New year, new life, and great expectations.

It has been far too long since I posted on the blog, and a lot has been happening! We are expecting in September, and found out yesterday that it will be another GIRL! If something is working for you, why change it, right? We are very excited! Daphne had to take a few moments to accept it, she was really wanting a brother. This morning she seemed excited, though, so I think she has warmed up to the idea :)

The girls will be done school in 3 more weeks. I can hardly believe that the year is over for them already! I have to say, I am ready for summer, though. And I get to have a cute baby belly in my swimsuit this year :)

We had a great visit with Dave and Moiya at Christmas. The girls loved having Gramma and Grampa Choo-choo here for the holidays! Much fun was had, and many great memories made in the weeks that they were here.

Christmas morning

Olivia enjoying Sardines!

Sleepy Olivia

At Hodges Gardens

 More recently we also had a great time with my parents who came to visit. We started the visit off with a trip to the coast. It was Olivia's first time at the beach! More fun times and great memories were made. It is so fun that our children have such fabulous grandparents!

Olivia doing what she does best...getting into stuff!

In front of Houston Temple

Rockstar and...I'm not sure what Ilana is being.

Sharing some warmth after playing in the waves.

In other news, Curtis has started training his own Service Dog through a local training group called Brothers & Sisters in Arms. And so, we now have a second canine member of the family, D'Arbry (pronounced Dee-ah-bray) Curtis just calls him "D" to keep it simple. He is doing fabulous in the program, and passing every new challenge with flying colors! You would think that he and Curtis have been doing this for years.

Enjoying Galveston Beach

We continue to wait on any update from the Army regarding the decision on ratings for Curtis' disability. This is step 5 of 6, but takes the longest. Sometimes the Lord asks us to wait. Sometimes we understand why in retrospect, sometimes not. Either way, for now we wait. Once this step is completed, the rest will go very quickly.

Our growing family

Trick-or-Treating we will go...

 Olivia had the whole "cake walk" thing figured out pretty quickly at the church Trunk-or-Treat. Little miss independent! We got lots of comments on her little glitz pageant dress. Some friends of ours (who also have all girls!) gave us all of their dress-up clothes when they were getting ready to move. This beautiful little dress was with them! Olivia LOVES getting all dressed up, and she couldn't stop looking at herself and twirling when I first put the dress on. I think we have created a monster! She is absolutely too cute.









Ilana strutting her stuff! She was a "Rainbow Princess". She certainly marches to the beat of her own drum a lot of the time! I think the kiddos in the background were bobbing for apples. We had a practice for the Primary Presentation just before the party, so all the kids were dressed up for it. They were so cute!

 Daphne was a Genie. This was taken just after she had successfully bobbed for an apple. Can you tell by her victory stance? Not to mention the big wet spot on her shirt!

Take 1 before Trick-or-Treating. (Ilana decided to be Ariel this time)

Take 2. A little sillier this time! Olivia makes this face when she eats!

Yeehaw! It's Rodeo time!

For Fair week, the kids got to dress up for school. Daphne LOVES being a cowgirl! I think she wears her cowgirl boots to school almost every day with her uniform. They are definitely getting good use!

 

The summer is so much fun with all of the festivals and fairs that seem to be happening every weekend! Olivia loved this miniature cow at the petting farm at the DeRidder Fair. She kept finding carrots on the ground that others had dropped that she could feed to it. She also kept trying to pick up the pygmy goats that were wandering around free. Daphne's favorites were the white ostriches and the pot-belly piglets. 

Ilana liked all of the pygmy goats the best.

Daphne on Pepper

Ilana on Brown Sugar

The girls love the military festivals, because they always have free pony rides! This was at Glory Fest at the Main Post Chapel. We went to this one last year, just a couple of days after Curtis got home. Hard to believe it's been a year already! This time, Olivia got her first ride. Her face was priceless as the pony started to move, she was so excited!

Olivia's very first ride! Also on Brown Sugar

The USO (United Service Organizations) brought Sesame Street to Fort Polk! The girls got to go and see a live show with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Telly, and Rosalita. They had a blast! They also got these little Elmo toys that spin and light up. Ilana liked Cookie Monster the best, he was so crazy!

Back to school and other good times

First Day of School

New backpacks!

What a fun time of year! The kids go back to school really early here, our first day was Aug. 10th! Daphne has started first grade, and Ilana is in preschool (called LA4 down here) They were both so excited! I am excited to have some time with just Olivia during the day :)

                                   Olivia can't be left out! She loves to pose for the camera.

Olivia loves to play outside! It is so nice that she has her buddy SheRa to play with. They dig, and run, and discover everything possible in the back yard together.

Little poser :)

Say CHEESE!

Olivia isn't the only one who loves to pose!

 

 This is Daphne's "Rockstar" pose as she calls it.

 Ilana is hilarious when we take pictures! She wants them taken, and she loves to pose, but she can never seem to get her eyes to cooperate. They are always looking elsewhere, even if she's facing the camera! It is a trick to catch her looking fully at the camera sometimes. She is such a character!

Sassy-frass Sisters!

We had a little modeling session for Olivia when she decided to try on daddy's army boots. She was so cute! She is in a copy-cat phase right now. She will mimic poses and movements; such a little ham!