School is Out!!

Last day of school! August with her new haircut.

Addison & Mrs. Christensen (we love her!)

Notice I didn't title this post, "Summer is here!" I don't know about where you are, but it's definitely not summer or really summer-like at all in Idaho. I was so excited for the kids to finish school but if the weather doesn't straighten up I may have to rethink my position. We have had a really fun school year this year. Both of the girls loved their teachers and classes and they both got all A's (or E's for kindergarten.) They both were in dance and we enjoyed the recital so much. They did great. I love watching them and I really love that the recital lasts only an hour. When I was in dance we had a marathon 2-3 hour recital every year. I don't know how my parents did it. So thanks Mom and Dad! Hopefully you were able to sneak in a snack or something. :) Now, speaking of recitals, performances, graduations (of the kindergarten variety), and such; they make me so emotional. Does that happen to anyone else? At the "graduation" they played the ever-popular slide show set to some song about kids growing up. (You know the ones.) Well, as I start to get teary-eyed I look around and I'm the only one. I mean this is only kindergarten!!! I fear I am in big trouble here. They are just growing up too fast! I already have Avery and Aiden on the preschool list for 2012, which sounds crazy to me. They are my babies, but I need to realize that they aren't babies anymore. That brings me to what else I've been doing this year: Potty training x 2!!! Wow that was fun. What a wonderful thing to be done with FOREVER! Avery caught on quickly and so did Aiden when she decided to try. For months she wouldn't sit on the toilet because it was "scary." She and I were definitely in a power struggle. Then when I gave up and she figured she had won she started using the toilet. Sigh. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm so HAPPY to be done with diapers but I now spend what feels like a major part of my day in the bathroom supervising 3 year olds. Fun times at the Larsen Home!

Brandon started his new job full-time in March. He works from home and we love having him around a lot more. Things seem to be going well so far. He is selling commercial-grade park and playground equipment again but with another manufacturer. So if you know any schools, cities, or developers in Montana or Idaho in the market have them give him a call. :) He was also just made the Elders' Quorum Pres. in our ward. We love our ward and he has great counselors so he's excited. He always does great in his callings. He's the most responsible person I know, and he doesn't get stressed out. Unlike another person I know who was just made a Relief Society instructor. I seriously feel like this calling is taking years off my life, but I'll save that for another post. :)

We just had our 11th wedding anniversary. That is just crazy! We celebrated by going to Lowe's and buying a curtain rod. Isn't curtain rod the traditional 11th anniversary gift? Haha! The longer we're married the more glad I am that we got married in 2000. No tricky math to figure out how long it's been. :)

Well that's what we have going on. If the weather ever warms up I see a lot of trampoline time, bike riding, and awesome little girl

tans in our future just like every summer!!

Eight is Great!

August turned 8 last month! As usual her birthday fell close to conference weekend so we had a great weekend with lots of family. My parents came up for the festivities and we also had Pam & Leon, Brooke & Reese, Grandpa Larsen & Grandma Peggy, and Grandma King (GG) over on Sunday to celebrate with cake, ice cream, and peach pie. The weather was so beautiful we had the party in the back yard. She got spoiled with lots of great presents and was thrilled to get her very own rollerblades!

Let's title this one "Baptism Bling"

Our best friends the Finlaysons! Wow it's handy having them next door!

On November 6th August was baptized. It was such a wonderful day. When we went in for her bishop's interview Bishop Lords told August that I would be crying that day because all moms do. :) I remember thinking, "nah, I don't think I will." Well we were both sort of right. I didn't cry on the day of the baptism, but I cried almost everyday leading up to it for a week. I just felt in denial. My "baby" can't be eight ALREADY! Ugh. She just seems so mature lately, she's a great helper, and an awesome big sister. It doesn't help matters that she got her ears pierced for her birthday (after the soccer season), and we gave her new scriptures for her baptism. Aren't those grownup things for a tiny, little eight year old? :(

We had a lot of family come up for the baptism. My whole family made it and Brandon's sister Penny and two of her boys made the drive up as well. Then we had Brandon's aunt Debi and uncle Donnie, Grandpa and Peggy, Grandma King (GG), and Pam and Leon. It was so good to see everyone! Our awesome neighbors and the girls' best friends also came as well as Rhett, Karen and their boys. The weather was beautiful again, so the kids were able to play outside all afternoon.

After our little luncheon we all changed clothes and spiffed back up and drove to Ririe to get our Braegger family pictures taken. Leon, Pam, and Penny & boys met us there. It was a great setting and the pictures turned out great. I'm so glad Penny was there to help with all the kids! The last time we had professional (non-wedding) pictures was before any of us was married, over ten years ago! Sheesh...time flies when you're having fun, and getting married, and moving to Las Vegas, and having babies, and changing jobs, and buying minivans, and buying houses, and selling houses, and ...well, you get the idea. Hopefully it's not another ten years before our next photo shoot! When I figure out my scanner I'll have to post the old picture with the new one. In ten years we've added thirteen people to our family! Stay tuned for a post on our basement progress...

Fall Futbol

We stayed busy with soccer this year. Both of the older girls played. This translates into two practices a week and two back to back games on Saturday mornings. That was a little stressful at times! (kind of glad we're done for this year.) I think both of the girls enjoyed it. August had a lot of her friends on the team and we had the same coach that we loved from last year. She is still pretty timid around the ball so we did a lot of yelling, "August run, go get the ball!"

Addison's team was fun to watch. She was one of only two girls on the team but that didn't stop her from scoring the first goal (and quite possibly the only goal) of the season. Addison's coach was great with them too. We also lucked out again this year with the weather. Fall soccer is always a gamble in Idaho but this year we had very mild conditions. :) (today it's snowing though...)

First Day of School

I'm just trying to play catch up for a few posts so that I can print my blog book at Christmas and not have it be two pages long. :) This year August is in 2nd grade and her teacher is Ms. Staples. She really likes her teacher and her class this year. McKay, her best friend from next door, is in her class. The school sends out letters in the summer letting you know who your teacher is and McKay, having already received his, waited as we opened August's. Wow! It was like they had won the lottery. I absolutely love that they are friends. It will be sad when they each think the other one has cooties! When does that happen anyway?

Addison started kindergarten this year. I decided to send her in the morning, and it's working great. She does tell me on a regular basis how she hates getting up so early, but she's been a trooper about it. Her teacher is Mrs. Christensen and we love her too. Addison loves learning to read. She is my kid that has always loved books. As a toddler she would sit in her little rocking chair and look through books all afternoon. (oh why can't the twins be like that?) She is reading well already and asks her teacher for more books everyday.

This year I have been able to help out at the school more. My friend watches the twins for me on Wednesdays so I can help August's class with writing and then I take them with me on Fridays and help with Addie's class. It has been fun getting to know other moms and the girls' teachers better. I feel like I'm slowly getting my life back as the little girls mature. Hey, it's only been 3 years, not bad!

We are still working on the basement and it's coming along. I'm getting so excited! I'm sick of dusting upstairs everyday. Hopefully we can get it done in time for Christmas. (fingers crossed!) I'll try to post pictures of our progress soon.

Summer Catch Up

Well, well...here we are less than 24 hours away from the beginning of the school year and still no summer post. Time flies when you're having fun, or chasing twin toddlers! (that can actually be fun sometimes) We actually had a great summer, much better than last year, with a lot of family adventures and fun times. Here are some that made our highlight reel. They include, but are not limited to: Brandon's BD, a visit to Grandma & Grandpa's (handcart rides included), Bear Lake and Lagoon. My parents also came for a visit on my birthday and brought my Grandma with them. She had never seen our home in Idaho Falls so it was fun to show her around and spend time with her. Of course I have no pictures of that...why do I even have a camera? My Mom came for 5 days a couple of weeks ago and we had so much fun starting quilts for the girls new bedroom. I think we hit every fabric store in town at least twice. We also ended our summer with a trip to Lava. (Also no pictures of this event, please someone e-mail me some!) My parents and every one of my siblings and their families were there, except Reese who was working. It was great weather and the kids loved it.

We also had many fun visits with Brandon's sisters this summer. We saw April twice, we got a 3-week surprise visit from Becka, and we saw Penny and her boys more this summer than probably the last 3 summers combined! :) Luckily they have posted great pics of their visits, because yeah I stink with remembering the camera. We have also enjoyed many backyard BBQs with Brandon's parents and grandma. They really do have a great backyard. The twins had their 2 1/2 year photo shoot with Papa and Nana and the pics look great as always!!

Now I just need to post about a few of the messes the twins have made for me this summer so I can make them feel sorry for me when they're older. I won't go into a lot of detail, I think a few key words should paint the picture nicely.

1. Red fingernail polish & carpet (really, need I say more?)

2. Broken lightbulb on bed (have you ever seen the pieces of a shattered lightbulb? teeny-tiny)

3. Chocolate pudding and a fan (I'm not making this stuff up!)

Well that's it for our summer. We're looking forward to fall and starting up with our schedules again. August is in 2nd grade this year and Addison is starting kindergarten. Crazy! Both older girls are in fall soccer and will start dance again next week. We are still working on finishing the basement. We're in the mudding and taping stage. We're getting there! Right now we're looking forward to the FAIR! Yahoo! Bring on the funnel cakes!

May Days!

Isn't May just a crazy month when you have kids? Here are some pics of what we were up to. They include a dance recital, a visit from Aunt April, a preschool graduation, a field trip, another tooth lost, and a weekend retreat for our 10th anniversary, now just add some destructive duo episodes of smearing themselves with vaseline, then desitin for an encore, and completely obliterating five years of financial records on the computer and then you have some feel for life around our house! :) Hopefully I can play catch up and get our summer blogged before school starts. Let's be realistic here, probably not going to happen...

Avery & Aiden Update

Okay, to satisfy the twin mother in me who cringes when I here "the twins" I will do a short individual update and then them together. I mean they are identical twins, they actually do have a lot in common. :)

Avery is very funny and pretty sensitive. She loves to say "Nnnnnnnno" dragging out the word like that when we ask her a question. Usually something like, are you ready to take a bath, go to bed, get in your car seat? She likes to make us laugh with her goofy faces and games. Avery is a great eater and she recently discovered she likes salad. She has preferences about which clothes she wears and which car seat she uses. Her favorite phrase is, "No, I don't want to!"

Aiden gets my attention by screaming "Mommy!" at me all day while hitting me for effect. I recently read that Aiden means fiery one or little fire, and she is living up to her name. Aiden tries to stop Brandon from going to work in the morning by blocking the door and she must give August a hug goodbye as she leaves for school or she's extremely distressed. Aiden gives the sweetest kisses and great big hugs.

Okay, now for the pair of them...they refer to each other as "Sissy." Isn't that the cutest? I absolutely love it. It's Sissy this, and Sissy that all day long. Aiden can actually say Avery's name...Avey is how it usually comes out, but Sissy is by far her favorite way to refer to her sis. They also have started tattling on one another and are constantly summoning Brandon and I to come check out the latest way their sister has outraged them. They love coloring, anything Elmo, watching Sesame Street & Caillou, and they could watch the movie Up all day long if I let them. They are starting to play really well together during the day. It's fun to catch them sitting side by side in their room holding their baby dolls. They are talking a lot now. They were a little slow getting started, but now they can always get their point across. Over Easter my mom gave them their first real haircuts. They had that baby hair mullet going on, so we took care of that. They look so grown up, like little girls, not babies anymore. At nap time they still curl up on my lap with their blankies to fall asleep. I love it! They are so much fun and I can't imagine our family without them. I'm posting pictures of their nighttime ritual...totally destroying their bedroom. I started tying the closet door shut and that seems to help. They just want to play all night, I don't blame them, being twins that share a room is like having a sleepover with your best friend every night. :)

Addison Update

Addison turned 5 last month and is in preschool and dance lessons. She still loves to sit on her bed and look through books. She is very interested in reading and is pretty good at sounding out words and has some of the sight words figured out. She loves animals and said she'll be a veterinarian if she can take care of "nice" animals.

Last Saturday when I got out of the shower August informed me that she couldn't find Addison anywhere. Hmmm. We started yelling for her and looking in all her usual hiding places. In the meantime Brandon came home and Brooke came over. We sent August to the Finlaysons to see if she had gone over to play, and we kept looking everywhere else. Well, August came back crying saying that she wasn't there. At this point it had probably been 15 minutes of this. Brandon was heading out to cruise the neighborhood, and I looked behind the couch again. As I knelt on the couch I felt movement under the pillows and guess what...there was our sweet, adorable,severely in trouble, Addison! I wanted to kiss and spank her at the same time! The funniest thing was that August kept telling us the last place she saw Addie was on the couch. Well, that was accurate! Brandon made Addison apologize to August because she was really upset. While we were looking August kept walking through the house yelling (while sobbing), "Addison, please come out! You won't be in trouble." I can't believe she laid there so still and for so long, and that nothing we were saying compelled her to show herself! That's a good story to illustrate Addison's personality. She usually does what she wants, when she wants, regardless of the consequences! Sigh.

The other day Addison told me she wants to take guitar lessons. I think that would be cool, because I actually want to take lessons too! Maybe if I go to her lessons with her I can figure it out. She said that she won't complain about lessons like August always does. I thought that was funny. Does anyone know the right age for starting guitar lessons? Or a good teacher?

Addison's best friend is Anaya from next door. They are so funny together! They play dress up and like to make up songs and dances to perform for us.

Addie lost her first tooth on Sunday and that sort of blew our minds. Is she old enough for that to happen? Of course she is, but for some reason she is stuck in my mind at about 3 yrs. old. Nope, she'll start kindergarten in the fall. Yep, we're old!!

So long old friend!!!

Today we said goodbye to a piece of furniture that has been a part of our home for the last 7 years. Our crib...that's right, our daredevil 2 yr. olds have consistently climbed out of their cribs all day today. (Our second crib was on loan, and is now heading back to Grandma's.) No naps today! If that isn't bad enough, I'm really nervous about bedtime. How is this going to work? I soooooo look forward to bedtime! Our other girls never attempted climbing out of the crib, and they were both older before transitioning to big girl beds. For the time being we're just going to let them sleep on their mattresses on the floor. When the basement gets finished they'll inherit the trundle bed from the older girls.


Update: I started writing this yesterday and last night was a little crazy. Initially they didn't want to stay in the beds, but we (when I say we I mean Brandon, I needed a break. Thanks Bran!) used Super Nanny's technique of not talking to them and sitting on the floor in their room until they fell asleep. That probably took about 10 minutes because they were so tired. Brandon works tonight so I'm flying solo. I hope I can do as well as he did! This morning we heard them wake up and start playing with their toys at 5:30am. I'm thinking I should start hiding the musical toys before they go to bed. :) Then there was a stretch of quiet and then Avery came into our room at 6:40. I went to check on Aiden and I found her asleep on Avery's bed...sort of. (refer to picture) Notice the state of their room, it was clean when they went to bed. Good thing they are so sweet because sheesh...change is hard on me. Talk about some major adjustments! My babies got rid of their binkies, turned 2, and started using big girl beds all within a couple of weeks. Sniff Sniff :(

P.S. I finally quit being lazy and found the cord for my new camera, hence pictures shall be coming in the future. I know some aunts that will be happy! :)

Update #2: Just got them to bed tonight by myself! 5 minutes flat!!! I love Super Nanny...and it didn't hurt that they were t-t-t-tired from getting up too early and not taking naps today, yet again. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Animoto.com

August Update

Instead of back-tracking too much I decided to spotlight each of the girls in the next few days...or weeks. We got a blog book for Christmas and now we'll be doing that every year. It's awesome and eases my guilty conscience concerning the documentation of my children's lives!
So basically this is for my posterity and anyone else this interests. :)

August turned 7 in October. Is it just me, or does 7 seem a lot older than 6? She is in 1st grade and loves it. She has never had her clip pulled (equivalent to having your name on the board) in her whole elementary school career. She likes to remind us of this on a regular basis. I'm a little concerned about what will happen when she does. Can you say perfectionist? She is mini-me I'm afraid, and I feel like my life has come full circle. The things she says I remember saying, and the things I say I remember my mom saying. Yikes! August is our little comedian. She has a pretty mature sense of humor. She likes to banter with Brandon when he teases her and she comes up with some pretty witty responses. At parent-teacher conference her teacher told us that she can always count on August to understand and laugh her jokes even when it goes over the other kids' heads. August still loves anything creative. She loves to design things and paint and color. We are trying to get our basement finished this year and on one of our trips to home depot we were checking out light fixtures. August spotted one and commented that she really liked that one because it had a lot of detail. I just agreed and tried not to laugh out loud. She totally caught me off guard with that one. What a character! We recently started chore charts with the older girls and August loves it. She's all about marking things off and getting credit where credit is due. She is still in dance lessons and I started teaching her piano lessons a couple of months ago. She is doing really well. I think it's more fun for me though. August is a great big sister and a big help to me. She is always giving us hugs and telling us she loves us. Just so people don't think this sounds too good to be true, I'll just say she contributes her fair share of drama to the Larsen home but we'll take it because the good far outweighs the bad! Love you Auggie!

Hooray for Hand-me-downs!!!

There are some advantages to having our cousins a bit older than us...we get their toys when they outgrow them. Thanks Petersens for sharing with us! Addison seems to enjoy the four wheeler the most and Avery is probably a close second. August was in school during the video and Aiden was napping. We'll have to get a video of those two together tonight. (If Aiden is as brave as her sister!) Thanks again!

There is definitely some loud squeaking in the video, but if you listen closely you can also hear Avery's giggle!

Halloween Stress!

Love this picture! Avery (ladybug) Aiden (pumpkin)

Living in a household of four little girls, Halloween really isn't that big of a deal. Everyday is a dress-up day of some sort. We usually don't stress that much about getting new costumes every year because their closets are already full of princess dresses, dance costumes, etc. Here's where the stress comes in though...between school, dance, pre-school, the trunk or treat (held on Friday not Saturday), and actual Halloween, I dressed up at least one kiddo five days in a row. Now, that's still not that bad, right? Well, you see when they don't have a set costume that leads to the changing of their cute little minds during the week. Oh joy! Good thing there is a lot of chocolate lying around during this time of year. I needed it this week! Good thing tomorrow is Monday and we can get back to our normal craziness, which is pretty much the same just with fewer bobby pins and less glitter. :) August was a princess the first 2 days of dress-up then shifted to Taylor Swift then to the more glammed up Taylor. Addison was consistently a ballerina during the week by made some major wardrobe changes, going from her dance clothes to August's old recital costume. Avery and Aiden only made one Halloween appearance as a cute ladybug and an adorable pumpkin.

Who doesn't love the fair?

Yay! I love the changing of seasons! Isn't fall the greatest? I mean kids are back in school, the weather is more tolerable (we don't have A/C), and most importantly the Eastern Idaho State Fair is in full swing. Yahoo! We went this week on a weeknight. Definitely the way to go. The crowds were manageable, which is important when you're maneuvering a double stroller around. We do the same things year after year. But why change a good thing, right? We check out the amazing photography (yay Papa!), are blown away by the quilts and crafts, get STUFFED by yummy fair food, and finally pet all kinds of farm animals. (Don't worry, a good hand scrubbing is always part of our routine!)

Addison started preschool this week. She was so excited. I'm so happy for her. I didn't realize how hard it is to be the second child. It has been hard for her to watch August get big and try new things. I'm afraid Addie is not incredibly patient. Hmmm...wonder where she gets that?

Dance also started this week for the girls. Addison's best friend Anaya is in her class. They were dying of excitement on the way over there. What is cuter than two little girls all dressed up for the first day of dance lessons?

Soccer is in full swing. August is pretty timid on the field. She says she's afraid to hurt the other girls. I think Aunt Brooke needs to come over and run a training camp for her in the backyard. She likes her coach and the girls on her team and the game was entertaining, so that's what's most important, I guess.

Let's see, how do I describe Avery and Aiden these days? Let's just say staying one step ahead of them is becoming increasingly difficult. They climb onto the counters, open doors, and today Aiden learned how to get onto the changing table and slather herself with lotion. Now if she could just learn to change her own diaper while she's up there. :) Needless to say the house is full of gates, latches, and doorknob thingers. Wow, it's hard not to wish away this stage!

Back to School

Yesterday was August's first day of FIRST GRADE! She seemed to do great. She ate chicken nuggets at lunch and enjoyed recess. That's about all the info she gave us. Aren't kids silly! I'm excited to be back on a schedule. All of our carpool arrangements are made and we're set for this new year. It shouldn't be as hard to load kids in and out all day now that Avery and Aiden are bigger. Addison starts preschool in a couple of weeks and they both start dance soon...so tune in for more pictures. August is also playing fall soccer and seems to like it so far. We'll see if that lasts when they're playing during some bad weather. :(

I finally tried out the "extreme coupon shopping" yesterday. (Thanks to my helpful sis-in-law...it's kind of confusing at first) I bought $90 worth of stuff for $32. Not bad for my first time. I can see how people get addicted to this!

Radioactive Mama

Okay here is the story of my summer, and Brandon and the girls' a little more indirectly. I feel that I can now blog about it because I'm not smack dab in the middle of it. I'll try and make it short and sweet. I've had thyroid problems for years which causes me to take medication and get annual thyroid ultrasounds. This year it seems my little thyroid nodules decided to grow slightly, hence the need for a biopsy. Ouch. Not fun...it's just not natural to see someone coming at you with a needle...repeatedly! Biopsy showed basically nothing but they couldn't rule out cancer. Okay, that's helpful. My doctor felt like surgery was needed and we decided to just take the whole thyroid out. Yikes. I had my surgery on June 26th...again painful and unnatural. Isn't it a natural response to try and protect your neck against sharp objects? They actually did find a tiny cancerous mass, so I'm so glad I had the surgery. Ooh...I forgot the most pleasant little tidbit of this whole process -"The Low-Iodine Diet." (spoken with a creepy low voice) I started the diet before surgery and remained on it for 8 weeks. What is the Low-Iodine Diet you ask? The most horrific, torturous diet ever. In my humble opinion. It's a way to starve your body of iodine because the next part of this fun summer is receiving radioactive iodine to kill any remaining thyroid cells left in the body. We'll get to that next. I'm still not done complaining about the diet yet. I couldn't have any dairy, egg yolks, chocolate, anything with red dye (bye-bye Cinnamon Bears and Red Vines! ), basically anything with salt in the ingredients because you don't know if it was iodized salt or not! Ask me when I'll ever eat a corn tortilla or a fruit smoothie again. Ugh! Gross! It took me 7 weeks to get my levels low enough for treatment. That means I had to be tested twice. How do they tell your iodine levels you ask. Good question. With a 24-hour urine test. Yes, that's correct...collect your pee for 24 hours and store the big pee jug in your fridge! April and I are sure my kids' primary teachers probably heard all about that one. Can you just imagine that conversation? This Wednesday I received my radioactive iodine treatment at the hospital in the Nuclear Medicine area. It was pretty easy...I just had to take these two tiny pills. The catch is that I couldn't be around anyone for 2 days and pregnant women and children for 4 days. The girls are all in Utah with the fam and we're going to pick them up TOMORROW. Yay! The treatment made me tired and a little weak, but that's all. I actually started my thyroid meds again today...finally. I hope that I can feel like myself again soon. One of the side effects of everything is my manly voice. My vocal chords haven't healed yet from surgery so when I answer my phone people always think I've been crying or that I've been sleeping. Nope, just don't have a voice. Oh well, if that's the extent of the fallout I'm good with that. I want to thank our awesome families for taking such good care of us this summer. You've helped so much with the girls and we appreciate it tons. Hopefully we're done with the drama for awhile. Great, just jinxed myself! If anyone ever has this problem...I'm your girl. Give me a call and we can chat.

A Week in Review

What a week! We have had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends. Brandon got tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter on Tuesday night. He and August went with Leon and Brandon's cousin Jared. Yes, August liked the movie and did stay awake. We had her take a power nap beforehand which helped I'm sure. Then Brandon went golfing with a client (18 holes) on Wednesday after having 3 hours of sleep. He didn't care though. He likes golfing and RARELY (the annual Bear Lake outing) gets to go. On Thursday night we met Brandon's sis, Penny, and her family up at Palisades where they were camping. We didn't get to stay for long but it was a lot of fun. The kids ate hot dogs, and we all ate some yummy, "better than anything" cake. I had never been to Palisades and it is really beautiful. Thanks to the Petersens for the invite! Friday was my birthday and my mom came up for the weekend. Thanks Mom! We had dinner at Olive Garden and then were surprised by my Dad staying over that night. He came to deliver a load in Driggs for Luke on Saturday morning so he stayed the night and part of Saturday. Brandon went golfing (another 18 holes) on Saturday morning with his friend Rhett and cousins Cory and Jared. What are the odds...twice in one week! I thought it was MY birthday! :) On Saturday our great friends from Utah stopped by for a visit on their way to Yellowstone. It was awesome to see the Andersons and to meet Kami's boyfriend Kyle. In the afternoon Brandon watched the girls while Brooke, my Mom, and I went shopping and had a little girl time. Then my cousin Christalee and her kids stopped by for a visit. They have been in Utah visiting family and now they're vacationing in Yellowstone before they go back home to Minnesota. Sheesh...a lot of visitors huh! On Saturday afternoon our awesome neighbors took the big girls to Rigby Lake, the Rexburg splash park, and out to pizza. Thank you Finlaysons! The girls had a blast. Today we finished the week off with a BBQ at Pam and Leon's with birthday cake and ice cream. Whew! Can a person ever have TOO MUCH fun? Nah, don't think so.

I almost forgot to blog the most glorious event to happen to our family in the last 18 months! Our precious toddler daughters are now in NURSERY, and they love it...and so do we! Yes! We made it. I feel like shouting it from the rooftops... "Here we come sunday school, relief society, priesthood lessons. We're ready to learn again!"

Our Jackson Hole Retreat!

Brandon and I celebrated our 9th anniversary in May. Whoa! A lot has happened in nine years, huh. (namely, having 4 kids!) Brandon won a three night stay in Jackson a while back and we finally decided to use it to celebrate the occasion. The last time we went away together was when August was a year old and we went to Florida for work. (and just as a side note, the Florida trip was about 10% fun-90% not fun at all...Huh Kam!) We had a really great, relaxing time this trip though. Before I forget I must thank our team of nannies (or manny in Reese's case!) my Mom, Brooke, and Reese made our vacation possible. Thanks team...we really appreciate you! We stayed in a great condo close to Teton Village. We went to Yellowstone on our first day. It's still an amazing place to visit. We went to Teton Village and rode the new aerial tram. It was a lot of fun! We got to watch some para gliders jump off the side of the mountain. I even got to read a new book! (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins...I'd highly recommend it!) We had fun but it was great coming home too. The girls were so happy to see us and Avery and Aiden showered us with kisses!