Anna Leita

Things I want to remember about 4 year old Anna since this sweet girl just turned five. . . .

• You love to sing. You make me so happy when I catch you in your own little world making up songs and you don't know anyone is listening.
• You love your brothers and help everyone at our house get along and be happy (including your mom).
• You make me laugh and you are happy to laugh at yourself. You are a peacemaker and like things to be light and fun.
• You and me are buddies. You like to do things like make hair bows and comb your princess dolls' hair because these things are "just for the women" and that is me and you.
• You want to be a mommy one day and you love babies.
• You are reading so well!
• You get excited about almost everything except for swimming lessons and shots. (Although you did great at swimming lessons last summer after a couple days of getting used to it)
• You are such a special part of our family and I am so thankful that you are my little girl. You are brave and funny and perfect as the first child in our family. We love you so much Anna!

Yellowstone

A few more pictures of our summer vacation . . .

We stopped at Bear World in Rexburg, ID on our way up to the cabin and loved the petting zoo there.

Taylor convincing us that petting a baby deer is not scary.

Charlie chasing the chickens.

Scary Bears.

At the cabin Anna picked lots of wild flowers for me. She even found one that she was pretty sure was the magical flower from Tangled.

Yellowstone.

At the Cabin

We spent another fun family vacation at Taylor's parents' cabin in Island Park. Sometimes we talk about going somewhere else, but 1) we are afraid of staying at hotels with our kids, and 2) we just really love the cabin. It is one of Taylor's favorite places on earth and that is obvious when we are there. We all love it, though. It has become a special place to our kids too. So here is some of the fun we had. . .

For the first few days we were there with just our family and it was so good to have Taylor all to ourselves. We put together this Aladin puzzle we found that had 200 pieces. (Charlie tried his hardest to thwart our efforts.)

We ate Captain Crunch because Taylor shopped for us and because we were on vacation.

We played baseball.

We threw rocks in the lake. Buckets of them.

And when Grandma and Grandpa came up we played in the water. I love how much my kids like to ride in the boat. I am a paranoid mother, and am constantly worried about the water while we are at the lake (although of course I have lots of help with the kids), but this year we seemed a little more under control--especially Anna and Max. They are pros at the boat and the jet skies now.

It's a good thing Grandma Sonja sent me some of their pictures because I for some reason didn't get any of Grandma and Grandpa, and here's at least a couple of Grandpa. We really love being with them and Uncle Casey and had so much fun together!!!