Dance

Well after much financial consideration, Mark and I decided to enroll McKenna and Kaitlyn in a dance class. I did it without McKenna knowing, and when she found out, she was mortified. But after we got her shoes and leotards and what not, she starting getting really excited. Yesterday was McKenna's first dance class. She is learning jazz, tap and ballet. She was nervous when we first got there, but easily settled in once they got started. I wasn't able to get any pictures of her in the dance studio, but we took these few before she left. Now I am not one to live vicariously through my children, but I really hope she likes dance. It was something I always wanted to do, but didn't get to. After lesson #1, she seems to love it. She told me she wasn't going to quit until she got a trophy! But if it comes down to she's not having any fun, we will quit and try something new. I think it is so important that children find something they love and are good at. It gives them a confidence that nothing else can. So I will work until each of my kids find that for themselves! Kaitlyn's first class is on saturday. Oh boy......!

Summer

Two updates in two days--I think this is a record for me. Now that I have caught everyone up on our trip, I guess I need to get current. Fortunately things have been pretty calm around here. I FINALLY finished painting my kitchen and my downstairs bathroom. I was going to take a picture so you could see the color, but my kitchen is a mess at the moment and no one needs to see that. So now I have to get moving on the upstairs. The stairwell is what I am dreading--haven't figured out how that is going to work yet. Anyway, Mark has been super busy with final projects and final tests and work and church. When the bishop is gone 3 Sundays in a row, he certainly feels it when he gets back. But this past Sunday was awesome because he actually made it home before 2:00. That is a new record! I will attribute that to the fact that Sunday was also our 8th anniversary. I have posted a couple pictures from our wedding day. We really weren't able to do much for our anniversary, especially because not only was it Sunday but fast Sunday. Nontheless, it was a good day! I have enrolled McKenna and Kaitlyn in their first dance class. They start next week. McKenna is nervous, but I think she will have fun. I am signing Jacob up for soccer at the YMCA and he is thrilled. He asks me everyday when his game is, but they haven't even put the kids into teams yet. Joseph has learned to climb on everything. I find him sitting on top of our dining room table all the time. What a rascal!
We had another birthday party for Kaitlyn and I with the Lowthers once we got back here. Kaitlyn got a new bike and absolutely loves it! The problem is she won't pedal on her own and wants us to push her everywhere. She is definitely three! All of you Twilight fans out there will be happy to know that Laura bought me Twillight and New Moon for my birthday. I have only read the first chapter so far. Now wait before you get mad at me. I don't want to start them until I can really sit down and read them because everyone says they are so addictive. I just haven't had that kind of time to read them. I am definitely going to do it here soon though. I will let you know how I liked them.
Other than that, our summer has been filled with swimming, ant bites, trips to grandma's house, cook-outs, church ativities, bike-riding and lots of yard and house work. School doesn't start until September, so we still have another month of fun! Hopefully we can take a weekend trip to the beach or North Carolina or somewhere before September. These past few months have just flown by and there is still so much we want to do. I hope everyone is having a great summer!!!

Here we go....

Ok, I know, I know. But I finally did it. I will try to sum up as much as possible so as not to bore you. Here we go......We had a great time driving across country to visit family in Utah. We were never bored--there was so much going on. We had Sadie's (my niece) baptism, Taylor's (my nephew) baptism, Joshua's (another nephew) blessing, family pictures, my birthday party, Kaitlyn's birthday party, Luke's (nephew) 1st birthday, saying goodbye to Ryan (nephew) before he went to the MTC, the balloon launch and the stadium of fire. That list doesn't include all the family and friends we visited and the stuff we did together as a family. The time went by so quickly! Thanks Laura for letting us crash with you guys. You were great hosts! We were sad to leave so soon, but we had 11 days out there so it was time to go. Thanks everyone for helping us have a spectacular trip! We love you and miss you all!

Me and my girls at my 30th birthday party
Part of the fun chaos at my birthday party

(we're all in brown because we had just finished taking family pictures)

Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday
Kaitlyn loving the cake Grandma Veach and Aunt Laura made
Katy and cousin Sophia playing with their babies My best friend Cindy met us at Thanksgiving Point.

Here she is with her youngest son, McKay

McKenna riding at Thanksgiving Point.

We used to take her all the time when she was a baby.

Jacob and his horse

Kaitlyn riding a horse for the first time

My brother Steve and his family at his son Joshua's blessing

Our family at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point

McKenna and Katy digging up dinosaur bones

With Grandma and Laura at the balloon launch

Family pic at the balloon launch

Joseph being tickled by Pappy

Jon, Laura and Luke at Luke's first brthday party. This was taken AFTER the cake. See Laura's blog for the before pics

The kids having fun at Luke's birthday

Nauvoo

Ok, we are just going to start with our trip to Nauvoo. Mark had never been before so I thought that driving across the country was the perfect opportunity to go. We packed the kids in the car and away we went. We ran into construction, a terrible storm, flooded out roads near the Mississippi River, and a navigation system that had a difficult time compensating for those washed out roads. But we finally we made it. We stayed there for about 2 days, but would have loved to stay longer. The kids really didn't care too much about the whole thing. In fact, the 3 younger ones were awful everytime we got out. They whined during the wagon ride, threw a fit at the blacksmith shop, ran under the ropes at Brigham Young's house, and so much more. In fact, Mark and I had to start taking turns going into places while the other one waited with the kids in the car. McKenna was good though and I even took her through Carthage with me. I think she enjoyed it although she didn't fully grasp what was there. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the Nauvoo leg of our trip:

Kaitlyn wearing the "human yoke" to fetch water
McKenna wearing the yoke as well
The boys being teamsters
Us with the Marbles. Elder Marble taught my parents the gospel
Nauvoo Temple at night
Temple with Joseph and Hyrum
Nauvoo Temple
Carthage Jail window where Joseph fell and the well
where he landed

McKenna by the well
Carthage jail interior. Window on left where Joseph fell,

bed where John Taylor rolled under and was shot

The boys on the wagon ride
The girls on the wagon ride
Everyone watching a movie in the car
Laura--this is for you. This quilt was made from linsey-woolsey

in the 1800's. It looks brand new. It was beautiful!

Joseph's Mansion house

I have a million more pictures but won't bore you with them. If there is anything in particular you want to see, just let me know. I will update again soon with the Utah part of our trip!

Too much

Ok, I have to admit that I have been avoiding this blog because I have sooooooo much to post that I don't know where to start. We returned from our awesome Utah trip on Monday, and I have a ton of pictures to share. I am not going to do that at this moment because I need to be at the store buying toilet paper right now. But I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and will post some pictures soon. In the meantime, please send me your email addresses so I can invite you to my blog because we will be making it private very soon! Email me at markandjulia at gmail dot com. Thanks!

Family History, I Am Doing It........

I really don't have much to blog about today. Life has been fairly calm, which is alright with me. It has given me a chance to start working on family history again. I have to thank Becky for getting me re-inspired. Unfortunately, my children seem to get neglected while I am digging up names. For those of you who have never entered the realm of family history, it is soooooo addictive. Especially now that I have access to ancestry.com again I can do it for hours. Right now I am working on Mark's mothers line and I am hitting major snags. I am only back to about 1850, and things are a mess and there is very limited information. HELP!

Everyone is getting excited for our little jaunt out to Utah. The kids and I did some shopping today for some road trip supplies. I had to buy a new cooler, and if you want to know what happened to our old one....just know that story involves Mark and shrimping. That should say enough! Anyway, we are excited to see everyone and to celebrate all the fun stuff that will be happening while we are there. Wish us luck with 4 kids on a 2100 mile road trip!

Fathers

I hope all you dads out there had a terrific Father's Day! We had a good day here. Mark got home from church at about 3:30 and we immediately headed over to my in-laws house. We had dinner at Aunt Dianne's house with the whole gang and then headed back to Mark and Susan's to visit. The kids had a great time playing foosball with their daddy, and McKenna tried her best to keep Grandpa awake while she read to him, but to no avail. Joseph walked across the room all by himself and was very proud, and Kaitlyn spent most of the evening running around in her underwear with a Scooby-Doo sticker on her chest. We gave Dad his presents the evening before because we knew we wouldn't get to see him at home much on Sunday, and we were right. But I just wanted to take this opportunity really quickly to say thanks to all the "dads" in my life. I have been blessed with great men in my life--my father, my father-in-law, grandaddy, and my husband. Each has helped me differently, but all very importantly. Thanks, I love you all!