August Events

These past few months have been a whirlwind of months and will continue to be as we are in the middle of a move from our current house into temporary housing and then eventually into our new house.  But we try to still have fun and enjoy life!  Here is what we enjoyed for the month of August!

Cora turned 5 years old.  It's really hard to believe how big our kids are getting.  August is always a very emotional month for me because both the girls are getting one more year older and they are both starting school.  Cora had a great birthday and of course we can't imagine our family without our cute and spunky Cora!  She is a great helper in the house.  She is almost always willing to share with her siblings and she is very helpful to others around her.  She soaks up learning information and what makes me proudest is she soaks up learning about the Gospel.  She starts preschool this year but would go to kindergarten in a heartbeat if her birthday was just one day sooner!  However, I'm glad she is the oldest in her class...it will mean one year longer with us at home before she grows up and goes away to college. 

 Ashlyn had her first dance recital.  It was great weather, not too hot, not too cold.  She was so cute dancing and you could tell she knew what she was doing.  My kids loved to watch her perform!

 One of the last trips to World's of Fun for the summer before school started!  The kids actually wanted to take a picture with Snoopy and Woodstock.  In the past all the kids were a little bit hesitant to snap a pic with them, this time Garrett was the only one with hesitation.  Even Rex let Snoopy put his arms around him!

 Nick and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary.  I feel very blessed to be married to Nick.  He is a great Dad, an amazing husband and a I couldn't have asked for a better fit for me.  We celebrated by going downtown to eat.  Then another day this month I came into the living room and to my horror and worry (I thought they would break the curtains, seeing as we were moving in less than a month!) But I couldn't resist snapping a shot of them being cute and silly behind the curtains.  I love it when they all three play together without fighting.

 Kayley started 1st grade this year!  I can't believe she is already in 1st Grade!  Kayley absolutely loves school.  She has a great teacher this year once again....we have been super blessed with all the girls teachers!  Kayley's reading is just sky-rocketing this year.  She is getting into reading chapter books and learning some fun math skills.  She even says Math is her favorite subject other than reading.  (girl after my own heart with having a love of math!)  We are so proud of how well she does in school.

 Cora started preschool this year.  She went for half of the year last year and her birthday is one day after the cut-off so she got to go to preschool for one more year.  She has the same preschool teacher as last year and loves her class.  She has a lot of the same kids in her class as last year and she is the best helper in her class.  She also loves school.  In fact, almost everyday I have to countdown for her when she gets to go to school.  Some mornings are very long to her with having to wait until 12:15 to go!

 Kayley turned 7 this year....7!!!  I still can't get over the fact that this time next year we will be having her baptism.  She is so mature for her age but still a kid.  She is a great big sister to her brother and even to her sister.  I can rely on her for so many things.  She and her sister have a great relationship and even though they bicker at times, what sisters don't bicker?  I often have to constantly tell them to go to sleep as they will often stay awake visiting with each other.  She is very much looking forward to having a new baby brother or sister.  One of her favorite things to do is feel my tummy when the baby is moving!

 Other things that occurred this month...I hit my 15 week mark and officially announced our pregnancy.  We are very excited for our new addition and are planning on making this baby a surprise, which I'm very excited about as I've always wondered what it would be like to have a surprise baby!  Rex had another haircut...I always think he looks so handsome after his haircuts even though he always cries throughout the whole process!  The girls have enjoyed matching each other this month.  I love to match them and love that they still love to match each other!  And one day I caught Rex sneaking in some leapster time while the girls weren't looking.

 One of the games my kids have learned from their Grandpa Bell is how to play "don't eat pete."  The girls have taught Rex how to play it and I found him playing it all by himself the other day while the girls were at school...it was so cute!  And Rex and Cora get some quality time with each other while Cora is waiting to go to school.  I found them hanging out watching shows on the ipad together.  Kayley's teacher is great at taking pictures of everyone throughout the day and sending them to us.  I love feeling connected to what Kayley is doing during school.  And last but not least, Cora went to the dentist this month and I was very proud of her for not being scared.  She was like the best patient ever and let them do whatever they needed to do without complaining one bit.

 And we took some random pictures one night when we ate dinner with the Walkers and Randy to celebrate someone's birthday in August!  Here's Rex, Preston, Ashlyn, & Kayley

 Here's Kayley and Cora

 And Rex and Garrett...they had fun taking pictures together.

July Events

July has come and gone but I'm actually posting on time!!  Here's what our family has done for July...

Ashlyn had her 6th birthday party at her pool.  I was the designated camera person...one thing that is so nice having family pretty much at every one of our kids parties...you can give someone else the camera while you focus on the rest of the party. Here are the pool games.  There were a lot of kids there but they all played well together. 

More party pictures.  And since it's my blog I can put lots of pics of my kids on it!  There were so many kids there that many seats had to be shared, one being between Rex and Cora.

Told you there were a lot of kids.  I can't remember for sure but I think some kids had already left at this point?  Plus Preston and Garrett hadn't made it yet as they were napping and came later to the party.

Caught a cute moment with my kids.  Cora was willingly letting Rex tackle her and it was really cute.  Pic is taken with my iPhone, so it's not the best quality. 

Our sweet new nephew Dylan Thomas Carle was born on July 11th.  7/11 birthday...such a fun birthday date to have I think!  We can't wait to meet him in person and I'm sure he is already double this size by now.  We are planning a trip out to Idaho either in August or October and we can't wait to snuggle on this sweet baby boy!  He is such a blessing for everyone, but especially for the Carle family. 

My friend Jami and her husband Tim came through Kansas City on their way to Nebraska where they were moving. We got to meet sweet baby Mallory.  As an earlier post with baby McKinley stated, Kayley couldn't get enough of Mallory either.  Both girls loved holding and loving on her.  We all of course love to visit with Jami and Tim but now it's even more fun with Mallory! 

We were doing some shopping at Macy's this month and in the girls section Rex found this hat and decided to wear it all over the store.  He actually wore it for quite a while.  A little bling, bling doesn't hurt anyone right? 

These girls prepared to have their combined swimming birthday party.  I'm so glad that they still enjoy having their party together...makes for a very less stressed Mommy!  Plus they have a lot of the same friends so if we did separate parties we would just be inviting the same people over and over.  Aren't they cute? 

And here are pictures from their swimming party...thanks to Jessica.  The last two parties the girls have had she has very willingly taken over my camera duties and it has been such a relief.  Lots of swimming fun!

More swimming fun...lots of cousins and friends came to help make their celebration so special!

The pool games.  So remember the pool games from Ashlyn's party?  Well, I repeated the same game because it was a very stressful week with lots of home stuff going on so it was just easier to repeat the same game instead of come up with my own, especially since Michelle already had all the stuff!  My kids and her kids didn't even notice, or if they did, they didn't say anything!  Win win situation!!

Told you lots of friends and cousins came!  I think I counted 19 total including my kids but 21 if you count the two cute babies that also got to attend!  Another reason why I love having the party at the pool...there is no way we could have this many people in our house!! :)

Another thing to lessen the stress of the party was I let Grandma be in charge of manning the girls in decorating their cupcakes.  I usually get stressed in thinking they need to look a certain way in order for everyone to eat them.  However the girls absolutely loved being able to decorate all the cupcakes and they of course loved to decorate their own cupcakes how they wanted them.  They couldn't decide on a mutual theme so they each picked out what cupcake toppers they wanted.  Kayley picked Barbie and Cora picked Hello Kitty.  However I think they put both toppers on their individual cupcakes anyway!  Silly girls!  And this day was super stressful as we got an offer on our house so we spent pretty much the whole afternoon at our realtor's office signing paperwork and didn't get home until an hour before the party started!  A big thank you to Mooma because without her help in watching the kids we wouldn't have been able to pull it off and get ready in time!  But because of this, I forgot matches for their candles!  So on the bottom are pictures of the girls pretending to blow out their candles.  So funny!  But I figured if that's the only thing I forgot, I did pretty well with remembering everything else!

It overall turned out to be a great party!  I think the girls had a blast playing with their friends and of course loved all their presents...so they couldn't have asked for a better party!  As for me, I got the party out of the way in time so I lower my stress level with having it being too close to starting school, which raises my anxiety levels anyway!  Win win situation again for all of us!  And who doesn't think these kids are cute?!!?  I know we do!!