First days of School

About a month ago, the girls started school. Sweet Ollie is in Kindergarten and LOVES it. This was a pretty easy adjustment for Nicole who has had 2 years of preschool, BUT she is already learning alot - sight words, silly phrases like : "You make me sick," and "This stinks!", how to write her name on one line, making new friends, and she is beginning to read alittle. As always, I had my little sad moment of realizing my little girl is now in BIG school - BUT, Nicole wakes up every morning so excited to go to school.

- READY FOR KINDERGARTEN -

When everyone started arriving at school, Nicole got alittle nervous. She cried and hid herself in my legs - poor thing. In typical Nicole fashion, she quickly recovered once she saw some friends.

When we got to the classroom, Nicole's teacher read "The Kissing Hand," and than we said goodbye. I stood in the back of the room longer than I should have, but it was SO hard for me to turn my back and walk away....can't she stay home a little longer?

Kaylee is my big 2nd grader and she was so excited about her....backpack. This year she wanted a sling bag, and we had a very hard time finding one. BUT, thanks to the purse section in Target we found one she LOVES!!!

When we got to school, Kaylee shed some tears - but no fits like last year. Kaylee is my tender one and misses being at home. She loves the social aspect of school, recess, PE, art, music, and FUN learning activities, but she gets nervous when school first starts. I also get anxious because I realize Kaylee is now at school more than she is at home. To state this mildly, I have a hard time with this and miss my buddy when she is gone at school. Makes me sad. BUT, it is exciting for me to see her grow in confidence and learn. I act pretty strong in front of her, but once I walk away...I am in complete tears. Will it ever get better, or is this just the beginning?

Kaylee's teacher immediately gave her a hug and helped Kaylee feel more secure. THANK GOODNESS FOR GREAT TEACHERS!!!

After school, we had our traditional silly string fight and bubble war. FUN TIMES!! In our family, this event is saved for those kiddos who go to school all day long.

- Kaylee and one of her best buds since Kindergarten -

When Kaylee got home from school, we made her favorite cookies....snickerdoodles.

YAY - WE ALL SURVIVED THE FIRST WEEKS OF SCHOOL WITHOUT TOO MANY MELTDOWNS.

Summer Garden

I love vegetable gardens. This year we had a ton of hail, so I was alittle nervous that the plants wouldn't survive - BUT, I was wrong. The favorite this year has been carrots. I have never grown carrots before and the girls love them. Kaylee's favorite thing to do is see how big the carrots have become because it is always a surprise.

We had some huge zucchini plants this year and they produced huge zucchinis.

The carrots were really sweet and were a favorite when friends came over.

Kaylee loved making fresh salads from our garden. She would use carrots, lettuce, strawberries, and sweet peas.

Here is what we planted this year:

Lettuce

The strawberry plants are growing - we just don't get many strawberries. I am trying to figure out why. Any suggestions?

Snap peas, carrots, and green onions. The green onions got pretty destroyed during the hail storms, so I had only 1 survive. I was pretty bummed because the green onions were my favorite last year. Better luck next year!!

Rhubarb and pumpkins

This has been one of my trials this summer - WEEDS!! We have had alot of rain this summer which I am very grateful for, but we had so many weeds - Weeds from the nasty tumbleweeds. Every time I felt the weeds were under control, more would pop up. So, I recruited Kaylee to be my helper. I told her I would pay her $.10 per weed. I had no idea she would spend 2 hours picking weeds and earning $25 - BUT, it was well worth it and Kaylee was so happy to make some money.

Cousin Fun

SCARED OUT OF HER MIND

After our family reunion, Madison and Abby came back with my parents. Kaylee and Nicole were so EXCITED!! Madison and Abby came down for a fun day of activities and a sleepover. The girls went swimming, told scary stories, put on dance concerts, laughed, and just hung out.

Family Reunion - Part 4 : The 4th of July

Early in the morning on the 4th of July, Kaylee and I went with Jill's family, Mollie, and Grandma and Grandpa to the balloon festival. Kaylee was so excited the night before, she wore her special air balloon jammies. The weather was perfect and it was a BLAST!!

Kaylee was fascinated with the sounds, and the size of the balloons.

Piggy goes everywhere with Kaylee...

Poor, Tired Grandpa...Grandkids can be exhausting

On the way to my Aunt's home, we had to make a much needed stop - EAST HIGHSCHOOL. My cousins go to school at the famous High School Musical location and my girls were so excited to see it.

After our stop at East High, we went to a swim party at Uncle Scott and Aunt Diane's home. It is always fun for me to see my cousins, Grandma, Aunts and Uncles, and family. Today we had some of those moments where I wish we could freeze time for just alittle while. Here are some of those snapshot moments...

My cousin Sarah loved Taylor. They spent forever hanging out on the trampoline.

SILLY OLLIE - SHE LOVES WATER!!!

TJ and Robbie - Poor Robbie wasn't feeling very good.

The newest member of the McVey family - Parker.

Jill is such a good Mommy. She plays so hard with her kiddos and I love being with her. I wish she lived closer, so we could spend more time together.

Sarah and Taylor...Such Pals!!

Jax is adorable and looks so much like his Dad. We missed you Josh!!

Taylor is not the biggest fan of the water. She likes to walk around the pool. Sometimes she will dip her toes in the pool, but Taylor is happiest playing with the rocks and flowers. She just screams when you put her in the pool.

Taylor has no problems dumping water on other people.

After the pool party, we went to TJ's home to light fireworks.

Taylor kept swallowing the bubbles...and her face cracked me up.

Sparklers are always a BIG hit with my girls.

After fireworks at Uncle TJ's, we picked up Grandma Johnson and found a subdivision close to the BYU stadium. We sat in the back of her car bundled up in blankets watching fireworks and listening to the Jonas Brothers.