Trying to Catch Up

I keep looking at all the many pictures piling up in my "To Blog" folder. Sigh. There is no way I will ever be able to catch up to all of this. So... I will try and post some of them now and give you a brief description, or you can just figure it out yourself on some of them!
Going from most recent to least:

Donna's Birthday!

To celebrate we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where we all got ribs of course!

Except the kids and Steve who seemed to have no appetite.

We also tried their fried pickles which I loved! Anything fried is delightful in my book. There was a balloon man there and Charles got a sword, and Kaylee and Donna got princess crowns.

After dinner, we came to our house for dessert! Birthday cake, peach dessert and snobby ice cream. Mmm Mmm! We were full for days!

Caleb has decided to grow up on us for some unknown reason. He is working on sitting up in his Bumbo and thinks it's the greatest thing!

Just as school began and right before I started, there was a huge demand for cakes! I made several in a couple weeks which you can see here. And in all that craziness, it was my turn to host Bunco. It turned out great and I even won high score! WooHoo! Sadly, no pictures.

Charles also grew up on me. He started Kindergarten on August 24th, the day after getting his cast off. Did I blog about his fractured elbow? I think so.... it was exciting.

Here are the kids walking to school. I have been a mean mom this year and make them walk to and from school every day! It's so great! They usually get a ride at least once a day because I am now in school and so Louis has to pick them up once a day after dropping me off at school. I do not have any pictures of my first day of class, but I have two classes: Intermediate Accounting and International Economics. I'm loving my business classes! I also was fortunate to recieve a small scholarship for this semester. Every little bit helps!

Kaylee is now a second grader! Aack! She has loved it. They have a pet frog in their room and they catch grasshoppers to feed it. She is so beautiful and growing up so fast! She also started piano lessons and is learning so quickly! It's very fun to listen to her practice.

P.S. Aren't my flowers gorgeous? I was quite proud of them this year.

T-Ball was a bi-weekly event for the first half of the summer, which was followed by Kaylee's dance and tumbling which was previously blogged about... and swimming lessons, of course.

4th of July!!!

We celebrated with a BBQ and fireworks. We stayed here and watched them from the parking lot and then we played games with Donna, Steve, and the Jones'. Since the actual holiday was Sunday, we had another day of food and games and the kids and Donna looked so stinking cute, we had to take some pictures.

Kaylee also made these cookies all by herself. I was so proud! I did post that on my cake blog earlier...

Father's Day

Was extra special this year because we had an extra child, Louis' mom here, and it was Charles birthday on the same day!

Louis of course recieved all food items. It's a safe bet, and then he shares!

Charles Birthday

Because his birthday was on Father's Day, we celebrated on Friday. He wanted to see Toy Story 3 and we decided to meet up with my family at the drive-in. It was superb!

The next day we had cake before heading home. Sadly, I wasn't able to make his cake this year... new baby and such.

It's always fun to celebrate with Grandma Sandy! (They share the same birthday)
These are the pictures of him opening his presents on his birthday.. Father's Day...

Whew! How was that for catching up?! I think I covered the major events. Now we're just in our normal routine of work/school/homework.

Caleb

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Our Vacation

Grandma Mary meeting Caleb.



Our first adventure in Yellowstone was Old Faithful. It was an adventure! There was NO parking, so the kids and I jumped out while Louis and Caleb found parking. As we stood there waiting for it to erupt, both kids tell me they have to use the bathroom. Fortunately it was close and we came out just as it went off. Louis missed it, but we met up with the family and ate while we waited for it to go off again. Then off on a hike. I thought it was a short stroll on a boardwalk, but no, it was a hike! I was NOT dressed for that and ended up sunburned, dehydrated, and blistered. Great start to the week.

Kaylee loved these pools and wanted a picture of every single one. As the day went on and I wore out, there were no more pics. So by the time we reached our ultimate destination Morning Glory, I didn't take a single picture.

The next day I lathered the kids and myself with sunscreen and packed extra water and wore my good hiking shoes and a hat, and it was cool and overcast all day. Nice. But I DID remember jackets for us all. We went on another exhausting hike. It had me in tears because the kids kept running away from us and seemed to not understand that if they were to trip and fall and NOT be caught, they'd end up rolling down the side of the mountain. It was a little more than my nerves could handle, but this was Louis' favorite thing. It was beautiful.

We also saw bison that day.

The next day was quite relaxed. Another shorter walk around some geysers and then a trip to Firehole River. I was sad I couldn't join the swimming. Another time.

This is a cute craft they had for the kids.

It was so great to see the Warrens again! Wish you were still close to us!

The day we left Yellowstone, we went to see Dan and Karla in Rexburg and of course, we had to eat at Big Judd's! Love it!

That night we went to St. Anthony to see my roomie from college perform in Once Upon a Mattress. She was the queen, and she was AMAZING! It was so much fun and the kids loved it!

Saturday we went to visit Grandma Gray. It was her first time meeting little Caleb.

The kids and Louis spent the day at Heise Hot Springs and I went to my Uncle Brett's to watch the Blue Angels air show. It was pretty amazing to see. They met me there for a BBQ and that night we played pinochle with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Thaylon. It was a late night, so we slept over and left for home early Sunday morning.

While we were camping out at Gma Eva's, she was vacationing in Utah for Pioneer Day with Tressa and Jake. So, on Monday I went to Perry to see her before she could run back home.