We have news!!!!

First, I know I am horrible....haven't blogged in forever.

No excuses.

But I promise to be a little better.

Now, time to share some news.....

Winter is here.

And Livia is super excited for the snow! We had just a blanket cover our area yesterday. It started around 1, and Livia and I went out to watch the new little flakes fall to the ground. She just started running around like a wild banshee and I grabbed my camera.

I will not saw "Welcome Winter!" because I won't mean it. So Spring, hurry up!

It's officially....

....HOCKEY SEASON!!!

Just thought you all should know.

Goodbye, Summer. You will be missed.

Well, summer is officially over. We have been super busy! What has happened?

We ended summer with a trip to Seattle. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo....

....Pike's Place Market...

..and ate at our favorite restaurant, Impanema!

School started and I have a very cute 1st grader (who is about to loose her first tooth! Finally!)!

I took the girls camping with my parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law up at Lake Wenatchee. WOW. I will seriously rethink before I do it again without Clancy (he was working). We had a lot of fun, though!

And got very messy. Or just Stella did.

Gracie participated in the Royal High School Cheer Camp. They practiced for 3 days and then preformed at the first Royal HS home football game. She did so well! I can't wait to put Livia and Gracie both in it next year.

We experienced our first Royal Knights football game, where they killed the other team, 46-7, and purchased the family pass for future games. I felt like we were in Texas or something because EVERYONE goes to the football games! It is really nice to feel apart of the community.

Livia loved getting hot chocolate!

Gracie started fall soccer this week and Livia started ballet lessons, as well. She loves it and is actually doing well at listening to her instructor and staying in her place.

Man, is life busy!!

I can't wait for vacation

Even if we are only getting away for 2 days, it works for me.

Ahhhhhh.............vacation!

As soon as Clancy gets home from work, we are outta here! We are staying at my parents house tonight, then getting up early to make the trek over to the Woodland Park Zoo. I have never been and can't wait. I know the girls are going to love it! The best part? Groupon had an awesome deal on admittance tickets early this week. Save us $27! Plus we used our debit reward points from our debit card at Spokane Federal Credit Union to get a hotel for Friday night!

Now we are trying to decide if we should hit up the Mariner's game on Saturday. Something about taking 3 little girls who aren't as obsessed with baseball as their daddy to a 3+ hour game....just isn't appealing.

Did I mention I can't wait?

Birthday fun!

(Notice the 6?)

I know this is a little overdue, but my little baby girl turned 6 on the 6th! Haha, 6 on the 6th! Anyway, for her actual birthday we just had a low key day. For dinner, she requested pancakes and the works for breakfast. So we decided to invite the Maasen's over to eat and celebrate!

Gracie and Kaelyn eating their breakfast for dinner
The kids played dress up for a majority of the night
Dagan even got in on the fun!
Birthday cupcakes were also requested by the birthday girl!

The following week, Gracie had her 6 year check up and had fun showing off the nifty gown she had to wear. No shots! Woot!!

Finally, we were able to have a birthday party! We had decided not to do one, because there was so much going on around her birthday. She finally talked us into it and we invited friends from her class and church. She was even surprised to see her buddy Nolan made it over from Spokane! Nana, Papa and Uncle Chad also came.

How do you keep kids entertained? Make them run!

Okay, they didn't run the whole time! We had some fun!

Stella thought the horse balloons were the perfect size for her to ride!


Then it was time for cupcakes (again)! I need a bigger kitchen...

Opened some fun presents!

And the finale.......

...a new bike!!!

Someone (Birthday Girl) had the bright idea to dance around to Justin Bieber the rest of the party until parents arrived for pick up.

I still can't believe she's 6!

Livia did so well with the whole day. I was really worried that she would be very jealous that the attention wasn't on her, because she's like that. Thankfully, after a morning pep talk, she was pretty good!
After dinner at Time Out Pizza in Othello with my parents and the Crawfords, we ended the night by roasting s'mores in the back yard. This is something I have been dying to do since we have the perfect fire pit out back.
Thanks to all who came and made her day extra special!

Happy Birthday Gracie!!

Happy Birthday Gracie girl!!

I can't believe how fast time flies.