Sweet One Year Old Girl

Our baby is one... yes, it's really hard to believe! Last year on this day we were welcoming her into the world while my dad presented his doctoral thesis. What a blessed day! Here are birthday morning pictures!

 One smiley little girl!

 

 Reading and Eating books. Two of her favorite things to do!

 
The look... this is her box of toys, but the boys' balls were in it. She always gives us a look like, "I know this isn't mine, but I want it" before she tries anything. It's quite funny to see this look with the pleading eyes. When she goes for the stairs, she looks back at us with mischief in those eyes. They read, "Oh, PLEASE don't say no this time!" Her eyes are fun to read!

 

Blowing kisses and more birthday smiles. Happy Birthday, Kezia!

Turning Five

It's official... we ALMOST have a five year old! Tate turns five tomorrow and we celebrated this weekend. Every year (age 2 and up), I let them choose a cake. I then spend time looking up photos of other cakes online and figure out how to make what they want. This year Tate wanted an air craft carrier with REAL fighter jets (toys he could keep, of course). The cake, in and of itself, was not a difficult one to make... the prep of everything just takes time. We used Zane's air craft carrier toy as a model and this is what came of it:

Taking a day to make a cake may sound crazy... but when my son woke up and saw it... he said, "Now that's a cool cake, Mom." Sigh... it was all worth it at that moment. I love this little tradition, even though it means a lot of planning and time goes into it.

We celebrated with family and a few family friends... and tomorrow we can officially say we have a five year old here in the Armstrong household! Happy Birthday, Tate!

Armstrong Family Weekend

Travis' family came down for the weekend to celebrate Tate's birthday. We had some good times!


The boys love their baby sister and she loves them.

Taking pictures with all four children can prove to be challenging. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This time there was someone blinking or looking elsewhere in every shot! But... for the sake of real life... here's the best one. At least they are all trying for Grandma!

We got a new Wii game and had a lot of fun playing it together! Travis and his sister, Chanda, started the evening with a rocking dance party. Katiree joined in later and was hooked! The following evening the adults played again! What fun!

As Kezia is nearing her first birthday, I caught a few moments with her grandpa and grandma... this little girl brings such joy to us all!

Winter or Spring?

Yes, it's spring. Wait... it's winter. What? We have blooming crocuses and daffodils. The tulips are popping up as well. On top of it all, we got snow... on March 1st! But, it sure was pretty. I looked outside and thought about the clean white snow as I waited through the morning trying to find out if Katiree's school would be starting on time or have a 2 hour delay. The school districts around us all had 2 hour delays, but she goes to school in the Evergreen school district, which had no delay. I was glad, for her sake, that there was not a delay, though she would have enjoyed playing in the snow. It was Dr. Seuss day and Read Across America day at her school, so she was really excited to go that day. Even the snow wasn't as exciting as that! (She got to wear pajamas and take her pillow pet to school.)



The boys, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get out and play. As I bundled them up, I prayed this wouldn't be a quick 10 minute play time ending with "I'm cold. I want to go inside." Thankfully, they played outside for the next hour or more. We had fun making snowballs (I did it one handed since I had Kezia on my hip - oh the talents one acrues when being a mom of multiple children) and making snowmen.

Even Kezia got to enjoy outside a little. She shivered when I let her touch the snow!

Tate made his snowman all on his own! He was so proud of his work!

Zane also made his little snowman on his own, with help just to put on a face. Isn't the little guy cute?

We had a wonderful time playing outside in the snow and it was a good thing we played out in it as soon as we got home from dropping Katiree off at school, too! By the afternoon, all that was left of the snow in our yard were the two snowmen - Tate's looked like it was bowing and Zane's face had all melted off! Thankfully, the boys thought that was pretty funny rather than being disappointed that their snowmen didn't last!