Family Updates

We are definitely a little behind on all of our posting, but here are a few entries to get you all caught up on our last few months!

KAYLEE KOOS
Kaylee is getting so big and is into so many "big kid" stuff lately. I can hardly believe how much she has grown up and matured just over the past few months! She loves the rain- mostly because she gets to wear her adorable rain coat with her matching umbrella. She always has her rain coat and umbrella with her just in case- even if it is 75 degrees and sunny outside :-)

In January when we got back to Utah Kaylee began going to pre-school three days a week. SHE LOVES IT! She goes to Mrs. Bascom's which is a cute little preschool in my mom's neighborhood. She asks everyday if it is a school day and is sorely dissapointed if it is not. She loves learning all her letter, numbers, and colors, all the art projects, playing outside at recess, having snack time, and of course socializing with all her friends. She is quite the social butterfly- I wonder where she gets that from?!! Here she is on her first day of school- so excited she can hardly stand it!

After school they all march out in a single file line- so cute. And on those special days once a month, Kaylee gets to be the V.I.P (Very Important Person) and wear a very special badge and be at the front of the line. She loves to be the special person!

Kaylee is learning lots of fun things at preschool. One of these is the Pledge of Allegiance. I just had to video it- it is so dang cute!

Another big milestone for Kaylee this spring was her very first dance recital! She was again so excited to dance on the big stage with all the big girls like Nessa and Colie. She has been asking for months when she gets to put on her blue costume and makeup and get up on the stage. She did so great and of course was the prettiest dancer there! Her mom was so proud!!

Oh yeah- her daddy was very proud too! He only could have been more proud if she was dancing with a golf club!


Kaylee has been watching Nicole and Janessa dance for many years. She couldn't wait to be dancers just like them. The day finally arrived and Kaylee couldn't be more proud. I think her aunts were proud to have her in their show too. They were showing off to all their friends how cute their little dancer niece was!

Kaylee got to be in dance this year again with her best friend and cousin Emily. They had so much fun together and it was so fun to see them dancing together!

For those of you who missed it here is Kaylee's first dance recital, performing to "Goodnight Sweetheart"! (Sorry it is a little blurry so hopefully you can tell which one Kaylee is- she is the first one out of the curtain!)


KENNA BENNA
Just like her big sister Makenna has been growing so much lately- as babies often do! She is now almost 10 months, is crawling all around and getting into lots of trouble, and loves to eat, eat, eat- especially big people food! Here are just a couple of picture of Makenna just being her adorable self! She really is just the cutest and happiest baby you could ever meet!


She still has her little foot problem where her feet turn inwards. She hates wearing shoes but we are trying to keep them on her to try and straiten out her feet. She is not quite sure how she feels about these shoes!


Besides eating, bath time is Kenna's absolute favorite time of day! She could stay and play in the bath for hours. She loves to splash, play with her little duckies, and just giggles away with her big sis playing in the tub!

This video is a little dated, but I had to put it on here because it shoes Kenna as she first started to crawl. She was excellent at the "army crawl" for a long time. Now she is a pro at crawling and crawls all around the house faster than I can chase her. And she loves me to chase her! She knows where she is not supposed to crawl (aka the STAIRS). Whenever I turn my head she books it for the stairs. She does stop about half way there to make sure I am watching, gives me her very best mischievous smile and then books it again so that I will chase her and catch her just before she gets to the edge! Wears me out, but very cute! I will have to take another more updated video of her crawl.


DAN THE MAN
Story time . . . so, the other day Dan had kind of mentioned that maybe he wanted to shave his head. I was tried to talk him out of it and he seemed to kind of give up on the idea. He went back and forth for a couple of days and then one day as we were driving home said, "Yeah, I don't think I will shave my head." I said, "Good!." We get home and I am working on getting the girls and all the stuff out of the car and wondering where Dan went and why he is not helping me. I get inside and am putting stuff away when I hear, "Yeah, final decision. I am definitely NOT shaving my head." I look up and Dan has shaved a strip right down the center or his head. Needless to say, I didn't have much of a choice then but to help him shave the rest. I am finally getting used to it and it is not quite as much of a shocker for me as it was at first. Oh yeah, my brother Andy decided to jump in on the new family shaving of the head trend. I don't think his wife Angie was too much more excited than I was! BOYS???!


Story continued . . . So the story gets worse. Not only did Dan decide to shave his head- he decided to stop shaving as well! This went on for a few weeks and then finally, thank goodness, he decided to shave. But, of course, in Dan style it couldn't be just any shave. We had to shave in stages. So here is the first stage which Dan decided to call his Craig look . . .

Next, we moved on to his Dan Flanders look . . .

And finally, back to the Dan we all know and love! Yea!!!!

Dan and Kaylee have a new little toy they have been playing with lately. Dan's friend Kenny let us borrow his little 4-wheeler for the summer! In back of our townhouse there is a big dirt field where people come and ride their motorcycles and 4 wheelers around. This has been so fun for Kaylee! Because the 4 wheeler is kid sized she has learned how to turn it on, start it, accelerate and brake, and steer all by herself. Dan still rides on the back with her of course, but she thinks she is quite the hot stuff! She is our little dare devil. She is not afraid to take off on those dirt jumps and go fast, fast, fast!





Makenna, on the other hand, not so sure about the whole 4 wheeler thing! She is definitely our more mellow child :-)

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter full of lots of candy, eggs, and fun! For family home evening the week before Easter we had our Easter lesson and then decorated our Easter eggs. I think they turned out pretty cute! You can tell how artistic we all are :-)

Kaylee had a blast and was very proud of her eggs.

Here is Dan showing us that now that his head is shaved he now looks somewhat like an Easter Egg! EGG HEAD!!!

On Easter morning Kaylee came out of her room to find her name spelled out in Ester candy and a trail of candy leading her downstairs. The Easter bunny had definitely found our house!

The Easter Bunny did a good job this year of hiding lots of candy in creative spots for Kaylee and Makenna (OK and Dan too!) to find.

Kaylee and Makenna both were left very cute Easter baskets full of lots of their favorite things: hair bows and headbands, jewelry, art stuff, movies, and cute little easter bunnies!

Kaylee had so much fun searching for Easter eggs and candy. She thought this Easter egg hunt thing was a pretty great idea!


Makenna even got in on the fun and joined in the hunt. She liked the plastic eggs that shook and made noise with jelly beans inside.

Makenna's First Easter!


Kaylee and Makenna all decked out for church in their new matching Easter dresses. They looked so cute all in pink. Thanks Nana for the adorable dresses!

Loving their new Easter bunnies. Kenna is showing off her new patty cake trick!

Not quite sure what we are going to do with all that candy. I think the Easter bunny over calculated a little this year! Maybe we can save it for Halloween? :-)

Sisters and best friends! Looking cute in their matching dresses. They love to play together- especially Makenna loves playing with Kaylee! It is so excited as Makenna is getting older to see them start to play with each other and start to develop a wonderful friendship! We are so blessed to have such amazing little girls!

Trip to Oregon

About a month ago we were able to take a little trip up to Oregon to visit Dan's family. We had a great time. Here are a few highlights from our trip!

Dan has been telling me about the Blue Pool ever since we were dating and I have always wanted to hike there. It has just happened that every time we are in Oregon it is the wrong time of year to hike to the pool. So, this time when we went it was pretty nice weather so we had the grand idea to hike to the blue pool. As we drove up the pass and towards the blue pool it started to get colder ... and colder ... and colder. Then it started to rain, then we saw some snow. It was ok Dan said because the pool was on the other side of the pass where it should start to warm up a little again. Well, we drove to the other side of the pass and it did stop snowing, it stopped raining, and the snow on the ground was gone. It was a little damp but seemed like it was going to be ok. So our hike began . . .

Kaylee looking very stylish in the car on the way to the hike.

Kaylee had a blast with Aunt Jamie and her friend Brandon. She wanted to spend all the time she could with Jamie- sleep in her room, get ready with her in the mornings, help her feed the fish, play the dog, etc, etc. She still talks about how much she had with Aunt Jamie!

Back to our hike. Here are some pictures of the beginning of the hike. Everyone is so happy, having a great time, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Like I said it is a little damp outside, but not bad.

Kenna lucked out. She was carried the whole way in by her daddy and all the way out by her Papa Kemp!

As you can see a little bit of snow starts to appear on the ground. No big deal- we are still having a great time,

Now we are about half way into the pool. As you can see, Kaylee has decided that she is done hiking and Papa Kemp has taken to carrying her. The more we hiked the grumpier and colder Kaylee got. Poor Papa had to carry her all the way into the pool through what quickly turned into about 2-3 feet of packed snow!

Nana and Papa Kemp at a beautiful bridge we found on our way in. Apart from the dramatics of having to walk through the snow and carry grumpy Kaylee the whole way the scenery was absolutely beautiful. I was very much enjoying looking around at all the trees and moss and greenery. I felt like I was in the Twilight movie!

By the time we reached the top Kaylee was very grumpy and exhausted (although I don't know why because Papa had to carry her most of the way!) At least Papa is still smiling:-)

The pool was beautiful! The sun wasn't really shining so it was not as clear as it usually is, but it was still really pretty.

Here is Dan showing off where he jumped off this cliff into the icy cold blue pool below. This of course was back in his wild days- he assured me he wouldn't do it now. Yeah right!!! Dan is always in for a good dare!

A look down from the cliffs. The reflection is exquisite!

The happy crew at the top- if you take out Kaylee and Kenna!

Nana and Papa Kemp on the cliffs of the blue pool!

Finally- a happy bunch! After some time at the pool we headed back down to the car. This time Papa Kemp took Makenna and Dan took Kaylee all the way back to the car! We trecked back down through the snow and everyone was VERY glad to see the car and the HEATER!!! Kaylee's little feet were frozen. Dan said as they were hiking back down the mountain she kept saying, "Daddy, I don't want to go hiking anymore. I want to go home to Utah!" Because it was the first day of our trip she thought this was all we were going to do here in Oregon and she was very concerned!

After our adventure of a hike we stopped for some yummy lunch and then headed to the Bellnap Hot Springs for a swim. This was so much fun! Kaylee had a blast swimming in the warm, warm water and soon forgot her pains of the hike all together. She even asked the next day if we could go hiking again!


A few days after we got there Dan's brother David and his wife Kelli and their son Tyson joined us. It was so fun to be able to see them and spend some time with them. We decided to take an outing and go bowling. Everyone had a blast- especially Kaylee. I am sad to admit that Kaylee with her little bowling slide beat me in both games!!!




On our last day in Oregon we decided to take some of David and Bruce's guns out and do some shooting practice. The boys did some pigeon shooting with the rifles first. Dan was proud as he won the competition for hitting the most! I tried a couple shots with the rifle, but did not do so well as it about pushed me on my behind and after just a couple shots started to leave a bruise on my shoulder. I know- I am a wimp!

Then we took some shots with David's 22. I had never shot this type of gun and I liked it so much better than the rifle! It was much easier to shoot with and I actually was able to hit some targets! Everyone was a much better shot with the 22 and had a great time trying to shoot down some shotgun shells across the field!
Kelli was definitely much less of a wimp than me! If you were in trouble you would definitely want to choose her to be by your side over me:-)

David, Bruce, and Dan were all very good shots. It was nice to have the three of them there that actually knew what they were doing!
David

Bruce

Dan

Finally we took some shots with the hand gun. It was more difficult than I thought it would be to aim with this gun. I go better as I practiced, though, and as you can see below actually hit some of the targets! (Although some I admit I think just blew over in the wind!)

Dan was having some fun acting as photographer at this point. Don't I look tough :-) Yeah- that will be the day!




The final result. See- a few are knocked down!!!

Kenna and mommy. I love my little girl! We had a wonderful trip and look forward to many more great times up in Oregon!