Birthday Celebration

We celebrate mine and Josh's birthdays together with the Smith family. Mom made us an amazing turkey dinner and we had pumpkin pie for dessert. It was like Thanksgiving a couple of months early.

Josh's Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!!! We surprised him at work today with some homemade cupcakes and some beautifully colored cards. The smile on his face when he walked back into work made all the stress of it worth it.

Preschool

Sadie started preschool!! She was so cute on her first day. She said, "I'm so excited to use Kali's backpack and go to Kali's preschool." So much seems to be revolving around Kali and Ashlyn lately that she's been dying for attention and preschool is finally giving her what she needs.

Labor Day Traditions

My family has the tradition of going up Millcreek Canyon for breakfast on Labor Day. It was freezing cold this year so I spent my time by the fire. But the cold didn't stop the girls from getting as close as they could to the creek.

Josh's family goes to Copperton Park for lunch. Grandma Parry always organizes a car race with hotwheel cars and Kali won this year!! Sadie had fun too, but she didn't want to smile for the camera (surprise, surprise).

Polka Dots

My polka dot girls!! Grandma Smith bought them these cute dresses. Now I just need one for Ashlyn. Maybe I'll put her in black & white stripes to spice things up a bit. Let me know if you see any cute 6-9 month old black & white dresses anywhere.

Ashlyn

Ashlyn is as cute as ever!!

She is very much a mommy's girl. She's getting chubbier. And she is now sitting up on her own.

Kindergarten

Kali is officially in kindergarten!!! She was so excited to start that I thought for sure she'd love it, but when she came home from the first day of school and we asked her how it was, she told us that it wasn't very fun. When we asked why, she said that they just did a lot of explaining. Thankfully she got to go to recess the second day. That made school fun.

She's attending a charter school and gets to wear a uniform. I am so jealous because there are so many cute clothes they can wear nowadays.

She's learning Spanish and Sign Language and really seems to enjoy her math. She's a mini-me. Aghhhhh!!!

St. George

We were finally able to go on a family vacation while Josh was between semesters at school. We spent the week at his work's condo in St. George and had a blast as we do every year. Some of our favorites include:

swimming

playing at Jumping Jacks

visiting the St. George Temple & visitor's center

hiking to the Dixie sign

and this year we got to visit Tuacahn and see Tarzan. It was amazing!!! I was shocked at how much Kali enjoyed it. She had so many questions and wanted to go home and watch the movie. Sadie did really well during it too.

The Bean Museum

We went on vacation last week and started off the trip in Provo at the Bean Museum. For my girls, it was better than the zoo and the best part about it is that it's free!! Also, it gave Josh and I a few minutes to reminisce our beginnings. I can't believe how much Provo has changed in five years.

Kevin & Tanya

For the first time in my life (other than when my siblings were on missions and when Sara lived in California with my cousins for a couple of months) a member of my family no longer lives in Utah. Kevin and Tanya moved to Washington State while he gets his PhD in Physical Therapy. That means it will be a few years before they return. I've been so lucky to have my whole family living within about 45 minutes of each other for years now. It'll be different not having them around. As you can see from the picture, Kevin brings a lot of fun to our family gatherings. Also, Tanya is expecting in November so we won't be getting to see little "Hammy" and Alyia for quite some time. Good luck guys!!