Add "eat" to this list and you get an idea of how I feel this week.

The first day of School

When Sara saw the kids were getting their pictures taken she had to join in.
In her lovely first day of school outfit! Pajama's and the ever present Blankie!

MaryKate started 3rd grade at Hermosa Vista Elementary. She is in Mrs. Hubbard's class. Her favorite subject so far is math!

Nikolai started 4th grade at Irving Elementary. He is part of the pilot ELP self-contained class room. He loves it so far and is especially excited about starting Orchestra this year.

Mesa Dinosaur Museum

The last day of summer Kevin took a few hours off of work and took all of us to the Mesa Historical Museum.
All three kids feet were dwarfed by this dinosaur foot imprint.Smiling in front of Elvis, the alligator

MaryKate is teaching Sara everything she knows about dramaticsNikolai was so sad being locked up in jail...

The poor sisters, cold and lonely in jail... They had so much fun panning for gold.
We let the kids pick out their own souvenirs. Sara was ecstatic about her new dinosaurs and loves carrying all 5 around together.

32 Weeks Pregnant

And here I am again, another month gone by already. I feel and look like I'm carrying a 20 pound bowling ball around under my shirt all the time. I have terrible RLS at night but other then that I am feeling great. Baby is healthy and active and as of yet does not have an official name. We are all excited to welcome this new baby boy to our house in only two months!

MaryKate Is Baptised!!!

MaryKate's baptism was this past Saturday. I am so proud of her making this important decision. She is such a beautiful, loving girl. We love having her as part of our family. She took this picture of her and Sara a few days before her baptism, cuddling together on her bed. I think it is a great representation of the kind, happy girl that she is.
She looked like an angel in her new white dress.

Shots of her elaborate hairdo.

I love this candid shot of her talking with Oma outside the church.
Our family picture at the church! My Dad took several for us so we got one with everybody smiling!

The three kids dressed up and ready for church the next morning where MaryKate was presented as the newest member of our ward!

Oh the best part of having little girls...

Recently Sara has discovered pretty pink-cased panty liners and loves to carry them around the house. With other things, I've found that habits I want to discourage are more easily eradicated if I completely ignore them. Well, tonight MaryKate helped Sara pack her "purse" with toys to bring out to dinner at Red Lobster to celebrate Haleigh and Nick's birthdays. About half-way through the meal MaryKate got up to use the restroom. At the end of the bench I was sitting on she stopped and bent over picking something up... it turned out to be 3 or 4 of these lovely items that Sara had dropped on her way into her seat. Knowing her love for them, MaryKate had innocently packed them for her to bring and Sara had accidentally dumped them out in the aisle, where everybody frequently walked by. Oh me oh my. The best part is that I am old enough now I don't even find it embarrassing, only highly amusing!

Happy 8th Birthday MaryKate!!!

My little girl, MaryKate turned 8 years old on Friday! She is such a fun, helpful girl, we LOVE having her in our family. We are all looking forward to her baptism coming up on Saturday.

I love the look on Sara's face as she looked on watching MaryKate open her presents.
To celebrate we took MaryKate with her friend, Paris, to SunSplash for the day. The kids had so much fun at their first experience at a water park!

Sara fell fast asleep there in the heat, it was all a little too much for her.
We stopped by Frozen Yogurt on the way home and the girls insisted on eating outside because "It was too cold in there!"

MaryKate didn't have a traditional cake, she helped make these really cute ladybug cupcakes instead. Yum! Anything with that much sugar is a hit with kids!

July Happenings

For some reason Sara thinks that the place to carry belongings is in your shirt. She is constantly trying to put things down my shirt and here she is putting my phone in her make-shift "pocket".
We have had a lot of fun this month with play-dough of all sorts. Here Nikolai made a puppy...

And this was Sara's first experience ever, playing with homemade salt dough.

Haydan wearing my Waldo glasses from Halloween. What a funny kid.

There was one day in July that was rainy and under 100 degrees! I got the kids up early and made them go outside to play in the rain. We then headed over to the park for some more "cool-weather" fun. We were actually able to stay until about 10 am!

Nikolai and MaryKate enjoyed burying themselves and their toys in the damp sand. The kids and I took an impromptu day-trip to Strawberry, AZ and ate lunch at the old school house.