What I love about the West

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The SKY!

This was our view on the drive home from Girl Scouts (which was just up the road from our neighborhood). How amazing is that?

Girl Scouts!

Well, Daisy Scouts to be precise.. Kindergarten-age girls are Daisy Scouts, then 1st graders are Brownie Scouts, and then they're officially a "Girl Scout" after a few years or so... I think... I was never a girl scout, but I have eaten enough girl scout cookies in my life to know that this is one fabulous organization. :)
Anyway, Micaela joined our local daisy scout troop! They had their first meeting a few weeks ago, and of course Micaela LOVED it! They had a little circle time meeting where the troop leader explained how the program will work and what we'll be doing, and then craft time (they decorated picture frames with daisies, cute!) and a big group hug at the end.
On the way out, Micaela said "Mommy, I want to go to girl scouts every week for my whole life!" :)




(um, she's just a bit taller than those other 5-yr-old girls..)

Baby Smiles!!

I just LOVE it when babies wake up and realize that there are other people around and start SMILING! It's got to be the best thing in the world.

Here he is getting ready...






And the big smile!!



William's already 2 months old!

Honey, where are the kids?

Oh, they're just out back playing on the cliff!





And Christmas picture out-takes - they don't look so happy in this one..


(Oh, and by the way, there was a nice big grassy ledge a few feet beneath those rocks and a golf course a bit farther down... they weren't really on a cliff!)

And just to be fair..

After all the dozens of pictures of William that I've posted over the past month, I thought I should maybe take one or two of my other FOUR CHILDREN! :)

Micaela in all her 5-year-old post-church glory:



Lizzie and Rachel - they really do like each other!


Funny face (her ears aren't really that big... i think..)



And my big boy Andrew:



That's kind of a lot of kids.. :)

Future career?

I think she's got real talent..






That's one excited ballerina.

Fun in the leaves!

They had a blast! And then they had a long bath..








It took me a LONG time to get all the leaves out of Andrew's diaper! :) (How do they do that??) Poor little guy..

Halloween

Halloween was COLD here - about 30 degrees when we went trick or treating. So they just tossed on some dress up clothes from the basement (low-maintenance halloween this year!) and some coats and fleece pants and off we went!





And some pumpkin carving: