Church History Museum

My dad is serving a mission as a docent at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. Last month, he kindly took my sister and I and our children on a private tour. It was a great way to spend a Sunday evening. They have a really cute children's area, too, where the kids had a lot of fun!

Goodbye kindergarten, hello 1st grade!

With her wonderful kindergar- ten teacher during the last week; outside her school on the last day.

Carolyn about to head out for her first day of 1st grade; with her 1st grade teacher.

Rock Band

My cute sister-in-law invited us over to decorate sugar cookies one evening, and after frosting (and eating!) lots of cookies, my brother lured us to the Wii for some Rock Band. (We have a Wii but not this game.) As you can tell from the picture, Carolyn loved being the lead singer! My sister Rebecca helped Kylie on the drums, and my sister-in-law Krista was on the guitar.

The Good Old Summertime

We loved cooling off at the nearby spray park through the summer. Here are a few pictures showing one such fun family outing.

Isaiah taking some time out to enjoy a little snack

Kylie doing one of her favorite tricks

Isaiah on the slide for probably the 20th time

Carolyn running from one fun activity to another

Carolyn and Kylie finishing off the evening with a little water fight

I really enjoy taking my kids here and am so glad it is only a few minutes from home. I have a lot of good memories from playing here all summer, and (though I do really love fall) this is one of the things I will miss most about summer!

Butterflies

Carolyn loves animals and creatures of all sorts! She has for many years been telling us that she would like to be a pet shop owner or live on a farm when she grows up.

For her birthday she was given some money by one of the friends who came to her party. We went to the store to pick something out, and she looked at various items as she tried to decide how to spend her money.

Then she saw a butterfly habitat and needed to look no further! It included an insect cage and a certificate for live caterpillars.

When the time was right we sent away for the caterpillars. She was so thrilled when they arrived!
Once they hatched (after about 10 days), we kept them at home for several days then released them one beautiful evening. It was very important for Carolyn to have her cousin, Ammon, be there for the big release! She timed her caterpillar order so they'd hatch about the time of his trip here. They actually hatched the week before he came, and we released them as soon as he came to town!

Goodbye, Butterfly!

Kylie's Birthday

Kylie turned four in July. She wanted a small, intimate party with just a few of her very favorite people. We played pin the tail on the donkey, had lunch, played in the backyard in a kiddie pool and slip-n-slide, decorated and ate cupcakes, opened presents, and had a treasure hunt.

Since this birthday was her fourth, I will list four things (though there are obviously WAY more than that) I love about Kylie:

1. Her smile can light up a room! Her eyes literally sparkle, her grin is a mile wide, and her dimples are to die for! And I love the sound of her giggle!

2. She is super creative! She is always doing something artsy. She draws, paints, dances, thinks up games - you name it.

3. She LOVES to sing. When the radio is on she always asks me to find a "girl song", which means a female singer. Then she will do her best to sing along, even if she doesn't really know the words. A few of her favorite songs to sing are Tattoo by Jordin Sparks and Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie. (She also really likes Bad Day by Daniel Powter and Home by Daughtry, though neither is a "girl song".)

4. She is just such a sweetheart! As with anybody, she can have her moments, but Kylie has a very gentle and sweet persona and is rarely anything but.

We love Kylie so much and are so glad she's ours!

Playing Catch-Up

It has been nearly two months (!) since we emptied the pictures from the camera onto the computer. We finally did it, and now I am going to play catch up and post a bunch of the things we've been doing over the past few months.

I'm sure it's going to take me a little while to get caught up, and I'll never be able to cover everything, but looking through the pictures has reminded me just how negligent a blogger I have been lately!

(Don't worry - I will only be posting a tiny fraction of the ~1400 pictures we've taken.)