"Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters"

 I LOVE how much Kim tries to be like her big sisters.  Whatever they are doing, she wants to be right in the middle of it doing it too.  We were doing an activity sheet for family home evening.  Kadie was laying on the floor to do hers so Kim grabbed a paper and pencil and copied her.  Excuse Kadie's posing face...one of the faces I get when I pull out a camera:

The older sisters watching Lee play a game:

  Kadie trying to get into the picture:

 Not a sister picture but a really cute one of my dad and Kim.  They are the best of buds whenever he is home:

I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee...

We have a flowering plant (we call it artificial bamboo but I'm not sure what it really is) that grows along the front of the house.  It grows about six inches a day when it's growing and then blooms thousands of these tiny yellow flowers right about this time of year.  The green leaves are great in the front of the house and the little flowers smell nice, but they do bring the presence of LOTS of bees.  In my childhood, I stepped on bees a lot while running barefoot and got randomly stung by them occasionally.  Once I even got one stuck in my hair just by walking out the front door and got quite the sting on my head.  I think all the stings have resulted in an allergy-I get baseball sized swelling if I get stung now.

It seems as though this tradition is going to continue.  Poor Taylor got stung for the first time last week while playing in the yard.  It was in the center about where her ankle bone is:

 She is quite the trooper and was fine just a few minutes later:

First Day of School

 It was a very long, crazy summer.  We were all anxious for school to start.  I can't believe how the years have flown by and that I am now the mother of both a second grader and a kindergartener.  We took both girls to an ice cream social last week to meet their teachers so they would be comfortable the first day of school. (Taylor must have been a little too comfortable as she got into a little bit of trouble for talking in class and had to miss out on a few minutes of recess.  My chatterbox? Never!)

The Second Grader (She looks so grown up!):

 The Kindergartener:

 What about me?

Want a blast from the past?

Taylor's first day of Preschool:

 First day of Kindergarten:

 First day of First Grade:

 Kadie's first day of Preschool:

Utah Trip

 We did a quick three-day weekend trip down to Salt Lake for a last minute vacation and to do some serious clothes shopping for school.  While it isn't really a vacation if you're mom, and taking ALL three kids shopping is an adventure, it was a successful trip.  We managed to find lots of good sales to get the girls outfitted for school.  We also outfitted Lee with a bunch of new clothes so he could dress up a little more for work.  I couldn't resist and got a few things for myself as well.  Poor Kim got the shaft and only ended up with one shirt and one onesie.  (She has all the hand-me-downs so she won't go naked.)

One thing we got to do is go to the Zoo.  Kim loved it!  Checking out the elephants:

 It was REALLY REALLY hot (102).  The baby elephant got down to play in the water:

 My favorite experience in the Zoo was a bird show that we went to.  Despite the heat, it was really interesting and the birds flew back and forth and swooped right over our heads!

Golden Eagle:

 Barn Owl (I like the description they gave of it looking like a perfectly roasted marshmallow):

 Bald Eagle:

 There were birds that did tricks.  A cute parrot gave a talking demonstration and these birds at the end would take your donations and put them in the box.  Kadie gave one bird a dollar:

 If you donated five, they let you pose with one of the birds.  Taylor chose the Bald Eagle (Kadie didn't think it was a good idea):

 Can you tell she loved it?  Here is her choice in riding the Merry-Go-Round:

 They enjoyed the ride and went twice:

 I liked looking at the newer attractions that we hadn't seen.  They added a polar bear!  He was huge and was swimming laps by pushing off the glass:

 Playing on the statues:

 We ended with the train.  It was so hot that we didn't take the time to visit everything.  I'm glad we did the train because it won't run for the next two years due to a remodel:

 (My lovely "glow" is from the heat:)

 The train went so fast this was the only picture I got:

 We don't have pictures, but Lee took the girls to the Planetarium too.  Lee and I got all dressed up to go the the temple, but found it closed due to an air-conditioning problem.  We were bummed.  It was too late to get to a different one in time so we went and watched The Bourne Legacy instead.  It was a good show!

If you don't count the fact that I got car sick twice, it was a successful trip.

Kid Free...Almost

 A couple of weeks ago, my mother took the two older girls to visit my sister's house.  They were gone almost two weeks!  It was so weird just having Kim around the house.  It made life seem a lot quieter and a lot emptier.  We are so glad they are back with us again!

Trying to get a group shot:

 Liz took them on a trip up to see the Canadian border (She's a Border Patrol Agent for those of you that don't know...)

 Family home evening night making autism pins:

 The girls were able to do one-on-one swimming lessons while they were there.  Kadie actually wanted to participate in these ones.  She wasn't interested in taking lessons here.  They both got three days of private lessons and had a lot of fun:

Kadie:

 Taylor:

 They went to the park almost every day.  The daily park trips had to stop the last few days as this bear was found a few blocks away:

 Cracker Barrel rocking chairs:

Silver Linings

Our life is a little bit of crazy right now.  Some of you who are friends with us on facebook were following Lee's quest to find a new job.  We had some very hopeful situations.  One PBS job would have let us stay here and was a dream situation, others held the excitement of moving somewhere new and making a better living.  To sum those experiences up, he didn't end up getting any of those, and I bypassed one job opportunity here to hold out for a move that isn't going to come.  I think one thing I learned through this process is how close hope and despair are to each other and that you have to have faith that things will work out the way they need to...

Which brings us the present.  While none of the job opportunities worked out in our favor, Lee will not be left jobless and has the wonderful experience of continuing to provide for our family in a way that we never thought possible.  Through a series of events (that I believe are divinely inspired) we are buying a local business.  As of the 16th of this month, we will be the new owners of a business called Artistry Web.  The opportunity to buy the business practically fell in our lap and has worked out in amazing ways.  The business primarily focuses on fixing computers, but with Lee's experience, we are hoping to eventually expand it to include graphic and web design.  This is going to be one crazy journey as we hang onto our hats and get a crash course on how to run a business.

So even though our life is crazily unpredictable, but it is nice to know that we are being watched out for.  I realized that this opportunity doesn't end our trials in life, and may possibly even create bigger ones, but I am excited for the future and the potential that it holds.

Special Visitors

Liz and her family (minus Chase), came down to visit for Emma's birthday.  Mom likes to get pictures of all the grandkids that are present.  With them all being seven or younger, it is a challenge to get a decent shot. 

I simply like this one because of the looks on Taylor and Kadie's faces:

Kim was not happy, but this was probably the best out of all the shots.

I got a special visitor this last week.  One of my childhood best friends (Melinda) stopped by for a brief visit as she and her family were passing through our town.  It was a special treat because while we try to visit, we live far away from each other.  Neither of us have had a chance to meet each others' baby, so it was fun to see them together. (The picture quality isn't the greatest because they had to be fast!)