School Days

 Kaylee finally started preschool in September.  We loved her preschool last year so she is going back to the same place, but one extra day a week.

 I am so sad to see her go every day but love to hear about her adventures and how she is growing without me.  She is already looking forward to kindergarten next year and every time we drive past her future elementary school she makes sure to tell me that's HER school. Ai- why do kids have to keep growing up?? 

Showing off her favorite robot backpack :)

McKenna has been having a hard time with it and asks me all morning, "Is it time to get Kaylee yet?"  Unfortunately it also coincided with the hardest pregnancy I've gone through and so Mom hasn't been much fun for her to play with.  Luckily Kaylee is only gone for a few hours and then these two are back to being the best of friends.  Hopefully that keeps up!

Kirtland Trip

We have been very lucky to have my Mom come visit a few times every year but this year we were extra lucky because my Dad came with her! We decided to make the trip up to Kirtland since none of us have been there before. I was sad we didn't take great pictures of Kirtland but it was great to be there. We drove up Friday and did the tour of the Kirtland temple first. 

Then we went to the other sites that are owned by the Church (like the Newel K Whitney store).  It was amazing to see the difference in those two tours.  Such amazing and sacred things happened in the temple and yet the tour guides stated it very factual with no testimony or emotion and breezed through all of the amazing things that happened.  At the Church sites it was the complete opposite and it was so easy to feel the Spirit in those sacred buildings.  

We did as much as we could with the kids going crazy and then went back to the hotel to let them swim in the tiny freezing outdoor pool.  They didn't seem to mind :)

The next day we figured we'd let the kids play for a little bit at this farm we found online and then go to one more Church site, about 45 mins away.  But when we got to Lake Metroparks Farmpark they had so many things to do and we all had so much fun we were there for 4 hours!!  The girls got to milk a cow, play on a huge farm-themed playground,

pet all the farm animals,

ride a pony,

brush down a horse,

play in another garden-themed place,

go through a corn maze,

and go on a tractor ride.  It was a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone going to that area. We were all worn out and decided not to go to the last Church site and just headed home.

Sunday Mom and Dad got to go to church with us and then we showed them around the beautiful Park of Roses.

 Monday we finally were able to fulfill Kaylee's wish of going golfing with Grandpa.  I thought my kids would lose interest pretty fast but they played the whole time and were actually pretty good for only being 4 and 2! 

That was definitely the girl's favorite part and they still talk about it all the time.  We were so happy to have Grandpa and Grandma here for one last trip before they leave on their mission next year. 

New Beginnings

We had a few fun additions in August. Our hybrid Honda Civic has been struggling for a long time and we kept going back and forth on how long we should keep it.  We took it in for yet another fix at the car shop and they basically told us they would be surprised if the hybrid battery would last another year, which is way more expensive than the car is worth. So we started looking for a minivan, since we knew that would need to be our next car.  It was perfect timing because we also found out that we are expecting again! Baby #3 is actually due March 20th but we took this picture before finding that out... so embarrassing ;)

 That doubled our efforts looking for a good van and we feel like we got an amazing deal on this 2010 Toyota Sienna.  So happy to have a lot of trunk space, automatic doors, etc, etc. We love it!  

So happy to have two fun new additions to our family :)