Janie is 2!

In honor of Janie's 2nd birthday I thought I'd post of few shots of her growing up!

Here she is in her blessing outfit, but not on her actual blessing day because we barely even got to church on time that day!!

They look so chunky when they don't have any hair don't they? I always look back at my kids' photos and ask myself if they were ever really that chunky.

In this shot she was trying on Jessie's Halloween costume. I guess we didn't get too many shots of her between just a few months old and age one, oops!

This is typical Janie. She is so funny most of the time. She just loves to play and be silly! She had Joseph's Power Ranger mask on and probably would've slept in it if I had let her!
This is a shot daddy got of her this morning before church. We were all making a big deal of her and singing "Happy Birthday" and stuff like that. I asked Jeremy to take a few pictures of her in her dress, which you don't really see here, and Joseph went up to her, gave her a big hug and said, "Janie, your first picture!" I guess he meant that it was her first picture as a two year old!

Yummy cupcakes make a great birthday for our sweet girl!! I asked her if she wanted cake for her birthday and she said, "YES, CAKE!!" and then she started to sing, "Hap Bitday to you!"

Last, but not least is a little video we got of Janie when she was about 8 months old that just makes me laugh my socks off! Enjoy!

WE LOVE YOU JANIE!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Japanese Dresses

Before we left Okinawa I bought these cute little dresses for the girls, but they haven't worn them until a couple of Sundays ago. So, here they are, my little girlies in a photo together, both looking at the camera at the same time!!!

A Red, White, and Blue Celebration!

So, for the 4th of July we decided to go to the zoo!! We have some friends in town and the kids have been having a blast together. It was a 2.5 hour drive there and then we spent 5.5 hours walking around and seeing all of the different animals and exhibits. The most patriotic part of the whole trip were the kids red, white, and blue shirts, but it was a lot of fun!

I think Jessie would let someone snap pictures of her all day as long as she could be making silly faces!

Janie absolutely LOVED the animals! She just kept running from one thing to the next making animal noises. It was so much fun watching her discover and explore. What a cute little bug!!
When we weren't inside looking at the animals Janie was finding other means of entertainment. I would say, "ready, set, go!" and she'd run down the hill. Look at that happy face. She was pretty much perfect all day long (accept the 5 hours of driving...)!

Here is a shot of my little man. I looked at him today and thought to myself that I just can't believe how grown up he is and what a wonderful, sweet boy he is. He is such a great helper to me! Jessie would rather play with him than anyone else and Janie just adores her big brother!!

I laughed when I looked at this picture because look at the girls. Jessie was just loving being there and kind of doing her own thing. Now, look at Janie. That child wouldn't be anywhere near us when we let her out of her stroller. She ran for about 3 hours of our time at the zoo. WHY didn't she sleep in the car on the way home?????? Those are our friends in front of us so I wasn't too worried about her escaping.

Here are my three red, white, and blue babies checking out the Sea Lions. Time sure does fly, I was thinking that in just a couple of years all of this "little kid" stuff would be over and I would surely be missing it!

This is a great shot of all of the kids together (minus Jacob)! They were trying to stand up on that lizard, but it was hot and so they couldn't touch it. They kept holding onto each other trying to balance for the photo. This was about the best we could get! Ethan and Jessie really had so much fun together during this trip. I looked over at one point and they had their arms around each other's necks and they were just being best buddies. Joseph and Kayla also enjoyed each other. I kept hearing Joseph ask Kayla if he could hold her hand.

All in all, it was a beautiful, HOT day! I guess by the end of the day there was a little more red, white and blue than we had expected. Red faces, white clouds, and blue skies made for a fun Fourth of July!

Later that night we took the kids and watched some fireworks here in town, which was a lot of fun. It was cute to hear the kids ooooohhh and aaaaahhh at the colors and sounds!