4 then 5

For her birthday, my sweet girl wanted her ears pierced!!!

In the above picture, Annabelle is 5. The picture below is the last night as a 4 year old. Can you tell she's excited about her birthday?!

My Annabelle has a contagious laugh. She loves her siblings tremendously. She alone figured out how to get Eliza to give kisses when she's being stubborn. She is a rule follower. Annabelle loves to COLOR COLOR COLOR. And cut, paste, draw, write, anything crafty really. She has a sweet voice but can get feisty when she wants to. We LOVE our girl. Her name means gracious and beautiful and she sure does live up to that! Love you Sweet Girl.

VandenBerg Cousins

Hotel Fun!

Starting last year, instead of gifts, my mom and Jeff get a hotel for us on Christmas afternoon and we all hang out and of course SWIM. It's a lot of fun! This year Darrin and I and the big kids, along with my brother Curt took time away from the pool to go see We Bought a Zoo which was really good. There was a bit more "language" than I would have liked for the kids but I think it went right over their heads. Here are a few pictures from the hotel.

Christmas Morning

Date Night

Like last year, Annabelle and I went on a date to the Methodist church Christmas cantata. We really enjoy it and hope to make it a yearly tradition.

Christmas in Colon

Christmas in Colon was early in December. Here are a few shots from that night. My memory card was full by the time the kids got to sit on Santa's lap. I was so bummed but was thankful I had gotten the picture with Santa from Walmart.

SANTA!

Eliza can clearly say "Santa." But we ask her often, "Do you love Santa?"... and she very emphatically shakes her head NO! Don't you just love this picture?!?

5 then 6

In the above picture my sweet Bennett is 6! I took a picture on the last day he was 5. It's the picture below. Does he look younger :)??

Bennett loves to run, ride his bike, color, and imagine up cool ideas! He enjoys learning how to do things to make himself more independent...like make his own Coco Wheats in the morning. He loves to be outside and stay active. He's what one might call "all boy." He takes good care of his sisters and they both adore him. He can be very thoughtful. Once when watching a commercial about the possibility of winning a trip to Disney Land, he initially said "I want to win!" Then several minutes later said "Oh never mind." I asked him why he changed his mind and his response was that the commercial said it was a trip for 4 and we have 5 in our family and he wouldn't want to leave anyone behind :). We love our boy!