Natalie's Birthday party #2

This was Natalie's birthday party at our house on her birthday. Yes, there were a lot of kids. I'm just glad it was a nice day and we didn't have to all cram into my house. It was mostly friends from the ward, Bonnie and her kids, and Andy with his kids. Natalie had a great time and still asks when she can have a party and have her friends come over. Maybe next year we won't try to have so many over, or just have a bigger house. I guess we'll see.
This is the Ariel doll she got from us for her birthday. She had a great day. When daddy got home we went to Culvers for dinner and she got free ice cream. Then we went and let her pick out her Ariel doll and she also got a princess backpack that she loves. It has wheels on it. Then we went to the $3 movie and saw Kung Fu Panda.
Her shirt says, "My birthday wish list, Pink presents, pink cake, pink balloons, pink ice cream." The invitation says, "Think pink, Come to Natalie's birthday party where she wants everything pink. Pink cake, pink candles, pink balloons, pink presents, (pink presents not required).

Natalie's Birthday with the Maddox's

I know this is late. Natalie had a great time celebrating her birthday with Marc's parents. She wanted everything pink! Grandma did a great job, with pink pj's, a princess dress, with tights, socks, a pink tutu, and yes, even a pink cheese cake. She loved it all and we all had a blast that night watching her open her presents and be together. Thanks a ton to Grandma Maddox!

Colliers, Turley, Martin, and Tucker

We are excited to announce that Marc accepted a full time position with a real estate firm called Colliers, Turley, Martin, and Tucker. Thank you Scott Morgan for refering us to this company. Marc is also in a class with a lady who works there. We think she had a hand in helping him get the position. We are extremely thrilled this has finally arrived. It sure has been a struggle for us to wait this long. In fact it's been so long that it took a while to settle and realize how excited we are. These are our, yeah, daddy got a job faces. He starts on the 17th of November and our insurance will start in January, which is a huge blessing! The office he will be working at is up by the airport. No plans of moving up that way any time soon, but we'll keep you posted. Marc will still be working toward his CPA, who knows, maybe the company will help cover the cost of the exam. Thanks to everyone for your fasting, prayers, and help through all this, we greatly appreciate it!

Our trip to Michigan

So these pictures are long over due. It's been busy couple of months. Now I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. We took a trip to Michigan Labor Day weekend to see our friends, Scott and Faith. It was very fun, but seemed to go by too quickly. I found out that Faith's friend has a common uncle. My uncle Terry Hatch is her dad's brother (David). Anyway we had a great time, thanks to the Morgans. Hope to see you again soon.

Julia is Walking!!

These are some fun Halloween outfits I love. I love having the girls match occasionally, it's fun. The first ones Marc's mom got for the girls. They have cats on the shirts. The others have spiders on them. "The girl spider has a bow, but the boy spider doesn't have a bow. Boys don't wear bows, they wear hats. But mommy wears bows and hats." (quote from Natalie) I think my favorite time of year is fall these days. I love winter cloths, pumpkin anything, hot chocolate, fall colors, the leaves changing and Halloween and all the fun that goes with that. Plus with colder days you are forced to stay in more and get things done around the house that are hard to do when it's so nice out. We have a group called music makers in our ward that gets together on Fridays and we sing songs with the kids and then let them play together. This month is Halloween songs and Natalie loves them all, we sing them everyday while we eat our lunch or periodically throughout the day.

Fun Girl's Nights

Well, with hockey season here once again, and Marc in school on Mondays and playing basketball on Tuesdays, I decided to make the most of the nights without him. So the girls and I have been doing fun crafts, going to the library and other activites, to make the time pass quickly and have as much fun as we can together. They grow up sooo fast! Here's one of our girl's night activities. We made cookies together while Marc was at a hockey game and then took them to some friends while he was playing golf on Saturday. We left the cookies at their doorsteps with a note that said You have been BOOED (an idea I got from Terica). Then we went to the ward hayride that night while he was at a hockey game. Last night during his basketball night, we went to a trunk-or-treat party at the school with some friends in the ward. The kids loved dressing up in their costumes and going around. They also had a firetruck there. Natalie asked the guy if she could get in and he let her sit up in one of the seats. Then he gave her a fire hat and a coloring book. Tomorrow night we get to go to the hockey game with Marc. The kids get in free if they wear their costume, so we're going as a family. Natalie is so excited. She crys whenever daddy leaves for the games and always asks if she can go with him, but she doesn't get in free anymore. So she gets to go Thursday and then again in December the whole family is going after Christmas. We're keeping busy, and having fun!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

These are bows I made for my neice Brooklyn for her birthday. I really hope they like them, it took me so long to make them, especially the rose one. Happy Birthday Brooklyn, we love you and miss you. Brooklyn and Natalie are 10 days apart, we wish we lived close so they could play together, hopefully we'll see each other soon.

We spent a great confrence weekend with Andy and Terica. This is Natalie and Jadeyn reading stories to baby Paxton (who is so precious and cute!). Julia and Maddox are our little kissing cousins. They are so cute together. Maddox comes up and hugs and kisses her and she just lights up. Then he was sharing his breakfast with her. It was a bummer to sit down and turn on the TV only to find out that Charter wasn't broadcasting it until the 15th and 16th. But we worked it out and watched on the internet. This didn't stop us from having a fun weekend together. Terica made cupcakes and we sang to mom and Andy for their birthdays.

Natalie was so cute this morning. I stayed the night at my parent's last night and stayed up til 1:15 helping Cami with a project on the holocaust. It turned out really good, but I didn't get much sleep. Anyway, Natalie came in around 8:00 and pulled back the curtains and said, "Mom it's time to get up. The sun is awake and the moon went to bed, so we need to play now. So get up sweetie." Then she stroked my face. It was so precious, I wanted to hold on to the memory forever.
And b.t.w. Cami called me after school today to tell me that everyone loved her poster(I'll see if I can get a picture of it). I helped her write a poem and her teacher said it was so good that she could take it and give it to the people at the holocaust museaum next week. I was happy to hear this because the whole project was making me frustrated and that doesn't happen very easily.