Last September Ella turned 7! Now she's almost 8!!! She'll be baptized in September and is so excited, its almost all she can talk about. She's been taking swim lessons and has become quite a little swimmer. She can swim the length of the pool and back, plus do cannon-balls (a must!) and she loves diving. She's tall and skinny! Gorgeous brown eyes as always and is turning into quite the girl! She recently was picked by the school principal to read a poem she wrote in front of the whole school! She was amazing. She has a natural talent for poetry and drawing. She takes after her aunt and uncles! She is so very helpful with the little girls and just loves them. Her obsession with horses is only growing. She's asked for a horse riding birthday party! That's a tall order ... hopefully I can fill it!
Violet turned TWO in March. She's a funny little girl. Full of attitude, but really funny too. She is pretty sure she doesn't have to listen to anything we say, which is quite frustrating. Luckily she's also very loving and cute! She absolutely loves shoes. Wherever we go and whomever we meet, she must see their shoes. At church she insists on her nursery leaders taking their shoes off so she can wear them. This last week I was informed that she's started to kiss the boys. Oh man. She's putting the moves on them big time ... already. She is a very confident little girl who really enjoys being around her family and constantly moving. Violet is a very busy girl! Violet does anything Ella does. And that is funny to watch! The 2 yr old version of a 7 yr old's moves, etc. Its just funny! She wants to be with Ella constantly. Very sweet! Oh yeah, and she's a thumb-sucker. That should be fun to get her to stop doing! She is a cute fluffy little girl who is still working on growing hair. She has beautiful blueberry eyes and lovely blonde curls.
Jillian will be one in August. She is coming into her own, both physically and emotionally. We're starting to see who she will be! She's not crawling but she is somehow moving everywhere! Jiji has a temper, when her needs/wants are not met or she's put to bed too soon for her taste. However, she's also very happy and sweet. She nuzzles like a cat, which is funny! She adores her older sisters and finds them quite amusing. Jillian has the same blueberry eyes as Violet, but bigger. And they all have amazing eyelashes. I'm jealous. :)
Cory has been busy with jobs! Last year he was laid off in January and worked a couple contract jobs for Logitech and Intel. Now he's with a new company with a "real" job and he's really happy there. The commute is annoying, but the job is worth it. He's been trying to get a medieval group off the ground. But life seems to get in the way. I sometimes feel weird surrounded by swords, shields, helmets, etc. But it makes him happy. I know I'm the only girl on the block with a suit of armor in her dining room! I guess that's something to be proud of! (I thought about posting a picture of him, but since I don't want a picture of me on here, it doesn't seem fair to put one up of him, right?)
I have been busy. Adjusting to Jillian has been fun, but challenging. Luckily they are all very sweet good girls! And we have a lot of fun most days! In February I started training for a half marathon (that's 13.1 miles, in case you didn't know). It was fun and hard. It was an all women marathon and every Saturday we'd meet up and start walking/jogging/running. At the end of May all the training paid off and I finished all 13.1 miles! I wasn't even last. Its started a fire under my tush and I've signed up for an upcoming 8K and I'm looking for more. Tonight I'm starting a new program called Couch to 5K ... so we'll see how that goes! Its been fun to attempt things that I can complete and then feel proud of myself for. My mom actually got to be here when I walked/jogged the 1/2 marathon. That was kinda cool. To cross the finish line with Ella while my family and Mom and friends watched. Pretty cool. :)
We are looking forward to a trip to Colorado this summer for a vacay! Yay! It feels like forever since we've gone anywhere. We are NOT looking forward to a 20 hr drive in the car with 3 kids, but thankfully portable DVD players exist. That will help. We have also begun house hunting again. Its not going very smoothly, but we're hanging in there. The right house is out there, I can feel it!
Anyway, that's got us caught up for now. Hopefully I'll do better. Sorry.
