Happy Birthday Daddy

Daddy's birthday celebration was spent on the water again this year. Every year David and Annita Watson treat Chris and our family to a day on the lake. This was the best year yet!

Chris, Lauren, Katie, Brooklyn, Chantelle
We wake-surfed...who knows if I am saying that right!

Did some gentle and EXTREME tubing....Blake, Chris, Katie, Lauren & Brooklyn,& Caleb

Relaxed in the boat...Caleb and (toothless) Brooklyn

Relaxed/Explored in the water...Caleb and Lauren with the log they found.

Jumped off cliffs...Chris and Brooklyn jumped off a 30'+ cliff together. Then the girls did it by themselves on a shorter jump. (Brooklyn above)

There goes Katie

And of course Brooklyn did some wake surfing again this year with her Dad.

The girls had such a great time and are scared of nothing! I love that about their personalities, but it makes me nervous some times too.

Happy Birthday to Chris who is the funnest, kindest most caring Daddy we know!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

We just love this holiday and all it represents. It has felt even more special as we have celebrated it in Vale, Oregon, with my family for the past 5 years!

Lauren, Brooklyn, Katie
Red,White & Blue layered cupcakes (thank you Carla Parker for your great idea/recipe)

Waiting for the parade......

Lauren, Ella & Brooklyn waving to everyone!

Cute cousin Ella

Resting in the shade.

Katie and Ali

Most of the Hiatt gang :)

This is "My First Rodeo!"

One of the things I love about going home to Oregon in the summer time is the 4th of July. Vale has a 4 day rodeo and the whole town comes alive with cowboys and Oregon Trail Day events. Each July 2nd, there is the Vale Suicide Race where contestants enter to race their horse down this mountain (you can see the trail at the top right) across the river (the people at the bottom of the picture are standing at the river bank) and into the rodeo arena. It is started with dynamite and is super exciting. This year there was a record number of people attending that night. 16,000! That might not sound like a lot, but the town only has a population of 1,600. :)

Very Exciting! Katie and I went on July 2nd and then I took the little girls for their first time on the night of the 4th.

Lauren enjoyed the cotton candy

Brooklyn enjoyed the popcorn, soda and ice at the bottom of her drink!
(notice the ice ring on her finger)

Katie snacked on everything and loved the glow sticks when it got dark. She also LOOOVED seeing the bull riding.

Katie reeeeeeaaallly wanted the bulls to knock over the clowns pink barrel. The girls all giggled at the silly clown. :)

Just For Daddy

We are sending this to our Daddy from Oregon. He is home in Tennessee working hard so that we can play! What a great Daddy! We miss you!!!

Fun with scissors

The odds were against me...3 heads of long hair, obsession with scissors....a "personal haircut" was bound to happen. However, to be really honest, I was shocked and never saw it coming!

The first week of March, Lauren and Brooklyn were in the playroom coloring and cutting (like usual.) All of a sudden Katie comes running to me telling me that Lauren was cutting her hair.

This picture doesn't really do it justice and when her hair is down it is super noticeable. The right front of hair was cut about 3 inches long. :)

Busted!!!
Most of the hair. I did find another pile about a week later. LOL....I didn't even clean it up. Chris had to do it when he got home. I was so upset that she did that. Over it now, thank goodness, but discouraged at the time. :) Good thing I thought to take the pictures!
Making memories...

Flowers from Daddy

The girls got a special surprise this valentines Day when Daddy got them all flowers. Some of us big girls might argue that flowers, though VERY thoughtful, are a waste of money. However, these little girls felt so special!!! We combined all their flowers into one vase and they took great care of them. :)

Grumpy face Brooklyn wanted to hold the flowers by herself!
Katie

Lauren

Brooklyn.......now she's happy!

Tiny Dancers

September 2010-May 2011 - Katie took dance lessons with Miss Debra. Her cute little class had 5 girls who are all good friends and all had preschool together as well. They did 30 minutes of tap and 30 minutes of ballet.

All the girls improved a lot by the end of the year and all learned a lot. The cutest part for our family was watching Brooklyn, watch the big girls. She had a chair outside the dance floor that she would sit on and watch all of their dance moves. Lauren would watch a little bit but Brooklyn was intent on doing what they did. She would come home and put on her church shoes because they were the closest thing to tap shoes she could find and they would make a nice little sound on our floors. I later found Brooklyn andLauren some tap shoes at a consignment sale for $4!!! She wears them daily and calls them her "tap tap's!"

Another cute Brooklyn dance story: In April Miss Debra was doing ballet with the girls. She put her feet and body in a position and asked the girls what it was called. Suddenly from the corner chair Brooklyn yelled "releve!" It totally shocked Miss Debra. She praised Brookie for knowing what it was. Then she did another position and asked her class what that was called and again from the corner of the room she hears "plie!"

She now puts her dance shoes on pretends to be Miss Debra and tell her class (Lauren) what to do! Too cute!

Pajama Day at Preschool

Pajama Day at preschool was exciting. We woke up and put on a clean pair of princess jammies (which REALLY confused the kids), put on our rain boots since it was pouring rain outside, and headed to preschool.

Katie's favorite princess is Jasmine, but a close second is Belle

Lauren's in her Tiana pj's

Brooklyn in her Cinderella pj's. Brookie likes Cinderella and that is it!

A Fairytale Party

Lauren and Brooklyn celebrated their 3rd birthday "princess style" with a princess party at a fun spot in Franklin called Peek-a-boo Play Town, with friends and our family.

Katie came as Sleeping beauty, Lauren as her favorite...Tiana (from Princess & the Frog) and Brooklyn as Cinderella
The best part of the party was when Cinderella came! They were SO cute and SO excited that a princess came. I had told them that I wrote a letter to the castle and invited the princesses to come, but I was unsure if they were able to make it with their busy schedules and all. :)

All the kids were mesmerized!

Lauren, Cinderella, Brooklyn


Soon some bubbles got the attention of all the kiddos and we were ready to cut the cake.

Aren't these cakes SO great! Danielle Haines made them for us. A large castle for the guests, Tiana for Lauren and a Cinderella cake for Brooklyn.

We sang to Lauren first and she blew out her candles.

Brookie's turn! She loved that everyone sang the song again just for her.

Katie climbing

Lauren playing kitchen

2 Cinderella's

Lauren in the ball pit

Katie and Cinderella

Evy Wells

The Thompson family!!! Kevin must have been excited for Cinderella too!

I just love this picture! This was as close as Luke would get to the beautiful princess and he would barely look at me for a photo. :)

Sarah Jane even came to our party! The girls just love SJ and she is SO good to them. Thanks for stopping by Sarah Jane!

Lori & Aleigha, 2 special people in the twins lives.
Most of the gang.

Lauren & Brooklyn: We are so happy to have you in our family! We love you both so much and are so thankful that you were sent to us. Daddy and I can't believe that you are 3 already. Time sure flies when you are having fun.