Happy Birthday Chlo

Chlo is so lucky to share her birthday with her good friend "Sister Duffy". This year Sister Duffy sent Chlo a package which had a cute tinkerbelle t-shirt and an adorable card. Chlo was so excited! She made Sister Duffy a flower clip, gave her a tinkerbelle cupcake and a card. What a treat to have two such amazing ladies share a birthday.

Dave and Julie were good sports letting me take this picture of them - I did a bit of editing on it, just for fun. They are such a cute family! Looks like another magazine picture...

I had to add this one in because of my adorable niece, Lucy... I'm glad not only my kids do this in pictures :)

Chlo opening a few of her gifts.

Jaylee is getting better with kisses - she actually gave Bailey one :)

Jaylee was trying to run after Chlo, it was quite comical.

Chlo was giving all her grandparents hugs in thanks for the AMAZING gifts she got!

Uncle Dave feeding Bailey - I had to snap a shot of this, it was SO cute!

Chlo wishing mom would have remembered her candles... Oh yea, insulin would have been a good thing to remember too - yep, mom moments... :)

Justin and his cute friend Amber. Aaaw sweet :)

Chlo's chocolate cupcakes with tinkerbelle and her friends. We tried to balance them on our cupcake stand but it kept topling over. Bummer!

The group getting ready to sing to Chlo.

For dinner we had both families together. What a fun night!

This picture cracks me up - Chlo is opening presents while Carlee and Jaylee look on - Dave's in "the brown chair" reading a magazine... what a nut!

Chlo and Carlee showing off their matching pj's they both got for Chlo's birthday.

Yea, she and grandma both looked freaked out here - Grandpa must be a crazy driver :)

Jaylee took a while getting used to the four wheelers... She seemed happy enough here.

Carlee wanted to practice a pose she was asked to do in the morning photo shoot - she was much more cooperative here than she was that morning :)

It took quite a bit of convincing to get Carlee on a four wheeler - all it took was Grandma offering the ride and she was there!

Grandma was so cute and asked if Jaylee wanted to go on a walk with her. Jaylee has a thing with "treasures" so she had to bring a tuperware lid with her on the walk...

Dave and Chlo threw the frisbe for a while - Chlo got pretty good.

Chlo was having a bit too much fun with the fire. Jaylee was intreagued - she liked the fire too.

All of us had a great time on the four wheelers once we got used to them.

We went to Fairview with my family for the day to spend extra time with Dave, Julie and Bailey. Chlo couldn't get enough of the four wheeling!

Just a little picture of one of Jaylee's messes - yes this is just a taste of what she can do...

Yesterday was Chloé's birthday! What a weekend it was... My sister, Julie and her little family were in town so the party was able to continue for a few days. YEHAW :) We were able to get grandaughter pictures, go to the canyon for four wheeling, dutch oven dinners, games, and even a little fishing. Sunday we were able to have a big family dinner and get both my family and Dave's family together. Couldn't have asked for a better crowd! Thanks to everyone who helped make this day so special for Chlo, she had a wonderful day and will remember it forever :)

Lunch

Notice how on each lunch item there is a number - that tells how many carbs there are and helps with dosing insulin... Never a dull moment :)

Since this is Chlo's first year in "all day" school we've had the issue of what to do for lunch. Chlo LOVES to eat at school and I think it's a highlight for her. Since we have the whole diabetes factor we have to go through the school lunch menu and decide what she'll eat and not eat. fortunatly they have a list of the carbs in each item so it's easier to give her insulin. As for home lunch though... I have to write the carbs of each item with a sharpie then total it up to know how to dose her. I'm sure her lunch looks a bit different than her friend's. :) I'm just going to be forever grateful for the cute diabetic assistant, Kodi. She tests Chlo and watches her for me all day! She even gives Chlo her shots. It's nice having a few hours a day where I don't have to worry about diabetes. Thanks for the "sane" time Kodi :)

First day of 1st grade

Chlo getting off the bus at school where they lined up in classes in the back of the school so they could be taken to class.

Chlo and Reagan getting ready to walk down to the bus stop.

Chlo, well... being herself :)

Chlo showing off her fashion diva style! :)

Today was a big day in my little family! We sent our first child to 1st grade! How exciting! :) Chlo has been so excited to start going to school like her best friends, Madison and Reagan. Today her dreams came true - she even got to walk to the bus stop with Reagan - you would have thought it was Christmas for her. She picked out her own outfit which she says is quite "Chanelish" (her aunt Chanel has a fantasic fashion sense). She ate a great breakfast and was ready to go. Actually she came into my room and woke me up about 40 minutes before she even needed to wake up. Probably not a bad thing.

I thought I'd be super nervous but the school has provided an AMAZING diabetic assistant to check Chloé's blood sugars and give her insulin - not to mention her adorable teacher is a diabetic herself!

The new challenge will be what I'm going to do with the other two rugrats since Chlo isn't here to play with them :) Good luck Chlo, we love you!

** Update - when Chlo came home from school she said she had a wonderful time! Her favorite parts were the corndogs for lunch, which she said were the best she's ever eaten - that's saying something coming from a girl who eats them a few times a week! She also liked it when her teacher told the class about her diabetes and showed them her needles and supplies. Chlo LOVED the attention. Carlee, Jaylee and I had a great day as well - dancing, crafting, making food, cleaning... It's going to be a fun year! :)

Continuation of the post below...

I HAD to post this video of dad shuffling cards with is toes! It totally cracks me up. GO DAD!

Last week of summer

Carlee on her first day of preschool this year. She was super excited until we got up to the school - then she burst into tears and said she couldn't remember what cubby she had chosen in her classroom... Poor kid. She ended up doing great and loved it. Carlee was putting the old maid back on the table using her toes - my girls actually do use their feet to do a lot of things - obviously a talent they've recieved from their grandpa!
We played a few mean games of Old Maid on Sunday morning. Grandpa was getting Carlee to put all her matches up on the table with her toes - he's always been a gifted toe user - he's truly rubbing off on my kids in the best way! :)

Dad and Jaylee were having a good time in the water - Jaylee LOVED the pool. She especially liked it when I took her out of her float and let her be in the water with me. The lighting on this picture was amazing! And I had to snap a quick shot of Jaylee drinking her sippy with her little pinky up - it's a must for her. :)

Becca and I did this picture with the camera timer - I need to work on my poses...

We went on a night time swim on Friday night after Jaylee went to bed. It was PERFECT weather.

Chlo LOVES to sleep in the bedroom closet... She thinks it's so cool to have her own room with shelves.

This is what Jaylee looked like when we got to St. George. We were doing everything we could to get her to relax - I guess big marshmallows and a lollypop aren't always the best idea. :)

The girls had so much fun spending time with grandpa this weekend - they even enjoyed a bit of a movie before bedtime. Grandpa had to explain everything going on. What a sweet man!

On our way home on Thursday night we saw this beautiful rainbow. If you look close you can actually see 2! We truly live in a beautiful place!

The girls and I went on a quick trip to the dinosaur museum last week before our trip - the girls had a great time!

We took the girls school shopping last Saturday - Dave kept Jaylee entertained by sharing a push pop with her. Needless to say she was a HUGE mess by the time she was done.

I can't believe summer vacation is already over. As many of you know I love being able to have my kids home so we can play! I have to admit, these last few weeks have been HARD! It's going to be so nice to have the girls doing something other than bugging each other :) We decided last minute to have one last fling before school started - Friday morning we headed to St. George to spend the weekend with my dad and SIL Becca. It had to be the best decission we've made in a long time! We had a BLAST!!! We were able to learn fun things about dad that I had never known - did you know when he was 14 or 15 he went skiing without permission and broke his wrist, cracked his knee cap and did something to his elbow too... Talk about being caught red handed. :) We had a great time swimming, shopping, eating, playing games, watching movies, staying up way too late... and more! Thanks for the amazing weekend!

Another crazy week

The girls got to eat purple pancakes in the playhouse after their sleepover with grandma -which they also did in the playhouse! Fuh huh?

This is a true definition of "uh oh oreo's" Jaylee loved them :) She actually did eat a white oreo with Chocolate frosting - think these may be more dangerous than regular oreos...

My aunt and her two adorable kids Brady and Brooklyn enjoyed the dinosaur park with us.

Jaylee won't hold anyones had to be lead anywhere - this was a first for her! She held grandpa's hand to go check out a dinosaur - the additional perk in this picture is Heather in the background smiling!

A lot of these dinosaurs were only 1/3 true size... Yikes!

We had a blast hanging out at the park together. The girls and I have talked many times about how we're truly going to miss Heather when she heads up to BYUI in a few weeks!

My three adorable girls enjoying the sunshine and the dinosaurs.

We were checking out how our feet measured up to some of the dinosaur tracks - it was pretty amazing to see how large they were - some of their toes were bigger than Chlo's whole feet!

These girls truly can be some of the "world's most dangerous creatures" :)

Chlo loved being "captured" by this dinosaur - they actually had sound effects that made it sound like the dinosaur was running through the bushes. Super creepy!

During lunch Chlo decided to climb a near by tree - she truly is a little monkey!

Carlee was a bit timid in this shot - I was impressed how Grandpa could help calm her down!

It was so fun to have Grandpa along for the adventure this time. What a treat for my girls to get to spend time with both their grandparents!

My girlfriend Stacey and her cute girls at TG point Gardens. We had a party!

Carlee posing for a wall shot :)

Chlo doing one of her typical poses - she looks AMAZING! :)

The flowers were spectacular! It's amazing going to the gardens from week to week how much it can change - this has to be my favorite time though! So much color!

You know, I always think that I'm going to have an uneventful week and then things get crazy, exciting and fun :) This last week was no exception. We got to go to the gardens, Dinosaur park in Ogden, the girls had a sleepover with grandma, I got my hair cut, we saw GI Joe (LOVED IT), and had our carpets and tile cleaned for the first time in almost 7 years (yes, this one is embarassing). Phew, what a week! We also decided last minute to go see Harry Potter - Thanks Madison for the last minute babysitting! It was also a spectacular show! It was fun - for the first time since we've had kids we had 2 dates in one weekend. I sort of liked it - I think we need to do it more often :)