On my own & 5 months....

I finally got around to making my girls some matching skirts. I LOVE how they turned out and Alex wants to wear hers every day. Cam says I need to start making ALL their clothes to save money, I say NO way, it would take the fun out of making them something fun every once in awhile.

In this picture Alex was afraid Charlie was going to fall, but I had to post it because we rarely get a picture of Charlie looking at the camera.
This little girl has turned 5 months! It's been a fun ride so far. Some things Chuck is doing....
-rolling ALL over
-talks to the ceiling fans all day
-LOVES when Alex comes home from school
-becoming daddy's little girl (finally)
-happy happy most of the time
-eating oatmeal cereal
-trying to get her legs up to crawl
-squeals and squeals at her brother Jake when he dances for her
-losing her dark hair :( but new blonde coming in!
-serenades us at 3:00 in the morning
-says ba ba ba (I think it might be the beginning of Grandpa ;)

We couldn't love Charlie more, she makes all of our family so much happier and we can't wait for more fun changes to come!

Six...

Alex turned SIX last week! Man oh man where does the time go? I know everyone says it, but I feel like just yesterday we were in Provo, in school having our first little girl and everything revolved around her and her cuteness. We still are loving up every minute with Alex, she is such a sweet girl. We had a great birthday weekend! Here it is play by play.....

I have NEVER seen Alex so excited on any of her birthdays. She had been counting down for months! (literally) I was SO SO sad that this was the first year we weren't together all day for her birthday SOO......

Me and the other two kiddos packed up and spent half the day at Goobs school with her.

We started off eating lunch with her and her cute classmates.
THEN we went outside and Jake got to play at recess with Alex and the other kids. When I say Jake played with Alex I mean he got chased around by some other kids that thought it was SO cool that a little person was playing on the playground. One little girl didn't leave his side the entire 30 min! He kept coming up to me and looking at me like what in the world is this girl doing? It was hilarious!

After recess, we brought in some cookies to share with her class and they all sung to her. She was super excited that they sung to her a total of 3 times that day!

Then of course we had to do the tradition of going to Red Robin for dinner. I think we have about 10 of these pictures of us here. I really need to branch my kids out!

We headed home and opened presents and had our family away from home over (aka The Smiths) for cake and ice cream.

I made a rainbow cake! It was super fun to make and the kids thought I was magic ;)

Even Cam thought all the colors were pretty impressive looking.

Saturday we took the kids to a little place to do some race car driving and miniture golfing.

While dad and the kids played golf, me and Chuck sat on the sidelines and enjoyed the shade.

We ended the Birthday weekend with our favorite Chocolate shakes at In-N-Out.

We walked outside and there was the brightest rainbow I've ever seen (picture didn't do it justice). The perfect ending to the perfect weekend!

Back.....

We have finally got back in the swing of things around here.

-I am no longer teary eyed when I drop Alex off at school

-getting into routine of waking up at 6:30 and making a lunch

-Jake is loving pre-school as much as mommy is

-back to the gym

-back to doing hair

-back to getting somewhat of a good nights sleep

-back to feeling like I'm not going to fry when I walk out side my door at 9pm

It's been an emotional roller coaster for me in the month of August. I have to say I'm glad September is around the corner.

Some exciting news: Chubs here turns four months today!! Whoa! She is getting SO big and I'm seeing her littleness melt away. She started rolling over every time we put her down, she talks ALOT, she has somewhat of a siren, happy squeal we aren't so sure about but we are loving every second of this girl!

Loss of a great friend....

I have friend who I grew up with and have been best friends with since first grade, went to hair school with, roommates with, and have kept close with lose her husband in a plane crash over the weekend. Her husband was also one of my great friends in high school, I liked to tease them and say I was the matchmaker in getting them together. She waited those 2 long years for him and they have been inseparable ever since. My heart hurts for her and her young, precious three kids. Words can't explain the feeling of watching a great friend go through something like this. The pain eats at me and I can only imagine what she feels like. He was one of the most kind, loving people I knew. Always the peacemaker. I love Shelley and Jordan and wish Shell the best in this new journey she has ahead of her.

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" -Matthew 16:19

First day of school!

WOW! It's all I can say about my oldest going to kindergarten this year. It's so crazy she is old enough and that makes me old too. She had a special "pink" pancake breakfast with daddy to start off her day. Jake, Charlie and I walked her to her class and she didn't even hug me goodbye, she just took off and said something that sounded like a "bye mom!" Not sure. She had a great first day, she loves her teacher (whom I love as well) and she as done pretty well without her nap. I was pretty sad to see her go but seeing her face light up every morning makes it all better! Jake and I miss her terribly throughout the day but we are having a great time being buddies.

Trying to get these two to smile "normal" is like pulling teeth

Her desk!

Jake started up pre-school this year and today was his first day! I sweated the whole time wondering if he was going to kill the teacher with his kung-fu or drive her crazy with his silliness. His teacher said he did GREAT and was very helpful on enforcing the rules :) I hope that's a good thing. It will be nice to have some time with only Chuck during the week, poor kid doesn't get much mommy alone time.

Yeah for Back to School!!!

3 months..

This is Charlie most of the time these days, she is a pretty happy baby unless she is hungry or tired. She is a momma's girl through and through but is loving her dad more every day. We still haven't conquered a regular naptime and vacation hasn't helped, with Alex going to school soon and having a more regular schedule we hope that helps. We love LOVE our sweet little girl and she just gets more fun every day!

I thought I would throw in a cute picture of the three in their sun glasses.

Kramer

Remember this guy and his fab hair. Well, my daughter has his exact hairdo! Chuck's hair is totally curly, it fro's and looks like this by the end of the day. Oh but she is still the cutest baby!

Sailor

My little Sailor girl, what can i say, she is such a sweet babe. This dress was mine when I was a baby (or my sisters, I'm not sure if mine was the white version). I think she is looking like her Aunt Kate more everyday, I guess we chose the right name. Charlie (aka Chuck) is making fun noises and when we sing to her she likes to sing along.

Red, White and Blue

We headed up to St. George for the 4th this year. We hungout with Cam's sister's fam and had a great time!

Firework pictures are first and are a little blurry, they were taken with my phone. We got the kids some sparklers and snaps to play with while we waited for the fireworks to start.

We got up early Friday and did our new favorite thing to do in St. George, hike in Snow Canyon. The kids couldn't get enough! They are pro climbers! We have to keep on eye on Jake or he will be half way up a mountain before you can reach him.

For the fourth we went to a nearby park that had jumpies and food and fun all around but it was like 110 degrees outside and we didn't make it very long before we headed home to swim.

Cam busted out Grandpa's motorbike and gave the kids a ride around the neighborhood.

2 months...

Charlie had her 2 month checkup and here are the stats:

11 lbs 15 oz (75%)

23 1/4 inches (75%)

She is growning like a weed and bubbling up some pretty decent rolls around her legs. We couldn't love this kid any more!

Here is Charlie's annoucement for those of you I might have missed sending it to.