I haven't blogged in a while but my sweet friend Candice inspired me to start again. A lot has happened since my last post. We have added two more children to our family. Thaddeus is my little man who has completely stolen my heart. He brings a smile to my face every day!!! He is 2 years old. Violet was born 7 months ago and is the sweetest, calmest baby doll. I am constantly reminding my other children that she isn't a toy but an actual baby so they have to be gentle and kind to her.  I love being a mom to 4 energetic, fun and intelligent children. They keep me entertained and enjoying life!

 Jeremy has been out of town a lot this month. When bedtime finally arrives, I have to celebrate!!! Bedtime, WOOHOO!!!

Sleeping babies has always been my favorite thing!!

Zoe has recently discovered her calling in life. She is an artist. An artist of hair (just chopped hers off all by herself), clothes, shoes, photography, drawing, dancing, food (she loves to cook) and everything else she does. She is definitely going places. I love that busy girl.

Clara has recently discovered puzzles.  She is really good at them and enjoyes doing them all by herself.

 At the library, they had ballerinas come and perform.  Clara was so excited to meet the real ballerinas.  They danced and even gave the children hugs.

 We love feeding the ducks!  Grandma Lifferth is so fun to bring us to the pond and help us.  We also see turtles and lots of fish.

 I started serious running back in January.  I joined an awesome running group that I do 3-4 runs with every week.  We did a 1/2 marathon in April together and I got my best time.  I love running now and I'm totally addicted!!  Its helped me so much in so many ways!!  I love my running buddies!

 Emma spent a few days with us.  Clara and Zoe loved having a fun big sister to play with!

 I was so excited to have Shala, Brennley and McKay come visit!!  We had a wonderful 2 weeks with them.  We ran, played, ate, traveled and partied together!!  I love my sister Shala!  We have an awesome friendship that gives me so much strength.

 We had a blast in Florida!!  Dan & Kelly kindly invited us to join them at a house on the beach for a week in St. George Island.  The house was huge and located right on the beautiful sandy beaches.  Clara & Zoe loved playing on the beach in the sand & the water.

 The cousins had so much fun being together!  They played and spent every second together.  When we left Clara, talked about her friends and how much she missed them.

 Uncle Steve & Aunt Diana drove down to visit with us one afternoon.  It was great spending time with them.  They brought us some delicious Mullet dip.  Yum-yum!!

 On our way home we stopped and ate lunch with Aunt Nana.  She treated us to ice cream as well!!  The girls were in heaven with Aunt Nana!

Happy 5 Year Anniversary!!!

 

Jeremy and I were married 5 years ago on July 14, 2007.  We love being married and enjoy every day of being with each other!

 For our anniversary, we went to the temple where we were married, ate a yummy lunch and then checked into the Opryland Hotel for the night. (huge thanks to Josh & Melody for making that possible!!!)  The dancing water shows were awesome!  Jeremy caught this great picture of a water heart.  LOVE!

We love the library!!

 We have 2 awesome libraries within 5 miles of our of house.  We attend the library atleast once a week for story time. 

 It's always a treat when Dad can come to the library with us.  Dad's a great story teller!

 Zoe's a sweet little angel, especially when she first wakes up in the morning. 

Cheese!

Zoe's 1st Birthday

Zoe loves Jello!  So she had a Jello cake and she loved it!  Grandma & Grandpa Lifferth, Grandma & Grandpa Zurawski, Clara, Mom & Dad were the guests at her party.  Sydney and Sadie stopped by also.  Zoe loves reading books so for the activity we all took turns reading to Zoe.  She had a wonderful 1st birthday!

November

Our neighbor, Jen, watched the girls one night so Jeremy and I could go on a date! It was so fun to be out with my best friend and husband! Jen took this cute picture of the girls.

Zoe loves swinging! She smiles and laughs everytime she swings! Its the cutest thing!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Michigan and Illinois to visit family. We visited with Uncle Edward and Aunt Evelyn in Chicago. We stayed with Dan and his beautiful family for most of the week in Michigan. We had so much fun playing with them, we didn't want to leave! One highlight from the week was our trip to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Clara & Zoe looked so silly all bundled up to play outside in the cold!

Clara is a big helper. She helped me rake leaves for our neighbors. She loved being a part of making someone happy! :)

October

Sorry, you are not gonna find any Halloween pictures on my October post. On Halloween, we were driving back home from Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Lifferth. We left for Utah on October 19th and returned home on October 31st. While we were there, we celebrated David & Ryan Gage's birthdays, went to Daren & Katie Lifferth's wedding reception, went to David & Mary's Halloween Party, visited with Grandma Wanda Lifferth the day before she passed away, surprised Melody Zurawski with a fun visit, attended Andrew's Priesthood Ordination, attended Wanda's viewing/funeral in Utah, funeral & burial in Montana and we visited with a lot of friends and family! (I'm sure I'm leaving something out....) We had an action packed trip!

Zoe & Clara did great on the road trip!! We were in the car for almost 90 hours and there were only a few difficult moments. I am sure the girls did so well because Grandma & Grandpa Lifferth were there to help me. They made the trip easy and fun! I hope we will always remember the wonderful memories we made on this awesome trip to Utah & Montana.

Clara was so excited when we stopped in Denver to visit with Aunt Sandy. She lives right across the street from the temple so we walked over for a quick visit. Clara loves to see the temple!

After we made it to Utah, it took a few days before I could get either one of the girls back into their carseats. I don't blame them! We spent a lot of time playing outside since the weather was so nice. One day, we walked to the park with the Gage's and had so much fun playing! David, Jordan, Ryan and Mikaela are so wonderful with children!

This is Clara in front of Grandpa Henry & Grandma Wanda Lifferth's old home in Montana. While we were up in Montana for Grandma Wanda's funeral, we were able to visit some family history sites. Being at these sites brought back some wonderful memories of when I was little and we would go to Montana for Lifferth Family Reunions.

While in Montana, we crossed the border to Canada to take some pictures. We had a small run in with the border patrol, but, luckily, we all made it out alive.

Montana is goregous!! It was really cold & Clara got sick while we were in Montana, so we couldn't do as much outdoors, but we saw some really beautiful scenry.

Zoe is growing

This video is from a few months ago. Zoe has been jabbering for a while now. She started saying Dadadada and she still says that a lot. She loves her Daddy!

Zoe has been rolling since she was 4 months old. It used to be her main form of transportation. Now she is almost 8 months old and is on the move! She is crawling and enjoying being able to get around on her own. Its so fun to watch her determination and strength when she is going for something she wants.

Catching up....

I have a few pictures from the past few months that I want to post. Hopefully, I will get caught up and get back into my regular blogging schedule. Enjoy!

Jeremy is really good at playing with the girls on Saturday and Sunday mornings so I can sleep in a little. He's a wonderful dad and husband! We are the luckiest girls in the world to have him!

We were so surprised one Monday morning when Elder Gage and his companion showed up at our front door!! We love Elder Gage and pray for him every day. It's been so nice being able to be so close to him during his mission. He is a great missionary, cousin, nephew and example for so many!

This is what Clara wanted to do on her birthday. We went to the park and Clara played for as long as she wanted. She has no fears when it comes to climbing, playing, swinging and exploring. This is the biggest slide in the park and it was the first place she ran to when we arrived.

This is Zoe hanging out while we ate at IKEA in Atlanta!

Zoe loves reading and being read to. She especially loves laying in bed with Clara while we read bedtime stories.

This week we went to the park with Clara's friends Sam and Sadie. Clara played and had so much fun being outside in the beautiful weather!

Clara and Zoe love each other so much! They have been sleeping in the same room since Zoe was about 4 months old. They fall asleep laughing and talking to each other. Zoe laughs at almost anything Clara does. They are learning to share and play together. I love my girls and it makes me so happy to see them enjoying being sisters!