1st Steps

Bella is our only child who didn't walk right when they turned one. She's only a little bit behind though because she took her first solo steps this past Wednesday. It was totally unexpected for me--I thought it might be another month or so before she "stepped out on her own". But Garrett stood her up and had her try and sure enough...she was walking! She was very excited--as we all were! Here's a video of her attempts.

One Year Comparisons

Garrett fixed our printer/scanner so I wanted to post each of our

one year pictures,

just to see a comparison. Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures. I only had small ones and had to enlarge them. It was fun for me to see the similarities and differences between all of us.

Garrett--I think one year. There wasn't anything written on the back of the picture.

Bella

Mindy

Maggie

Lydia

Paige

Tulip Festival

One thing that I have always wanted to do since we've lived in Oregon is to go to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. I've heard that it is beautiful, and I love tulips! So with Garrett's parents here, we decided to finally go. I loved the waves of color and the beautiful shapes and colors of the tulips. They had some fun things for the kids to do--one of which was a little ride where you got to ride in a wooden shoe that was pulled behind a tractor. It was fun, at least me and Lydia liked it. Paige didn't like it because it was really bumpy and the guy driving the tractor went pretty fast, so she was a little scared. Lydia kept saying how awesome it was. They are so completely different, it's funny. It was a fun day and I'm so glad that we finally went.

The Party

Here are some pictures from Garrett's and Bella's party. We didn't do a lot, just went out to eat at Mazatlan (one of Garrett's favorite restaurants) had cake (one for him and one for her) and opened presents. It was fun to have Garrett's parents here to help celebrate!

They came to sing Happy Birthday but thought it not only Garrett's birthday, but mine too, and so brought out two sombrero's. Bella didn't want to wear hers at all though.

Back at home opening presents:

I guess I forgot to take pictures of Garrett opening his presents, because the only one I have is the girls giving Garrett a big birthday hug!

Two birthday cakes!

She had a great time eating her cake!

April 30th

April 30th is a special day because 35 years ago it was the day that my wonderful husband was brought into this world. We love to celebrate him on his special day. Last year, our beautiful Bella was born on this day as well, so now we have two special reasons to celebrate. I think it's kind of fitting that they share a birthday because they look so much a like! :)

I saw someone else do this on their blog, and I really loved it, so I borrowed it. This is a little tribute to Garrett from his girls.

Our Favorite Things About You

Maggie: He gives us lots of love!

Lydia: He makes me laugh!

Paige: His big "juicy" hugs!

Mindy: One of my favorite things about you (because there are so many) is your calming presence and laid-back attitude. You have a way about you that diffuses any tense situation at home and brings peace back. You make me and the girls laugh constantly and are all about having fun and making everyone happy.

One Word that Describes You:

Maggie: Loving

Lydia: Funny

Paige: Love

Mindy: Pretty-darn-near-perfect

Our Favorite Memory with You:

Maggie: Sightseeing in England

Lydia: Going to the Zoo

Paige: Going camping

Mindy: That week that we spent in Alaska before going back to school and getting engaged. You introduced me to your family, showed me your town, took me out on your boat, showed me Dave's cabin, and spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful Alaskan forest. We spent a lot of time together after a long summer apart, and I think that is when I knew that you were the one for me.

Happy Late birthday, Garrett--we love you more than you'll ever know! Thanks for being such a wonderful part of our lives!

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Bella turns ONE!!!

One day old

Two weeks old
Look how much she's grown!!

One Year Old!!

I was going to scan in a picture of Garrett and I when we were each one, but for some reason our printer/scanner is not working. Maybe after we get it fixed, I'll post them. Most of the time I think she looks a lot like Garrett, but there are a few times when I think she looks just like me. Like in the picture right above this paragraph.
We are so glad to have our beautiful Bella in our family and are so excited that she is one. Her personality has just exploded and she keeps us entertained and laughing all the time!

Camping Party

For Maggie's birthday party, she decided that she wanted to have a camping party and roast hotdogs and marshmallows and then have everyone sleep over in our trailer. So, that's what we went for this year. She started writing a post about this on her blog, but has yet to finish. So I'll post it on mine and whenever she finishes hers, you can read about it again. :)

So when all her friends arrived on Friday night, they picked their beds in the trailer and got set up, then went outside to play on the swings/trampoline or tetherball. Then the girls cooked their hot dogs and ate their dinner.

After we got that cleaned up, I had put together two games. The first was a scavenger hunt where they had to find pieces of paper with a letter and a number on it. Since I wanted to keep most of the party outside and I was hiding paper and I didn't want them to blow away, I put the papers in Easter eggs and had them hunt for easter eggs. They each had to find 12 easter eggs. When they found all the eggs, they took the papers out and they had to put the papers in order from one to seventy something. When they put the numbers in order, the letters spelled out a message. It was so funny to watch them try to put all the papers in order and then figure out the message.

They worked well together and were really excited to find out what it said. The message told them to find a package that had something to do with "light" hidden inside. The package was hidden in the trailer. They brought the package back out to the backyard and this was the start of the 2nd game, "Pass the parcel". I had wrapped up a box 9 times with different wrapping paper. They all sat in a circle and had to pass the package around and when the "Hannah Montana" music stopped, then whoever was holding the box had to unwrap one layer and then do whatever was written on the next layer of paper. They were silly things like "plug your nose and sing Twinkle Twinkle little star." So, they each got a turn doing that. When the music was playing, they were all singing along at the top of their lungs to Hannah Montana. It was fun to watch. Anyway, when the last person unwrapped the final piece of wrapping paper, they got to open the box and inside was a flashlight for each person, which they thought was really cool.

Since we have "a forest" behind our house, I had Garrett take them on a nature walk out in the woods after the game. They really loved that--it was quite the adventure I guess, because it's pretty thorny back there. There's supposedly a trail that leads to a little pond or something. They enjoyed it though and got to use their new flashlights.

When they returned, we opened presents and then had cake and icecream. Her cake turned out really cute, I must say. Did you know that they make candy that look just like rocks? I had no idea! But they looked great on the cake!

After the presents, they all wanted to go into the trailer and get their jammies on. They did that and played Apples to Apples, which is a really fun game. Then they watched High School Musical 3. By then it was midnight and I made them go to bed. Lydia and I slept in there with them. They all went to sleep rather quickly. Or maybe, I'm the one that went to sleep quickly and didn't hear a thing. Who knows!? :)

Unfortuneatly, I forgot to take the camera into the trailer with me, so I don't have any pictures of them playing games or in their beds. Oops.

The next morning, we had chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and strawberries and they got to eat in the trailer. They started watching "Bedtime Stories", but only got through half of it before it was time to go home. It was a really fun theme and I think they all had fun. It was a beautiful day for an outside party, so I'm extremely glad that the weather cooperated.