Truckin' along on my 40x40

I was able to cross two more goals off my 40x40 list. I recently read Boy by Roald Dahl fulfilling my goal to read a biography. I did try to read a couple of other bios but I picked two different books that had way too much war tactics in them and I gave up. I really liked Boy and enjoyed sharing the stories with Morgan who loves R. Dahl-she has read many of his books and a couple of them she has read multiple times. I also got to go to a movie on opening night. Koby and I went to see The Hunger games Catching fire with the Youngs. It was so much fun and the movie was amazing! Koby and I went out to dinner first and then watched the double feature.

Now we just have to wait another year until the next movie comes out!

Family pictures

William took these pictures for us. They turned out really nice.

Catching up-again!

I have been slacking so much and it feels like a lot has been going on too. So I am going to write a marathon blog and try to get back into the swing of things. I will start with the youngest... Maylee is doing great! She is now 2 1/2 years old, talks A LOT, smiles most of the time, makes us all laugh and is adorable! We recently got her pictures done and of course they turned out fabulous! Maylee has learned a lot of her colors and shapes. Her favorite color is currently pink. Morgan will ask her to sing her ABC's and so Maylee says, "ABC, ABC, ABC" and we all laugh. This is a picture of her holding Grayson who is two years younger than she is. Maylee also loves to pick out her own clothes and often chooses frilly twirly skirts. *** Morgan is doing amazing! She is learning so much in 3rd grade-right now she is working on multiplication facts and cursive. Morgan still loves school and has been making her own lesson plans to share with Maylee and Peyton (or anyone else who will play school with her)! This is her 3rd grade school picture. Morgan has been sad that soccer is over but is keeping busy with everything else. This is Morgan with her soccer coach Natalie Jeffs I recently made her a special achievement chart and so far she has earned a few extra prizes. Morgan is very excited for Halloween and once again she has designed her own costume. I will post pictures soon! Recently Morgan decided that she would like to invite her friend Faith to church with us. She did it all on her own and last Sunday Faith came to church with us. What a great missionary! *** Koby is doing great in school. In fact he got straight A's during the first term of his sophomore year. That alone is awesome but he earned it while taking driver's ed for three weeks and then he also began conditioning for wrestling. Here is his 10th grade school picture. Koby just turned 16 last week! We surprised him by taking him out to breakfast (he chose Subway) and then taking him on a shopping spree. Steve and I both called in sick that day to work and just enjoyed an extra day off since there was no school. This is Koby at his birthday breakfast. Koby requested turtle brownies rather than bday cake so that is what he got. Wrestling practices are starting up really soon and I think he is getting pretty excited. We are also planning to get his drivers license next week-he had to wait a bit past his birthday so he would have his learner's permit for a full six months. Steve and I are both doing fine. We run ourselves ragged trying to keep up with our kids. We sure love our family! We feel so blessed to have amazing, loving, wonderful kids! Life is good.

Maylee's changing

Maylee is going to be 2 1/2 next week and she is changing and growing so fast-it's exciting and fun but also sad! She has the cutest, sweetest personality. She makes us all laugh and smile all the time. Last night I was helping her get her pajamas on and she sat up and folded her arms and said, "I want prayer!" I told her that we needed to get everyone in the room first for family prayer. She then yelled, "Prayer ever'one!" So everybody came into the room and gathered around. Maylee then said, "Morgan fold your arms!" It was so adorable. Although as soon as the prayer started she was up walking around. Oh well-we are getting there. This morning was also a huge step-she peed in the potty for the first time ever! She sits on the toilet all the time (her request) but has never done anything other than sitting there, until today. We were celebrating for quite some time and she got a treat out of it. Love you Maylee bug!

Sunflower sadness

For mother's day this year Morgan gave me a sunflower plant that she grew from a seed at school. We planted it in our flower bed at the front of our house. Our sunflower has grown to be about 7 1/2 to 8 feet tall and finally bloomed earlier this week. Morgan has watched this flower all summer long and has been so proud. Last night someone snapped the flower off and stuck it on the neighbors truck. I don't know who did this but I think you are an awful terrible bully! Stupid jerk!

1st day of school

We have to take the first day of school pictures-it's tradition. This year Koby is in 10th grade and Morgan is in 3rd. Maylee wanted in on the action so we took her picture too even though she doesn't get to go to school yet. Morgan thought that she looked very cute for her 2nd day so we had to take a picture of that too.

Zabriskie Campin'

At the beginning of August we went camping with the Zabriskies-or at least we tried to. Since Koby was at a scout leadership camp until Saturday, Maylee and I stayed home and waited for him to get home while Morgan and Steve left on Friday afternoon. We went to American Fork canyon so it wasn't too far away but it sure is beautiful! On Saturday afternoon we were able to head up to camp-we unpacked everything and then hung out at the lake. It was a lot of fun. Later we were all sitting around playing bingo when Maylee fell off the picnic bench and hit her head on the asphalt. It was such a loud bang and she cried for quite a while. Then she seemed fine and played for about an hour until she started throwing up and acting loopy. Everyone was pretty sure that she had a concussion and the advise I received was to wake her up every two hours during the night to keep a close eye on her. I decided that if I had to do that I might as well go home. Koby told me that he would like to come with me so that he could go to church and I agreed thinking it would be nice to have some help with Maylee. Steve and Morgan decided to stay another night. On our way home I started calling all of the nurses in our family and was finally able to get a hold of Tara. She told me not to let her sleep until about 6-8 hrs after she fell and then she should be fine. At that moment, Maylee was asleep so Koby and I immediately tried to wake her up but she wasn't having any of that! Finally we had to pull off the freeway at a gas station, we made her walk around and then she drank a slurpee. It was still hard but we kept her awake and she ended up being fine. Thank goodness! In the meantime back at camp, Morgan got sick and started throwing up in the middle of the night. We think she either got too much sun during the day or had altitude sickness. Poor Steve had to take care of all the puke. Here are some pictures that were taken before all of the drama.