Twins?

This is my sweet new niece Millie Sue who we all think looks just like Charlie Kate. They were meant to be twins. What do you think?

What we have been up to...

It feels like we have been moving non-stop for the past month but nothing really great to talk about. Just normal life stuff I guess. Alex had spirit week last week and we did her hair crazy for crazy hair day. She said her head hurt by the time she got home. I should have taken a after we took her hair out shot because she looked like Shirley Temple. Alex is doing amazing in school, we had parent teacher a couple of weeks ago and her teacher said Alex is a child that every teacher would love having, she's smart, easy to like and picks things up really fast. She has started to read and reads things everywhere we go. Soccer ended a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun to see Alex get more confident from last year. We might have a future Mia Hamm in the house.

Jake got his first official Transformer this last week for being super duper good during family pictures. He has been asking for one for a long time and now that he has one he won't let go of it, church might get tricky tomorrow. Jake is loving preschool and is learning the funniest songs and can count to ten in Spanish.

Now this little stinker is teething and has nothing to show for it but grouchy, no nap, drooling days. She has been on a strike from sleeping for the last week and we can't seem to keep her excited about anything for too long. She is still the angel baby but just with a little attitude.

Look at our grass Grandpa!! It's green!!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, we will be on our own plus my sister Cris. We hope to not burn or under cook the turkey. We have SO SO much to be grateful for this year and can't wait to celebrate our thankfulness.

Half Birthday...

Half a year already!? Where does the time go? We have SO SO much fun with this gal, she is the sunshine in our house. The other two kiddos just eat her up! She is sitting up now and loves to roll all over the house. She is eating baby food, loves the green stuff, I have to sneak in some fruits. We are all SO in love with her, we try to soak up every second. I know how fast time flys by, it seems like Alex and Jake were just this age and look at them now! We can't wait for more of the fun milestones ahead.

I got this fun ruffle bum onsie at a What Women Want expo. The headband came with it, we aren't so sure about it, kinda looks like a flower growing out of her head :)

Halloween 2009

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! It's a great way to kick off the holiday season. I LOVE matching the girls up and when I found these t's on super sale I couldn't resist!

This picture is of everyone before their Halloween parties at school

Ever since Alex's first "dress up" Halloween, I have been waiting for someone to come around to wear this cute ladybug costume. It's one of my favorites!
Charlie is in flight!

These guys weren't too happy with me to be taking a picture right before we headed out to party! Can't you feel the love in their expressions?

My Cowboy and Indian! Thanks Grandma T for the awesome costumes! They both were complimented all night!

Right before we circled the neighborhood for our loot!

LOVE LOVE Halloween!! This year was no exception, we had a great time!

On to Thanksgiving!

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.