Anne on the day of her Primary program at Church. Suuuuuch a 180 from last year. This year she sat up on stage with her class and teachers all by herself, sang the songs (danced a little bit), and said her line "Because Jesus Christ was resurrected, I will be too!" perfectly. We are so proud of how much she is growing, inside and out :)
Halloween! Grandma Russell made all the girls these awesome Tinker Bell dresses so we went with that theme. Anne even got to dress up for Preschool twice, so one day she was Tink the other she was...
...a Princess of course.
Playing trains with our buddies, the Evans boys. We are so blessed to have such awesome friends.
Halloween morning started out with orange pumpkin pancakes with raisins.
While Anne was at school Rachel and I made the girls' beds into a "Fairy Fort". And we decided we liked it so much that we have kept it that way.
Family hike up Rock Canyon.
There were people jumping off that cliff and parachuting to right where we were standing. Crazy!
Sarah was comfy :)
Looking at a butterfly.
Can you spot the zebra in the brush?
Cool praying mantis we found.
Classic Anne face as she tells a story.
Playing "train".
I had a birthday too! My last one in my twenties :( But I can't complain about the day at all, it was wonderful. Started out with breakfast in bed, then Zac dropped me off for a surprise visit to the spa!! for three glorious hours, followed by dinner at Red Robin, then a BYU women's soccer game. How cool does all that sound? Yes, I am a happy spoiled girl.
Opening some presents from my sister and Mom and Dad, thank you!!
Carving pumpkins, Anne was not a fan of the goo.
Rachel loved it.
Sarah wasn't sure.
Making some Halloween treats, chocolate apples and pumpkin cereal treats.
The girls discovered the joy of playing with a baster.
We went trick-or-treating with our buddies, the Evans. Here's "Michael" and the littlest "Tink".
Peter Pan family.
Peter pan meets Toy Story! Aren't they cute?
Beautiful fall walk to the Provo Bakery. I'd never been there before so we thought we'd try it out. So cute! The girls loved their doughnut :)
Watched the Provo City Center temple being built.
Red Robin birthday dinner.
Soccer game. That was the girls' first soccer game, they loved it! They were asking me questions the whole time. They even got to go out on the field at half time and watch a boy band perform. Though their favorite part was still....Cosmo. You'll see more about that below.
Hint of my latest project I was working on every night for a week....
Rachel's birthday lunch treat.
I just thought this was hilarious. Good ol' Costco huge stuffed animlas.
Anne had her first parent-teacher conference standing next to her artwork. She is doing fantastic at preschool. The teachers love her and she is starting to play with the other kids. She struggles some days with being happy, but most of the time she loves being there. Still her favorite part of the day is her "Pam Pam Seven" bus ride, which in the afternoon on her way home, includes a nap...every day.
Playing in the leaves after school.
Sarah joining in the dress up.
Rachel turned 3! It's hard to think that she hasn't been three for a long time. She is seriously the oldest three year old I've ever met. Everything about that girl is fast. She learned to crawl and walk fast, talk fast, and figure out things fast. She has a very sensitive heart when other people are sad and tries to cheer them up. She likes to have things in order and is constantly lining things up or sorting them. She is my big helper in the kitchen and loves to bake and cook. She is currently learning to read and write and loves doing preschool with me while Anne's at school. At her doctor's visit we learned that she is in the 75% for height, 14% for weight, and .3% for BMI. Fits right in to this tall Thatcher family. She is only less than an inch shorter than Anne was at this age. My girls are all going to outgrow me before they're in high school. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said "A party with lots and lots of people!" Our little social butterfly. So we invited her friends and their families. What a blast. We love you Rachel!!
Opening presents from Grandmas, Grandpas, and Aunties. Thank you all!
A cute note about this present. She absolutely loves playing with her new Cinderella doll. When she first opened it she looked at it, then at Anne and said "Here Anne, you would like playing with this." And gave it to her to play with while she opened her other presents. What love.
She wanted to try on all her new clothes.
The look on her face when we brought out her next present.
Mickey! She really wanted a sleeping buddy like Anne's dog so we let her pick this one out at Costco (over Minnie, Goofy, and Hello Kitty).
At her birthday party!
Pin the tail on Cosmo. She really wanted Cosmo to come to her party, this is as close as we could get.
Pinata time!
Zac's first Pinata, believe it or not.
All the kids got a turn and then some of the adults. Bishop Miller finished it off.
Rachel's favorite color is blue and loves Cosmo and BYU so we ran with that theme. The Cougs were playing later that day so everyone was in their BYU swag.
A huge thank you to my good buddy Carlie for frosting the cakes!! I was not quite ready and Sarah needed my attention (plus I am horrible at frosting cakes). They are so cute!!
And yummy!
The project I was telling you about earlier :) I still want to put a swing out to the left side and a spray-on chalk board on the inside, and maybe a half wall on the top front, but here it is mostly finished. I asked Zac if I could build this myself because I've always wanted to built something like this and learn how to do it. He helped give me advice and hold a few things, but he let me do everything else. It was a blast. I love using power tools. We used a lot of the random wood that was left in our garage from the previous house owners. Most importantly the girls love it. :)
Enjoying one of her presents.
Just beautiful.
What Rachel did to help Anne feel better when she wasn't feeling good, plus a kiss.
I'm letting the girls dress themselves more and more. Rachel's choice that day.
Happy girl :)
Taken by Rachel.....
...to help her cheer up at the soccer game. This is what happened when Rachel saw Cosmo and he didn't give her a high five. So sad.
Playing in the snow before Church.
Getting ready to go to the last BYU football home game of the season. Anne pulled her helmet out and wanted to wear it to the game. We thought Great! It'll keep their heads dry. So they did. Just about every single person we passed either said something to us or whoever they were with about how cute or cool they looked. Lots of fellow Packer fans here :) We even got mentioned on BYUTV because we ran into the announcer before the game and he said something as well.
Go Cougars!
We were prepared for the cold weather with sleeping bags. Sarah stayed nice and toasty and slept the entire time. But the girls only lasted till almost half time and they were cold. That's ok though, it was still fun and we watched the rest of the game at home snuggled in warm blankets.
