Valley of Fire

Our ward planned a campout for last weekend up near Red Rock but cancelled at the last minute because they couldn't get enough campsites. But by that time, we'd already committed our neighbors to go with us. We weren't thrilled with the location the ward had picked and since we'd already asked them to go with us, we were stuck. But we changed locations to Valley of Fire and we set out. I know what you're thinking - yes, I went camping. In a tent. Overnight. This was Katelyn's first camping trip and Kelsey was a pro. Dave decided on Valley of Fire for the organized campsite and it would probably be better for Katelyn with flush toilets, and it was warmer. All in all, it was a pretty good time.

We got out of the truck and Kelsey found rocks to climb almost immediately. She recruted Brianne to come with her since we were setting up tents.

Katelyn slept the whole ride there so she's still a little sleepy for this. But aren't they cute

This is how high they actually were, and I'm on the ground. Katelyn - not scared one bit. And tried many times to climb up on her own.

She was all about climbing.

Just the right size for her head!!

The bedtime routine...
...is always a lot harder when you're not in your own bed. We laid them down at 9:30 and I think by 10 they were finally asleep. Not bad for her first night in a tent.

Yeah, that's an air mattress. What can I say, we're a bunch of girls when it comes to comfort.

The next morning they were right back at it again. See, following her sister.
Trying hard not to fall.
Just enjoying some time with their dad.
Packing up getting ready to leave. The girls had a great time and we all came back in one piece. And amazing, not one accident for Katelyn. We did have to make sure we were close enough to the bathrooms though!! We all had a great time and I admit, I'd go back there again. Anyone up for joining us?

Curly Hair

Kelsey has the greatest hair and she gets comments about it all the time. Even if she isn't listening to them or thinks that she has great hair, she does. Hopefully she will come to realize this and appreciate it sooner, rather than later. She loves to have her hair curly, and the only time she gets to have it that way is when she gets a shower before church because we were out too late the night before. But last week she let me try it and she woke up to this!! She loves it and I love that she loves it. It stayed curly all day and her preschool teacher loved it. Raved about it all day!!

She could not stop looking at herself in the mirror anytime she passed by one!!

I just wish Katelyn would get some hair at all. Unfortunately hers is so straight and thin, it's gonna be awhile.

Target practice

I realize I've been absent from the blogging world lately, with no real good reason other than I don't feel I have anything to blog about. But today rendered a conversation that is blog worthy.

To preface, last weekend we got the yard ready for Halloween by mowing the lawn and re-seeding in the back yard where the patches are dead. And the girls helped. Need I say more? So there is a LITTLE more seed than was needed on each patch. But hey the girls were happy so no harm done. Well, Sunday morning, and each morning since has been target practice for Dave and the pigeons that have landed in our yard to eat the smorgasbord of seed.

However, today he left too early to get any. While the girls were eating breakfast, Kelsey notice a few on the wall and pointed them out. And this time it was Katelyn who had the response.

Katelyn: Daddy shoot the birds.

Me: Not today, he left too early to get any.

Katelyn: Then mommy shoot them.

Me: No I don't shoot them.

Kelsey: Why?

And before I could get an answer, Katelyn was opening the back door saying, "Then I chase them!!" And with that she was gone. So our bird problem was handled by the youngest member of the family, because obviously having 2 big dogs in the back yard isn't enough.

Dave would've been so proud!!

Swimming lesson update

Well, this past week marked the last of the swimming lessons for the girls since it's cooling down after work when Kaylene would come over and teach them to swim. Look at the progress they've made!! Kaylene thank you so much for spending your nights at our house and teaching our girls to swim. We love ya and owe you big time!!

Katelyn swimming

Kelsey freestyle

Kelsey butterfly

Kelsey backstroke

Kelsey loves showing off. But we are so proud of her anyway

Bragging rights!!

Yesterday was our ward's primary program and it was Kelsey's first time participating in it. Throughout the year she has had numerous speaking opportunities in primary with talks and the articles of faith and each time she has had them memorized and done perfectly. So it was not a surprise that when they handed out the parts for each of the kids a few weeks ago, that Kelsey had a talk to prepare.

She practiced and practiced for 2 weeks and was so excited to go to the practice on Saturday and then to say it in front of the whole congregation on Sunday. I kept asking her if she was nervous to stand up in front of everyone and I thought she might get stage fright when she actually saw everyone there, but she did so great!! Kaylene and my parents were there to watch her. Thank you so much for coming and sharing this special moment with her. She was so glad you were here.

I didn't know where she was in the program, but when there was a boy speaking she just kept looking at us and smiling so big so we knew she had to be coming up. And she was next. She got right up there and smiled and said her talk perfectly!!

She was the only Sunbeam to have a talk and her part was longer than most of the senior primary kids as well. So many in the ward came up throughout the rest of church to say how great a job she did. And how could they not, she practically stole the show!!

Kelsey, we are so proud of you and the things you are able to accomplish!!

I was unable to get it on video yesterday when she was all dressed up so cute and ready to go, but she had no problem saying it again today in front of the camera for me.

Turn up your speakers to hear her.

Katelyn is 2!!

I can't believe my baby is 2!! With Youth Conference the same weekend as her birthday it was a little crazy but we managed to get it all in. We came home after church, had dinner and then a little party for her. She opened all her presents, without any help since she had it all figured out with Kelsey's 4th birthday.

I love how intently Kelsey is sitting next to her but not "helping" her.

Kaylene found this book and most of you are thinking that's a boy book. Au contrair, my friends. Not when their dad sells, fixes, and drives one everyday!! She was so excited to get a backhoe book

And ice cream sundae set just for her. They love to play in their kitchen.

We've already played this game 3 times and she loves it so much!!

Opening her last present.

Yes, she got a scooter. How fun for her!! She absolutely loves it.

She's been cruising around the house all night long and all day too.

Singing Happy Birthday. She was so glad this time to song was for her!! If anyone would ask her how old she was going to be, she would say 4 September. Since Kelsey turned 4 she thinks she's turning 4 and was very upset if anyone corrected her. But when she saw that she got to blow out her candles, she didn't care how many there were.

She's been practicing for weeks, blowing out any candle I had lit anytime she would see it was burning!! Happy Birthday, Katelyn. We love you so much.

Youth Conference 2008

This past weekend was our stake's youth conference. The committee chairs were the Stewarts in our ward and we were one of the couples called to serve on the committee with them. We had such a great time planning and working with everyone on the committee, but we are so glad it's over. Oh, to be a teenager again with all their energy.

Our theme was STAND and be COUNTED

The festivities started Friday night with breaking up into groups of 15-20 kids for a "Youth Tube" activity. They were given topics from the Strength of Youth pamphlet that they would need to stand up for and had to come up with a skit about it. Everyone participated and seemed to enjoy it. One of the bishop's emcee'd in between each of the performances and was just so funny.

Then they all moved outside for dinner which was Cafe Rio!! After dinner all the kids got on the end of 3 ropes and tried to pull a semi truck across the parking lot, proving that if they all stand together great things can be accomplished. That was part of our part since Dave can drive the trucks and got one from APCO. He then had to speak after that, to tie it all in together. And yes, they were able to pull the truck.

After the semi truck pull, they moved over to the dirt lot behind the church for a flag retirement ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony put on by some of the eagle scouts from the stake. Very moving with it being so close to September 11.

On Saturday morning our part of being on the committee was to put together the service project. We went out to Floyd Lamb Park and did a bunch of clean up out there. They had three different areas they could go to and it was a huge success with so many people coming out. This is usually the least attended activities of youth conference so I was a little worried, but we had even more in attendance than we did on Friday night!! We had lunch out at the park and then President Waite spoke to everyone.

Everyone together before leaving the service project. Wow, what a huge group of kids!! Then there was a dance Saturday night where they had a photo booth for all the kids to get pictures taken and just such a fun time. They ended the weekend with a testimony meeting last night with President Bingham speaking at the end. We were so excited to be a part of something so great but can't wait to get some sleep. Being up till midnight each night and back up again at 6 to get things going Saturday morning is a little much. But what a great weekend!!

Also a huge THANK YOU to my parents for coming up to watch the girls so that we were able to be gone the whole weekend, really only coming home to sleep. The girls had such a great time with grandma and grandpa and really didn't want us to come back home. I think we were missed in the beginning but by the end, Kelsey definitely didn't want them to go home. So thank you so much for a successful weekend with everything!!

Katelyn's potty trained

Well, she did it!! Along with painting the two rooms last week, Katelyn decided to potty train herself as well. I figured I wouldn't discourage her since I was already staying home anyway so we took it in stride and she actually stuck with it. She's been accident free since Friday and we've even made a few short trips out of the house without any problems as well!! She's been far easier than Kelsey was to potty train and that's saying something since Kelsey has been the easier baby all along!! Hooray for Katelyn. The amazing thing I can't get over is that she tells me before she has to go and runs in to the bathroom and doesn't want any help. Kelsey never told me, I just had to set a timer to remind myself that she had panties on and Katelyn is usually right that she had to go, no matter how soon she had gone the time before!!

Kelsey's first day of preschool

Today was Kelsey's first day of preschool. She was supposed to starte last week, but her teacher's daughter was due to have her first baby so she wanted to be there to help out for the first few days. So she started today!! She was so excited to go off by herself and has been talking about it for over a week, wanting to know how long until she got to go. She of course picked out her outfit and laid it all out last night. She was dressed and ready to go by 10 but very upset when she realized she couldn't go until after lunch.

All ready to go, back pack and all!!

Katelyn wouldn't hold still, but I thought this was so cute how excited she is for her big sister to go to school. Although the story was quite different when we got home without her sister. I think she thought we were staying and watching her at school, rather than just dropping her off and leaving. But she'll soon learn that she doens't have to have her sister around all the time.

A leave of absence #2

Now the other reasons for not blogging. While he was camping with his family, if Kimber had decided not to go to California, I was going to stay home as well and paint the two other bedrooms and when Dave came home it would already be done and there'd be nothing he could do about it. Unless he would paint over what I'd done and that would never happen. I've wanted to paint pretty much since we moved in and it's just been a huge argument with us. And I didn't understand because I was not asking him to paint, I would do it all, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it. In his defense I think he was thinking I wanted to paint the whole house, but that was never my intention, because I like the colors downstairs, just the bedrooms needed some color on the walls. We were also supposed to be headed back down to California to help can tomatoes and to see some friends that we haven't seen for 1 1/2 years for Labor Day weekend but when he decided to go coyote and dove hunting instead, I told him of my plans and he didn't really disagree or say too much. He just said, "Don't touch the downstairs." Done.

He caught me so off guard with agreeing to let me paint that it was numerous trips to the paint store for different chip colors and trying to get just the right color scheme in each room. Way too much pressure to get it right the first time and hoping that he liked it enough to let me do it again sometime.

The Before:

The After:

Don't be deceived, the polka-dots were so much work, and that is the only help I asked from Dave was to make it all work together on all the walls. I love the outcome and so does he. Instead of just drab white walls, now everything is crisp green and white and we love it. It took a week for both rooms, and the other room is not quite done yet, just waiting till my dad comes up this weekend to help with the finishing touches!! Stay tuned for that as well.

Katelyn kissed one of the dots when it was still wet and it was all I could do to get her not to cry for the picture before washing it off. The girls were so excited to get their toys back from under the plastic for a week and now everyone is happy.

After I did one polka-dot, Kelsey looked at me and said, "You love it, don't you?"

And Katelyn just kept kissing the wall (once it was dry) and said it looked pretty. They even got to help with painting the closet. They weren't too keen on how long the dots took though.