A Graduation, A Birthday, And Extras

I seem to be getting worse when it comes to keeping up with the blog. Since it is late I think I will go through all this quickly, I don't have any time to blog in the next few days! So here is how we have spent our time lately.

Missy had her baby shower a couple of weeks ago and the girls got to spend some time with their cousins.

Ash is the only one who can hold Chelsea for more than a minute without her crying!

We went to two ballet performances. This was Lily's performance which also happens to be the class Ash is signed up for in the fall.

Kaite graduated from Kindergarten.

Eli, Shae, and Kaite (these are her best friends).

Getting her "diploma"

Mrs. Nash and Mrs. Goebel with Kaite, they are wonderful teachers!

We inherited some plants after our neighbor passed away, our house looked like a jungle for a few days.

Ash's picture she took for her accelerated class at school. I think we are going to enter it into the fair this year, the colors are amazing!

We have been swimming and swimming some more. Kaite's first dive ever.

Both the girls got put in upper level classes Kaite is in the level 3 class. She has now learned how to swim at the bottom of the pool and spends tons of time down there, this makes me so nervous! Ash got bumped up to level 5, all they do is laps back and forth across the pool. She really picked up the breast stroke and is doing very well at it.

Ky had his birthday last week and we had some fun. He had some trolls decorate his car and fill it with balloons while he was in class!

I don't know who could have possibly done that! We had a fun evening, we went to Craigo's and ate. Kami ate a whole plate of olives, yuk!

They made Ky a monster cookie dessert. I creamed him! Mar wanted me to shove the whole thing in his face, but I was nicer than that.

Then we went and played mini-golf. The girls loved it. Kami never quite caught on but she loved to hit the ball and pick up any that were near her! That white blob is Kami.

Ash silly stringed Ky!

Kami helped him open presents.

Homemade german chocolate cake, it did not look good...but everyone said it tasted good.

We have also enjoyed the last day of school, field day, some shopping, riding the carousel, seeing Pirates 4, eating at Gator Jacks (yum), and a quick trip to Gene and Taylor's to pick up a table (down and back in one day). I picked up this table on KSL for a really good deal. I have been watching for tables for like a year and I have had a heck of a time finding a square table that is not counter height. This table seats 8 comfortably and I love it. I am planning on staining and distressing the chairs next week if the weather cooperates! Yes, those are our tomatoes and peppers still waiting for the weather to warm up so we can plant them outside.

Ky got to go see the bodies exhibit last week, I am so jealous but he promised to take me soon. Also, we both got a new calling. We are now in nursery with Kami for the first hour. I will really miss my Sunday school class. When they first put me in I was not looking forward to teaching 14 and 15 year olds but so far I think it was my favorite calling. I am sure going to miss those kids they were a hoot! I really enjoyed getting to know all of them better and hearing about all the drama in their lives!
I have spent the last couple of weeks with my nose in a book. I have read so many I can't count anymore. I branched out from my medical thriller/suspense themed books. These ones I have been reading have been easy reads but entertaining. I have been finishing one a day, when I have time to read. I think it is driving Ky crazy but then he is always at his drafting table! I caught Ash reading at 12:30 the other night and couldn't scold her because I have been up until 2am reading lately! At least I know where she gets it from!

I think that catches up the last few weeks. We have so much going on this summer I feel like it is mostly gone already. Ky is through his mid-terms and I am looking forward to him being done with this semester. I registered him for classes the other morning and I think next semester his schedule will be a little lighter.

Another two weeks

I started this post at the beginning of the week and here it is Thursday and I still haven't posted. I figured I might as well include everything else we have been doing this week too.

We have stayed super busy and I am excited that school is coming to a close, Kaite only has 2 days left!! With everything going on I think school has just gotten in the way these past few weeks, we have had a hard time sticking to a bedtime routine with all the late nights. Okay so this is what we have been up to.

We finally got our fire pit in and enjoyed a night of smores (one of the only nights it hasn't rained).

Ky always on his phone!

We finished up our first round of swimming lessons last week. Both girls passed off their levels and they move up to levels 3 and 4!

This is Kaite swimming her crawl stroke after going off the board. Kaite swam the width of the pool and back by herself one day. I was so proud! She really is a fish.

Ash learned how to dive this round. She was the best diver in the pool! This is her first time diving off the board. Ky was especially proud of this.

For those of you who don't know the girls use the school swimsuits because this pool has already ruined two of our suits even with lots of rinsing.

I helped Mar with prom. This is her and her then boyfriend Tyler.

When she told me she had an orange dress I was like "what?? really orange" but I think it was so pretty!

We went to the Paul Cardall concert at the school with Mahon and Cindy. I had another video but it was way to big to load.

It was a good concert, but I wish we could have seen more of him just playing the piano. He did bring along an awesome cellist though. We enjoyed some nice frozen custard when we were done.

I also spent some time shopping with Missy, then enjoyed a nice dinner with her and Briant. She is almost there!

We have been filling up the weekends with yard work, even in the rain. I finally got to mow this past weekend and the yard is all cleaned up, minus the dirt piles in the yard. We have been trying to keep up on the weeding but that has been so hard since the weather won't cooperate.

The girls both had their field trips to the dunes. Kaite literally spent her time rolling down them, she was covered in sand! Ash's day wasn't as nice but she had fun.

We had two funerals to attend. Ky spoke and played at one, he did a very nice job. We let Kami play with London for this one, she loved it. The other one we took the girls and we had a Kaite moment. As soon as we got there she says "mom where is he" and I said "who" she said "the dead guy, where is his body"...such Kaite. She cracks me up!
We have been working like crazy but, we got our permit back for the barn! (for now until the county decides to yank it again!)
Mar had her seminary graduation last Sunday.

And yesterday was her graduation, in the new I center. Wow it is big!

The moment of truth!
Doesn't mom look great less than two weeks after her surgery. She is healing very well.
All us kids, James couldn't make it...too bad he is always so entertaining!
We got to spend some time with Aunt Bonnie.

Me and my "lil sis" I just say she is freakishly tall!

I took Ash with me and she had fun, but it was really long. She will be next...

The graduate- such a scary thought!

Mar stole my camera after the ceremony and now I have like 100 pics of her and her friends!

Tuesday night I spent the night making brownies, cheesecake, and strawberry pie! I was up till almost midnight but it was totally worth it. Aunt Bonnie loved my cheesecake! The strawberry pie was all for me! JK Ash took a big chunk last night while I was gone!
We have most of our plants transplanted. We still have a few to go and hope to have them done tonight. The tomatoes and peppers are doing great!
We had one very scary incident this past week. The neighbor heard something very large attack Dasher and throw him against the door. He ran out to see what it was and heard the animal run off his deck. He said it was something really big. We have been very worried we have a wolf or cat around. Domino has been confined to the garage and we have a trap and camera set up to see if we can get a pic. The good news is that Dasher showed back up. His leg was torn up pretty good but we got him cleaned up and now he is in the garage too, the animals aren't very happy about this! Dasher looks great and is almost healed. We still haven't seen any sign of this animal. I am hoping that means it was a wolf and it is long gone, a cat would stick around and wait. The girls haven't been allowed to play outside much and now I feel like I need to pack a gun around my yard! Oh the country life!!
We have a very big weekend planned with Missy's shower and wedding prep stuff. Next week we have some really fun things planned. I am sure it will be another big post when I finally get to it!

The last two weeks

I had no idea that it has been two weeks since I have posted. So much for posting once a week! These two weeks have just flown by. Here is what we have been up to. Me and the girls spent an entire day watching the royal wedding and all the coverage that came with it, so fun! I loved Kate's dress, I think she looked gorgeous! I also loved seeing London in the Spring, everything was so green and pretty! Oh how I wish it would have looked like that when we were there. Kami is so cute every time she saw Big Ben should would run up to the TV and point and say "there is Big Ben". I can't help but wonder what she would say if she saw how big it really is.

We have also been busy around the yard. We have been moving trees, planting trees, moving dirt, and digging numerous holes. If you have drove by our house in the past two weeks you have probably been wondering if we are crazy...maybe.

Ky and Kami on the backhoe

The girls hanging out while we planted trees.Ash's hole for her new window
We now have half the trees planted at the barn, including three that we donated. We have all the holes dug for the egress windows, now we just have to find the time to put them in! We also started the new flower bed in the front, sort of. We won't actually be able to finish until Ash's window is in, but the dirt is there. We got the fire pit dug and in, the raspberry patch is ready for more raspberries, and Saturday we filled and leveled all the holes in the yard. Also, the girls helped me transplant a ton of daffodils last week and they are already blooming!

We also have been coloring.

Making the best strawberry pie EVER! You can find the recipe here or here.

Friday we went to the Mindy Gledhill concert at the college. We took Ash, this was her first concert. She loved it!
Ash and Mar

We went to Twizzleberry after the show. Doesn't Ash look so grown up!

Other things we have been up too. I have a new fun toy and we have enjoyed painting our nails around here. I have spent some time shopping with Marianne and helping her get ready for prom! Kaite enjoyed grandparent's day at school. She has been so excited to take my mom. She was even up before the alarm went off. She didn't even get up that early for Christmas! She had one traumatic event that day though...she lost a tooth at lunch. Apparently, she was distraught with all the blood! That tooth turned out to be a magic tooth. The thing jumped right out of the bowl later that evening and broke in two, I am wondering if it was some sort of heat exchange since it was sitting next to the stove while I was cooking but still... The tooth fairy left Kaite a note saying it was very magical and special. We celebrated Mother's Day yesterday. The girls were so excited and couldn't wait to give me their presents. They are so cute!

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's day!
We have enjoyed the warmer weather we have had, but today I am wrapped in a blanket with the fire going. And we are starting swimming lessons soon!
I do have a funny story about Kami. She loves church and can't wait to put on her dress Sunday mornings. As soon as she is done with breakfast she runs in and puts on her dress. I was really worried at first since we don't have church until the afternoon, but so far she has stayed clean. She is very much a girl!
I think that wraps it up. We have lots of stuff planned for this week including transplanting the tomatoes and peppers, they are getting tall. Hopefully, I will get a post in next week!

Spring Break, Easter, and Other Happenings

So, I have a lot to post all-in-one! The past week and a half have kind of been a blur for me. I have been fighting my asthma. I even headed to the doc to get some steroids. I came down with a horrible cough (asthma related) and I have sounded and felt like crap. I have also been constantly hooked up to my nebs. I am feeling somewhat better, but I don't sound like it yet. I did rest some but that doesn't last long for me... life must go on.
Me and the girls put the trampoline up while Ky was in Utah. That was quite the workout for the back of my arms, they were sore for days! The girls love having the tramp back up and Kami wants to jump all day long rain or shine! We also had a couple of visits with James and George I think they end up more tired than the girls when all is said and done. The girls sure have fun with them and get so excited to see them.

We started our tomatoes and peppers just over a week ago and they already look like this.

You can't see but the peppers are up too.

Last week we hung out with Mar a ton since she was flying solo while everyone else was in Minn at the Mayo clinic.
Since the girls only had a few days for spring break we wanted to get some stuff done and have some fun. We went through all their clothes and pulled out everything that didn't fit and then inventoried summer stuff. I ended up getting Ash 4 new pairs of shorts for summer. Yes, I am already buying summer stuff since the long shorts sell out so fast.
We planted my lily bulbs and some flowers. The girls were a big help. My irises are already looking good.

We spent some time outside (maybe too much time) the girls are sporting minor sunburns.

And we finished the girls' bears today. They have been looking forward to this since Kami's birthday. I think they did a good job.

We dyed eggs!

This is always a fun event. Kami dyed most of hers orange, of course. We even found a small snow bank to pore all our leftover dye onto. Kami really enjoyed Easter this year. She is at that fun age where she has figured out what is going on. She had a ball at the S&R egg hunt.

Kaite has her own system down.

Kaite was the only one that got a prize this year.

Easter was crazy around here. Ash woke up at 3am! She gets so excited for things. The day started out pretty early and went pretty late. Here are the girls in their Easter dresses.

Typical! I have tons of these ones.

We had my fam up for Easter dinner and got to see James before he headed back home. We had a good meal and visit.

Ky started school last week and had a very busy first week. He has had tons of homework. He spent all weekend working on an entourage for one of his architect classes. He is really enjoying it even though he says it is exhausting. We both had a funny moment on Tuesday when he came home with an assignment to do a power point presentation, neither one of us has ever given a power point. Thankfully, we had it on our computer and we were able to walk ourselves through it, but that didn't stop Mar from totally making fun of us. I have started giving Ky crap about being the oldest one in the class! I told him he is old enough to be their dad! Anyway, with school being super busy I am afraid the basement will take longer than we would all like, oh well.

We have also started getting the barn ready for summer. The commissioners granted us our permit even though they didn't want to but legally had to. I really didn't think that would happen, now the work begins.
We spent last Thursday at the school for science night. The girls had so much fun last year. They were so excited this year that Ash reminded me like 10 times the day of.
It is definitely warming up around here and we have already had a few night visitors. Last night Ky was Elmer Fudding a big skunk and the house did not smell good when I went to bed. A couple of nights ago we had an even larger skunk roaming the garden, I hope it wasn't pregnant! Sam didn't like that one and was going crazy at 3am. I am praying that nobody gets sprayed this year that was awful!
Saturday morning Briant had his appendix out which stirred up a whole ton of emotions for me. I don't think I will ever get over that horrible experience. I remember it like it was yesterday and it was so scary, she was so small. Thankfully, Briant wasn't nearly as sick as Kaite and he is doing great. He even got released that afternoon, crazy! Kaite was pretty excited that her and Briant are the only two in the family that have had their appendix out. She just loves Uncle Briant.
This week we are wrapping up a few projects and I am excited to watch the royal wedding on Friday. Okay, it is just because I can say I have been there! Plus I do want to see what London looks like in the spring all green and pretty!
That was a long post and I am sure I left a few things out. I know that it is just going to get crazier around here as we start getting the garden going and working on all our summer projects, I am glad I have such good helpers! They don't even complain and actually love to do most anything.