Happy Birthday Dear Lily!

Today Lily is 4 years old!!!! Where does the time go? She has been looking forward to her birthday for quite some time now. We have told her, "Your birthday is not until the spring," and "Your birthday is at Easter time," and so she has been asking, "is it Spring yet?" and "Is it Easter?" Yesterday we told her that the next day was her birthday, and she replied, "You mean it is Spring tomorrow?"

We love Lily so much! She is so fun and great to be around! We were in the grocery store the other day and we walked past a lady who had some Easter lilies in her cart, and Lily said to her, "Those are lilies, and I am Lily!" The lady thought it was so cute. Lately she has been asking a lot about what she was like as a baby, and how did she say certain words. She is so funny sometimes!

We are having a joint birthday party with the girls friends and cousins on Friday, Izzy's birthday, but today we still had a little family party with just us. We then went to the zoo, where the girls could pet the new baby chicks, and make a butterfly craft. After, we went swimming at the Kinsmen, on Lily's request, as she got a new pair of goggles for her birthday today and was anxious to use them. All in all it was a great day, and it was nice to have both Ben and Izzy home with us to celebrate as it was a holiday.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures of the day:

She was a little scared of the sparkler :)

She snuck in a little smile here. Probably because she knew it was almost done!

She has been asking for this Alexa Barbie doll for a long time. It is the main character from the movie, "Barbie and the Diamond Castle," which she loves. She calls it a "LEE EXA Barbie." This picture shows how happy she was to get it!

The doll sings, and here is a picture of her singing and dancing along to it. It was so cute.

We decided to get both of the dolls from the movie. She loves them and is really good at sharing them.

Here are some pictures at the zoo:

Ben made a butterfly craft for Chloe because she was sleeping. She woke up shortly after this picture was taken.

Our 3 butterflies looking at the sea lions:

The petting zoo:

Coloring easter eggs:

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter! Yesterday for Easter Sunday, we went over to Ben's parents house for a potluck dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. It was great! Ben and I have been teaching the girls about Easter, why we have Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and it is nice because they are getting older and are able to learn and understand more. I am grateful for the Savior and for Easter.

Here are a few pictures Ben snapped yesterday of the celebration:

Here are some self taken photos before Church:

Having a good laugh at something funny Ben did:

"Gorgeous Baby"

Today I went in for my third and final ultrasound for this pregnancy. It was mostly just a double check from the last one. My original one had said the amniotic fluid levels were too low, and it put the baby at risk and classified this pregnancy as a "high risk" pregnancy. To my relief and great happiness, the second ultrasound actually showed the amniotic fluid levels were normal, and that the baby looked great. Today, after the ultrasound was all done, the doctor came in and said, "Everything looks perfect! Normal is normal. Its a gorgeous baby." As I was leaving the hospital, I was just filled with gratitude and happiness. I am so thankful to be having a fourth, healthy, beautiful baby. This ultrasound was the most clear one I have ever seen. I could see the rib cage, heart, stomach, fingers, mouth, everything! It was really clear for a black and white picture. We also saw today, that it is indeed another girl!!! We are so happy. 4 girls will be so great. She was sucking on her hand, moving around tonnes, and we could even see she had the hiccups! The ultrasound tech was actually the Primary President in my ward, and so it was nice to have someone who knew me and my family a little bit. The appointment was first thing in the morning, and it was a great way to start my day!

Good Work Ben

Ben got a bonus at work, (way to go Ben!!!) and we decided to buy a new camera, well two new cameras with it. We got an actual digital camcorder, so we can stop using our still image camera to take videos, and take longer videos if we want. The second one we got was a DSLR which we have wanted for a long time. It was the Canon Rebel EOS XS. It came with 2 lenses and so far we love it! Here are (quite) a few random pictures of us lately:

Oh, and ps. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This one's blurry but we still love it:

She's mad here because I took her soother away. We have got to wean her from that thing!

Some flowers Ben brought home to me one day:

Using the manual focus with a very wide aperture setting:

There are so many pictures of Chloe because I was playing with the camera while the older two were at school mostly, but here are a few of Izzy and Lily too:

Interview With the Kids

Some people on facebook have been doing this interview, and I wanted to do it and record it here. Both Ben and I asked Isabelle and Lily these questions, in different places and at different times, so they honestly didn't just copy each other. Sometimes they gave the same answer, it was cute! The answers they gave me are in blue, and the answers they gave Ben are in red.

What is something I always say to you?

Isabelle-"I love you."
Lily-"Be nice to me."

Isabelle-"I love you."
Lily-"I love you."


What makes me happy"

Isabelle-"Daddy tickling me."
Lily- "I make you happy."

Isabelle-"Me ticking you."
Lily-"I make you happy."


What makes me sad?

Isabelle- "When I fall off my bike."
Lily- "When me and Izzy are gone because a scary guy took us away." (Yikes that would make me sad!)

Isabelle- "When I fall down."
Lily- "I make you sad and say sorry."


How do I make you laugh?

Isabelle- "Tickling my nose."
Lily- "When daddy tickles me."

Isabelle- "Blowing on my tummy."
Lily- "Tickle."


What do you think I was like when I was little?

Isabelle- "With shorter hair and you had a littler head and a shorter neck."
Lily- "You said GA GA GA GA."

Isabelle- "Smaller and you also had a smaller nose."
Lily- "You would be a lion."


How old am I?

Isabelle- "27" (Right on!)
Lily- "7" (only 20 years off!)

Isabelle- "I don't know I can't remember."
Lily- "5."


How tall am I?

Isabelle- "That tall." (she spread her arms out as wide as they could go."
Lily- She didn't say anything, just ran her hand from my toes all the way up to my head.

Isabelle- "Taller than Mom."
Lily- "Tall as an elephant."


What is my favourite thing to do?

Isabelle- "Play with me."
Lily- "Hug me."

Isabelle- "Chasing me."
Lily- "Eat me."


What do I do when you're not around?

Isabelle- "Cook lunch and play with my sisters and clean up."
Lily- "You make dinner or a cake when its my birthday."

Isabelle- "Make a cake when its my birthday."
Lily- "Make a cake for me a butterfly one or a love one."



If I become famous, what will it be for?

Isabelle- "I don't know, watching movies."
Lily- "You'd be happy still."

Isabelle- "Play on a team, play on Manchester United."
Lily- "For your glasses." (Hey, look at Elton John!)


What am I really good at?

Isabelle- "Cooking."
Lily- "Making supper." (Glad they think so!)

Isabelle- "Playing soccer and winning."
Lily- "Doing supper."


What am I not good at?

Isabelle- "Skating." (This is true.)
Lily- "Not good at being in the igloo." (This is also true, I don't even think I could fit in our igloo!)

Isabelle- "Brushing my hair." (Ouch! I think he does a pretty good job!)
Lily- "The piano."



What is my job?

Isabelle- "To take care of us."
Lily- "Helping me."

Isabelle- "Going to work and taking care of telephones and our's."
Lily- "To get your pants on." (????)



What is my favorite food?

Isabelle- "Chicken pot pie."
Lily- "Apples."

Isabelle-"Seafood, crabs and lobsters."
Lily- "Fish."


What makes you proud of me?

Isabelle-"Helping me ride my bike and making the house clean."
Lily- "You be happy to me."

Isabelle-"When I'm playing at the playground and you make a cake for me when its not my birthday and we eat it."
Lily- "I would be nice to you."


If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?

Isabelle- "Animal Mechanical."
Lily- "A good guy."

Isabelle- "Larry Boy."
Lily- "Larry Boy."

What do you and I do together?

Isabelle-"Make cookies."
Lily- "Play the piano."

Isabelle- "Playing soccer."
Lily- "Play piano."


How are we the same?

Isabelle- "Same hair."
Lily- "We love each other."

Isabelle- "We have 2 of the same colour eyes, Brown, Brown."
Lily- She didn't know!


How are we different?

Isabelle- "Different colour of eyes."
Lily- "Hair."

Isabelle- "Our hair, 'cause mine is long and yours is shorter."
Lily- "You're a dad, and I'm a daughter."


How do you know that I love you?

Isabelle- "Because you always say it."
Lily- "You be kind to me."

Isabelle- "Because you always say it."
Lily- "You say I love you."


Where is my favorite place to go?

Isabelle- "The store."
Lily- "Costco."

Isabelle-"Disneyland." (Interesting even though he's never been there!)
Lily- "The jungle."

Millenium Place

On Friday afternoon, we went to Millenium Place out in Sherwood Park. It was really fun. For $17 our family enjoyed unlimited skating, swimming in the wavepool, and playing in the indoor playground. There is also a fitness center, indoor soccer courts, basketball court, and raquetball, but we didn't do any of those with the kids. We had a lot of fun. It was the girls' first time skating and they did so well! All 3 of them! Here are some videos of the girls skating.

These videos were taken the first 10 min we were there, and so the girls were all a little shaky and nervous, but by the time we left, they were just flying across the rink (while still holding onto the bars of course.) I never had a chance to videotape that, but here are the beginning videos:

Chloe with Mom:

Chloe with Dad:

Lily:

This video is mostly of Isabelle: