My sweet Lily Bean

I just kissed my Lily Bean good night for the last time as a three year old.  I love bed time with my sweet girl.  Lately her bedtime ritual has been exactly the same every night.  I have to read her Brave, or "Merida" as she calls it, then it's prayers and kisses and good-night.  My favorite part is she always blows me kisses as I leave.  She has done that since she could blow kisses.  Tonight, it was basically the same with a few very sweet differences:

At one point I poked her belly button, and she started to laugh hysterically, which made me laugh and so it went on, for a while like that.  After prayers I told her how much I loved her and how exciting it is that she is going to be four.  I told her I was the happiest mommy in the world four years ago, that she is the little girl I dreamed of.  That every night I prayed for a baby, and Heavenly Father sent me her.  To which she replied, "When this family didn't have a Lily, you were all very sad.  But now you have a Lily and you are happy."  She is very right, we are all very happy to have her in our family.  I will say here that I was very happy when this family had a Jackson and Asher, there was just a Lily shaped hole that was missing, and now that she has filled it, (and Greta has filled the Greta shaped hole,) we are ridiculously happy.

She then told me that she loves Captain American and his friends because he is going to be her prince in this castle, (I think she means our house) and his friends are going to be his knights.   She is so grateful for Captain America, and he will be at her birthday tomorrow, (I hope she is okay, when he is not...)  She also talked about how Captain America will miss her if she keeps getting bigger.  Oh, then she added, "Mommy, did you know that I really love Werewolves?" I don't ever want her to grow up!  This stage is too much fun!

 Lily asked me to take a picture of her this morning, "looking beautiful."

Lily starts preschool

Lily started preschool two days a week at our gym.  It's pretty perfect.  She goes to school, I get a work out.  Everyone wins.  It is a great little school.  She gets to do swim lessons, yoga, Zumba and other fun activities as part of her curriculum.  I think she will have a really great year.

It just wouldn't be a first day of school picture without a younger sibling photo bomb. Check out Greta in the window. She started to walk in by herself, and then got a little shy and reached for me to come in with her. She got over her fear very quickly when she saw friends and toys!

The first day tuckered her right out.  She fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot!

Asher; Almost 8!

Since Asher's birthday is in January, we decided we would do his 8 year old pictures early this year.  And since we live in Montana, we had to do them in September before it gets freezing cold.  He is such a handsome and fun kid.  He was so excited when I took him to this location for pictures.  He thought it was very cool and rockstar.

This boy has been such a joy in our family.  He still has his magical infectious laugh.  He is always so happy and joyful.  He is so tall! and check out his big feet!  I think he will tower over me before I know it.  He loves his baby sister Greta.  He loves to make her laugh, and get her to mimic him.  He is my little helper when it come to Greta.   He is loving school and soccer and piano.  He is doing so well with piano.  He's only played a few months and he is already playing some great songs.   He also just recently joined our Great Falls Young Peoples choir, all part of his quest to be a rockstar.  He still loves everything Jackson loves, and he really loves Doctor Who.  He has a book about Doctor Who and he reads it everyday.   He is even saving up to buy a sonic screwdriver.  He has already begun planning  a Doctor Who birthday party, which, as a Doctor fan myself, I am super excited about.  If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he says, "a rockstar and a doctor."  I think that is fantastic, and I will do anything I can to help him achieve those goals.  I hear it is really great to have a rockstar in the family.
This kid is so funny. Always had been. I told him to be a rockstar. He didn't disappoint. He lost the tooth on the right just a few days after these pictures were taken. My boys love jumping for pictures. A throw back to this image a few years ago. He is such a cute kid! Asher was fascinated by this glass, and ended up cutting himself. Luckily it was just as we were leaving.  I love this boy! I am so proud of the person he is turning into. He is so excited to get baptized in a few months. I have a hard time letting my kids grow up, but I do love seeing them make good choices, being happy, and loving each other. Not to mention how much I laugh everyday, having this boy around!

July 4th

We were lucky to have Connor and Jenna with us for the 4th of July this year.  They were some of our very first visitors so we pulled out all the stops to show them a good time.  We started out the day with a kayaking trip down Belt Creek and the Missouri.

Then we had a bbq and my super special American flag cake.
While we waited for the sun to go for the  fireworks, we took the four-wheelers and the skateboards out. Mitch and the boys found a hill near our house that they like to ride down and then drive back up on the four-wheelers. It was a beautiful evening, with the sun setting and the hay bales in the background.
Unfortunately, on the first ride down, Asher fell and some blood was spilled. Connor
Mitch Then we went to Black Eagle Falls, on the Missiour River to watch the fireworks. We thought it would be a good place to see them, but we didn't know how good. The fireworks went off just across the road from where we were. I was worried about Greta being so close to the loud pop and boom of the fireworks, but she didn't even flinch. She just thought they were cool.
My cute 4th of July girls. After the fireworks we came home and did our own fireworks and sparklers in our driveway.
Dancing to the strobe firecracker.