THE BIG QUESTION

Last night while we were reading the scriptures, Kaylee asked the BIG question. "Mom," she said, "How does the baby get into the Mommy's stomach." Oh, boy. Here it comes. What can I say that is easy, quick, and simpe. But before I could answer, she smiled and said,"I think I know Mom." Please Kaylee inform us all. "I think Heavenly Father and Jesus know who would be a good mom and they put the baby in her tummy. Am I right?" I gave her a BIG hug and told her she was exactly right.
As y'all know, Kaylee has been having a hard time going to school. But, she is doing SO much better. Everyday she has some story to tell me. Here are some of her latest:
- "When I am sad and missing you, I quickly say a prayer in my head and feel alot better. I actually miss you alot except when I am at recess."
- "A boy asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes because I didn't know what else to say."
- "Some other boys have also asked me to be their girlfriend and I said yes just to tease them."

"Well, isn't she defiant"

Yesterday, was a fun day for me. Kaylee woke up excited about school and got ready really fast. I told her the day before, if she spent her time wisely instead of complaining she would have enough time to play a computer game before she had to leave for school. So, she decided to spend her time wisely and had 20 minutes to play. She was so excited. After the 20 minutes, we got in the car and drove to school. While in the car, Kaylee decided she was not going to go to school. She refused to get out of the car. There I was sitting in the car pool lane and the cars were waiting for me to go or driving around me. Ashley got out and just stood there staring at Kaylee. What do you do? I got out of the car, walked around, and pulled her out of the car. She was not very happy. I gave her a hug and said "have a fun day." She stomped all the way up to the front door. The worst part was the mom at the car pool lane looked at me and said, "Well, isn't she defiant." I just smiled and said yes she is, but I was furious inside.

Later that day, Michelle asked Kaylee why she did that. I could not believe her answer. She said, "Well, sometimes when I cry, I get my way." Nice. I guess I better work on that.

Back to School - I am so Sad

It is fun to see your children grow up and become independent, but it comes so fast. WHY!! I can't believe Kaylee is in 1st grade and Nicole is going to PreK 4x a week. Last week was a really strange one. I felt like I was in a dream all week, trying to hold onto everything. I remember my mom telling me when they start school, the days fly by and time goes by really fast. Well, here we are and I am afraid it is true. It is fun to see how excited Kaylee is about growing up and being a BIG girl going to school all day, but I wish she was still at the age where she could play all day long. I know I have alot to look forward to, but for now I am going to wonder where the days went where Kaylee and Nicole had no cares in the world except for what they were going to pretend to be that day.

Here are some pictures from the first day of school and our fun party when they got home.

Outside the school ready for a fun day at school in her brand new outfit. She wanted a purple shirt and jean shorts.

Little Olie by her cubby.

BIG LOVES from Mom before she has to leave and cry all the way home. Nicole cried after we got there. She was alittle overwhelmed and did not want me to leave. I stayed until 2 other little girls came in and sat down next to Nicole. I wanted to be a little fly on the wall and see how she did. When I picked her up, she was happy and the teachers said she did great. They said she was pretty quiet, but had fun. When I asked her what they did, she said "Swing and Snack." No wonder she had fun - they did 2 of her favorite things.

Kaylee's brand new tennis shoes with little sparkles look so nice and clean. She was so excited about her brand new fashionable lunch box and Hannah Montana water bottle.

Kaylee and Ashley are in the same class again and they are sooooo excited. Kaylee has alot of friends in the class, but she is excited about meeting new friends this week. When I asked them about their first day, they said there favorite thing was recess, eating lunch, and playing their new game which was sitting on the playground, closing their eyes, and saying to the kids who came by, "I am ignoring you and we are not here." Sounds like fun doesn't it.

Taylor did not want to miss out on the craziness, so she found a backpack and lunch box to carry around.

Taylor and I made a banner that said, "Happy 1st Day" with Dora and Highschool Musical pictures. After school, we had a silly string war and the girls loved it!!

Taylor would walk around pointing the silly string can saying, "ZZZZZZ." She would look at it very confused because she could not get it to work. But thought it was HILARIOUS!!

After lunch, the girls had ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

YUM!! (Skinny cow ice cream sandwiches ROCK!!)

The day ended up being great. I got to spend one on one time with Taylor which she seldom gets and spend one on one time with Nicole while Taylor napped. It ended up being a wonderful couple of days with alot of little breakdowns from me, but they were tears of sadness mixed with happiness.

Great-Grandma McVey

About a month ago, my step Grandpa (My Grandpa McVey died when I was a sophmore and my Grandmother got remarried to a wonderful man Rodney Mann) passed away. He was a sweetheart and loved us dearly. He had a stroke awhile back and my Grandma devoted her life to helping him. She helped him walk again when no one thought he would. He was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago, and my grandma didn't stop. She worked so hard, but poor Rod was in so much pain. He died shortly before his birthday. After his funeral, my Grandma came to stay with my parents for alittle while. Great-Grandma asked Kaylee to come up one night for a sleepover and they had a blast. They played barbies, dress up, colored, and watched movies. After the sleepover, Nicole, Taylor, and I went up to get her. Nicole fell in love with Great-Grandma's dog Lady and Lady loved her. Nicole would constantly throw her toy and Lady would go catch it. She wouldn't do that with anyone else. How fun for Nicole.

While at grandma and grandpa's house, the girls also had their traditional popcorn and spicy drink (rootbeer) with Grandpa.

It was wonderful to spend time with my grandmother and to have the girls get to spend time with their great-grandma. I also got to hear stories about Rod which made me happy. One story I loved was hearing how Rod loved his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Because his memory wasn't the greatest, he kept a prayer book. It was a tiny spiral notebook and he wrote everyone's name in it. At night when he would say his prayers, he would go through the book and name the grandchildren, spouses, and great-grandchildren one by one. Everytime I saw him, he would smile and tell me how proud he was of my accomplishments. He was also so proud of Warren and how great he did in school. He loved my girls and I could feel his admiration and love everytime he looked at them. He will be greatly missed!!

My Garden!!!

When we got back from our trip, my garden was thriving. YEA!! Everything had about doubled in size, especially the pumpkin patch. I know! I have a small pumpkin patch. There are about 4 pumpkins and the girls are loving it.

Nicole and Kaylee love to pick the snap peas off the bush and Taylor is constantly searching for berries and stuffing the entire thing in her mouth.


My pumpkin patch!! I love the fall, so seeing pumpkins gets me excited)

About a week ago, it rained alot and the big, beautiful leaves on the rhubarb bush were destroyed, so I decided to cut the rhubarb. I HAD A TON OF RHUBARB!! Warren is in heaven with rhubarb muffins and pie.

Robin told me I am a true gardener because I am pollinating my own pumpkins. YES!! I know. Last year, I tried to grow pumpkins and it did not work - so I researched how to fix the problem. I found out there is a shortage of bees, so you may have to help mother nature along. So I decided to take matters into my hands.

For those who are interested, here is your science lesson for the day:

Here is the girl flower!!

Here is the boy.

Take some pollen from the boy flower and.....

put the pollen in the girl flower.

There you have it. Pretty exciting stuff, but hey I now have some pumpkins and I am so proud of myself.

Our Trip

Well, after 12 loads of laundry, I finally have time to blog about our trip. So, here is our travel log.

Lately, Kaylee has been making funny faces almost everytime the camera is focused on her. Nicole and Kaylee loved jumping off the dock into the water at American Falls lake for the Belnap Reunion.

Nicole would jump off the dock over and over again. One time she did a massive belly flop and all of the boy cousins, said "She is sooooo cool."

Taylor loves to play chase!!

Savannah and Taylor are only about 6 weeks apart and could not be any different in looks, but their personalities are exactly the same - pretty feisty. Savannah has the red hair, but Taylor has no excuse. Well, in the right light, Taylor has some red in her hair.

Taylor loves anything with a buckle. She found this life jacket and wore it everywhere, saying "uckle, uckle, uckle.

"Me Do" Nicole says when she wants to do something all by herself. She especially loves lotion and sunscreen. I left her for about 2 minutes with the sunscreen on the table. This is what happened. Didn't she do a great job. No sunburns for her.

After an afternoon at the lake, we went to Uncle Stan's house in Pocatello for dinner and a testimony meeting. Each one of us wore our shirts with our number on it (we our numbered according to the order we were born). Nicole is #22 (The 22 great-grandchild).

Taylor is such a big girl. She always wants to sit in chairs to be just like her sisters.

Yea, for #33!!

Here is Kaylee's silly face again. Doesn't our #13 look adorable.

Taylor loves "uce" and "wa,wa." She just hung out by the punch bowl and water cooler begging everyone who walked by to help fill her cup.

Uncle Steven is quite the sport constantly playing with the girls. Nicole loves to be flipped by Uncle Steve.

Taylor has a sweet tooth big time!! If anyone left their chocolate cake on the ground, she would pick it up and stuff it in her mouth.


Tight loves for Nicole who got alittle overwhelmed by the choas at the family reunion.

After the Belnap Family Reunion, we went to Bear Lake for the Johnson Family Reunion. We stayed in the same cabins by the lake and had a blast. The first day, we went to some of the sights. Here we are outside a musuem. We didn't last too long with 10 little kiddos running around.

After the musuem, we went to some caves. We weren't too prepared for the cold cave, so Warren dug through the car searching for clothes. The girls wore some of Warren's shirts and Taylor was wrapped up in a blanket with a funny hat.



We had to wait for about 40 minutes for our turn down the cave and the cousins waited as patiently as they could. Nicole kept making funny faces.

The cave had over 800 steps in it and the girls did great. They kept acting like ghosts with their big t-shirts saying "OOOOOO." Nicole would walk around saying "Scary. Dark." Kaylee's favorite was the fairy castle and Nicole liked the water dropping on her head.

Once back at the cabin, the girls went on a walk with Dad. As usual, Kaylee found seashells that she carried around with her the entire trip.

Loves from Savannah.

The next day, we spent the entire day on the beach and lake. Taylor loved to pick up the sand and throw it on her head.

The girls loved the feeling of the sand in their toes.

While on Bear Lake, we rented jet skiies. Everyone loved them, especially when Dad would chase the fish. You could feel the fish hitting the bottom of the jetski as we zoomed over them. Taylor loved doing donuts and Kaylee liked to steer.

Nicole spent the day playing in the sand and falling into the water. The water was freezing cold, but that did not stop her. She would flop into the water, swim around, and come up saying, "Cold." She would than come over for a big hug to warm up and than jump back into the lake. Nicole could not have been happier.

Taylor loved to did in the sand and bury her feet.

One of the things the cousins loved to do was make rafts out of the tubes. They would pile them on top of each other while the oldest, Baylor would pull them around.

After our trip to Bear Lake, we went back to Orem for a couple of days. The girls loved to play baby. Kaylee was the baby and Nicole would wrap her up in the blanket as a carseat. I love their imaginations.

While in Orem, we went to Bear Lake. Miss Independent loves to drive the boat. She wouldn't sit down because she couldn't see. She absolutely loves the boat.

Nicole tried to knee board and did AWESOME. She cried at first, but loved it once it started to go. She is quite the trooper.

Kaylee was alittle more nervous. The night before she skiied, she prayed not to be scared. She cried for alittle while because she fell, so Warren went in the water and helped her. After awhile, she did great and earned a movie.

The trip was great and I am glad to be home. It has been a great, fast summer. I can't believe it is already over. On to school and strict routines - YUCK!! But, time for my favorite season, fall - YEA!!