So this was the first day of school picture.  The girls never really got bored of summer.  I really didn't want to go to actual stores to take them clothes shopping this year so I got them on kohls.com and let them do their shopping online.  they actually thought it was fun because online had a lot more selection.  As soon as their clothes got here they were really excited for school.  

Kailyn is doing really well in school.  She has one teacher she really loves.  she comes home everyday with something new she has learned everyday. Too bad all of our teachers aren't like that.

Brooklyn is also doing really well in school.  She hopes to get a 4.0 this year and knows she has to have a 93% to obtain that.  She really dislikes school lunch so we have put together a system of lunch items so that she can grab them and I don't have to make her lunch anymore.

Caleb is doing great.  He no longer is getting thrush- he was getting it about every other month.  He is now walking around and getting into everything.  Yesterday he crawled on top of the kitchen table.  Time to make sure the chairs are all pushed in. 

Well since I forgot to post this I will post it now with this short summary and get to a bigger one later.

Two Weeks!!

Two weeks is all the girls have before they start back to school.
This year will be Kailyns last year in Middle School (8th grade) and she only has 5 more years or school left.  Brooklyn will be in 6th grade.  Like I have said before, time flies!!!  They are really excited to go back to school.  I had them do all their clothes shopping online this year because it would have been to much of a hassle with Caleb to spend 3 hours in Kohls.  I think that they enjoyed doing it online though.  They had a set dollar amount to spend and could see their total as they added items to their cart. 

July was a very busy month for us.  Kailyn was in 3 parades for the marching band that she joined for the summer.  We also went to Seven Peaks 2 times.  The girls went and spent 3 days in Vernal with their Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen and then 2 weeks later, went to Stockton and spent 5 days with Grandma Rae.  In between all that, they had fair projects to finish.  After all was said and done on the fair projects, they each had about 10 to turn into our county fair.  We won't know how they did until tomorrow night.  I'm glad that they like doing projects.  It makes them have a goal during the summer months.

We have got Brooklyns "Summer to do list" almost done.  The major things that she has wanted to do are done.  I don't know that we will get to every one of them though. 

After 11 years of getting to work at home, I was laid off on Aug 2.  Work had slowed down to the point that I was only getting about 8 hours a week.  I was able to get a new job in a surgeons office and am very anxious about sending Caleb to daycare.  I would love to stay home with him and do the same things with him that I did with the girls but I feel that I need to help out our family financially also.  I feel really bad the he will have to be "babysat" everyday.  I just hope the lady we have picked to watch him will take good care of him. She will start watching him on Aug 12.  He finally started crawling this month.  He is almost ready to walk also.  We stand him in front of the couch and he walks 3-4 steps to us.  Most of the time he falls over before he reaches us though.   

Max has been working hard at work and at home.  We had a sprinkler company come and install sprinklers so that we can put in our backyard.  We also have put up a fence so that our chickens can have the run of the very back of our yard.  They seem to stick close to their coop right now but at least they are not in my front flower beds throwing all the mulch onto the grass.   

 

July

Well, July is here already.  Less than 2 months and the girls will be back to school.  We have done a few things that were on Brooklyn's to do list.  Definitely more not checked off though. It's almost time to start back to school shopping.  The girls have grown quite a bit.  Kailyn was able to wear most of the same pants for 2 years but is out growing them now. 

The girls have their 4-H sewing class next week.  We went to Joann's yesterday to pick out a pattern and fabric.  That turned into 1 1/2 hours of trying to find the right items.  I think all of us were ready to get out of there.    The girls did pick out two shirt patterns that should make some cute shirts.  I should be able to make a couple shirts out of the pattern that Kailyn picked out for myself also.  We will see how her shirt turns out before I get any fabric for myself. 

We went on our first camping trip this last weekend.  It rained both nights we were out but it was still nice.  Max bought 2 hammocks for the girls and that was their favorite thing.  They actually both took naps in them.  We went on a hike to a lake less that 1/2 a mile from camp and walked around.  Kailyn's "flip flop" broke a little ways up the trail so Max had to go back to camp and get Brooklyn's shoes for her.  Hopefully she will not bring flip flops again.   I forgot my baby pack for Caleb so I made a little pack out of my jacket to carry him.  On the way home Max carried him.  It was really cute because they both had on camo hats and Caleb had the biggest smile on his face.  I wish I would have brought my camera. 

Kailyn has been doing summer band and her first parade was on the 4th of July.  She was worried about making sure she was taking the right steps and remembering her music.  She did really well.  Even though it was only in the 70's that morning she said she was really hot.    She is such a good "kid".;)

Brooklyn has just been playing with her friend Ashtyn a lot.  We went up to a friends cabin on Saturday and it has a stream running behind it.  As soon as we got there she took her shoes off and went to play in the water.  After a while of being in the water, we heard her yell moose.  She jumped out of the water pretty quick.  As I looked up I saw a baby moose trotting by.  The moose was maybe 15 feet away.  She got back in the water a little later and then she heard sticks breaking so that was enough of playing in the water.  About 30 minutes later the moose was seen by the stream again.  So the sticks we heard breaking were most likely the moose. 

Caleb has learned how to sit up by himself.  He is still not crawling but does get around by rolling and scooting across the room.  He has learned how to wave bye bye and he is finally only waking up once a night.  There for a long time he was waking up every hour to hour and a half.  I was not getting a lot of sleep.  We gave him to old remotes to play with but he knows the difference between the fake ones and real.  He prefers the real and is learning what no-no means.  He tried to grab the remote this morning and I told him no-no.  That made him stop and look at me.  He waited till I wasn't looking and grabbed it. 

So, our neighbors behind us found a baby chicken, actually their cat found it.  We saw it and were going to our chickens but it jumped out of Brooklyns hands and ran away.  Well, the next night when Brooklyn was outside playing with her bow and arrow she heard some chirps.  She saw scamper and he had the chicken in his mouth. Brooklyn went and got the chicken and we put it in our smaller chicken cage with two other (bigger) baby chickens.  Our red hen started protecting this baby chick but we have neighbors chickens that come eat our food.  They don't have any manners and stepped all over the baby chick.  Needless to say, this morning it looks like our new chicken is on it last leg.  It wont hardly move and is just faintly chirping.  She ended up dying on the morning of the 4th.  Brooklyn went and dug a grave and buried it.  At least she is not taking it to hard. 

Well, after almost 11 years of working at home I am looking for a job outside the home.  Medical claims are starting to go electronic so that is making my job obsolete.   I really would prefer to stay at home but I have to make money also.  I have thought about applying at the local day care so that Caleb can still somewhat be raised by his family.  I have put in quite a few resumes for jobs and have received one interview call.  I am having some anxiety about leaving Caleb to be raised by other people. I am really hoping my work can get me on with a different department so that I will be able to stay at home. 

Summer is here!!

So the girls have been out of school for 2 weeks now.  Thank goodness they are not bored yet.  Last week they couldn't believe it had already been a week.  I think that time is going by faster and faster for them. 

Brooklyn has made us a Summer to do chart and she even Duct taped it to the wall!

 

  She went to each of us and asked us what we wanted to do during the summer.  We all gave her a few suggestions and I also looked up fun things to do.  I was going to take them to the Heber park for lunch (part of her list) but when I drove past the park last week it was gone.  We went by there again on Thursday and a new park is going in.  So maybe next week we can go.  As of now, Dad has fixed the truck, so that is one box that can be checked.  Hopefully I can work on a sprinkler system next week for the back yard.  The girls have played in weeds for the last 7 years and I think we would spend a lot more time in the back yard if we had grass to enjoy. 

The girls had their first 4-H class this week.  They learned how to decorate cupcakes for the fair.  I told them that they should pick a different design off the internet for the fair since most of the kids will submit the cupcakes that they learned in class.  Kailyn was the oldest "kid" in class but she still enjoyed it.

This week I won 2 Pass of all passes off of Facebook.  The girls were really excited.  Believe it or not, I win a lot of fun stuff off of Facebook.  Winning is what I really like to use FB for.  So I told the girls that if they don't turn on the TV on Wednesdays and watch Caleb while I work, we will head to SLC and do something every Wednesday.  I think that they will choose Seven Peaks every week.  I don't think I want to spend every Wednesday at Seven Peaks though. 

Kailyn leaves to go to girls camp June 17- 21.  She loves girls camp and is very excited to go.  I hope that she keeps that enthusiasm for church as she goes into her teenage years.  It is a full 5 days this year but at least she is only going to the Heber camp.  Last year she was able to go to Flaming Gorge.  She had a lot of fun and was able to knee board.  I am glad she is not going to be around water this year though.  We are working on some secret sister gifts.  It seems like girls camp came really quick this year.  I guess life just seems to be going quick anymore. 

Caleb is starting to wave bye-bye.  He will be 9 months on the 19th.  He has not started crawling yet but will get over on his hands and knees.  He does not like to be on the ground at all.  We try to let him be on the ground but all he does is cries and get really frustrated.  He has been spoiled to either being held or in his walker.    Kailyn said the other day that she can't believe he will be 1 in 3 months.  The time has raced by. 

My(Jennifer) work has really slowed down.  Monday's are my only busy days now.  With Caleb always wanting to be held and entertained, it has been a blessing because to get 5 hours of work in, it takes me 8 - 9 hours between taking care of him and sitting at the computer.  I have been looking for another job but really do not want to let Caleb go to daycare.  I enjoy staying home with the kids but feel like I should be contributing more to the income. 

Max has been working hard on our vehicles.  He worked for days on my car and then on his truck.  He is glad to be done with those for a while.  At least he is able to work on our vehicles instead of us having to take them into a shop.  Now for the trailer.  Last year the water drain was ripped off of our camp trailer so we can't go camping until it is fixed.

Yeah!!! School Is out!! 

The girls are happy to be home for the summer but not all that excited about the chores that they still have to do everyday.  They say that they should get a break from it all.  Haha.  Kailyn says that she feels like it shouldn't be summer yet though.

We have signed they up for a couple of 4-H classes and are also doing some other projects  that they can enter in the Summit County Fair in August.  Last year they each had an item make it into the Utah State Fair.  Brooklyn's brownies got 1st place in Summit County and also the best out of all the food award.  Kailyn was able to get her pajama pants that she sewed. It gives them a goal to have during the summer instead of wasting the months away playing electronics (which drives me nuts).  Kailyn is also going to take summer band.  That means that for June and July she will still have to get up at 7 am to make it to band by 8 am.  No sleeping in for her for a while. 

Caleb is getting big.  He can get around anywhere in the walker that he wants to go.  A couple times I have been working and turned around to see him playing with the toilet paper.  He does not like sitting on the ground so it might take a while for him to learn to crawl.  We just got a baby swing from the neighbors yesterday and he loves swinging in it.

Family

So here is the start of our blog.  We have lived in Kamas, UT since 2007.  We have 3 beautiful children.  Kailyn in 12, Brooklyn in 10 and Caleb is 7 months.  When Kailyn graduates from High School and Caleb will be entering kindergarten.   So we will have a long time left sending children to school.  Kailyn and Brooklyn are both doing awesome in school.  They are both in South Summit Middle School.  Yes, our fifth grade goes to middle school.  They both are either on the honor roll or high honor roll every term.  We are so proud of them. 
Max is still working for Salt Lake City Corp and travels to Salt Lake daily.  One day he might just get sick of the drive but we will see. 
I continue to work at home for Xerox but my work is really slowing down.  I might just have to get a "real job" out of the house one day.