My favorite milestone!!

We have a reader in the house!!  I should correct that...We have one voracious reader and one up and coming reader!  A few weeks ago I was looking at a book with Broden and it struck me that since he's known all of his letters and their sounds for awhile, there's nothing in the way of him reading.  I got out some of the books my mom gave me from when she taught 1st grade (which we had never read), and selected Max the Cat.  He sat down with me and read the whole thing (very slowly, of course) with very little help!  I love all of the milestones.  It's fun to see my babies, crawl, walk, begin to talk, but this is hands down my very favorite milestone ever!  Way to go Broden!  Sorry it took me so long to realize you could do it! Now what are we going to do for the next year and a half until you start kindergarten?

*Edit*

I snuck into Broden's room hoping to get a little clip of him reading to put on here.  It is very long, because Jacey ended up recording for me, and well... he's just not the speediest reader yet. :) 

Sadie missed the memo

Someone forgot to tell this little girl that it is her responsibility to never grow up and stay my baby forever.  I ran across Jacey's old recital costume in Sadie's closet, and my curiosity got the best of me.  I almost cried when it *almost* fit her.  Yes, I did have to tie the straps in the back for modesty. :)  The sad thing?  This wasn't even from Jacey's first recital!  Can you believe that Jacey is in her 6th year of ballet?  I am so looking forward to the girly world Sadie has ahead of her.  Now we'll just have to figure out a way to afford two dancers in the family if it's something Sadie decides she wants to do :)  Seriously though, how cute is she?  She is becoming more and more fun every day, and we can't imagine life without her!

Fun lunch surprise

We love Washington.  We really do.  I will admit, though, sometimes during late winter/early spring I need to remind myself of that.  I never used to give much credit to the whole "seasonal depression" theory.  Then we moved to Texas, and I realized that I really just love sunshine.  I didn't mind the 100+ degree temperatures in the summer as long as we could be at the pool.  Really, I just love waking up in the morning to bright sunny skies.  It makes me happy.  Don't get alarmed- I don't suffer from seasonal depression.  I'm not sad.  I'm not grumpy all of the time.  I don't lock myself inside all winter waiting for the sun to come back.  In fact, I don't really notice a big difference until we do have a fluke sunny day in the middle of February or March.  It makes me giddy, and I actually look forward to getting outside and doing some weeding.  But I will say that when we lived in Texas I couldn't drive 5 minutes away and feel like I was on my way to go camping.  We couldn't drive to Grandma and Grandpa's only an hour and fifteen minutes away and literally go over the river (and mountain!) and through the woods.  We went to NW Trek last weekend (an outdoor wildlife park) and I was reminded of why I love living where I do.  I love the mountains and the woods.  I love the wildlife.  Which brings me to our fun lunch surprise.

We were sitting at the table eating lunch, and all of the sudden Jacey looked out the sliding glass door and said, "We have an eagle in our backyard!"  Poor girl, we didn't really believe her.  We looked out the window expecting to correct her.  Then Dan says, "That's a bald eagle!"  Sure enough, up in the tree just on the other side of our fence was a bald eagle.  I do not have a fancy camera, nor do I claim to be an expert wildlife photographer.  In fact, I took the pictures so fast that I didn't even take the time to put my camera on the right setting before I took it.  But there you have it.  A bald eagle right here in Puyallup, Washington.  I really do love where we live. :)