Rowan meets Oreo . . .

We were trying to get the laundry room cleaned out and Rowan kept getting in the way. So I put him in the high chair and gave him an Oreo. He had never had one before, but as you can tell I think they will be great friends for many years to come.

Here are just some other cute pictures of some kids that I think are pretty cute. (I may be a little biased, but . . . )

My friend, Leah, who is an aspiring photographer (a very good one!) just took some pictures for us today. I can't wait to get them back. She is so fun and did so good with the kids. She was hopping all around and even got Rowan to smile in some of the family pictures. I can't wait. Thanks Leah!!!

The Fair!!

Last weekend was the Graham County Fair. Shane took Friday off and we pretty much spent the weekend at the fair. Friday Kiara was in the parade, so we went to that. Elizabeth, Andrew and Avery were all down for Aaron's homecoming talk so they got to come too.

Aidan and Avery had fun waiting for the parade, playing in the dirt and checking out the trees and pinecones and rocks.

You can barely see Kiara in this picture. I don't know how to make it zoom up, sorry.

Friday afternoon we went to the fair to check everything out. Kiara had entered cookies, cupcakes and some drawings in the fair. She worked really hard to decorate the cupcakes all by herself and she got a blue ribbon on her cupcakes and her cookies. She got a participation ribbon on her painting and I think she was more excited about that one because it was red white and blue! The kids and Shane rode on the merry go round. This picture is kind of blurry, but I think you can tell they were having fun!
Saturday we went back to the fair so Kiara could perform with her dance group, Precision Dance Company. They did an excellent job. Tonya Larsen does such a good job with all the girls. I still can't believe she can get 3 to 5 year olds to dance so good. She is amazing!!

Cowboy Missionary

So my brother, Aaron, made it home safe and sound and so did my parents. A hurricane/tropical depression/storm blew through Veracruz while they were there so we are glad they made it back safe. It was a fun trip to the airport. All my family that live in the Gilbert/Chandler area came to the airport too, so Aaron had quite the welcome home committee. We had to wait a long time for them to get through customs because they came straight from Mexico City.

Kiara and cousin Marci waiting

Cousin Jacob, cousin Bryce, Aunt Bev and Aunt Jodi

We were standing there with our signs and people kept asking where the signs for them were. When they finally came out Aaron looked just the same - cowboy hat and all! I guess this is what you get when you cross a missionary and a cowboy:



I can't believe my baby brother is a returned missionary! I look at Aidan and think he looks just like Aaron did when he was little. Aidan has decided he is going to go on a mission and tell people about Heavenly Father and Jesus just like his uncle Aaron. When you ask him where he is going he says "I go on mission" I guess that means he is willing to go wherever the Lord sends him : ) He also wants to fly on a plane to his mission. I can't believe that someday I will hopefully have 2 missionary boys. Having Aidan talk about going on a mission keeps reminding me what a huge responsibility I have to teach him so he can teach the people he is meant to bring to the gospel. Now Aaron has to figure out life in the real world again and without a companion!


In unrelated news, we also went to Kiara's neurosurgeon appointment while in Phoenix. The doctor told us something just wonderful. He said she is doing so well that she doesn't need to come back to see him for 2 years as long as she stays well. Shane and I did a happy dance all the way out of the clinic! After so much worry over her it is so wonderful to finally have some good news and nothing new to worry about! I think I better do another happy dance just because I'm happy thinking about it!

AARON!!

My brother, Aaron, is finally coming home!! He has been on a mission in Mexico and he is officially done with his mission as of yesterday. My parents went to Mexico yesterday to pick him up and they are going to tour his mission and come home Monday. Shane and I and the kiddos are going to take Stephanie, my sister, and go to Phoenix on Monday to meet the plane. I can hardly wait. Kiara is excited to make a welcome home poster. She has already picked out the stickers she wants to put on it for Uncle Aaron. Aidan hasn't seen Aaron since he was 1 and Aaron hasn't got to meet Rowan yet, so it will be way exciting to see him. Then we are going to stay in Phoenix because Kiara has a doctor's appointment at St. Joes on Wednesday. We will spend Tuesday shopping or doing something fun and not working or stressing. Can you tell I am excited?

a brand new room . . .

Well, Kiara's room is officially all pink!! We painted her room a couple of weekends ago and I finally got curtains up on her windows and on her doorless closet. We also found a bedspread to match on clearance at Wal-mart-o. She is one happy camper. She, of course, wanted it pink. So we did all the walls pink with dark pink flowers stamped on 1 wall. When we did it, Shane kept saying he felt like the pink was going to take over our whole house. Her room is really pink, but with the furniture back in there it is better. We had lots of fun doing it. Now it is on to the boys' room. Their room is bigger, though, with more stuff, so we will see how it goes.

We have also been doing more house stuff. Shane bought a nail gun and got to work on the fence. If he could just get a free weekend or weeknight he could get a lot done. O well, eventually we will find some free time. Shane cleaned up all the weeds again Saturday. With all the rain we are really wishing we would have just planted some grass instead of letting the weeds grow. We have all sorts of plans for this winter including finishing the fence, putting in a sprinkler system, plotting out a garden and whatever else we can afford. I am working like crazy to try and afford to get our house fixed up how we want. Like my dad says, it just takes time and money. You usually have one and not the other. Right now we don't have either, but eventually we will.

This last picture is just because I think my baby is cute : )

1st day of kindergarten

Wednesday was Kiara's first day of kindergarten. She was very excited to go and I think had fun. She said on Wednesday that it was boring sitting at her desk, but on Thursday it wasn't boring. We'll see how Friday goes. She is buying her lunch from the cafeteria today. She was excited about that too.

Aidan was very sad that he couldn't go to kindergarten too. He has had to bring his backpack everyday when we walk Kiara to school and then again when we go to get her. He also wanted his picture taken too for the first day of school, although I couldn't get them to look at me. The baby was way more interesting.

I know it has been a long time since I have updated this. Nothing really exciting has happened, at least not anything I've taken pictures of : )

We recently went to Utah to visit my sister Elizabeth, her husband Andrew and daughter, Avery and my brother Ren and his wife Amber. It was a long trip, but we had lots and lots of fun.

On Sunday we went to Bridal Veils Falls which was about 15 minutes from Elizabeth's house. We went on a short walk and got to see this waterfall. There used to be a restaurant at the top of the falls that you got to by ski lift, but it was closed. That would have been a fun place to eat dinner at.

This is also at the waterfall. All the kids were just dying to climb in the water!

On Monday we went school shopping for Kiara and then went to BYU. We got to see Andrew's art studio and some of the pieces he was working on. We also went to the Monte L. Bean Museum which is a museum at BYU that has all sorts of taxidermy animals. This is Aidan and a skunk.

This one is a baby cougar going after a porcupine. They had all sorts of animals including the head and neck of a giraffe, a grizzly bear, lions, tigers, and the heads of rhinos, hippos and more! The kids and their daddy had lots of fun in there. This is Aidan and Avery with their fireman's hats at the Pioneer Day celebration in Provo on Tuesday, the 24th.

On Wednesday we went to Salt Lake City and visited the temple and Temple Square.

Shane took some great pictures of the temple and Shane and I got to go to a session while Elizabeth and Andrew were nice enough to be in charge of all the kids for us.

After we did a session we walked around Temple Square, went to the visitor's center and then went to the conference center, right across the street from the temple. The conference center was huge. Our tour guide said it was over a million square feet plus the 300,000 square foot parking garage underneath. It holds a lot of people which is good for conference.

Another neat thing about the conference center was the roof. The roof doesn't look like a roof at all. It is like a little park up there. This waterfall starts at a fountain on the roof and flows all over the roof and then into a waterfall down the side of the conference center.

Here is our picture that proves Rowan was at the temple too : ) There was so much water at Temple Square the kids were very excited. This pretty fountain is in Temple Square.

All of us on the roof of the conference center. You can see the temple in the background.

All in all it was a fun trip. We liked hanging out with Elizabeth, Andrew and Ren and Amber. It was definitely worth the long road trip!!