Scarlett's 15 Photos

Backyard Photos

Now that we have had some great weather I have been able to take a couple pictures of our backyard. It is almost magical.

Penelope's 13

Penelope is officially a teenager!  

Penelope is really a sweet honest teenager.  She does get frustrated with me and her family sometimes, but she is learning how to handle it.  I can tell that her brain is growing and wanting to be more independent while at the same time she still needs quite a bit of help.  She is definitely not a child but also not an adult.  When she is upset she pretty much just talks back and needs a minute to calm down.

I think her biggest challenge is going to be learning to speak up for herself.  She is very strong willed and doesn't compromise on her principles but she also doesn't voice her opinion or advocate for herself.  If she doesn't agree with someone outside of her family she will just keep it to herself.  She is working on being brave and asking her teachers questions when she has them. 

Penelope really wanted a picture with Mochi in it.  Luckily when we are outside Mochi comes to be with us and see what is going on.

Penelope has been using my pink shampoo and is liking the change in hair color.  She also likes to wear this striped shirt as much as possible and loose pants.  She has friends at school, and always tells me about her day.  I love how open she is with me about what her friends are doing and saying.  I hope this doesn't change as she gets older.

This summer she did a lot of babysitting for our family.  She also enjoys the library book club, playing the violin, and young womens.

Tucker's 15 Photos

Tucker was not really thrilled about taking pictures to commemorate his 15th birthday, so we just quickly took some the Sunday after his birthday.  We didn't even need to leave the front porch.  

Scarlett's 11! Photography

Now that Scarlett is 11 we wanted to quickly take some pictures before she grew anymore.

Scarlett looks so grown up in these pictures, but she is still very much a kid.  She just finished elementary school and will be starting middle school in a couple of months.  I can hardly believe it.  She is excited to go to the same school as her sister, something she only did one time before when they were in kindergarten.  She actually doesn't want to go to school at all.  Her teachers always tell me that she works so hard in class and she follows directions well.  She also doesn't seem to have a problem with making friends or the other kids. That being said, schoolwork is hard for her and she would rather not do it at all.

Scarlett loves plants.  She has a few at our house and diligently takes care of them. Scarlett also likes to cook and draw.  Encanto was a favorite movie of hers and she enjoys the show Elena of Avelor.  

After months of trying to adopt a feral neighborhood cat we found someone who was moving and needed to rehome their outdoor cat.  Scarlett loves Mochi and is in charge of feeding and taking care of him.  She even made an outdoor house for him.  We can't actually have any pets in our home so this was the perfect solution.

Calista Birthday Photography

Calista turned five in April and so we went out to our driveway and took some photos to document how she looked at this age.

Calista is a ball of energy and I really think this past year she turned a corner.  Around the age of 4 1/2 she started getting much easier to take care of.  She stopped getting bins of sugar, then taking them somewhere (usually outside) to hide and eat them.  She stopped sneaking out onto the balcony or into the busy road.  It has even been a few months since she colored on the walls or cut her hair.  The great thing is that Beatrix stopped doing these things as well. Proving I was right that Calista was the instigator and Beatrix just followed along. 

She likes Frozen, My Little Pony, and Micky Mouse Clubhouse.  She also likes to change her clothes all the time and look through books.  She really wants to know how to read but she really only knows a couple letters.  She likes to play pretend and be in charge of Beatrix and everyone else.  She still loves sweets and barely eats anything else.  Even her preschool teacher wrote me a note saying she won't eat the Japanese lunches they provide, meaning she doesn't get lunch.

After she did my poses she wanted to do her own.  Below are just a few of her picture ideas.

Beatrix Third Birthday

Back in February Beatrix had her 3rd birthday!  It was literally two days before we moved into our new how so we were a little bit busy.  Luckily she was easy to please.  We wrapped up some presents and bought a cake from Baskin Robins and she was thrilled!

Beatrix might be the quietest of all my children.  She also likes to sit on my lap and cuddle.  She does not like it when anyone else sits on my lap and she usually isn't up for sharing.  She is so sweet she often tells me that she loves me and she likes to hold my hand.  

Beatrix plays pretty well with her older siblings.  She loves babies and one of her favorite things to do is pretend to be "The Mom" and have Calista or me be the baby.  Anytime she sees a miniature version of something or two of the same items next to each other where one is small and one is large she always calls the small item a baby.  

Her favorite show is Vamparina, but she also likes My Little Pony.  She doesn't like napping, although I still make her, and she is pretty much potty trained.  She will have an accident here or there but she is about 90% good on that end.

We all love her so much and are happy she is part of our family.

Scarlett Pictures

Scarlett and I knocked these pictures out in about three minutes.  She said she was so quick with her good smiles because she just had a modeling job yesterday.

Happy Birthday Scarlett!