Erik's project is scheduled to finish early November. I am very sad to be leaving here. We all are. Kansas City has been a good place for our family. But we are also looking forward to finally returning home to family and friends and living in a house for the first time. Bittersweet.

Here's Julia catching up on some light reading. Julia's hair is growing fast (in back). You can't really tell because it's so curly. Don't mention it to Alli though unless you want to see her evil side. She's very jealous and always asks me to cut J's hair.

We are trying to potty train Julia before we move into a house with carpet we actually care about. We've had a lot of accidents but overall she's taking to it pretty well. We call it "tinkle tinkle" but I've overheard her calling it "twinkle twinkle".

With this fabulous weather we've spent more time outside and I've discovered what a bug girl Allison is. She needs a backyard.

She cannot resist picking them up and tries to sneak them home to keep as pets. The other day at the park with their friend Wyatt the three of them dug up a nest of beetle larvae. They must have been playing for a half hour before Wyatt's mom and I went to see what was so interesting in the dirt. We found Wyatt and Allison each holding some kind of a large acorn and when they opened it up we saw 5 or 6 wriggling fat beetle larvae huddled together inside the nuts. There were more on the ground beside them.

We didn't think to take a picture but this is about what they looked like. Allison saw this picture and confirmed it, "Ya mom, it was gray on that side and had orange on the head. Yep, you're right."

What would we do without the nasty creatures?

City of Fountains

With over 200 fountains, Kansas City is supposed to have the second most fountains in the world (just behind Rome)! They are everywhere - even our apartment complex has a few of them. The other day we were driving through North KC and saw this. Click on it to get a larger view. It's a mom and 4 children leaping, pole vaulting(?), catching a ball, and doing flips across the water. It was amazing in person!

Summer Swimming

We did swim lessons for both girls the last month of the summer. When we started Allison was terrified of the water. She clung tightly to the side and on some days bawled every time the teacher came to peel her away. Progress was slow. The last 2 weeks were devoted to bobbing their heads under water. By the end Allison had successfully bobbed her face (not head) while holding her nose plugged with her hand about 3-4 times. She received much praise from her exhausted teachers. But the day after swim lessons ended we were at the YMCA and it finally clicked. In and out of the water she went over and over and over, without holding her nose! It was a triumphant end to a challenging few weeks. And a triumphant beginning to our future all-star swimmer! Here she is that day at the Y. Hooray girl!

Julia turns TWO

Our sweet little Julia turned two! We invited her two best friends Grace and Afton over to celebrate. She felt very spoiled and very loved. Wish I'd caught some better pics but here's something.

We love you Julia! You make life absolutely delightful. Happy Birthday, I wish you'd stay this age forever!!

Erik and I had our anniversary and ate at the Texas Roadhouse. I'd never been there before. As soon as we walked in the hostess handed us a bag of peanuts to munch on while waiting. And everybody just threw their shells on the ground so the floor was covered in peanut shells! The servers did a lot of dancing and I wondered how they ever got anything done. It was really unique and a lot of fun.

We also recently took a Saturday to visit the St. Louis temple 4 hrs away. There are some advantages to being this far from a temple, like 12 hours alone with your husband without the kids. Not bad at all. :)

I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. I fall deeper in love every day! I'm especially grateful we've been in the traveling group this last 3 1/2 years because it's made us so much closer as a couple and a family. Life is just good.

Sista Love

The Various Moods of These Two Sisters

Eclectic

Resourceful (capes also function as swimsuits)

Throttled

and Chomped

Giddy

Precious

and DE-pleted!

Joy School Graduation

Allison graduated from Joy School!! Here's the graduation ceremony. Someone felt purdy special. This was a really good experience for all. We were fortunate to join this group - great moms, great kids.

And here's one with the 4 younger siblings who were completely neglected on their mom's week to teach. Little troopers that they are. Each of the families has two kids about the same ages as ours.

We got VISITORS!

Okay, that needs to happen way more often. That was so fun! Erik's parents and brother Ivan came for Easter weekend. We loved having them here and showing off our turf - because we are SUCH midwesterners now. Most the day Saturday and Monday we visited LDS church history sites. We saw Liberty, Independence, Far West, Adam-ondi-ahman, and even Haun's Mill. President Truman's house is also in Independence, FYI. Pretty cool.
(Yep, all that is within 30 min to 2 hours of here. The rest of you need to start planning your trip here this summer. No, I'm serious.)

We of course had BBQ and it was amazing.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Crown Center so the kids could get a break from boring visitor's centers. The girl's favorite part was the "Under the Sea" exhibit.

Anyone know the mystery behind these fountains? Usually they are calm and spray to the music, then when an unsuspecting father brings his innocent daughter in to pose for a picture . . .

. . it suddenly goes beserk and drenches said daddy and child. Does that seem odd to anyone else? Like is someone operating the fountain from the adjacent high-rise building? I'm just sayin'...

Here is the Kansas City Missouri temple! It is right there next to the stake center Erik is working on. Isn't it pretty?

We had so much fun! Thanks for the memories!

I remember when Allison was little how remarkably observant she was. If there was ever anything out of place she immediately noticed.
If mom was trying to sneak some candy, no matter how quiet, she could always tell and came in to get her share. Hidden presents, always discovered and opened ahead of time. I remember I told Erik's dad about her and he just said it was because I was too much of a neat freak. I couldn't see it then but now I totally get it. Ever since we doubled the number of kids in our family (ya know, from 1 to 2) I see it will never be the same again. I guess 2 is my limit (teasing). Now everything is out of place all the time. There are piles of whatever all around the house which never go away, just get shifted from place to place to place. Sticky spots on the carpet that I hope one day to clean up - but then again, why bother? Now it's no problem hiding something from the girls (and from myself too, incidentally). But I love it. It's awesome to be a mom. And other days I don't love it. But then later I do again. I wouldn't trade the whole wide world for it that's for dang sure.


Quick house update. (We bought it end of December last year. It's in Saratoga Springs, needs a lot of work but it's ours!) Here's what's been done so far. Erik's dad is helping us with minor remodeling.

Before

After

Opened up wall separating kitchen and living room, can lighting, and moved garage door for additional kitchen wall.

Mom and Hannah painted. And as you can see it's a good thing they did!

Before

After

This red room has been claimed by Allison. At least two of the main walls were painted this blood red color. Only adding to the illusion of blood were the many splatters of red all over the carpet. (Come to find out, parents let the kids paint their own rooms) That one was the first to go! Poor Allison was devastated when I told her it was no longer red.

Last bit of news. Allison turned the big F-O-U-R! We had a Strawberry Shortcake friend party which I liked much better than Disney Princess theme. Fun birthday, happy day for her just like she deserves. We love you Allison! We love having you in our family!!!!!!!!

Bytheway - Turn your volume up there's a song playing. It's called I Can Only Imagine. If you haven't sat and listened to it before you should. It is so so pretty and I could listen to it on repeat all day long. (And maybe I have.) I'll add more songs later.

The New Do

I did the girl's hair in pigtails a week ago and they've wanted pigtails every day since. I should never have started doing their hair (because as you might have noticed I never did their hair before this).

What's new, what's new? We got Allison in Joy School (preschool) with 3 of her friends. She loves it. She always comes back so happy. Each of the moms takes turns teaching. When it's our turn Allison is my big helper. She feels so important and calls her classmates "the three kids". "Three kids, I'll be right back." "Mom, the three kids are hungry now."

Allison is saying the funniest things lately. I need to write them down better. She mispronounces words a lot, but there are a few words too cute to correct. Like instead of actually she says askally. I hope she always will. It reminds me of Popeye. And instead of accident she says askagedagedagent. Seriously she really says that whole thing. I don't know why but it's too hilarious to tell her.

Well, I don't know if I've mentioned it before but we've had a problem in the past with Allison eating gum off the ground. I thought we were getting over it. In fact a week or so ago she saw a wad of that bubbly colorful goodness, hesitated, and then declared in a loud voice, as if trying to convince herself, "I am not going to pick that gum up and put it in my mouth". I was so proud of her. It couldn't have been more than two days after that she ate some again. Oh horror. If she only knew. Yuck!

Julia julia julia. We all love Julia. Sometime when she does something especially cute Allison says, "Oh, we love our little Julia!" Julia's talking a lot lately. I swear she came in the kitchen tonight and asked me what I was making. She likes to copy too. I was talking to two women at church. One of them was telling us a really amazing story. While she was talking the other woman kept saying "Wow!" and every time Julia immediately repeated "Wow!" Same intonation and everything, didn't skip a beat. After 3 times the woman stopped saying it. Oops.

She laughs at everything. She laughs when she's in trouble. She laughs when something is put away in the wrong place. Or when I wear something of dad's. She's started this real silly fake laugh where she covers her mouth, kind of squints her eyes and chuckles. I think she learned it from Allison. But anyway Allison is definitely the best at getting Julia to laugh.

As for the rest of us. We're doing good. Life goes faster the longer we're in this traveling thing. Here are a few more pics. PS We went a long time without any forehead bruises on Julia but it came back yesterday.

Never ever let go!

Erik gave us a lesson Monday on the scriptural account of the Iron Rod. Then we each acted it out blindfolded. The moderator held the rod (broom) to guide the way.

My personal favorite, when Erik let go and was stumbling over life's obstacles Allison exclaimed, "Don't let go, Daddy, you can't let go of the iron rod! Never ever let go!" Hilarious.

Phew! All is well again.