our baby girl is one today...

happy 1st birthday Brooke Emerson Faith

you are a joy to us all

we love you with all of our hearts

xoxoxoxoxo

praise God from whom all blessings flow

a visit from grandpa daryle and grandma sandy

we sure enjoyed our special time with our grandparents! it is always a treat to have family come and stay with us:) how many sleeps? is the questions the kids always ask. now they want to know how many sleeps until you come again? thanks for making the trip over to spend time with us. we love you both very much! xoxoxo

happy birthday sam!!!

happy 4th birthday sam!

it is so hard to believe that when we moved away, sam was not even walking! he has gown up so much in the last few years (slow down little guy) he wants to grow big and strong so daddy will give him his own hunting knife! such a boy!

God is so good! we are so very thankful for Sam!!!

sam was so excited to come up and hunt for his presents!

sam was so proud of his new bike!

happy birthday hayley!!!

this year we hid hayley's presents (her idea) it was super fun!!! i think we have a new tradition! we decided to have a small family party this year and do a friend party next year (maybe every other year)

we had a wonderful day celebrating together with hayley! we are so thankful to God for giving us this little girl. i treasure each and every day we have together! what an amazing gift from God!

eight candles on that cake--oh how the years go by!

my best attempt at an American Girl breakfast:)

one year ago...

this picture was taken the day before little b was born!

leavenworth 2009

family photo:)

my sister , brother in law and 3 handsome nephews!

family sleigh ride! (i think we got all 13 faces in this photo-even little Brooke)

even the dolls needed a picture:)

a leavenworth starbucks--long line, but worth the wait:)

leavenworth is such a beautiful little town. a little something for everyone! we can't wait to go again!!! i was so sad to say goodbye. our family went east and everyone else went west. it was so good to all be together at Christmas! thank you sis for making this happen:)

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

long story short-we are getting a fake tree! i am still not 100% for this idea, but this perfect little tree has been a complete nightmare! literally! it toppled over at 2:45 am--we were up for hours trying to make it work, then we decided to take all of the remaining decorations off and toss the tree! the kids woke up and thought maybe the Grinch came in and took our tree! the sad part is, is that some of our most special ornaments were shattered into pieces.

Our annual trip to the tree farm will now be to get just a small tree for the kids to have in the playroom and decorate with popcorn and paper chains. time for new traditions.

it was much much worse than it looks!

this is the best part-opening and talking about each ornament!

little did he know-in less than 48 hours this tree would be tossed over the hill near our house:)

on our way to the tree farm we spotted a herd of elk! i love where we live! (you may have to click on the picture in order to see them)