa's dog, Alfalfa, after he wouldn't let J push him in the stroller any longer.

Some more road trip highlights

 Highway 128 was a route to take from Arches through a gorgeous canyon on our way to Grand Junction.

 This was an interesting bridge, probably not in use?

 Getting our wiggles out near Vail, CO.

We went through Wyoming on our way home. This is at Little America.

Arches

We decided our family needed a vacation, so we planned a road trip to see J's parents. We split the trip up into 2 days, so that we could stop at Arches National Park. We spent the night nearby in Grand Junction, CO. 

Both J and I had never been to Arches and have always wanted to go. I really loved it. It was perfect weather too - 75 degrees and so sunny. We didn't get to do most of the hikes because of the kiddies, but our kids are decent hikers for their ages and we did a few of the shorter hikes. The whole area is beautiful and there is a lot to see. We will definitely need to go back. Next time I will know better what to plan for. We left home early in travel-comfy clothes and changed the kids into shorts when we got there. I made the mistake of wearing black which turned dusty red by the end of the day. I also wished I'd had one of those baby carrying backpacks for L. Although being the explorer (check out the pictures below) that he is, he probably would have gone nuts until we took him out.  

 

 Miss R loves to balance on one foot. When she saw a rock structure called Balanced Rock it triggered this performance.

 L, despite wearing only soft baby shoes, wanted to climb and climb............

 and climb! He also made a few international friends. These were his German friends, they talked to him for a while. He also made Chinese, French and Italian friends. He is not shy.

Goodbye Arches National Park! We plan to go back with J's parents in the fall.

Look who's 4

My baby girl is 4 now. What a cute little smarty pants she has become. She is always joking around and trying to make everyone laugh.
She loves to dance. Her favorite song to dance to? Ghostbusters (she tells me to put on this song so she can "show me her moves"). Second favorite? Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies (this is the one she practices her ballet to).
She has become little miss independent lately and I am not allowed to help her with anything (most of the time).
R loves to make up recipes lately. To my surprise, some of them actually turn out. We write those ones down. Today she took maple syrup, clementine segments, granola and grape jelly and mixed it all together in a bowl. She loved it (me not as much). Even though I get a bit stressed about wasting ingredients (maple syrup aahh! she snuck that in when I wasn't paying attention), R and L usually eat the food creations. Perhaps it's because they usually contain either jelly, syrup or chocolate chips.
I know that everyone says this about their kids but I really can't believe how fast she is growing. She is going to be bugging me for the car keys in no time. I guess what I need to do is enjoy every minute of being her mom. I get hugs from her everyday and so does everyone else in the family. She gives the very best hugs. You can tell she loves you just by her hugs alone. I feel so lucky to have her. Happy Birthday R!

Some photos of her over the years

Here are some birthday photos.
She got to wear a pretty new dress to church (compliments of her aunt).
She got a bunk bed for her birthday from us.

 She wanted to make mud pies with her brother. How could I refuse the birthday girl?

 Here is her cake. She is into ponies right now. I tried to make Italian meringue butter cream frosting for the first time. I followed a food bloggers instructions twice to a tee and I couldn't make it work. I am going to blame the recipe on that one. Next time I will try Martha Stewart's version. I had to run to the store, buy frosting, and toss it on the cake. I improvised with cut up marshmallows for the clouds because I didn't have enough frosting to make any.