Cousins

I love to see my girls with their cousins. It is something that I didn't have growing up, we were never very close with our cousins so to see my girls have so many cousins that they are so close to is so fun. We had so much fun in California, with that many people it gt a bit crazy at times but there were so many good times too. The girls were absolutely in heaven waking up early and staying up way too late and playing the whole time in between with their cousins that they hardly get to see. But it is amazing to see what a bond they have only getting to see each other a couple times a year. I am looking forward to the time when the girls get older and they can go stay with their cousins and we can have them come stay with us. It will be really neat. Here are the youngest half. I didn't get a picture of the whole group, You can see twelve in this picture and there are 24. Can you see Lizzy's pose, she was posing the whole night it was hilarious. I love how Jane is lifting up her shirt, and how the youngest two Jack and Jerry are checking each other out. The girls had a lot of fun with Jerry. Lizzy loves babies and she is just like a little mommy with them. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age, in that aspect, other ways she and I are completely different.

Here are Nellie and Max. I love that these two are just the best of friends. Nellie loves Max so much and she talks about him all the time. it was really funny to listen to them talk to each other too because it sounded so much like two adults talking. They got quite serious in their conversations.

Lizzy loves her cousin Ozzie they have so much fun together and they get along so well. Lizzy asks me all the time, "I can't marry Ozzie right Mom?" no honey we don't marry our cousins.

the little monkeys in Grandmas big tub. They loved taking baths together.

Enjoying their ice cream. So cute. I love the memories of theses cute pictures.

I just love this picture because I can just tell how much Nellie loves Max by the way she is holding his hand. A funny story about Nellie, we have had a very difficult time getting her to not pee so much in her pull ups at night, it is like she holds it in as much as she can during the day so that the instant she puts on her pull up she lets it all go. Well when she discovered that Max doesn't wear one at night she has been on a mission to keep dry at night so much so that she is trying to give up her beloved night time milk. One night she said "I want to be like Max I don't want my milk." Of course an hour later she was begging for it, but baby steps right. She has started to keep dry sometimes and it is really important to her to be like Max which is so sweet.

Zoo

I forgot to blog about this but before our California trip we went to Wichita to pickup Kevin's parents and thought it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. Nellie threw up on the drive down from playing her Leapster, so that is always a fun thing to deal with, but we had some clothes to change her into so it wasn't too bad. We hadn't taken Janie to the zoo since she was tiny, so it was fun to watch her with the animals. The girls got to feed the giraffes and Janie thought it was so cool, she just held out this branch until the giraffes came and took it.

Lizzy used to be really scared of animals and never would have done this, but she isn't scared anymore.

The gorillas were a favorite with the girls. They were fascinated by them and of course Nellie had to make a comment about their buns. "Look mom you can see their bunny cakes!"

Janie has all of a sudden become super independent, I guess I should have known that would happen. She absolutely did not want to ride in the stroller and had to walk by herself everywhere. She is a big shot who thinks she is just as big as her sisters.

Why is it that when they are little they don't want to ride in the stroller, but when they get big they decide they have to ride in the stroller. Silly girls.

Janie discovered a new place to ride and she just loved it!

It was a fun day at the zoo! I love having kids because everything in life is just more fun with them around.

Dancing

I just thought this was too cute. Lizzy loves to dance and her cousin Jake really got into it too.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

McKay's Wedding

I have so much to post it is a little overwhelming right now, but I will get there I hope before we pack up and head out.
We headed out to California for my little brother McKay's wedding. It was such a neat wedding. Joanne is a convert and has such a strong testimony, even though she is the only member in her family. It was a really neat experience to get to be there for their wedding. We spent the three days before pretty much making food, there was definitely not a lack of food at the wedding. Because Joanne is from Taiwan she wanted to have both kinds of food for her wedding so they brought in Panda Express and then my mom, sisters and I made all the rest of the food and it was a ton. The one disappointing thing was that everyone that came was so enthralled that there was panda express that they hardly touched the really yummy food and desserts that we made. Oh well that is life. We all certainly enjoyed eating all of them the next couple of days. The day after was Fathers day and we all just laid around my parents house and stuffed our faces because we were all so tired. I can't get Janie to look at the camera lately, if she sees it she automatically looks away. I love this dress, Nellie wore it for Kevin's brother Jake's wedding two years ago.

The colors were red and yellow and I found these really cute yellow jumpers for the other two.

Lizzy is so photogenic! She always looks so beautiful in all her pictures. Definitely not like her mom.

I love going to temple sealings because it always just takes me back to the day that I married the love of my life. I just adore him more everyday and am so glad he is mine!

Our little family. I just love these people so much, what a lucky girl I am.

Here is the lovely couple dancing, I realized after that i didn't get any other pictures of them, Joanne looked so beautiful and McKay of course looked very handsome as well.

Janie was having a good time eating lots of food and dancing. What a cutie she is.

Nellie eating chocolate, of course Nellie is always hungry for treats. Her eyes are so blue here.

Austin's Wedding

A few of us brothers and sisters were able to make it down to Houston for Austin's wedding. I flew in Friday afternoon and flew out Sunday morning, so it was a very quick trip, but it was super fun. It was really weird not having spouses or kids around, but so fun to just laugh (something we do a lot of in my family) and talk and just hang out together.
Bryce and Janae and I flew in around the same time so Austin and Jenny took us to dinner at a really yummy Mexican place. Jarom and my parents got in late that night. The next day was the wedding and we got up and went to breakfast with Jenny and her family then we had most of the day and the hotel had a great pool so we went back and swam and hung out until the wedding.
The wedding was so beautiful and I am so glad that I got to go, and that I have such a wonderful husband who would let me go. Here are all the siblings, I thought Austin looked so good in his Air Force attire, and you can't really see it in this picture, but Jenny's dress was one of the prettiest dresses I have ever seen.
I had so much fun going. Congratulations to Austin and Jenny they are so cute together and they are both so happy to have each other.

Saying Goodbye

We said goodbye to Kelli and Lance and the kids a couple of weeks ago. It will be sad not to have them around especially for the kids they loved to play together. We went over the night before they left to hang out and say goodbye. Janie and Braysen had their first bath together, I guess probably their last too. They haven't gotten to really spend too much time playing together.

The girls sure will miss Brinlee, Lizzy especially. They always had so much fun playing together.

Nellie is really going to miss Braxton, she really loved him and He was always so sweet with her. We will really miss all of them and wish them the best!

Janie Bug

Janie isn't a baby anymore! So sad. But she is so much fun! I really think that this is my favorite age, from about their first birthday until they start the tantrum throwing, although she is starting to do some of that. She is still really different then the other two were, she is really mellow, but she is starting to show that she is not a pushover. She will not let Nellie push her around and ever teases Nellie a bit too. One day she kept putting her legs up on Nellie when they were watching TV because it was making Nellie mad. These jammies were Nellie's and she loves them because they are silky. She is really into the silky things. She likes to rub her belly when she wears them. She loves that I let her pick out her clothes and she really has an opinion on what she wants to wear. She also can almost put on her clothes by herself, which is so weird to me because the other two took much longer. In fact sometimes Lizzy still wants me to help her get dressed. Silly girl. But Janie has a obsession with putting stuff on any clothes she finds lying around the house even mine and Kevin's she tries to put on. She is also way into her blankie, if she is sad at all you just have to give her her blankie and she is usually all better.

She really thinks she is a big shot and just as old as her sisters. One day we were waiting in the car for a while so I let her out of her seat and she went right back and climbed in Lizzy's and thought she was so big. Of course now she always wants to sit back there so every time we get in the car there is a major meltdown when I strap her into her seat.

I cannot leave my purse down because she loves to dig through it. She is at the unloading stage right now. I came into the living room one day to find her like this, she had put on my glasses and she was just hanging out watching shows with her sisters wearing them.

She is still a really great eater, so we will keep our fingers crossed on that one. She seems to like treats, obviously, but not as much as Nellie does so that is hopeful, I don't know if I can handle another treataholic like Nellie is.

We got this little pony for her for Christmas and she was too little then that she didn't like it, it scared her to sit on it, but I knew eventually she would love it, and sure enough she does. She will drag it out to the living room and push the ear because the pony sings and just go to town rocking on it.

Kevin has gotten Janie addicted to Pepsi too, I guess she wouldn't be part of my family if she didn't like Pepsi, it is funny because if she sees his cup she will get all excited and say "tetsi!"

I just love this little girl, she is my little cuddler, she will sit on my lap and pull my head down next to hers and we will just stay like that for a while. I love it! I have never had that before, (my other two were too busy) and it is the best.

Preschool Graduation

The girlies both went to Preschool this past year, Nellie was in the 3 year old class and Lizzy was in the Pre-K class. Their teacher couldn't believe how opposite they were, but she said they were both her best and favorite students. They had their preschool program a few weeks ago, ( Of course I am way behind in posting.) Grammie and Papi came and watched them and the girlies had Papi read some books to them before we left.

I can't believe that my little Nellie has already finished a year of preschool, and that she will be four next month!

Nellie was the best behaved in her class her teacher said. Shocking I know, but I guess it is good that she is good for other people at least.

Lizzy in her little graduation hat. She was quite the performer, We all got such a kick out of her singing and dancing, she REALLY gets into it! The funny thing is that Nellie could care less about the performing and she really doesn't like to perform, one minute she will be singing, and the next thing you know she is gone and you can tell she is thinking about something else (probably Diego).

If I can get the video of Lizzy downloaded I will post it because she hilarious in it. I can't believe that my Lizzy is starting Kindergarten next year, but she will be almost six. I just can't believe how fast they grow! She is so excited about going to Kindergarten,she wanted to go last year because so many of her friends did. She is so mature she would have done great so she will do awesome this year.

A New Roof

We have been planning on putting a new roof on our house for quite a while, and since we are putting our house on the market in a couple of weeks we decided we had to get it done, so we had saved our tax return and were planning on using that, until someone told us we should see if insurance would cover it because there was a bad hail storm last summer. So we called the insurance and had them come out and take a look. I thought for sure they would say sorry your roof in too old, but the guy came to my door and said, well it is a complete loss, we will mail you check out. Two days later we got a check in the mail for more than the price that it would take for us to do it ourselves. That right there was a tithing blessing. So a couple weeks later, Kevin his dad, four boys from the school and our Branch President, came and replaced out roof. They worked so hard. We are so grateful for all of their help. It took a few days longer than we thought it would, but things like this usually do. If you want to see a before picture you can go here.

This was the crew on the first day tearing off all the layers.

This is when they were loading the shingles onto the roof.

Here is the roof all done, it makes such a difference in how the house looks, and should really help us sell this house. Wish us luck!

Kevy Graduates!!!

This actually is a late post. Kevy actually received his diploma quite a few months ago, but yesterday he got to walk. It made it feel official and like he really is done with school. At least until he decides he wants to get his Masters.
It really was such a great day and so exciting because when I first met Kevy he didn't think he would probably graduate from college. But a few years ago he had decided how much he enjoyed business and found a program down at Kansas Wesleyan University (in Salina) which allowed him to take block classes one night a week. I am so proud of what a hard worker he is, I don't know if I have ever seen anyone work as hard at their classes and really take the information and really learn and apply it. He is just the best husband and father and I am so glad that he is mine, and that he wanted me!
I wish I had gotten a picture a little farther back but I just got a new camera for my birthday and I am still learning how to use it and I was trying to hurry and get a picture before we got in the way.


What a cute picture of Kevy and his parents. We are grateful for their love and support.

I wish I knew that Jane's head was in my way, we have a hard time getting a good family picture.

We are so grateful for Kevy's family coming and supporting us. We love having them around and we are going to miss Kelli and Lance when they leave in a few weeks.

I am just crazy about this guy and am so glad that we are married, he is my best friend and I love him so much and am so proud of all he is and all he has accomplished.

A New Church Building!!

Last week our branch had a ground breaking ceremony for our new chapel. I am sure that most people might think big deal, but for us out here it is a huge deal. I thought the same way when we lived in Utah and there were buildings built all the time. But this little branch has never had a building. We meet in a sectioned off part of the old Masonic temple building. It really is such a dump. The first time that we came to this branch (5 years ago this week!) I remember walking in the building and thinking that surely this is not our Church! We have a lot of classes that meet in the hallways and in primary we just section off parts of the small room for class time. The bathrooms are disgusting and the whole building is not nice. So it is going to be huge that there will be a nice new building to meet in, and they are planning on having it done around November. Of course we probably will have moved by then, but we are grateful that the branch here will get to enjoy the building, and that by us moving out here, we helped to make that a reality.

Here is the Branch Presidency breaking ground.

Nellie was really excited about getting to dig up the ground, but she wanted to do it herself, go figure, but it was just too hard for her to do so then she said "Mommy, come help me do it by myself!" I thought that was funny.

Lizzy didn't understand the whole breaking ground thing, because the next day (Sunday) when we went to church she said "But I thought that we were going to our new building!" We had to explain it takes time to build it.

It was a really neat experience to get to be a part of for our little family. We definitely feel like we have been able to be missionaries out here and it has been a great learning and growing experience for our family.