Anne's Big Days!

Silly Anne.

 Sarah with Great Grandma Hebbert.  We go and visit my grandparents every week and Sarah is the highlight of the visit for them.  They love to hold her and see her smiles.  I truly believe that one of the billions of reasons why Sarah was sent to us right now, at this time, is be a joy to mine and Zac's grandparents.  Thank you Sarah.

 View from one of my bike rides early in the morning training for my triathlon.

 Our tomato tree.  Every day for our afternoon snack we come outside and feast.

 Another bike ride along the Provo River Trail in Provo Canyon.

 Picking up our Cosmo kids club tickets.

True love :)

 Sarah's first swing! Big fan :)

Morning of my triathlon.  It was pretty early so everyone else was in bed.  It turned out to be a great experience.  The training was intense and awesome.  The race itself was hard, but I actually surprised myself and did the best in the swimming which was definitely not my best event.  Zac now jokes that all I have left to do is a marathon......I don't know about that.

 Mini golfing for Labor Day.

 Wow these pictures are out of order, oh well.  Anne's ....like third day of school.  She just looked cute.

 While Anne is at school Rachel and I do preschool at home.  She amazes me every day at how much she already knows and how fast she learns.  She loooooves doing school.   She can write 20 letters, can write her name, spelled mom and wrote it out the other day by herself, can read a half dozen words by herself, can count objects to 10, and is learning adding and subtracting.  We are going to have a ball this year.  I just don't know what she is going to do in kindegarten in 3 more years!!

 Sarah's preschool.

 The puzzle master.

 Helping me paint my bedroom.  (Pictures to come of that, once it's all finished.)

 Our purple carrots.

 They were originally all scattered on the floor.  Such an organizer.

 The highlight of Anne's day, the school bus! It's all she talks about.  I even tried to pick her up from school on her first day and she cried cause she wanted to ride the bus so bad.  I just wish it didn't take an hour for her to get home!

 Rachel walking her dog.

 Cute Minnie Mouse.  Thanks Aunt Jennifer!

 Zac and I ran the Dirty Dash with our friend Alexis.  It was awesome! And very dirty.  Here's the before pictures.  I'll have to snag some after ones off facebook later.

 Storytime at the library.  You'll notice Rachel AND Anne are sitting on the blanket.  And Anne was the one that asked to go down there.  That's big.

 I just can't believe how big this girl is getting.

 Sarah and her buddy Kaitlyn Evans.

 Rachel's first spelled word.  Couldn't have picked a better word :)

 Her scribbles are no longer scribbles.

 Cute sisters.

 Sarah! I also can't believe that this little one is getting so big! She's already six months old in this picture.  At her doctor's checkup she measured 8% in weight (not a shocker, I don't think we're ever going to have chunkers :) 66% for height, 50% for head size.  And all healthy :) She's rolling and now sitting up on her own.  Doesn't show any great desire for crawling which is ok by me.  No teeth yet but loooooves eating mush and some new solid foods like bananas, grapes (the insides), and puffs.  She's also started talking more saying her da's and ga's.  Her favorite songs are "Itsy bitsy spider" and "Sarah! Sarah! Storms are brewing in your eyes..."(that 80's song).  She also loves to bob her head side to side when she hears music. So cute.  We love our Sarah Julia :)

Here we go, backing up a bit. 

Anne's first day of school!  She is attending Sunrise Preschool this year, our big girl!  We had been talking about this with her for months hoping to prepare her, but we were still nervous of her being able to stay at school by herself without being sad.  I took her to school that first day and the teacher came to great her in the front office.  Anne went right up to her and held her hand and walked off to class.  I could hear her telling her teacher about her cool new shoes.  At the end of the day I went to pick her up and she came out all smiles leading her line of classmates.  I told her I was there to take her home and she started to cry because she wanted to ride the school bus.  I asked the driver if that would be ok even though she hadn't ridden it to school and she said it would be great.  An hour later she came bounding off the bus absolutely thrilled with her ride.  Though her favorite part of the day is in fact the school bus ride, she says she loves school.  She had an amazing group of teachers headed up by Jo Greer and she says the other kids are "very nice".  Talking with her teachers she has never cried once and participates with all the activities.  Our big girl surprises us every day with how much she is learning and growing.  We're so proud of you Anne!

And with Anne being at school for a couple hours it has let me have some precious one on one time with Rachel.  She loves her at-home preschool and also surprises me every day with her quickness and ability to learn new things.  You'll see some of her work below.

Such a ham :)

Ward Campout 2013  Such a fun night.  We finally had to upgrade to a six-person tent to fit our growing family.  Much roomier.

Random pictures from Zac's phone:

Sarah taking a snooze at the booth at Rumbi Island Grill

Sarah's first time sitting up front in the cart.

At the finish line at my Aqua Triathlon.  Thanks to my awesome supportive family in helping me train and be there for me at the finish to cheer me on!

Celebrating the race at Village Inn :) for breakfast.

Last day at the pool.

Our zucchini and yellow squash plants.

At the end of Anne's first day.  All smiles :)

Morning snuggles watching cartoons.

Thatcher Family Backyard Campout 2013

Football season has begun! Go Packers! Go Cougars!

Birthday morning!  She woke up that morning and asked "Is it Monday? Is it my birthday?"  Our big girl turned 5 years old!  Anne is the sweetest child I've ever met.  She is loving, quirky, silly, spunky, dainty, and full of love for life.  She has grown so much over the last year.  We are so proud of our Anne.

Smiley-faced berry pancakes with sausages (her favorite).

Her first birthday present.  She outgrew her last bike and was in desperate need for a new big girl bike.  She climbed right on and took off down the driveway like a champ.  She's even gone on a few long bike rides with Zac and I up to BYU.  She fell over a few times but got back on with a few tears and kept going and ended up loving it!

Rachel picked out a toy for Anne. 

A police helicopter that lights up and makes sounds! This is her pride and joy that she carries everywhere with her.  That girl loves her helicopters.

And trains! I don't know why none of the pictures showed up from our adventure but for that evening we all took a ride on the new frontrunner train up to Salt Lake and went out to eat.  After that we strolled around the Salt Lake Temple before heading home.  The girls had a blast riding on the train.

Our harvest from my Grandparents' fruit trees.  You'll see the results of some of these in a bit.

Homegrown yellow squash/carrot baby food.

Sarah is a fan.

Homegrown zucchini and yellow squash baby food.

After dinner one night the dishes were piled high but I heard the girls in the other room laughing and playing with Zac so I turned on some music and we had a dance party instead.

Setting up for our backyard campout.

Anne's first ride on her new bike.

Rachel's cool dance moves.