Four!!!

It is hard to believe that my spunky little girl is already four years old!  She has made life SO fun and always keeps us guessing.  It has been such an experience to watch her personality grow and to realize how completely different she is than me.  Maya is so similar to me that I can usually figure out what she is thinking... Laurel, not so much.  It can be a bit challenging, but I am really learning to love the different perspectives.

Some of my favorite things about four year old Laurel:

- Her energy.  If she is going anywhere, she tends to run there.  She doesn't do well just sitting still and is known to pace around a room in circles.  Until she is tired.  Then it is like someone turned a switch and she refuses to take another step and wants to be carried.  That has made for some fun adventures (can you sense the sarcasm?).

- Our morning snuggles.  Laurel is an early riser and almost every morning she makes her way into our room, usually between 6:30 and 6:45.  Rey is typically at the gym so she climbs into bed with me and we spend some time together snuggling, checking out the weather forecast and chatting about the day to come.  It is probably my favorite time of the day.

- Her sense of humor.  She is constantly making us laugh with her make-believe play, her jokes and her stories.

- How thoughtful she is.  Her valentines day card for us said,  I love you because: - you pray for me at night time! - you read books to me! - you give me hugs and kisses! - you take me to do fun things! She really thinks through what she wants to say.

- She still loves her art, although has a streak of perfectionism that can sometimes make it challenging to complete a project.  We are working on understanding that not everything has be exactly perfect and it is a good thing when everything does things a little differently.

- She has quite the little temper and I have learned that sometimes it is best to give her a little time and space in order to work it out herself.

The Pink Lion Cubs

I finally got my act together and signed Maya up for a soccer team, we missed sign ups in the fall but managed to make it into the spring session.  The spring session is great for her to check out her skills and decide if soccer is a sport she enjoys as it is more relaxed; no score keeping, less rules and flexible practices.  We had our first game on Sunday and despite having not yet attended a practice (the first one was rained out) she did great!  A little hesitant at first, but by the end she was quite the little player.  Her team is the Pink Lion Cubs and she did not stop talking about it the rest of the afternoon - so far she seems hooked!

This little one spent most of the game on the playground.  Notice the shin guards? Someone was more than a little jealous of her big sister so I decided it was money well spent to grab her a pair as well.  She wore them around most of the day so her "legs were protected".  

A Princess

The theme for Laurel's class was Fairy Tales and to wrap it all up they got to dress up as a fairly tale character.  Laurel picked a princess.  She picked out the glittery dress and all the accessories she could find (which are typically not allowed at school so she was thrilled!).  And, in true Laurel style she finished it off with her rain boots.  I love that she still has her own sense of style and has no interest in conforming to what others might be considered the "correct way"!

Goofballs

Dancing is common in our house - especially for Laurel.  She has her own signature moves and is constantly showing them off.  A little video of the two of them demonstrating these moves for me. And no, there is no actual music, just the songs in their heads.

Sun River

At the last minute, the Knowles family decided to take a long weekend and spend some quality time together in Sun River, OR.   It was a much needed weekend of fun family time, kind of a "re-start" after a very long year and a celebration of what we have and what is to come. Unfortunately, the guys couldn't make it and were very much missed, but we do have the Roessler reunion to look forward to.   

Grandma was kind enough to take all 6 kids so we could have a 'Dad and Daughter' ski day.  The weather was gorgeous, there was snow(!) and there were no lines so we got in a full day of skiing. So much fun!

The second day we decided to take all of the kids up to the mountain with us (well, excluding Liam, of course).  We woke that morning with very low expectations on how the day would go... 5 kids, 6 and under who have only skied a few times, there was a great risk of it going very badly. Fortunately, we were completely wrong and it turned out to be an incredibly fun day.  All kids loved it and picked up new ski skills really quickly with little help from the grown ups.  They ended up skiing for hours, much longer than we expected and were all smiles!

 

The rest of the weekend was spending time with each other relaxing around the house, playing games, swimming at the pool and biking around the neighborhood.

The dominoes were a big hit and these two worked so well together to get them all set up.

These three spent many hours playing My Little Ponies, Princesses and Barbies.

Great bike riding paths.

Many, many snuggles.

Thanks for inviting us on such a fun trip, Grandma and Grandpa!  We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

A short season of skiing

We signed the girls up for ski lessons once again and unfortunately, mother nature did not cooperate this year. The snow levels were so low this year that the season never really took off and Snoqualmie closed entirely mid-February.  Poor Laurel has been waiting for the opportunity to ski for an entire year and is more than disappointed that there is probably not going to be any more trips to the mountain this year.  We did get in 3 weeks worth and here are a couple pictures.  Hopefully next year will be better!

The only one I have of Laurel... her and Callie getting ready to go on the Magic Carpet.

Liam and Maya hanging out while Laurel skis.

Ms Bre, Ella, Maya and Laney.  Spring skiing in January!

A Little Lady

Well, we are a few months into kindergarten and this little lady is thriving.  She is learning so much each and every day.  She is figuring life out and, although a bit cautious, loves to experience new things.  She has figured out that sometimes she just needs a few minutes to observe what is happening before jumping in and is becoming strong enough in herself to voice that.  She has such a big empathetic heart and together we are learning to balance the feelings of joy and worry.  All she wants is for everyone in her life to be happy and she almost always thinks of others before herself.

Maya, we love you with all our hearts and are so very proud of the person you are becoming. Thanks for making us feel like we did something right as parents :-)