Happy Birthday Anne!

I found a new way to upload pictures on here so I can put more on...I know...you're thinking how can there be more, but we happened to be very snap-happy these past few weeks what with cute kids and muddy runs...so here they are:

Rachel being cute as ever.  

 It is no wonder that I can only do sewing projects while the kids are napping.

 Sunglasses Fun.

 This is mostly how she wears them.  Anne on the other hand would sleep in them if I let her.

 I thought this was a good size comparison for our zucchini crop.  I think it is bigger than Rachel.  We have been very blessed this year with tons of zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  We're also hoping we'll have a few pumpkins by Halloween, but we'll see.

 Anne's first crush.  She got this doll from a happy meal that's supposed to be Hansel (from Hansel and Gretel) and one day she kept saying "Kiss Robin!" and point to her doll.  I thought Zac had told her it was Robin Hood or something but when I asked her that she said "No, Chris-fur Robin!" Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh.  For the next couple weeks she would carry him around saying "Kiss Chris Robin, I wuv him." And give him lots of kisses and hugs.

 Rachel loves to copy her big sister.

 This is kind of random but since this is also our journal I thought that maybe in 20 years it would be fun to see what kind of exercise I was doing at this point in my life.  I record it to help motivate me to continue and to keep track of my miles.

 Since Rachel is a houdini and managed to wriggle out of both our old high chair and Anne's booster seat, we went and got a new high chair.  Most large kid items we were either given or I find them used for really cheap, but sometimes I think splurging is worth it (though I still got this on sale 30% off:).  This high chair is a breeze to clean and folds up easily when we're not using it.  And best of all, Rachel doesn't even try to escape out of it.  As a bonus, it's Winnie the Pooh themed which both girls love.

 Cool little picture comparison:  Rachel now

 Anne two years ago (In most pictures they look sooooo different, but in this one they actually look relaly similar! It's funny to think though that this is the first time Anne stood by herself and Rachel is starting to walk, crazy.)

 (Above) It's so nice that Rachel is old enough for me to just let the girls play in the tub together.  They have a ball.

This is a cool hairstyle that happened by accident.  I tried to do one of those reverse ponytails and it got stuck but I thought it looked pretty cool.

 Our first cantalope! I was so excited to be able to grow our own fruit!  This one wasn't completely ripe but it was still soooo yummy.

 Now for the birthday festivities.  I can't believe Anne is three.  It brought tears to my eyes when we woke up that morning and I was telling her happy birthday and that I loved her.  We love her so much and we thank Heavenly Father every day that she (and her sister) are in our lives.  Anne, if you read this when you are older, I hope you realize how much your Mom and Dad love you.  I couldn't imagine life without you.  Happy Birthday big girl!

We decided to do a Winnie the Pooh theme since that's her favorite thing right now.  It started off with my first decorated cake ever.  It was a lot of fun to make and Anne recognized that it was Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, so it worked ;)

 While I was making the cake Anne walked in with my shoes on, my glasses on her head and holding the car keys and said "Ok guys, ready to go!" The other day I walked in the kitchen to find her putting her play dishes on the stove and table and she informed me she was making dinner and it would be ready soon.  Love my little junior mom.

 Birthday morning started off with rasberry chocolate chip waffles (which I highly recommend, so yummy) which I let her watch in front of the tv while she watched her Super Why show, a treat.

 Then we got dressed in her new "running clothes" as she calls them.  I was going to dress her in her awesome new princess dress but it was very cold and rainy so this seemed more appropriate.  When we picked it out in the store we looked at the girly pink and purple ones and she didn't seem intrested and then I picked out the black and red one (of course) and she still didn't seem interested.  Then she saw the blue one and grabbed it and said "This one! Bu one! Oh, I wuv it." When I told Zac this he said "Of course, she's a BYU fan, not a U fan."

 Her party room.

 We celebrated with a few of her little buddies, Timothy Evans, Maija Bessey, and Shaely Warburton.  Anne is so blessed to have such wonderful friends that are such good examples to her.

 We played a couple very simple games like pin the tail on the donkey (Eeyore).  And yes, this is without blindfolds and without spinning.

 You'll see from the video below, but we also played a game where they threw bean bags into a "Hunny" pot.  I told Anne to go stand by it so we could take a picture and this is what she did.  It's not THAT kind of honey pot.

 Much better :)

 Anne eating Pooh's head.  (It's a rice crispie treat covered in frosting.)

 Rachel trying to make Daddy share.

 Anne had fun opening presents.  I'm so excited for Christmas!! She understands the concept now and was excited.  Thank you to all of you who were so generous in your gifts for Anne.  It touches us as well as her to know how much she is loved by her friends and family.  These are a bunch of pictures to give those of you who couldn't be there a taste of what it was like.

 (Maija, Shaely, Anne, Timmy)  It was a little tricky to get all the kids to hold still and look in one place, this is the best we got.

 I love all three of the girls' expressions, especially Shaely's :)

Dirty Dash 2011

I put it like that because there will definitely more of these Dirty Dash's in the future.  It was AWESOME!!

It was a 10k with obstacles every.25-.50 miles or so like muddy hills and pools, hay bales, walls, rope swings, rope climbs, a slip n' slide and more.  Such a blast and something I will definitely never forget.

The thing that made it so much fun was running it with my awesome buddy Alexis! :)

 Zac was such an awesome supporter and watched the girls during the race AND took some awesome pictures.  Thanks hun! Next time you'll be running it with me ;)

 I'd like to think she's saying here "Go Mama, go Mama!"

 This was halfway through the race after we had actually gotten mostly washed off by the everglades (a half-mile trudge through waist-deep swamp water).  And yes it looks like I ate dirt, partly because I accidently did at one point and also because my nose itched and I had no clean part of my body to wipe it with.

 Every time I see this picture it always makes me think that I'm kissing an angel.

I love this picture of Ryan (Alexis' husband in the middle with the yellow shirt) going "This is crazy!!"

This shows Anne and Rachel's relationship right now:

This is more of a sound thing cause the video is in the dark, but it's Rachel and Zac wrestling:

And yes, our baby girl took her first steps on the day of her 10 month birthday.  She gets more adventurous with it every day.  We know running is right around the corner.  Look out world!

Pin the tail on Eeyore.

Happy Birthday Anne!