Birthdays

It has been a while since I wrote here. Since then, Rachel has turned three and is potty trained, finally! And the twins have turned 2! They are soon to be moving into big girl beds. It is hard to believe they are toddlers. When our twins were first born, we could look ahead and think about what it would be like to have a three year old and two 2 year olds. Now we are experiencing it. With all the tantrums, there does come some ease in the fact that they do all play together a bit. So as much as they fight, they also do play together. It is great to see them interact and care about each other. Whenever Elizabeth and Lauren wake up from their naps, they always ask for Rachel wondering if she is up too. They do love to be together.

Rachel was able to have her birthday party in Michigan and celebrate with her cousins. She had a princess party and got her first princess dress. She has entered the dress up and performance stage. She loves to sing songs, ones she knows and ones she makes up. Recently, she learned some of "O, Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bells". Those are her newest songs in addition to Jesus Loves me, and the classic nursery rhyme songs. She is starting to be able to tell me the first letters of different words. Like Bear starts with a "B" and Dog starts with a "D". It is just so fun to see her learning new things all the time. She is growing so much, except not fast enough since her little sister, Elizabeth is almost as tall as Rachel and weighs just a bit more than her. I think Elizabeth may be the tallest of the bunch.

Lauren and Elizabeth had a friend birthday party at the pumpkin patch. It was a little chilly, but the sun was out. Everyone had a great time seeing the farm animals, and playing in the hay bale maze. The girls have such good little friends.
Lauren is really talking all the time. She will repeat anything that anyone says. She even will repeat it a million times too. She is starting to learn her shapes and letters, but still haven't quite gotten it yet. Lauren really enjoys to play with play doh and also to color. Both of the girls have enjoyed playing dress up too now that they have little skirts and tops of disney princesses too. I think that is what they will be for halloween.

Elizabeth is such a sweet girl. She loves to be tickled and loves one on one attention. That is when she really thrives. She is pretty quiet when it comes to talking but is starting to communicate more that way. Elizabeth loves to run. She just enjoys being chased and running in the yard. Lizzy really loves doggies a lot. All the stuffed animals she likes best are the doggies. I am sure one day we will have to get a real dog. But I am a little unsure about that :)

Dana and I are doing well too. We celebrated our 6th anniversary this summer. We keep even more busy by doing house projects, the basement bathroom remodel right now, and other small touch-ups around the house. Dana has been working the day shift this year, but will go back to early swing shift next year. We both think he will enjoy that shift a little more. It should work out with the kids too since they will see their dad a couple more hours in the mornings. Our small group is going well. We have a great group of couples joining us each week.