Bellingham Family

We have family in Bellingham. Travis' parents and sister and my older brother, his wife and their children. When we went to Bellingham this August, Travis' mom invited Matt, Laura Jane and the kids over for a barbecue. The twins have grown up so much; they and Kezia sure enjoyed themselves while the big kids played out front (thus, I have no pictures of any of the older kids).

 

Wesley and Talitha - super cuties!

 Kezia and her cousins (3 months apart but you can't tell that anymore!)

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They were fascinated with Macie, Grandpa's dog.

  

Grandpa and Kezia

Grandma and Kezia

 One of many nights around the fire (one of Mama's favorite things)

My older brother, Matt, with Wesley and Talitha. What blessings these two little ones are to their parents and big sister, as well as their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!

Sugar Shapes Cookie Decorating

When a friend calls and invites us to come decorate cookies at the park, we go! What she failed to mention was that she was taking pictures for a friend's Sugar Shapes company and needed kids involved! We still had a blast!
 

 Tate wants to be shown how to use the icing, but then decorates with gusto!

Sprinkles!

They passed Zane's taste test! YUMMY!

A few weeks later we went to our friend's girls' birthday party. Sugar Shapes was there with the same delicious cookies for all the kids to decorate! So Katiree and Tate decorated away. Katiree even made one for the Sugar Shapes lady. Tate decorated one for everyone in our family, as well as our babysitter, Anna.

 

 

Sweet, sweet Kezia...

One thing Kezia loves to do is to give kisses... she even makes a kissing noise!

So Auntie Marjie got a kiss...

And Nana got a kiss...

And even Papa got a kiss...

And just for good measure... Katiree got some love. Don't they look cute in their matching pajamas? We bought Katiree's pajamas awhile back and later Grandma gave Kezia the same set (not even knowing Katiree had a matching set!)

Papa and Nana Time

Papa, Nana, Uncle Josh, Auntie Karen, Ally and Jacob came to visit. It was a busy few days - but we enjoyed every minute. Some highlights...

 

Papa and the Armstrong kiddos.

 
Playing games with Nana.

 Reading books. Papa never reads them quite right... which makes the boys SO happy!

And more books. Katiree loves it when Nana reads to her.

Kezia discovered "Cane." All the grandkids have discovered "Cane" at some point. She walked around with it, made it make noises by banging it on things. It was fun to see that "Cane" was loved by yet another child.

Kezia also discovered the walker. (Sorry, walker doesn't get a formal name.)

Papa played with all the kids in our backyard...

...as well as at a couple of parks. 

We all went to watch for trains, but ended up watching boats. The train didn't come and didn't come...

So as we were walking to the other spot to look for trains, a train finally came. We had to run to just get to see the last few freight cars.

Walking to see trains was a tradition my kids (except Kezia) all did with my dad when they lived here. They were so thrilled to spend their last morning with Papa at the park and going to see trains.

The Arizona Crew Visits

Ally and Jacob (cousins) live in Arizona. They came up with their parents (Josh & Karen), as well as Papa and Nana... What fun our kids had playing with their cousins!


Collecting eggs at the house where Auntie Marjie was house-sitting.

Checking for eggs in the coop.

Picking blueberries.

Going to parks.

Playing at the parks.

Learning how to do monkey bars (three oldest were successful!)

Walking down in Ridgefield to see boats and trains.

Playing on the slide in the Armstrong backyard.

Getting attacked by Papa monsters (or were they defeating the Papa Monster?).

Swinging and flipping on the swing and trapeeze.

It was wonderful to see them all!

Beautiful Katiree - age 7

My friend, Maria, has two girls whom Katiree plays with regularly. Maria does photography and took Katiree's pictures. Katiree has grown up so much this last year. She's a beautiful girl - both inside and out. Her caring heart for others, her love for her Lord, her desire to learn, along with a great imagination to play and create fun games and adventures for her siblings and friends... these are aspects of our Katiree that are dear to our hearts. Daddy and Mama are so very proud of this girl who tries hard, even when things are new and uncomfortable for her. She is a people person, who loves chatting your ear off. It will certainly be fun to see where the Lord leads her in life. Katiree, girl... we love you so much!