First Day of Preschool

It's hard to believe Isabelle has started preschool (back in the beginning of Sept). What happened to our little baby girl? She is growing up so fast and she is definitely ready for school! She amazes us everyday with all the things she can do. She has such a great imagination, such a joy for life (we have never once seen her bored or show any sign of being bored), is excellent at writing and drawing, and is so sweet around other kids. We know she will have no trouble adjusting.

Getting ready to leave the house.

 One last bike ride around the lake before heading out.

  

 Hugs goodbye to Markee.

 A little nervous as we get ready to walk through the doors. 

 

Another goodbye hug to Markee. 

 A little less nervous as we walk through her classroom door.

And totally excited to see her teacher! Her teacher came to our house a couple weeks before school to meet Isabelle and the school also had a lemonade party where she got to meet all her classmates. So, in Isabelle's mind there was only excitement to see everyone again. I'm pretty sure I was more emotional at her leaving than she was. I'll  never forget the moment, "Bye Mom, I love you," and off she runs to have a seat with the other kids. No fear, no sadness, nothing but happiness to start school! Jamie picked her up and got to enjoy her running towards him when school ended. I'm a little jealous, but I'm so glad Jamie got to be the one to meet her after her first day! We love you Belle and know you will do wonderful in preschool!

Art and Bikes

We're starting to believe we have an artist on the way. Isabelle has always been interested in art. She loves sculptures, loves going to the art museum, and loves to draw. Here she is telling us all about these statues.....every little feature possible.

 Can you guess what this is? If you guessed octopus you were right on. Octopus have hair, right?

She drew these and then wanted me to label them. I thought they were pretty fantastic, but I'm her mom, so I guess I'm biased.

 

She's also getting really good at writing her name. If you'd like to see it you can come to her room and find it written in crayon on the side of her bed. Yes, we weren't ecstatic about the fact it was written on her bed, but can you really get mad at her for writing her name almost perfect? She also did a really good job writing  'M' on Mark's crib.  I think we're ready for preschool.

Mark is our little bike rider. He loves being on bikes. Normally you find him wearing his bike helmet whether he's on a bike or off. He would wear it all day long if we let him. I'm not quite sure how I got these pictures with no bike helmet. My guess is we couldn't find it in our mess of toys laying in the backyard. 

Fourth of July

We escaped the daily updating of the new house and made our way to Vail for the 4th of July. It was a great family vacation. Very relaxing and a much needed three day vacation.

Jamie loaded Mark up with tons of sunscreen and continued to smear it into his hair giving him this rockin' look.

 Mark wasn't sure what to think of his first parade. A little overwhelming and loud, I think.

Belle enjoyed it, especially when they threw candy from the floats!

Swimming,Soccer, and Digging

Still catching up on our summer....

Isabelle played soccer over the summer. Here is her team of all girls. It was hilarious to watch all these 3 year old's trying to play a game. Most of them stood there wondering what the heck was going on while others chased the ball with no idea what to do with it. Isabelle was one of the chasers, which was no surprise to us. This child has lots of energy and loves any new experience she can have!

Belle also took swim lessons at our local rec center.

 

While Belle played soccer and swam, Mark played with his dinosaurs and helped dad dig in the yard. He also did a little swimming.

The New House

 June consisted of very little picture taking. We pretty much spend the entire month renovating our new house. We still have a ton to do and will be working on it for years, but we are loving the new place and all the space we have. The best part of our house is the lake in our backyard. We still have a hard time believing this our place. We feel so lucky to be living here.

This is the backyard leading to the lake. We hope to extend the fence out closer to the lake someday.

 

  

This is just one of the many sunsets we have been able to watch.

 We even have a neighbor who owns this train and takes it around the lake. Isabelle got to take a ride and loved every second of it. Sierra wishes she could have jumped on (see her down there trying to get on?) Mark, unfortunately, was napping, so he'll have to ride it next time.

 Isabelle and Mark have adjusted to our new house very quickly. Here are the few pictures I took of our sweet little kids loving each other's company and the new house.

One of the highlights of June was "Pirate Daddy." Jamie saw some guy walking that looked like a pirate and started doing pirate talk. Well, since then, all our kids want is "Pirate Daddy." We play a lot of "pirate" these days. Jamie rocks at it, I stink at it, thus why it's called "Pirate Daddy."

Why We've Been So Busy...

In June we sold our old house and moved into a new house. This all happened, quite surprisingly, within a month. We found a house we loved, we completely cleared out our old house, sold it in days, and moved into the new house. I'm not even quite sure what was going on the month of June since everything was happening so fast.

This post is dedicated to our Elati house, so most of you won't find it interesting. I wanted our kids to be able to see where their first years started, and so that Jamie and I can always remember the great memories of the beginning of our life together. We have lots of wonderful memories there that we will forever hold on to. We even drive by it now and then to see how it looks (and nothing has changed). We'll miss you Elati house, but we have found bigger and better.

Cheers to you Elati house, looking your best for our showings.

 Our last week. Isabelle helping me get started on packing the kitchen.

 Mark helping dad mow the lawn...one last time.