Kimmy is Three!

 Our little Kimmy is three!  She is such a cutie and adds a balance to our family that I absolutely love.  What a blessing she is in our lives.  It was fun to watch her open presents this year.  She finally gets it and was so excited to open them.  I think we created a monster in opening gifts though, she wanted to start in on the Christmas pile as soon as the birthday ones were done!  

Our birthday girl:

  Somebody is spoiled.  (Especially with Christmas just a few days away!)

Growing Up Too Fast

 Taylor had her third grade music concert on the 17th.  She is such a trooper.  It was a day of appointments for our family and a super crazy day.  Between everyone, we went to six appointments that day.  Taylor made up two of them.  She had a quick doctors appointment and was diagnosed with an outer ear infection.  Then later in the day, she got braces!  We had to drive to a neighboring town (our town doesn't have an orthodontist) and it took about two hours.  She was SO brave.  Braver than I would be in that situation!  She was still able to rush to get ready for her program and did a wonderful job singing in the "North Pole Musical."

The new look of T's smile:

Halloween 2013

I am sure there is something to be said about blogging Halloween photos on Christmas Day, but I am not sure what it is!  We had a ghost, a witch, and a princess.  Love their faces in these pictures.  Couldn't pick a favorite so I posted them all!  We went to a church trunk-or-treat the day before Halloween.  The girls got a lot of candy and had fun playing games.  On Halloween, which is Lee's birthday, Mom watched the girls while we went out to dinner at the Cowfish.  YUMMY!  It was a fun date and the food was delicious.

 Pretty Princess:

 Little Witch:

 Ghost:

Grandkids

Finally doing a little catch-up.  My sister visited in October.  Standard couch photo picture that Grandma insists we take.  Love that almost everyone has their mouth open!

 Nice Emma...and Brayden is gone!

Itch-Itch-Scratch-Scratch

I have fallen off blogging train once again but hope to do some catch-up.  Needless to say, life has not been boring the past couple months!

The cartoon says it all.  Yep, you guessed it, poor Taylor brought head lice home from school.  (Before you freak out about contact with the Crook family, this was a couple of months ago and is no longer an issue!!!) She had had a rash on her neck for a while and we couldn't figure out what it was.  The school nurse had checked her and didn't find anything, and I racked my brain for things that we might have changed in our environment that would cause a rash right there.  I couldn't come up with anything so I scheduled a doctor's appointment.  I was doing her hair early the morning she had the appointment when I saw something in her hair.  I took her into the kitchen for better lighting and my heart stopped.  AHHHH!  LICE!  I put Taylor in the middle of the kitchen with strict instructions not to move, made the other girls promise not to go near her, and ran upstairs and shook Lee awake in a panic and told him I was running to the store.  I cried all the way to the store!  Thankfully, it was only about six in the morning so I was able to get in and out quickly.  I bought a box of prevention things (shampoo, spray, etc.) and several bottles of treatment kits.  Not to mention like four cans of spray that you use on things you can't wash.

After calling the school to let them know kids wouldn't be there and canceling appointments for the day, I got started.  The treatment process probably took two to Three hours since Taylor had longer hair and you have to carefully comb afterwards.  In the meantime, I cleaned like a mad-woman!  I was so crazy overwhelmed and bawled multiple times.  I decided to start in the bathroom with everything washable going into the laundry and scrubbing everything else.  I did bagged up stuffed toys, dress-up and put them outside to be quarantined for a month.  After mom got home from school, we took every scrap of things that could be washed and headed to the laundry mat. (Bedding for everyone, dirty clothes, clean clothes that might have had contact, pillows, every coat, hat, and glove.)  I bet we did over a dozen machines at the laundry mat.  We tagged team and I vacuumed out both cars and sprayed them down.  We also had to vacuum and spray carpets, bedding, and furniture.  

So starting the beginning of a very horrible day at 6:00, I probably cleaned until 10:30 that night.  I carefully spent hours checking everyone else, but thankfully no one else had gotten the lice.  Whew!  What a blessing that was.  That might have pushed me even further over the brink of insanity.  If you know anything about lice, you know you have to keep combing hair for several weeks after to make sure you catch every last egg since one hatched nit can mature into an adult capable of laying 100 MORE eggs!  I combed Taylor's hair almost every night even though you only had to do it every two to three days.  I also treated it twice more even though I never again found anything living.

Are you itchy yet?!?! It has taken me until just recently to not be freaked out or paranoid about it anymore.   I wore my hair in a school-marm bun for about two weeks because I didn't want my longer hair to be left down and vulnerable. The school took Taylor back the next day since she had been treated and Kadie went back with no problem since she was lice-free.  I did have a hard time finding a sitter for Kim.  It was crazy since she didn't even have anything and I even had a note from public health saying she had been checked and was clear.  However, after going through the experience, I can't say I blame anyone for being paranoid! Lee and I ended up juggling her at our differing jobs.  We now have a regular sitter that we dearly love, so it all worked out for the best!  It was one crazy trial to go through, but it is amazing what you end up being able to handle.

When the bough breaks...

 The snow storm last weekend did a number on the trees in town.  Unfortunately, the tree at my parents house was not the exception to the rule.  About a third of it collapsed.  Part of the collapse led into the alley all the way to the dumpsters, and the rest collapsed into the dog pen. 

 The fence took the brunt of the collapse:

 With the help of a couple of good neighbors, we were able to clean the part of the tree that was blocking the dumpsters up.  My mother and got most of picked up and put it in the driveway for later.  We were sore for days!!!

 Proof of all our hard work:

 Thankfully, the elders quorum from church came later in the week and cleaned out all the branches in the dog pen.

Hot Sauce!

Lee likes to put hot sauce on almost everything he eats.  Kim demanded a taste of the hot sauce.  She wasn't expecting it to burn and started to cry.  She then demanded a band-aid to make it feel better...

First Day of School 2013

  First day of School 2013:

Taylor the 3rd Grader:

Kadie the 1st Grader:

 Kimberly the I-want-to-be-just-like-my-sisters-grader:

Taylor's Baptism Pictures

 A friend of ours took Baptism pictures of Taylor.  She did a spectacular job as all these photos are AMAZING!  Taylor looks so grown up.  What a special part of our family she is and how lucky we are to have her in our lives!

Taylor's Baptism

 Not only did she have a birthday (see previous post), but Taylor also got baptized in July.  It was a super windy day but we snagged a few quick photos.

 Taylor and Grandma Jane braving the wind:

 Taylor with Grandpa and Grandma Crook:

 

 Getting ready to be baptized:

 A quick family shot with the newest member of the LDS church!

Great to be Eight!

 Now that the craziness of life has settled back down with the routine that comes with school starting, I will get back to blogging.  Taylor turned 8 in July!  She had a party with family and some of her friends.  Like Kadie, She had a pinata with the ribbon trap door.

 I think she was excited to get a lamp...she had been asking for one of her own for a while...

 Patiently watching sister open presents:

 Getting a little bored...

 Over it...It is hard to watch a sister open presents and not have any of them belong to you!)

 Taylor picked out her cake from the store.  We had family coming and going and a baptism to get ready for so I didn't take the time to make one. (I see other mom's make these amazing themed cakes and cool ideas from pinterest, but I don't think that is skill I will ever attempt to master)  She thought the chocolate flowers on this one were pretty.

 Taylor with MOST of her birthday gear.  She got a set of scriptures from Grandma and Grandpa Ferris that we forgot to put in the photo.  We also took her by herself to Build-A-Bear so she could build her own bear.  That is a tradition we are going to have when they turn eight!  (I am trying to get those pictures off of Lee's Ipod but haven't got that far yet...).  I think somebody was spoiled!!!

Happy 4th of July

 We went to Star Valley to celebrate the 4th of July.  We had fun visiting Lee's mother!  We got to BBQ in her back yard.  We had every intention of sleeping in a tent in the backyard, but the 4th was too noisy, and the next day we barely got the tent down before a torrential downpour almost soaked us.

 Kim's classic 'cheese' face:

 Lee and I were able to take a hike up above Intermittent Springs:

  We didn't hike as far as we had planned.  (It was really humid and we discovered we are out of shape!)  It had rained a lot the days before and we were getting soaked brushing up against the foliage.

 We also took the girls up to Cottonwood lake for some fishing.  Not the best fishing hole but they still had fun.  We went for a walk and I only saw one tiny fish in the water.

 More 'cheese' face:

 Cold mountain water:

 What a patient daddy teaching the girls how to fish!!!

We also took a little bit of time to take some family pictures on the farm.  (They are the pictures that I recently updated the blog with.)