Anna is 18 Months!

My Anna turned 18 months old on the 21st. Anna is very agile and loves to climb, explore and is really starting to use her imagination with lots of pretend play with her big sister! In the past couple months the girls have really started to have much more in common and they play really nicely together. It's so much fun to watch them interact and truly enjoy each other's company! Anna doesn't seem to be quite as verbal as Claire was at her age, but she has had quite an explosion with her vocabulary recently. She still uses some of her sign language and has no problem communicating her wants & needs!!

We love Anna so much and we're so thankful that God chose her to be apart of our family!

Claire's New Skates

Grammy found some Little Tikes skates for Claire at a garage sale and brought them over for Claire to test out! They have a safety mechanism so the wheels only go forward so she won't fall (as easily). They are really neat and Claire has been practicing quite a bit. She's actually pretty good and fairly coordinated with them! It's so fun as parent to see your kids do things for the first time!

Skating all by herself!

I had to add this picture of Anna playing with the rocks in the window well. Both girls spend a lot of time here with their rock parties (they use their tea set). Ben used to play in this exact same spot when he was little!

Picking Strawberries

Awhile back, Grammy & Papa took Claire to pick strawberries. Claire has been with them several times to pick various types of berries and she loves it! I think she likes it so much because she is a berry lover and she knows that berry picking = free reign to eat as many berries as humanly possible! Grammy said she definitely ate more than she put in her basket!

This one looks good...

See my strawberry, Papa?

Yep... it's delicious!

I love strawberries!

Father's Day 2009

Father's Day was a very busy day for us, but also very enjoyable! After church, we went to Grammy & Papa's house for a cook-out and to celebrate Papa & Ben! Later that afternoon we made a trip to my Grandparent's house in Cedarville and there we celebrated Father's Day with my Grandpa & Dad! My girls are so fortunate to have Godly men in their lives that love them more than anything! We love you and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I couldn't ask for a better Daddy to my girls than Ben!

Telling secrets, I guess!

Claire is showing off the science experiment she & Grammy are doing together. They are watching a bean grow!!

Anna is always clapping!

Kisses for Anna!

And more kisses! Welcome to the love-fest!!

Anna's shirt says "I love Grandpa".

Papa & his girls!!

Claire showing Papa the photo book we made him!

Grandpa Stephens and my Dad with all the girls!!

Grandpa sure does love my girls! I am so glad we were able to spend some time with him!!

Always silly together... they crack me up! So fun to watch them interact!!!

My grandparents with the girls!

Eating the very yummy pizza from Colonial Pizza in Cedarville! My favorite!

I love Grandpa (& Daddy!!)

The Cutting Family Get-Away

In mid-May we had our first family vacation! It's a Cutting family tradition to go to the Gatlinburg area for a get-away. This was our fifth time going, but the first time we've been since we had our girls. We were there three nights/four days. It was so much fun! The cabin we stayed in had an indoor pool, a hot tub, jacuzzis in all four bedrooms, a pool table, foos ball table, air hockey table and an arcade game. We really didn't even need to leave our cabin!
Papa & Anna enjoying our time away!

The Cutting Family- on our deck with the Smokies behind us!

Uncle Brad & Sharon got engaged in April so we celebrated with a family shower! CONGRATULATIONS!


Bath time in the jacuzzi was so fun!


A little air hockey, anyone?!

Playing the parachute game!

Claire loved her princess blow-up bed!

So sweet! Aunt Beth & Anna relaxing with some Smoky Mtn. fresh air!

The girls LOVE their Aunt Beth!

A couple pictures of our cabin! It was beautiful!

We'll be BACK, for sure!

Sky Lift

The first evening in Tennessee we went sightseeing in Downtown Gatlinburg! The Sky Lift up the Smokies was great fun!

Some sightseeing with Papa & Grammy!

Grammy & the girls!

Going up, up, up...

The view from the top was amazing!

Great photo op! The Smokies make for a gorgeous backdrop!

Going down, down, down...

On the way down we saw a black bear crossing directly beneath us! WOW! We couldn't believe our eyes! How neat for the girls to be able to witness seeing a bear in the wild!