Berry Picking

This was probably one of the things in Oregon that I loved doing the most.  We went berry picking.  It was just so picturesque.  Nothing like being outside with gorgeous scenery, nice weather, eating blueberries, raspberries and marionberries right off the bush.  It didn't hurt that we finished the day at the farm playground drinking freshly made blueberry and strawberry shakes.

I feel like Ellie is left out of most of our posts.  She's such a sweet baby that she spends most of our outings asleep in her car seat, so I forget to take her picture.  She did wake up for a little bit of berry picking.

Happy Birthday James!!

One of these days James will have a birthday when we aren't in the middle of moving or on an away rotation. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen until his 4th birthday. Luckily, he still seems to have a bunch of fun. Below he is enjoying his birthday meal of mac 'n cheese. I don't think I've ever seen a kid down mac 'n cheese like James - he loves the stuff.

Here are a few pictures of James opening presents. The first thing he opened was a card that sang Old McDonald. He liked it so much that I had to hide the card so he would actually open his presents.

Tori loves being the big sister and helping out during birthdays.

Below is our birthday boy wearing his new train pj's to bed (sleeping in the Donigan's pack 'n play, because the poor boy's crib is already packed on the moving truck - he didn't seem to mind).

Tori's Dance Recital 2011

Another year - another dance recital. :) Tori sure loves everything about dancing - especially getting all dressed up for the recital. Below are pictures of her class in their tap and ballet costumes.

I've included probably more videos than anyone except for Grandma will watch. The first video of them doing their recital dance in the studio I like the best since you can really see Tori and her facial expressions. I was impressed with how she can move her hips - I thought it was very fun to watch. :)

Here is a picture of what Ellie was thankfully doing while I was video taping (James as you can see in the video was not sleeping).

Siri and Tori right after the dress rehearsal. Below James wanted to be in a picture, too.

Jaci, Tori, Claire, & Siri striking a pose right before the dance recital.

Proud, but sleepy family after Tori's recital (it didn't end until after 9pm).

Ellie's Blessing

We blessed Eleanor Marie on May 8th - Mother's Day. What a wonderful Mother's Day present! Ellie was a sweet, wonderful baby for her blessing. She is actually wearing the blessing outfit that I wore when I was blessed. It was really great getting to have both grandmas and grandpa for the blessing.

We tried to get some pictures of everyone holding Ellie on her special day.
Poor sweet Ellie had had enough pictures for one day. :)

Ellie's First Bath

Here is Ellie taking her first bath. Tori was a big helper. (James is already in bed.)

Ellie wasn't too thrilled with her very first bath, but she is such a sweet little baby that she hardly protests and even when she does, her cry is not super loud.

Ellie did like being held by Tori after the bath, though.

The girls all cleaned up and ready for bed.

Birthday Party

Here are some pictures of Tori's birthday party with some friends. Above is her cake (she picked out the cake pan at our local library and helped me frost some of the skirt. She was so excited about the cake a begged me to make it for the whole week before her party. Unfortunately, after I frosted part of it and left some for Tori to do the cake started to fall apart in some places as you can see above. John helped me doctor it up with A LOT more icing and below is how it looked afterwards. It all turned out fine and no one cared, but it was quite a frustrating experience for me nonetheless.

Above, Tori getting ready to blow out the candle while her friends sang to her.

Below she is playing pin the tail on the donkey.

This was the first birthday that she had a pinata and she was so excited and did a pretty good job destroying it. :)

It was a very crazy day for mom and dad, but I think Tori and the kids had a blast. Luckily, James slept through most of the party which made it a little easier to handle all the chaos. What made the day even more exhausting, but also exciting, was that we ended up (unplanned) buying a new car that same day.