The Kemps

A Trip to the Zoo

2011-06-07T11:33:00.001-07:00

Kaylee had a fieldtrip to the zoo with her Kindergarten class and I was lucky enough to go as one of the chaperones! Kaylee has had the best Kindergarten class this year. Her teacher Mrs. Bailey has been amazing and she has made so many cute friends. She has about 11 little girls in her class and everyday as the parents drive up to drop of their student all the little girls scream and run over to give the girl that just arrived a big welcome group hug. They are all so nice and sweet to one another. They include everyone and are so excited to be together at school every day. I am crossing my fingers she gets to stay in a class with all these cute friends next year!

Here is our little group we toured the zoo with. Look at all those cute little monkeys!!!

Kaylee with her best friends Morgan and Blaise!

All we hear about when Kaylee comes home is Roman, Roman, Roman. Roman is so funny. Roman said this today, Etc. Daddy is not very happy to hear about Kaylee's little Kindergarten crush. He was hoping she would have no crushes until she was 30!!!

Pics around the zoo with the kids!

After the fieldtrip we stayed for the afternoon and the rest of the Kemp clan joined us! We were lucky to have dan's dad and mom in town for his niece's baby blessing. We had a great time showing Nana and Papa Kemp, Aunt Kelli, and cousins Tyson, Zach, and Julianne around the zoo!

Drink anyone? I love this drinking fountain at the zoo. I have a picture at this same drinking fountain when I was little!

Miss Khloe cruisin' in the stroller!

Catchin Some Rays!

The Giraffes were a hit! All the kids (and Papa Kemp) thought the giraffes were the coolest.

Dan has been so excited to plant a garden this year in our backyard. Our neighbors have a beautiful garden in their backyard so as soon as we moved in Dan headed over to ask for some advice on our own garden. They have been so awesome to help us get ours started and it is looking absolutely incredible! Anyway, the gardening system that our neighbors are experts at is called the Mittleider Garden System. Dan has read all up on it and has become quite educated on this type of gardening. So as we were walking past the giraffes I looked over and noticed this huge garden area. I pointed it out to Dan because it looked just like the garden we have at home! Sure enough it was a Mittleiter Garden! There was a big sign that pointed it out. Apparently it is one of the largest in Utah and they garden with this method to feed all the animals at the zoo. Dan was so excited! This definitely made the trip worth it for Dan!

The Apes!

Is your hand as big as an ape? Dan's was pretty close- Terrie's not so much!

One big monkey!

Zach and Khloe- looking a little tired from their adventures at the zoo.

Some final pics from our day at the zoo. We had a blast!!!

Kaylee's Dance Recital

2011-06-07T11:32:00.004-07:00

Our little dancer Kaylee had her spring dance recital in May. She was excited to perform her numer this year- but mostly excited about her beautiful costumes- especially the gloves! They did a tap number to Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart fromt he movie Anastasia. As always Kaylee did awesome! She had the biggest smile and knew all the steps perfectly! Mom and dad are always so proud to see her dance.

Makenna can not wait until she can dance too! She gets to start dance lessons in the fall and she can hardly wait. Every week when I take Kaylee to dance class Makenna stands and peeks through the little space in the window to watch Kaylee and her class practice. Then at home she imitates Kaylee and amazingly learns the dances almost as well as Kaylee does. Makenna's favorite past time is to perform with Kaylee to her dance music in the living room. She is definitely going to be a performer!!! Here you can see how proud she is of her big sis! She proudly wore her Kaylee picture badge so everyone knew who's little sister she was!

Kaylee loves dancing with her Aunt Janessa and cousins Ian and Emily!

Proud mom and dad!

DisneyLand 2011

2011-06-07T11:32:00.003-07:00

I am slowly working on getting the old blog updated!!! So most of the posts over the next few days will just be pictures and then I will go back and do all the journalling!!! Lots of updating to do- let's go all the way back to January!

DISNEYLAND- APRIL 2011

VEGAS

MARRIOTT SUITES

M&M WORLD

HARD ROCK!

HEADING TO THE PARK

RIDIN THE RIDES

RIDN IN STYLE

DOWNTOWN DISNEY

RAINFOREST CAFE

DISNEYLAND

MR. TOAD

TEA CUPS

ALICE IN WONDOERLAND

SMALL WORLD!

SHOWING OFF THE NEW HATS

MARY POPPINS

NICOLE SHOW

WORLD OF COLOR

NIXON LIBRARY

FIRE AND ICE

THE FERRIS WHEEL

CRUISIN IN THE STROLLER

TOON TOWN

ON OUR WAY OUT AFTER A LONG EXHAUSTING DAY

A DAY AT THE POOL

MODELS IN PINK

LITTLE FISH

THE FAM AT THE POOL

EASTER

Disney World 2011!!!

2011-01-11T05:45:00.006-08:00

DISNEY WORLD KEMP FAMILY VACATION- JANUARY 2011

AT THE BEACH

MAKENNA

KAYLEE

KAYLEE AND HER COUSINS

SWIMMING

MAGIC KINGDOM

SMALL WORLD

GIRLS AT THE PARK

FAMILY AT THE PARK

GIRLS AT THE HOTEL

FAMILY

FAMILY PICS

Happy New Year

2011-01-11T05:45:00.005-08:00

This year for New Year's Eve we went up to Heber City to our neighbor's cabin. They were so nice to invite us and include us in all their festivities! We had a blast and were excited to ring in the new year together!

Our neighbors Nate and Cara with their cute little boy Brigs. Brigs is 8 weeks older than Khloe so we have already decided we should arrange their marriage:-)

Khloe enjoying her first new years with her dad!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The next day the girls had a blast going out and sledding on the hill next to the cabin. Dan had a blast too trying to snowboard down the hill!! IT was freezing cold outside so Kenna only lasted about 5 minutes. Luckily we did get one pick of her sledding down the hill before she came in! Kaylee was a trooper. She wanted go down and down again!

For your entertainment here is an fun video of Kaylee sledding. Make sure you watch the whole thing cause Dan has an awesome fall at the end!!!

I had to include just a couple of Valentines Pics because they were so cute. This year for Valentines we decided to make our own heart shaped cake. Kaylee and Makenna were so excited about this cake shaped like a heart. They were waiting very patiently to eat it and so when Dan told Kaylee to just bend her head down and take a big bite out of it she looked at him like he was crazy! Little did she know dad had a little trick he wanted to play on her. It was tradition in his mission that when it was someone's birthday and they had a cake to push that person's face into the cake when they bent down to take a bite. Dan thought it would be hilarious to try this out on Kaylee. As you can see in the pics she did NOT find this amusing at all!!!

And finally some random Khloe pics so you can see how much she is growing!!! She now loves to roll around, lay on her back, and play with her toys. She also loves to smile and laugh at her big sisters:-)

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-11T05:45:00.003-08:00

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year! I love being with family and feeling that special spirit that seems only to reside in the month of December. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year and feel so blessed to have all we do and family who loves us.

Every Christmas eve we go to my Uncle Kevin's house for the big Christmas Eve bash! My grandparents, all my aunts and uncles, all my cousins, and now the cousins own kids get together. It is a ton of people but so awesome we get to see each other. This family tradition is my favorite and the memories we make each Christmas Eve will forever be some of my most cherished.

We start with a yummy turkey dinner. We sit and chat- the adults at the adult table, The older cousins at the Younger adult table. And the little kids at the kids table! After dinner we all come together for the annual DeMass talent show. We always joke about how everyone gets their arms twisted into doing something but really I think everyone really looks forward to it. This year Kaylee and Makenna danced with Ian and Emily, I sang and played the piano, and both Dan and I took part in the special "12 Pains of Christmas" song/skit. It was very funny as each of us sang something that was a pain at Christmas like sending Christmas cards, finding parkins spaces, putting up lights, etc.

This year a special treat was that my grandma and grandpa did a talent where they told stories about some of their favorite Christmas memories together. They had some really neat stories that I had never heard along with some funny moments that we all got a good laugh out of. I love my grandparents so much. I have always been very close to them and have a very special relationship with them both.

Finally we end the night with the DeMass family year in review picture show. I have been in charge of this portion of the night for the past few years. Every family sends me pictures from the year. I then take them and put them into a slide show with music so that we can all sit and see the fun things that have happened to each family that year. It has become a family tradition that is a lot of work but that I love to do because everyone loves it!

After the big party we headed home, watching for Rudolph all the way home! When we got home the girls opened their new pajamas (except for Makenna who had fallen asleep on the way home and refused to wake up!). Then Kaylee set out her cookies and milk for Santa. She always has to leave something out for the reindeer too as she is very concerned that they are hungry too. Last year we left some oats but this year all we could find was some celery in the fridge. I hoped that would do! Kaylee had written her letter to Santa the day before and we had forgotten to mail it. She was very upset that he would not know what to bring her so we made sure we left it by the cookies so he would be sure to see it! She was so cute as she wanted a soccer ball and a new doll this year.

I was so excited about how our Christmas tree turned out this year! We started the family tradition when we got married to get a Christmas Tree ornament at every place we visited together. Over the past 8 years we have acquired quite a collection of ornaments, especially after our Chicago and Washington D.C. trips this year. I love getting each ornament out as they each have a special memory of a trip or special time in our lives.

I snuck down after Santa came to take a quick pick of what the girls would see when they came down in the morning!

The crew waiting on the stairs to go down and see if Santa came!

For Khloe's first Christmas she got her first doll. As you can see she loved it!

Kaylee and Makenna had a great Christmas. They were excited to get new dolls and new purses (they are such girls!) They also got some coloring stuff, new coats and boots, a cute disney princess karaoke machine, and a little DVD player to use on our upcoming Florida trip. They were so excited with all their new toys and had a blast singing and dancing together with their new CD player and mics all morning!

After our little family's Christmas we headed up to my parents house for some more presents and a yummy cinnamon roll breakfast! The girls were ecstatic that they got to open more presents (by this time Kenna was really getting the hang of it!). They got some fun new art stuff, little trays to color on, some much needed new clothes, and Khloe got some cute new baby toys. It was truly a wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed to have the best parents in the world!

I thought these pics were so funny! Here are the girls later that night in bed and enjoying their new DVD player. Their little headphones are adorable and they were in heaven with their snacks and Toy Story 3! Merry Christmas!!!

Winter 2010

2011-01-11T05:45:00.001-08:00

Kaylee had her Christmas dance recital at the beginning of December. She is such an awesome little dancer and always can't wait to get on stage to perform for everyone. She loves going to dance each week with her cousins Ian and Emily and was excited to have her aunt Janessa in the show too. Way to go dancers!!!

Kaylee had a gingerbread house making day at school and was so excited to bring her house home to show everyone. She was so proud of her design. Well, she made it home to Nana's house to show everyone there but on the way out to the car to go home she tripped and her little house fell and broke on the ground:-( She was SO upset. I felt awful. So, a couple of days later I got some gingerbread house supplies and Kaylee and Dan sat down to create the best gingerbread house ever! Kaylee was so proud of her little house and we had to keep it out as a decoration all month long!

Kaylee has been asking ever since winter arrived when we are going to go out and make a snowman. We have never really gone out and built a snowman before so Dan told her that the next time it snowed he would help her build a snowman. Little did we know that the next time it snowed it would be a HUGE storm with TONS of snow. So obviously with the BIG snow we needed to make a BIG snowman!

Our neighbor Cara come over early that morning as we were headed out to shovel to see if we were going to build a snowman. (Kaylee had been telling everyone she wanted to build a snowman the next time it snowed!) Her husband Nate had just got off a graveyard shift as a police officer and had gone in to change into his snow clothes. After shoveling the walks we all met up in the circle in back of our house. Dan and Nate started to roll this huge snowball. The second section up was so big they had to have some other guys come help them roll it up a ladder to lift it on top of the first! The top one was so high that they had a couple ladders placed to roll it up to the top. When all was done the snowman was like 15 feet tall!!! It looked HUGE!!!! Dan and Nate were so excited and proud of their snowman- I think even more so than Kaylee!!! Kids in grown up bodies:-) They got a cone for a hat some bowls for eyes and even the spray paint to paint on a scarf and other accessories. It was so funny. Kaylee was so pumped at how cool her snowman turned out. Her first snowman experience was definitely impressive. Good luck beating that in the future daddy!

Sadly our snowman only survived about a day. Kaylee was so cute as she would just stand at the window to make sure nothing was happening to her snowman. A bunch of people came over to look at it and some little kids started throwing snowballs at it. Kaylee had a fit and was yelling at these boys through the window to stop throwing things at her snowman. She was so concerned they would hurt it! She even cried a few times thinking they would knock it over. The one problem with such a big snowman was how heavy the top two snowballs were. As the day went on and the sun came out the snowman started to tilt backwards. By the next morning it had tipped too far and the head had fallen off! At this point we were a little nervous that the middle section would fall off to and we didn't want it to fall off as some poor child was standing in back of it! So Dan and Kaylee went out and demolished the rest of it. This seemed to ease some of Kaylee's pain a little bit!

Fall 2010

2011-01-11T05:44:00.001-08:00

Our little angel Khloe Jacquelyn Kemp was blessed on November 7, 2010. She looked so beautiful in her blessing dress. She is the most amazing little baby- calm, easy going, a good sleeper- absolutely wonderful in every way! I don't know how we lucked out but we did:-)

I lucked out with Khloe's blessing pictures as I direct Silver Mesa's choir with a cute lady named Cindi Meier. Not only is she amazingly talented in music, but is also a fantastic photographer! I was thrilled when she offered to do Khloe's baby pictures. They turned out beautiful. Thanks Cindi!!!

I think this is the first official family picture we have had taken since Khloe was born. The new Kemp Family!

Four generation shot!

We were so glad to have Dan's brother David, his wife Kelli, and his boys Tyson and Zach there to share in our special day.

Proud Nana and Papa for the third time!

I always feel so blessed to have such a close bond with my Grandparents. I am always so excited to have them there to share so many of my life's important moments.

The whole crew in attendance! I love my family and am always so grateful that they are so supportive and always there for me.

The three most beautiful girls in the world! Not to mention the two most excited and loving big sisters in the world!

This year we wanted to find a fun pumpkin patch to go to. We found one nearby called Hee Haw Farms! So, a few weeks before Halloween we took a trip to the pumpkin patch with David and Kelli and their boys. It was a ton of fun!

Khloe's first trip to the pumpkin patch! Doesn't she look happy to be here?

They had these cute horse tire swings that Makenna and Kaylee beelined for as soon as we got there!

Future farmer?

They also had this pit full of popcorn kernels. Like a ball pit with popcorn? The girls thought it was the coolest thing to sink into.

Kaylee and Makenna with cousin Tyson. They are all growing so big!

We took a little walk through the corn maze. It wasn't huge but we managed to get lost a few times!

Daddy and Kenna

Cute cousins by a big red tractor!

They had these hay bales there that were stacked up that kids were jumping off of. Kaylee of course wanted to get right in on the action. She was quite the little jumper and had no fear. The jump was really high! I would have been scared to jump off it but not Kaylee!

Another activity they had was a huge slide. They had rucksacks to use to slide down it. Kaylee had a blast going down this slide. After watching for a few minutes Makenna finally worked up the courage to join in. I think she liked it as long as daddy was holding on tight!

Kaylee was all about feeding the goats and letting them lick her fingers. Makenna would have none of it!

Daddy and Kaylee patrolling the farm.

This little tractor pulled train was so fun for the kids. Makenna looks really happy here but she screamed through the whole ride!

Isn't she just the cutest?

After all the activities we took a hay ride over to the pumpkin patch. Now we were expecting a field lined with pumpkins to pick out and take home. When we got off the hay ride we were in this field where the pumpkins were still growing from the vine. There were not that many pumpkins and was kind of a let down. Kaylee did manage to find one pumpkin to take home. I guess we'll get the rest at the grocery store!

Kaylee was a little disappointed when I told her she was going to be a witch for Halloween again this year. Once we started her makeup and got her costume on she got excited again. She does make a pretty awesome witch!

Kaylee and Janessa - two little witches ready for the big school Halloween parade!

Makenna got all ready for the parade too. She was feeling very cute in her skirt and boots. She is such a girly girl!

Kaylee was so excited to wear her costume to school and get to walk in the parade with her class. They were all such cute little kindergarteners in their costumes. The little girl in back of Kaylee is Blaise. Blaise and Kaylee are best buddies this year!

Kaylee cute Kindergarten class and her teacher Mrs. Bailey. I went and helped out with their Halloween party. We decorated pumpkins, decorated cookies, sang some Halloween songs, played games, and tuckered all those little kids out!

A few days later Halloween finally arrived. Makenna was so excited to get dressed up like Kaylee. These two little witches are pretty dang cute!

Makenna posing for the camera. She LOVES getting her picture taken!

Kaylee showing off her makeup.

Khloe's first Halloween. She is a cute little pumpkin ballerina princess!!!

We were so late in carving our pumpkins this year! Kaylee was very upset because Halloween came and we still had not carved any pumpkins. Luckily Nana and Papa saved the day and Kaylee got to carve her pumpkin before she went out trick-or-treating.

Khloe is one and a half months old! She is such a good little baby. She sleeps through the night, hardly ever cries, eats her bottle well, sucks on a binkie, and loves her swing. We are in heaven with her little calm and mellow personality!

Khloe is definitely loved by her sisters. They are always wanting to hold her and give her kisses. I feel so blessed to have three beautiful little girls!

The kids went trick-or-treating around my parents neighborhood. It was pouring rain for most of the night so when there was a break in the clouds they ran out for about a half hour. Even though the weather was not the best they had a blast!

After trick-or-treating we had a party with my family, my grandparents, and my aunt Tami and her family. Here is all the cousins watching a scary movie. Happy Halloween!

These are just a couple of cute picks I caught of the girls chillin' on the couch. I came in from doing dishes and Kaylee and Kenna had scooted over with Khloe and were cuddling watching a show. They were so cute I had to grab my camera. They love their little sister so much and she loves them. She beams every time her sisters talk to her as you can see in the second pic!

In November my sister Nicole's high school did the musical 'Cinderella'. The little girls were so excited to go see the show and especially to see Cinderella. The play was really cute and the girls thought it was wonderful. Afterwards we got to go to a little tea party with all the characters. The girls got their pictures taken with them and had them sign an autograph book for a keepsake. They got little tiaras and magic want pens. They had a blast and were in awe to meet all the characters. Their favorite of course was the princess Cinderella. Kaylee just kept saying "Her dress is so beautiful mom. I want one just like that!"

Cinderella

The Prince

The Step Sisters and Step Mother (they were so funny!)

The Fairy God Mother

Kaylee is absolutely loving Kindergarten and was so excited for her first school program. The Kindergarteners put on their own circus with fun songs and tricks! Kaylee was proud to be a tumbler for the circus this year. She not only can cartwheel, but is a pro hula-hooper! I personally thought she made the cutest circus tumbler ever!

Mrs. Bailey is the best! Kaylee is so lucky to have her as a teacher this year. She truly loves her students with all of her heart. Kaylee loves going to school every day (in fact she NEVER wants to miss!).

Way to go Kaylee!!! We are so proud of you!

Kaylee is 6!!! Can you believe it? Kaylee loves to be a big sister, go to dance class, golf with her dad, go to Kindergarten, and have lots of play dates with her friends. She still loves the color pink, loves to do her hair, make-up, and nails, loves to wear dresses, and play dress up with little sis Makenna. She looks up to her aunt Janessa and wants nothing more than to be just like her! She is loving and kind to everyone, she is one of the most well like girls in her class (she gets many play date requests daily!!!), and is miss social butterfly at church and at school. She loves doing her homework, reading her books, and writing nice notes to her family and friends. Her favorite restaurant is Noodles and Company, her favorite snack is uncrustables, and her favorite time of the day is movie and treat in bed with little sis before bedtime! We love our Kaylee Koos and were so excited to celebrate the 6 years we have been blessed to have her in our life.

I had to throw in a pic of Makenna not only because she is so darn cute but also because you can see she wants to be just like her big sis Kaylee at all times. I truly believe she thinks she is 6 as well!

We did a small family party for Kaylee's birthday at my parents house. Her big party was a few days later with all her school friends. We had fun eating at noodles and company, opening presents, and of course enjoying some yummy cake!

This year was Kaylee's first friend birthday party. She was so excited she could hardly stand the wait. We had the countdown going for weeks in advance! We decided to do an all girl theme. Her invitations were purses, her decorations were purses, and each of the girls got to take home a little purse full of goodies. (Can you tell Kaylee's mom is a little obsessed with purses?!) At the party we did makeup, nails, and had our awesome friend Aunt Lexi come and do hair. It was definitely a hit- especially the pink and purple hair color! The girls were so cute and had an absolute blast together!

We invited all the little girls in Kaylee's class to come and they all came! Kaylee also invited her cousin Emily to come join in the fun. Kaylee has been so lucky this year to have such cute girls in her Kindergarten class. They love each other so much! It is so cute when we drop them off for school each day. They all stand and wait for the next little girl to arrive and when she does they all scream her name and run to give her a big group hug. How cute is that? Every day the same routine and it never gets old for them. You would think they hadn't seen each other for a year as opposed to just the day before! They make a cute little group!

KAYLEE'S FRIENDS:
BACK ROW (left to right): Bentley, Morgan, Blaise, Kaylee, Teya, Sienna, Cami
FRONT ROW (left to right): Tyson, Makenna, Jenessee, Emily, Emma

Khloe Jacquelyn Kemp

2010-09-30T13:18:00.001-07:00

Khloe Jacquelyn Kemp
September 16, 2010
12:49pm
7 lbs 7 oz
20.5 in

This was the first pregnancy that we induced labor. I was very nervous about this because my other two deliveries had been almost identical and i felt I knew what to expect if I went that way. However, you know I love my doctor and did not want to have my baby without him! He was leaving out of town on Friday the 17th so we decided to induce and hope everything went as smoothly as my other deliveries.

I was scheduled to be induced on the 16th but you do not find out if they will have room for you until that day. I had called the night before and they had told me I was second on the induction list. If there were too many natural births or medical inductions that came up I would be moved to the next day. This had happened days and days in a row with Makenna so I was a little nervous that we would get in on time.

At about 6:00 am we got the call! They were going to be able to start me and I needed to be to the hospital at 7:00am. We jumped up and I started to get ready. I was so nervous but excited that I was hopefully going to have our baby here that day. We drove to the hospital, checked in, got dressed in the beautiful hospital gown, and then waited in our room for someone to come tell us what would happen next. It seemed like hours as we waited for someone to come in. After about 15 minutes we started to hear screaming from next door. I have never heard someone in labor with no epidural. Supposedly the woman next door had not made it to the hospital in time for her epidural and she was NOT happy about it!!! That was like the worst thing to hear right before being started into labor yourself! I was already nervous but now I was REALLY nervous! I hoped I had not spend all my luck on my first two easy deliveries.

At about 8:00 the nurse finally came back in and started my IV. She told me she was going to start the PIT meds slowly and monitor how my progress was coming. Now my last two deliveries happened so fast everyone in my family was scared they were going to miss this one if they didn't hurry and get there! So by now my parents, sisters, grandparents, and aunt were all there ready to go! I felt a little bad as I sat there waiting that my labor was not going as fast as normal.

At about 9:00 they came in to give me the epidural. I was so nervous for this part because with my first two I was in so much pain I didn't even feel them! Now I was fully awake and aware that someone was going to stick a huge needle into my back! Honestly, though, it really was not that bad. I barely felt it and was so glad when it was in and over with.

At about 10:00 Dr. Irion came in and broke my water. I was getting very restless as my labor was starting VERY slowly. I was only dilated to about a 4-5. I was not used to this waiting around stuff!! With my water broken I knew it would now start quickly as my other two really kicked into gear with the breaking of the water. I was right. Soon after my contractions started coming faster and harder. The only problem was I could feel them even with the epidural. I was afraid it hadn't worked. The doc came back in and upped the dose a bit and soon I was in heaven. No feeling whatsoever!

Now, lucky me my labors go fast at the end. Within the hour I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go! The doc got all set up and we started to push. This was definitely the most pushing I have had to do in labor. My last two I probably pushed like twice and they were out. This little one was not by any means bad but 10 minutes was enough for me:-) This was also the first delivery that I remember feeling when the baby came out which was kind of neat. Khloe Jacquelyn was born at 12:49 pm. When little Khloe came out she was wide awake but quiet. I actually got a little nervous because she was so quiet! I got to hold her right away for a minute because they were waiting on the scale to get wheeled into the room. Usually they had taken the baby right over to the scale so it was really nice to have a few bonding minutes right away. She was amazingly strong as she stretched out her neck and lifter her head off my chest so she could see everyone. She was so cute as her big eyes looked around to meet her new family!

Soon Dan took her over to get her eye drops, shot, cleaned, and to be weighed. I was shocked when they told me she weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces! Later on they came back and said their scales were off and that she was more like 7 pounds 7 ounces when they weighed her. So, who knows exactly what she weighed. She looked little to me! We got to spend some time introducing her to my parents and sisters, my aunt Tami, my grandma and grandpa D, and of course to her new big sisters! Kaylee and Makenna were so excited as they came into the room. I think that they were shocked that there actually was a real baby inside of me! They both gave her little kisses and talked to her as she looked back with her big bright eyes. It was so fun to have all three of my little princesses finally together!

I feel so blessed to have little Khloe here. She is the sweetest most wonderful little baby. She sleeps well, she hardly ever cries, and just has the most calm and gentle little personality you have ever met. She decided she was not all that into breastfeeding and after about a week of leaving the hospital was totally on bottles. She is a good little eater though and just as cute as can be! She also takes the binkie which is a first in our family. It is great! She loves to cuddle up, she loves being held by her big sisters, and has brought such joy into our lives. We are so happy to have our family complete with the three cutest girls in the world!!!

Kaylee the Kindergartener

2010-09-13T15:48:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? My little baby girl is off to Kindergarten!!! Time goes so fast and I am so proud of our new little Kindergartener. Kaylee has been counting down the days until she could go to Kindergarten and when the first day finally came she could hardly control her extreme excitement. As you can see she picked out her outfit and was so proud to be dressed to the nines for her classroom debut. Future model in the making? :-)

Little sis Makenna was feeling the excitement as well and I think thought that she was getting to go somewhere to. When Kaylee finally went into the school building and it was time to go home Makenna was VERY upset that she did not get to go to Kindergarten too! She loves her sister so much and wants to do EVERYTHING that Kaylee does. I love that my girls are best friends and love each other so much.

Here is Kaylee in front of her new school Silver Mesa Elementary. We enrolled Kaylee up in the school by my parents house as I knew how great this school is and the Kindergarten teacher here is the best! I am a little biased because this is also where I went to elementary school! My youngest sister is in 6th grade here this year and is so excited to have Kaylee to take under her wing and teach all the ins and outs of Elementary School!

Proud mom and sis! I did get a little teary eyed as Kaylee walked into the building. It may have just been the pregnancy though:-) I was really so excited to see her go to Kindergarten because I know how much she is going to love it and how long she has been waiting to go to the BIG kids school! I am so proud of my little girl!

Nana was also there for the occasion. Now she has had 4 kids and 1 grandchild attend Silver Mesa Elementary! And she thought she was going to be done after Janessa:-)

Sweet Mrs. Bailey- Kaylee's new Kindergarten teacher! We just love Mrs. Bailey! She has lived in my parents' ward and has been a good friend for many years. She has taught Kindergarten for a long time at Silver Mesa and Kaylee could not be in better hands. As you can see in the second picture all her past students are coming to give her big hugs- she is a very loved teacher. Kaylee went to meet with her a week before school began and already has added Mrs. Bailey to her nightly prayers!

All the cute Kindergarteners lined up ready for their big day! Kaylee was not sad at all to wave goodbye- she could not wait to get inside and get started!!!

Kaylee had a wonderful first and week at school. They went to the library, met new friends, looked for the lost gingerbread man, and worked on creating their own "Brown Bear" books. Her only disappointment was that she didn't have homework like Aunt Janessa in 6th grade! Oh I am sure that will soon come, but it is great that she loves to learn and is excited about all they are doing in Kindergarten. She can not wait to get up and go to school every day and I am just so proud of her and her excitement to learn and be the best Kindergartener she can be!

Swimming

2010-09-13T15:47:00.006-07:00

I had to post at least a few pics of the girls and Dan swimming this summer. Although there are very few pictures at the pool we probably spent about 80% of our summer at the pool! We have been lucky to have a pool in our townhome development and believe me, we have gotten some good use out of it this summer! We probably get our arms twisted by Kaylee to head to the pool at least 3 or 4 times a week! We now have Makenna looking at us with her puppy dog eyes saying "simming? simming?" as she does her arms in the motions of a little dog paddle. Unresistabley cute! Of course dad heads right upstairs to get the suits!

Besides the girls Dan has loved the pool this summer as well. He got himself some good swimming goggles and has been working on his strokes across the pool!

At the beginning of the summer we put Kaylee in swimming lessons. She was totally scared of the pool and would not do most of the things her teacher asked her to do. She would hardly let go of the wall! When we were home at our own pool she wouldn't get in without her floaties. So Dan took her out one day just the two of them and left the floaties at home! After a bit it finally clicked with Kaylee that she can swim!! When she was forced to do it she suddenly realized that it was not as scary as she had thought. Now we can not get her out of the pool! She jumps right in -even into the deep end. She can swim all around on her own and is a pretty good little swimmer!

Kenna was glad to see Kaylee let go of the floaties as they got passed down to her! She is totally fearless and wants to jump right in! She puts her little floaties on and swims around the whole pool on her own. She is so cute kicking her little legs around and floating on her big pink floaties. She loves to feel like she is just as big as big sis Kaylee.

Daddy and his girls spending some quality time at the pool! Not quite sure what he's going to do when he has 3 girls to lug around the pool:-) He loves all the attention he gets from his girls- I don't think he feels too bad being the only boy in the family:-)

We had a great summer at the pool!

24th of July

2010-09-13T15:47:00.005-07:00

This year for the 24th of July we were excited to be able spend some time with Dan's family. We were blessed to be able to spend the holiday at Dan's grandpa Kemp's house in his beautiful back yard. He passed away earlier that week and we all really felt him with us as we celebrated as a family. We have had so many wonderful family get togethers and memories in this backyard and it was so fun to be all together once again to enjoy the beauty and the memories made here. We will miss our time here and especially visiting with grandma and grandpa, feeding the fish, riding on the tire swing, admiring the flowers and the garden, playing some great games of Hearts, and relaxing on the back porch as the kids play in the yard. We love you grandma and grandpa Kemp!

The kids began the day with some good old fashioned bubble blowing! Makenna got this really neat bubble holder for her birthday and all the kids loved it as it blew great bubbles and did not make a mess! The girls were excited to have their cousin Tyson there to play with as well!

The crew chillin' on the grass! Nana and Papa Kemp, Kelli and David, Tyson and little Zach, and Dan looking a little wet from running the sprinklers with the kids!

It was a beautiful HOT sunny day and the kids could not wait to get on their suits to run through the sprinklers. Makenna needed a little coaxing from Daddy and Pappa but as you can see Kaylee and Tyson jumped right in and had a blast!

Kaylee has been working on her hula hooping skills all summer and has become quite the pro! Here she is showing off her skills. Uncle David tried his best to out hoop her but Kaylee ended up on top!

Kaylee has also been working on her golfing this summer. Dan has taken her out to the course quite a few times and she is quite the little golfer! Here she is showing off her swing to the crowd! Proud daddy looks on at his little golf pro in the making :-)

We are so glad the Dan's brother David and his wife Kelli have moved back to Utah! We are looking forward to lots of good family time with them coming up in the future!

The big attraction in grandpa's back yard is the tire swing. The kids LOVE the swing and will play on it for hours. Kaylee did a good job as big sis pulling little Kenna on the swing. They are finally getting to the point where they enjoy playing with each other. Now don't get me wrong there is plenty of sisterly fighting that comes along with that playing, but they do love each other so much and love running ragged, playing dress up, giggling at absolutely nothing, having tea parties, coloring, playing puppies, and being outside together. We love our girls and can't wait to add angel number three to the mix in a few months. Our house will be overloaded with pink and little giggling girls!

We had a wonderful holiday together! Happy Pioneer Day to all!

DC Trip 2010

2010-09-13T15:47:00.003-07:00

A Trip to the Zoo

2010-09-13T15:47:00.001-07:00

We have never taken the girls to the zoo so we decided this summer to take a little outing there. We went with my mom and sisters, my aunt Tami and her kids, and my sister in law Angie. It was a nice hot day to visit the zoo and the kids had so much fun!

Angie, Janessa, Kaylee, and Makenna ready for our zoo trip to begin!

Utah's Hogle Zoo

All the kids posing for a pic when all they wanted to do was go inside the zoo!!!

Makenna was in awe of all the animals. She loves animals as long as they don't come too close! The monkeys were a favorite of hers.

All the kids: Kaylee, Makenna, Janessa, Nate, Ian, Emily, and Zoey.

They had this elephant where we posed the kids for a picture. They were quite surprised when after a minute of posing it started spraying water at them!!! Who knew:?-)

The elephants were a kid favorite especially because they had a mommy elephant and a adorable "little" baby elephant. This was the animal Kaylee had been asking for days to see!

The giraffes are always one of my favorites. I think they are so cute! Makenna really like them as well.

Are you as big as an ape?

Kenna thought the peacock was pretty neat- especially when it came to the window and opened all its feathers for her. They must have thought she was pretty cute!

The cute girls at the end of our trip. They each got their pick at an animal stuffed toy. Kaylee of course chose the elephant and Makenna chose the cute giraffe. I can't get over how camera hungry Makenna is! She loves to pose:-) So funny!

Makenna Birthday

2010-09-13T15:46:00.002-07:00

Our little Makenna is turning two! She has all of a sudden grown out of the baby toddler stage and is suddenly a little girl! We can't believe it. Makenna is quite the little girl. She is the cutest thing on the planet and so seems to find herself getting just about anything she wants. She looks up at you with those big blue eyes and you can't help but melt. She loves her big sister Kaylee and follows her around everywhere. It is fun to see them actually playing together and being little friends now. Makenna is definitely a girly girl. She loves everything PINK, makeup and lipgloss, painting her nails, dressing up, and playing with her doll. We love her so much!

We were heading to D.C. for a couple months with Dan's work so we decided to throw Makenna's birthday party a little early before we left. She was very excited for her birthday- having no idea that it wasn't exactly the day!

The girls went swimming earlier in the day and were so excited for the party. Poor Makenna missed her nap and so during dinner couldn't hold her little eyes open any longer. We decided to let her sleep for a bit before presents!

Makenna was all about the opening of the presents this year. She loves BLues Clues and so got some blues clues books, movies, and a big BLues Clues stuffed animal. Nana and Papa got her the fun slide and the awesome little tykes car. She could not wait to get that put together. I don't think Kaylee could either! Mom and Dad were very glad she also got a new stroller to push her all around DC this summer!

We lucked out that Dan's dad and mom were in town for the party. We also were excited to have Aunt Rachel and Grandpa Kemp to join us. This was one of the last times we got to spend with Grandpa and we feel so blessed to have had this special time with him. We love him so much!

The aftermath of the present opening!

Mmm! Pink cupcakes were a must! The best kind of birthday ckae!

Nana and Papa!!!!

Proud mommy and daddy!

Kenna was very much enjoying her cupcake, At least it was more exciting that her tiresome diinner!

Kaylee and Makenna lover their aunt Nicole and Janessa!

Yea!!! THe car is finally complete! I think the girls drove that thing around all night long!

Kaylee Preschool Graduation

2010-09-13T15:46:00.001-07:00

Our little Kaylee is now a VIP Preschool graduate!!! She is getting so big! She has loved going to Mrs. Bascom's preschool this year and is going to be very sad to not get to go there anymore. They had a little program and graduation for the parents where the kids sang some very cute songs and got their diplomas.

Here is Kaylee's picture of a clown. I thought it was actually very good for a preschooler:-)

Kaylee's little class singing some songs, playing some instruments, and doing some dancing!

I had to snap a couple little shots of Kaylee and her first little crush Alex. All we have heard about all year is how funny Alex is, how fun Alex is, Alex, Alec, Alec. Dan was about to shut Kaylee in a tower until she is 30 after hearing so much about Alex!! They were cute though sitting up there showing off their diplomas to eachother!! Daddy will be glad that Alex is not going to Kaylee's Kindergarten school next year though!!!

The graduate with her awesome teacher Mrs. Bascom. She loves her teacher so much!

I did it!!!!

Can you tell how proud we are of our little girl?

Kristin Choir and School

2010-09-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

Choir pics and school room pics

Kaylee Dance Recital

2010-05-15T15:19:00.003-07:00

Kaylee was beside herself excited to perform in her dance recital in May. She just loves her dance class and loves to get up on the big stage to perform for everyone. She is definitely NOT shy! A little performer just like her mom! She loves all the makeup, the costume, the pretty hair, and all that goes into getting ready for her dance recital. Mom and Dad think she is a pretty cute dancer too! They danced to the song "Do the Locomotion" and Kaylee was definitely the best little dancer up there!!!

Here is Kaylee with her cousins Ian and Emily. Kaylee loves seeing them at dance each week. She has a secret little crush on Ian as she told me that she is going to marry him one day:-)

Makenna looks up to her big sister Kaylee and wants to be just like her! She loves to dance with Kaylee at home and we finally had to start leaving her with Nana each week when I took Kaylee to dance because she would just stand at the door the whole time and look through the glass crying because she wanted to go in and join the class! She will definitely be a little dancer some day too! I am still trying to get the video of her doing Kaylee's dance from Christmas loaded, but am having some trouble getting it on here.

Kaylee's aunts Janessa and Nicole were also in the show. I didn't get a picture of Nicole, but here is Kaylee and Janessa all ready fro the show. Just as Makenna looks up to Kaylee, Kaylee looks up to Janessa and wants to be just like her. It drives Janessa crazy sometimes but it is all in love and admiration from Kaylee!

Chicago Trip

2010-05-15T15:19:00.001-07:00

At the first of April we finally got to fly out and see where Dan has been working for the past 6 months! I have never been to Chicago before and was very excited to visit the "windy city". Kaylee and Makenna had been counting down the days to our big trip and once we finally made it to the airport they were so excited they could hardly stand it!

Our first day in Chicago we spent visiting Dan's office and meeting all of the people he works with and we have heard so much about. It was nice to finally put a face to all the names and hear about the great job that Dan has been doing there. Dan did a short meeting we got to watch and then we had pizza with the Clear team to celebrate those that had made a sale last month. We are very proud of Dan and all of his hard work to support our family!!!

The next day in Chicago we headed out to Elgin where Dan's Uncle Kevin and Aunt Pam live. Dan's dad and mom had flown in to meet us there and we were all headed downtown to see the broadway show Beauty and the Beast. Makenna was too little to go so Kevin had arranged for a girl in their neighborhood to come babysit. Needless to say I was VERY nervous about leaving her because she had never been left with anyone besides family. She freaks out when we take her to nursery so I did not have high hopes for the whole baby sitting experience here. I had nightmares of her screaming and throwing a fit the entire 6-8 hours we would be gone. When we arrived at the house there was a lot going on and Dan took Kenna in, set her at the kitchen counter and started making her some breakfast. I snuck out immediately while she was not looking and then Dan was able to sneak out a few minutes later since there was so many people there. We all hopped in the car and headed for the train station. We called after about 10 minutes to see how she was doing and the babysitter said she hadn't even realized we were gone yet. Whew! So far so good. We called a couple more times to check on her later in the day and she never had a problem! She had a nap, ate, and played with the babysitter all day. She said she never even cried! I was so relieved that she did so well.

Here we all are on the train down to Chicago. Kaylee thought it was so fun to ride the train. She kept saying, "This is my first time to ride the train ever!" Kevin and Pam's son, Nicholas, really was cute with Kaylee. He is about 11 years old and let Kaylee sit by him and chat his ear off the whole way home up on the top section of the train!

When we got downtown we caught a taxi and headed for the theater to see the show. Kaylee was very excited to see the play as she loves Belle! Here she is in anticipation for the show to begin. We only got these two pictures before an usher rushed over and informed me there was no picture taking aloud inside the theater. Oops:-)

The play was wonderful. Kaylee especially like "Be Our Guest" where they shoot huge cannons of confetti out into the audience. We had a purse full when we left! After we headed back to the train station to catch our train home. We had to stop at "Nuts on Clark" first. They have the BEST popcorn every. Their cheese and carmel mix is to die for!

When we made it home Kenna was very glad to see us, although not as much as I had anticipated. She LOVED the babysitter and had had a great day! We ordered in some Chicago style pizza, which of course was amazing. Dan was definitely not lying when he said every since he has been in Chicago he can't even eat the pizza in Utah because it's just not the same!

The next morning was Easter and Kaylee was very concerned that the Easter Bunny would not be able to find us. Of course the Easter Bunny did not disappoint and he made it to our hotel room with not problem. He left both the girls a special Easter basket and even left some candies around the room for a little Easter egg hunt.

After our little Easter at the hotel we headed back out to Kevin and Pam's for another Easter celebration. The girls were very excited to find that the Easter Bunny had left some surprises for them there too! So spoiled! They did another little hunt and were left two adorable baskets filled with fun Easter stuff! You can tell how excited they were in these pictures. I love how Kenna is trying to copy each of Kaylee's silly faces. I love our girls!

Kevin and Pam had invited some friends over to join us for a wonderful Easter dinner. I have not yet mentioned how exquisite their home is. It is incredible. Kevin is an amazing interior designer and I felt like I was in a model home! From an icecream parlor and movie theater in the basement, to the most gorgeous kitchen ever there house was so nice to be at for Easter. Here is the beautiful table all ready for dinner!

Kaylee and her new best friend Nicholas. He was such a good sport letting her tag along with him all weekend!

Aside from being an incredible interior designer, Kevin is also a gourmet chef! We had an amazing dinner of garlic mashed potatoes, roast, hame, vegetables, and the most amazing Grandma Kemp rolls ever. I think I had about 8!! (Hey- I'm pregnant so I figured I better live it up while I can:-))

Easter was also a special day because it was Terrie's birthday! After dinner the girls helped bring up a special surprise cake and we all sang happy birthday!

I just had to take a picture of the beautiful backyard. These pics don't even begin to do it justice! If I had a backyard like this I would never leave! Someday:-)

After dinner the boys headed outside to ride the 4Wheeler and motorcycle. Here is Dan showing off his skills for his younger cousins!

Kaylee loved the 4 Wheeler. She wanted to ride it all afternoon. She even got to the point where she was driving it herself- with Dan on the back of course! She is our little adventurous daredevil- she will try anything!

Makenna, on the other hand, takes after her mom and is our little scaredy cat. She was not so sure about the 4 wheeler thing. She was so excited to get on after watching Kaylee for a while, but once she got on she lasted about 30 seconds before loosing it and wanting nothing but to get off of that thing! This is before they started moving so she still didn't realize what was coming!

After dinner was cleaned up and all the kids were tuckered out from 4 wheeling we headed inside to the music room. We called up Grandpa Kemp and did a little mini concert for him. Kevin and I did a piano/singing duet of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and Kevin and Christian did a piano duet. It was so nice and also fun to be able to share a little bit of our day with Grandpa Kemp. It was so wonderful to just sit and visit with everyone and get to know Kevin and Pam a little better. We had such a nice time visiting their family and appreciate their hospitality and welcoming us into their home. Thanks Kevin and Pam for a wonderful Easter weekend!

The next morning we all jumped in the Tahoe and headed to Ohio to visit Dan's sister Jen and her family. It was about a 6 hour drive and we finally made it late that night. The Campbells were nice enough to let us ALL stay with them for the week and we were so excited to be able to visit them and spend some time with them who we don't get to see nearly often enough! We were also excited to be joined by Dan's other sister Kaitlin and her daughter Alyssa. They just moved to Washington D.C. to join her husband Taylor who is in the military. It was nice to be able to spend some time with them as well because we don't know how much we will be able to see them in the future either!

On Tuesday morning we got up , had some breakfast, and got our swimsuits on to head to CoCo Keys- an indoor water park close to Jen's house. The kids were so excited and had an absolute blast! They had water slides, a kids water playground, and a lazy river. All the kids were in heaven swimming and spending time together. Everyone loved the lazy river, even the adults. Here are some pics of everyone going around and around on the tubes!

The girls watching the toddlers in the kiddie pool! Hot mamas Jen, Terrie, and Kaitlin!

Cousin Hope making a splash on one of the kid's slides!

Uncle Brian had to try out the water slide too! Little Faith was making sure he was doing it correctly!

Makenna was again our little scaredy cat and was a little nervous about all that water. We sat and had some snack and watched every swim for a bit. I kept trying to take her swimsuit coverup off, but she was having none of that. She knew once that came off she was no longer safe from being thrown in! Finally after about an hour she got the nerves up to take her coverup off and put on a life jacket. She got in with Dan for a good 10 minutes and that was enough for her! You can see in the pics she looks a little concerned about being in the water. She was much happier after just watching from the sidelines!

Makenna- so happy to be watching from a chair on the sidelines of the pool!

Kaylee, our little daredevil, wanted to try out everything she could! She went down the kid slides about 100 times and then moved on to the big tube slides. She did not quite meet the height requirement, but luckily we caught a lenient life guard at the top while we were there. He even let her go down by herself once, during which she ended up spinning around backwards before she came out! She thought it was a blast and wanted to do it again and again!!!

Kaylee had so much fun spending time with her cousins. She doesn't have any cousins her own age at home so she was in heaven having so many to play with here! They all had such a blast swimming and playing the day away!

Kaylee, Charity, and Faith

Cute little Alyssa!

David Bryan- the lone boy! For some reason our family is just better at making girls I guess :-)

Dan, like Kaylee, loves water slides. Here he is taking each of the girls down! Kaylee with her hands up screaming, Charity, and Hope, who it took Dan quite a while to finally convince to get on the big slide. Once she did it, thought, she loved it! Poor Faith was a little too short to be let on or she would have joined in the fun too.

By the end we were all exhausted from all that swimming! Here are the babies finally asleep after a big day at the pool!

The girls having a mini tea party on their beach towels while the boys were showering.

On Wednesday we relaxed at home while Dan and Bruce headed out for a 30 mile bike ride. Bruce is an avid cyclist and is in great shape- Dan on the other hand has not ridden since last summer and was about ready to die when they got home!!

That night some friends from Jen's ward and neighborhood came over for some yummy bean burritos and then we headed to the skating rink for a combined birthday party for Charity, Hope, and Faith. Kaylee had only been skating once before and was a little nervous about getting out on the rink. She did pretty well, especially with the special kid skates, and was a trooper even after falling a few times! At least she was a cute little roller girl!

Makenna wanted to get in on the action too, but was a little too small for the whole skating thing.

We all sang happy birthday to the girls and Kaylee joined right in for the birthday candle blowing out action!

Here is Kaylee and Cousin Hope after a long night of skating. Each of the girls had a little tatoo to beautify them for the big party. They were very excited to show them off!

On Thursday we all jumped in the car and headed to Kirtland to see some of the church sites there. I had been there when I was younger but Dan had never been there so I was excited for him to go. Our first stop was the Kirtland Temple. It was interesting to visit the visitors center here that is owned by the reorganized church. They definitely have some different versions of the story of our church. Still, it was really neat to see the temple and be inside the same building where so many amazing experiences took place.

It was very rainy the day we were there, but it actually turned out to be a good thing as we had most of the tours almost to ourselves.

The girls were just excited to be together! Four peas in a pod:-) Grandma and Grandpa Kemp got them each a gold Kirtland temple necklace that they were all so excited about. Here they are showing off their necklaces and their joy to be together!

After the temple we headed over to the LDS visitors center and the Newl K Whitney store. The last time I was in Kirtland all they had was the store, but now it is like a little mini village with some other church member homes. I love the Newl K Whitney store, especially the upstairs room where the word of wisdom was revealed and the upstairs room where Christ appeared to the school of the prophets. There is a special feeling in that room and it was neat to share that with our family.

On Friday we were all very sad to say goodbye to the Campbells and Kaitlin as we headed back to Chicago. Kaylee was very upset about leaving her cousins as all the girls were trying to negotiate a way to go home with the other! It was the first time I have really see Kaylee get upset about missing someone. Her tender little heart was broken as she cried while we drove out of the driveway to head back. She had such a fun time with her cousins. As I said before she doesn't have cousins her age at home so her cousins in Ohio definitely hold a special place in her heart. She can not wait until January to see them again in Florida!!

We dropped Dan's dad and mom off at the airport to head back to Oregon for their daughter Tysha's baby blessing of their new little daughter. We had planned to stay a few extra days on our own to see some of the sites in Chicago!

On Saturday we all hopped on the train once again and headed back to downtown Chicago. Makenna got to join us on the train this time and she was just as excited as Kaylee had been. She loved hanging out, ridin the train, and of course watching some great Barney on the ipod with headphones! She got some interesting looks as people walked by the almost two year old chillin' on the train with her pink ipod!

We had a little issue with sunglasses as we reached downtown. It was a beautiful sunny day and Makenna right away grabbed Kaylee's sunglasses to wear. Here she is so excited and gloating a bit as she won the battle for the glasses. Later in the day we finally had to get Kaylee a new pair so that they both had some!

Downtown Chicago is a beautiful city. I for some reason had pictured something totally different as I thought of Chicago. The city is very clean and the buildings are amazing. I was so glad that we decided to stay an extra day to tour downtown.

The first stop on our tour was a sculpture called "The Bean'. I am not quite sure of its purpose, but it was pretty cool. It is made of steel and when you go up and look in it you can see your reflection.

Our family and our reflection!!

We were lucky to have Nolan and his wife Jenn with us to give us the tour of the city. Nolan works with Dan and they have become great friends. It was so fun to get to know their family and to have some great tour guides to show us around!

Kaylee got along great with Nolan's kids. They had a blast running around the city together!

Our reflections

As we left we saw this man painting. As we walked around to see what he was painting we were amazed at his portrait of "The Bean" and all the tourists who had come to visit it that day!

I had to embarrass Dan an stop him for a pic by one of the CLEAR stores downtown. We don't have CLEAR in Utah yet so I was so excited every time I saw a sign or billboard for it!

To Dan's dismay I had to make sure we did not miss out on Michigan Avenue during our trip to Chicago. Michigan Ave. is the major shopping district in the city. It has all the designer shopping stores like they have in New York. Lucky for Dan I am pregnant and not in the clothes shopping mode! It was fun to walk down though and window shop!

The beautiful city with the water flowing through the middle of all the sky scrapers in the background.

There was this neat performer on Michigan Ave. He was called something like the robotic Michael Jackson or something. He was painted all silver and would dance to Michael Jackson songs like a robot. He was very good and the girls got a kick out of him.

The one store we could not miss going into was the American Girl Doll store. Kaylee has been best friends with her doll, Virginia, since she got her for Christmas last year. The store was amazing and Kaylee was in heaven as she walked around and saw all of the fun clothes and accessories for the American Girl dolls. Daddy let her get a new outfit for her doll and matching AG Chicago t-shirts for her and her doll. It was definitely a highlight of the trip for her!

Next we headed to Navy Pier. This was such a fun place as it is right on the water. There are lots of fun food places and little booths to shop at as you walk along the pier. We were so glad it was such a beautiful day as we walked along the pier enjoying the sights, sound, and smells of Lake Michigan.

Our first stop was to eat at a little burger place called Billy Goat Tavern. It had good food and the kids loved being able to eat outside on the water front.

The girls having a blast walking along the pier. Kaylee finally being able to show off her new shades!

We did a little boat tour of the harbor with the kids before we headed home. It was fun to see the city from a different perspective as well as learn a little more about its buildings from the tour director.

A cute little lighthouse out in the harbor.

Before we loaded the ship Kaylee had a little accident and fell and skinned her knees on the pier. Needless to say this kind of ruined the boat tour for her:-( Her she is with her battle wounds and clinging to her Daddy for some nursing back to health.

The view from the lake

Our wonderful tour guides!

Mom and her girls

Kenna and her Daddy

Kaylee finally feeling a little bit better by the end of the ride

As we got off the boat there was this huge anchor at the end of the pier where we stopped for some pics.

On the way back to the bus we stopped at a little water fountain where the girls had a blast cooling off a bit from their long day exploring the city.

As our trip to Chicago came to an end we were all exhausted but thankful to have had such a wonderful time and to have made such amazing memories with family and friends. We were glad to be able to see where Dan goes to work every week, to spend time with family, and to get to explore a new place that we had not been before. Chicago was a beautiful city and we hope that we can come back one day to visit again!

Kaylee and Makenna

2010-05-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Kaylee and Makenna- the two greatest things in Dan and I's lives! There are so many little moments that we can't help but just smile at their sweetness and all the cute little things they do. Here are some random moments in their little lives.

Kaylee was so excited for the first snow- all she wanted to do was get out and make a snow angel! She has been asking about making a snow angel since last winter. She had a blast helping dad shovel the snow and make her first snow angel. Kenna had a lot of fun in the snow too, but as you can see only lasted a few minutes until she was too cold and headed inside to cuddle up in her rocking chair for some good old Barney!

Kaylee has been very into playing with friends lately. She loves her school friends, her dance friends, and her church friends. Her two best friends are her cousin Emily and our next door neighbor Lauren. She is definitely our little social butterfly.

Kaylee and Emily are in dance class together and have a blast seeing eachother every week at dance. Emily's mom had a girl in her ward that is a cheerleader at Cottonwood High School. They were doing a fundraiser for their squad where they teach little girls some of the cheers and a dance. Then the girls got to perform at a Cottonwood basketball game at half time. They had so much fun and Kaylee thought it was so cool to be a little cheerleader for the day. She still practices her cheers on a regular basis at home! "Let's Get FIred Up!!!"

Here is Kaylee and Emily at their first sleepover. Kaylee was so excited for her first sleepover. They did pretty well- watched a couple movies, played some barbies, made some snacks. colored some pictures, and then actually made it to bed at a pretty decent hour. Kenna even joined in to the fun for a bit- she thinks she is just as big as Kaylee!

Here is the girls with our neighbors Lauren and Taylor. Kaylee just loves Lauren and wants to go over and ask her to play every chance she gets. This day they were having a very cute little tea party together with the little sisters. We are very sad that they are soon moving to Georgia:-( I don't know what Kaylee will do with herself all summer without her best friend Lauren!

Theses pics are a little old but random so I thought they would fit right in with this post! A while back we made a trip over to the Living Planet Aquarium. The girls had a blast. Kaylee especially liked the sting rays. They have a little petting pond where you can reach in and pet them. Kaylee was definitely braver than me. There was no way I was going to reach in and touch one of them!!! We went with my mom and sisters Nicole and Janessa and it was a fun little outing for all us girls!

Again an old random pic, but I love how cute Kaylee looks in this picture! We went over the women's expo and she had her face painted like a cat. She thought it was so neat- I had to drag her to the bath finally that night to wash it off. She probably would have kept it on forever if she could have:-)

Merry Christmas 2009!

2010-05-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was so fun to see how excited Kaylee was about Christmas, Santa, and all that goes along with the Christmas season. We counted down the days with watching some Christmas movie classics, a couple of hot chocolate parties. present shopping for family, reading some favorite Christmas books, some hunting for Christmas lights drives, and of course decorating the trees. Kaylee thought this was all so exciting this year and it made Christmas come alive once again for us adults to see the twinkle in her little eyes!

Kaylee and Makenna were both too excited to sleep the night of Christmas eve, so we put on some Elmo Counts Down to Christmas and they cuddled up in their new Christmas blankie and jammies and ate some yummy snacks until they tired out!

Both girls got some cuddly new PJ's for Christmas eve. This is a family tradition that I always loved and so we have extended it into our own little family. I tried to get Makenna to pose for a quick pic, but she was very uninterested!

Our girls love to sleep in! No matter how excited Kaylee was the night before, we actually had to wake her up to come open presents! Here she is patiently waiting to head downstairs to see if Santa made it to her house this year!

Kaylee was so excited with all of her presents this year! She had a very specific list for Santa this year and through letters and a trip to see Santa at the mall she was SURE she was going to get everything she had asked for! However, there was one present that was at the top of her list- An American Girl Doll! She was so worried that Santa was going to forget and as she waited to come downstairs on Christmas morning- this was definitely at the front of her mind. We have the tradition of opening one present at a time and taking turns back and forth. We let Kaylee go first so that she could show her little sister how it was done. Santa had very meticulously placed the American Girl box at the back of the presents- this however did NOT fool our little Kaylee! She scanned the presents very carefully and after a few moments of contemplation pushed the presents in the front to the side and grabbed the box in the very back. I don't know how she knew this was the one but Dan and I had to laugh as she so surely grabbed this one first. She tore it open and her face lit up as she saw her American Girl doll that looked just like her peeking at her from the box. She was so excited! She named her Virginia and they are now best friends!

Makenna was most concerned with talking on her new cell phone! She got some elmo stuff that Santa thought she would love- however, she was completely terrified by the laughing, shaking, Tickle Me Elmo!!!

Both girls got a new purse filled with girlie purse stuff for Christmas. Here they are all set to go to Nana's- purses in tow. Oh how they take after their mother! To daddy's dismay he now has three purse obsessed girls to take care of:-)
Merry Christmas!