Kate and Gracie--just a quick pic:

Gotcha Kate!

Kate does not like getting her picture taken--but this morning I had fun snapping shots when she peaked out from behind her comics.





Ella looking fashionable as always-she is now very proud to say that she's moved up to chapter books. :) She usually has a Junie B. Jones book with her no matter where we are.

And my sweet Gracie, our own little ray of sunshine-

Ella and Gracie

Ella says, "Look mom, I'm providing shade for Gracie." Ella and Gracie had a wonderful time playing tonight...very nice to see these two bonding.







Gracie and I went to Costco today, she is so funny...always kicking her shoes off...and then she playfully sticks her feet up in the air when I say something to her about it.

Welcome baby Jake! (our newest neighbor)

Isn't he precious? I just love my next door neighbors, Lisa and Mike. They have Olivia-age 2, and now baby Jake-3 days. :)

And a few more pics from today:

our family UNPLUGGED...

We lost electricity for 16 hours (high winds), but luckily we had a beautiful day in Washington.

coffee and one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen...

Last night I hosted a "coffee" for the army wives--all of their husbands work with Scott. It's nice to connect and bond with other wives that understand what it's like to be a military family...especially as we get ready to say goodbye to our husbands for a year. We played Cranium, and had SO much fun. Gosh, the party went on until 11:30!--which I now consider late, especially since most of us are in our 30s with kids. It was such a great time--we must have more game nights.



And just before the coffee, I was getting ready upstairs, and this is what I saw out of my bedroom window....SO amazing! I had never seen a sunset quite like it, the clouds were at a slant against the horizon. Now I need to look up why this happens sometimes. Here are a few pics of that, I took several--I had so much to do, but I couldn't help from taking pics.

Reading my baby's mind...

Can you read her thoughts?

She's thinking, 'Mom, please open this baby gate. I really want to play with my sisters upstairs.'



Since Christmas break, Gracie has cried every time I take Kate and Ella to school. She loves her sisters so much. As my Aunt C put it, "Gracie thinks she has 3 mamas!"

another Gracie video:

rain, rain, and more rain....

But who cares? It's a great excuse to look adorable in my rain coat.

Just a few pics from earlier today-

videos...

This was taken last month....Gracie LOVES LOVES LOVES any interaction with her big sisters.

a very blah day....

Nothing exciting here....just putting away Christmas decor and making the girls do chores. My next door neighbor, Lisa, had a couple of push toys that Gracie can borrow for a while....so nice. Getting ready to go watch the Tudors with Scott....he really got me hooked on that show.

Pretty pancakes this morning for the girls-



Gracie was giving her daddy LOTS of love today-


Ella 'sharking' the wood floor, an exciting new chore for her-


Gracie enjoys every bite of her sweet potatoes-


And she's LOVING the push toys, she's going to be walking on her own VERY soon-

a new year, hooray!

Happy 2010 everyone!

My goals for the year:

-train up for the Seattle Rock n Roll half marathon in June. Exercising 6 out of 7 days a week--no matter what. I'm so happy that my dad will be running this with me.

-spend quality time with each of my girls, and keep everything running as smoothly as possible as Scott gears up for deployment.

-figure out where we would like to regularly attend church. We've been pretty sporadic about going. We like several churches, hard to choose. We need to be more decisive.

-train the big girls to do more chores around the house...unloading dishwasher, folding and sorting laundry, etc.

-stick to menu planning.

-spend more time in the art studio. (and finish cleaning it out!)

-keep up with the blog better.

-be more patient. relax more. Don't sweat the small stuff. ;)

-enjoy my girls....they are growing so fast.




And some pics:

Gracie is loving the blue tunnel-


Kate and Ella in the messy studio-


Susan and her girls came over last night--SO much fun!!