Photo Shoot for Mylee

 We decided to doll Mylee up today and get some shots of her. Let's call these her 4 year old pictures. She's so pretty!!

This one shows how big her blue eyes are and the funny expressions she makes sometimes.

Mopping the Floor

Want your kids to help you clean your floor? Then pull out their swimsuits and let them slip and slide and go to work. It worked like a charm and saved me loads of time having to do it by myself!!

Made in China!

Lately Kelsey has been noticing the phrase "Made in China" on many of her toys and various items we have around the house. This was our conversation the other week:
Kelsey: MOM! Look this is made in China too!!
Cami: Yep.
Kelsey: Mom, does China make everything?
Cami: Just about....
Kelsey: They make BEAUTIFUL things
Cami: Yes they do.
Kelsey: Mom, do they have a pattern to make all these things?
Cami: I'm sure they do.
Kelsey: Oh.

Ironic huh!?

Mylee's 4th Birthday


<><><> Last year the girls and I started a tradition of eating at IHOP during our birthday week because they send us a coupon for a free meal. I took Mylee and Lanaea while Kelsey was at school. Mylee was giddy happy! We hardly eat out, so when we do it's a real treat. I had a coupon for a free meal too because my birthday is only a week after Mylee's. We all had a great time and the food was yummy!

 Mylee Enjoying her FREE Rooty Jr. Meal from IHOP



I experiented with fondant for Mylee's birthday. She and I sat down at the computer for a while trying to pick out a cake she wanted me to make her. I was thrilled when she picked out a simple pink cake with pink fondant and a crown on top. Theirs was much prettier then mine, but I thought I did a pretty good job for my first attempt with fondant. I made marshmellow fondant from here. It was surprisingly easy!! I'm definintely making it again. I learned that I need to form my cake underneath a lot better--as you can see the lumps in the cake (it's okay Mylee didn't notice, phew!) She LOVED it as you can see below.



For her birthday she got a new doll and a dollhouse puzzle. She LOVES her new doll!! Her name is Sydney.



She also picked out some presents for her sisters for her special day. She got playdough for Lanaea and a jump rope for Kelsey. Both were thrilled.

Kelsey and Mylee Playing with our new dollhouse puzzle

Mylee is such a special and sweet little girl. Lately Blake and I have been in awe at how much she has grown up. She is so articulate in her questions and so fun to watch her pretend with her dolls. She's definitely a big tease and will push her sisters' buttons until they cry. Her favorite things to do are to watch movies (her favorite is Tangled), play with playdough, play family with Kelsey, go with Sister Cammack (her adopted grandma here in Texas), go out to eat (She favorites are: IHOP, Sonic, Chick-fila, and McD's), have Mommy School, dress-up (always as a princess), do puzzles, read books, and sing songs. Her hair is auburn brown and has a slight natural curl to it. I should also note that her hair is thicker then mine!! She has large beautiful blue eyes and a contagious smile with adorable dimples. She's a great older sister to Lanaea. Lately she has been helping Lanaea say her prayers at night and it has been a special sweet experience for all of us. She's a special part of our family and we LOVE you Mylee!! Happy 4th Birthday!

UPDATE:

This is how I found Mylee when I checked on her last night. So sweet :).

Where's Your Shoe

Last night Blake and I were in charge of our ward party. Our turnout was okay, the food was good, and people seemed to enjoy themselves. The only problem is that we had TONS of extra food. I guess it's better then not having enough. The party was at a city park. As we were packing up to leave, Blake and I noticed Mylee was missing her shoes. I searched around the playgroup and found one shoe, but couldn't find it's pair. I asked Mylee where her shoe was and she innocently looked at me and said, "I digged it Mom." I brought her over to the playgroud with me and asked her where she "digged" it. She then showed me about 10 different locations, not finding her shoe in any of them. Oh well, I knew I shouldn't have sent her with her nice shoes.

I should also note that Blake had asked her to change her clothes before we went to the party. I knew that was going to be trouble, but sort of ignored his request and finished packing the car with the items we needed for the party. As I got in the car I looked back and Mylee and wasn't surprised to see her wearing something that looked worse then what she had on before Blake asked her to change. I didn't have enough time to go have her change before the party, so I let her be. Oh, how I've relaxed on some things.

BYU vs. UT

Last weekend we went to Austin, Texas as a family to cheer on the cougars at the University of Texas. We left early in the afternoon on Saturday and arrived with just enough time to drop the girls off at a babysitter we had arranged and make it to the game. Blake's brother Trevor and his wife Amy flew in for the occasion and met us at the game. Trevor and Amy had been staying at a friend's house. We utilized their teenage daughter to watch our girls. It worked out perfectly.We lost unfortunately, but it was still a good experience and we are glad we went. It was a 7 hour drive for us and the tickets and babysitter weren't cheap, but I'm learning that great memories often come with a price, whether it be expense, time, energy, etc. and I'm okay with that--phew that's a big breakthrough for me! Plus I was studying in the Proclamation to the Family that successful marriages and families participate in wholesome recreational activities. The drive wasn't bad at all and our girls behaved, yea! After the game Trevor and Amy came with us to pick up our girls and together we drove back home to Lubbock. It took us a little over 7.5 hours and we didn't get home until 5:30AM in the morning! The drive was a little nerve racking with countless deer sightings along the highway, but Blake and Trevor kept us safe. Amy and I had intentions of sleeping, but ended up with our eyes glued to the road after a close encounter with a deer. We went straight to bed when we got home and woke up around 10:30AM in the morning. We got ready for church and went to a different ward at 1:30PM.

It was nice to have Trevor and Amy here. It's always a special treat when we get visitors. Kelsey became great friends with them both. In fact since they have been gone, Kelsey has been making pictures for their whole family to give to them when we go to Utah in two weeks. It's been really sweet. Thanks for coming Trevor and Amy!!

Max our Pet Turtle

Well I thought we were done with the whole pet thing, but when Kelsey found a turtle in our driveway on our walk home from school one day we couldn't resist adding it to our family. I think it was someone's pet that got loose because there was red paint on it's shell. With that said I felt a little better about having a turtle as a pet, but was still very cautious about the girls touching it and if they did I made sure they washed their hands really well. We took Molly the lizard's old cage and made it into Max's home. He (well Kelsey assumed he was male, so we went with it), immediately started eating the lettuce we gave him. They girls were screaming with delight when they saw his big mouth open and try to eat the big pieces of lettuce.

Update: We let Max in the garden for a day to roam around and eat (our garden is enclosed by a cement ledge) and now we can't find him. Either he got out--which if he did, that's pretty impressive--or he dug in the ground somewhere in there. Kelsey and Mylee have been going out there nearly every day to see if they spot him. I'll let you know if he shows up.

Our Weekend

On Saturday Mylee was invited to a birthday party at the Science Spetrum. Normally I'm not one to support birthday parties on the weekend, but Blake was working and our pass to the Science Spectrum expires in a couple of days so I figured we would go. We had a good time. Kelsey ended up joining the party and had a great time. I did my best to keep track of Lanaea--she's fast and easy to loose!!

Later that night Blake was home from work and we invited a family over to watch the BYU game with us. It was nice having a family over--we don't do that enough! With Blake's schedule it's hard to coordinate parties at our house. The game wasn't too exciting, but at least we won!

Sunday was an adventure in itself. Blake was working, so I was on my own today. I had to take Lanaea out during the sacrament meeting, which right before I did, my cell phone timer reminding me that Blake was on call went off right during the prayer!!! I need to get rid of those timers, trust me, I DON'T forget when he is on call, especially on Sundays!! Thankfully one of my friends went and sat by the older girls and they behaved just fine.

After dropping the girls off at their classes I went to the library to make some copies of flyers for our upcoming ward party. As I was copying and cutting them, I heard Lanaea screaming in nursery. She NEVER does this, so I went in there and got her and just brought her back to the library with me. She found a stapler and I thought she couldn't do much damage to that. Just when I thought everything was fine and dandy I turned around and she was dumping GLITTER, yes GLITTER all over the library floor!! I went in panic mode and dumped her off at the nursery again--she started screaming again. I found a friend and we sneaked a vacuum out of the maintenance closet and hurried it down to the library. We shut the door and got the mess cleaned up--it looked better then ever!! Phew!!! Lanaea spent the rest of church with me. Who knows what set her off in nursery today.

The rest of the day went pretty well. I even found the energy to make a cinnamon coffee cake--no it doesn't contain coffee, Kelsey was very concerned about this when she read the recipe. The girls enjoyed watching it cook in the oven. The BEST part of the day though was this evening during scripture study. I just started reading with Kelsey in the "real" scriptures instead of the children's scripture reader for scripture study. Today she read the testimony of the 3 witnesses. When she finished reading she said--with no cues or anything, "Mom, I feel really good inside!" She really meant it too. It was a tender sweet moment and something I needed to hear as a Mother today. I love you Kelsey and I hope you always remember just how important the scriptures are.

Summer Comes to a Close at Palo Duro

We closed our summer this year by going camping once again to Palo Duro Canyon. It's only 2 hours away and it's the best that this landscape here in West Texas offers within that time frame. It reminds me a lot of Moab, but Moab is WAY better--I'm spoiled. Palo Duro is the 2nd largest canyon in the United States (that was very surprising to me; it seems a little wimpy to me!!) and is considered the Grand Canyon of Texas. The largest canyon in the US is of course The Grand Canyon in Arizona. Overall we made a lot of memories. There were some hick-ups with "attack of the fire ants, flies, bees, and spiders," but we (or I should say I) did our (my) best to smile and laugh through it all. When we arrived at the canyon, we went to hike to a small cave and let our pet lizard Molly go where we originally found her 3 months prior. It was an exciting day for all of us--I think especially for me!! No more trips to the pet store for crickets!!! Molly was really reluctant when we first let her out. She stuck around for about 10 minutes until she finally ran off. It was as though she had gotten used to us. While she was lingering, Kelsey even caught her again which we were all very surprised and excited about. See the video below to see her in action!!

After our little hike we arrived at our campground. Originally we had reserved a more expensive campground with bathrooms within walking distance, but we decided to save $10 bucks and reserve the cheaper one instead. When we arrived at our campground to find the picnic table provided for us covered in cobwebs, I wondered if we had made the right choice. Blake went to inspect and noticed in one corner that a Black Widow resided with two newly formed eggs and other corners also had scary and ugly spiders!! He got our lighter out to torch them, but it didn't work!! Then he got out his flip flop shoe and tried swatting at them. It was pretty funny!! He got the Black Widow's eggs down, but didn't succeed in killing the Black Widow until later that night. We were never able to get the big brown ugly one on the other side. SO we stayed far far away from the picnic table which wasn't always easy to do with a little invincible 1.5 year old running around--but we succeeded! Once we were settled down, Blake went on a ride which we had planned on him doing prior to our coming. I took the girls to a playground within the canyon. We played had a good time and played until nearly dark.

By the time I got back to camp, Blake had the tent all set up and had put all of our bedding and blown up our air mattress--what a guy huh?!! We had fun making smores, but learned if you want a roasted marshmallow you have to get regular marshmallows not flavored ones--me and the girls had gotten chocolate and vanilla marshmallows, they were yummy, but wouldn't roast.

We all went to bed around the same time. We were all very tired. Blake was excited to sleep in his hammock from his boyhood he recently acquired again, but showed up in the tent with us late in the night, finding it to not be as comfortable as he remembered it being before. The girls slept soundly through the night---heaven!! We all woke up happy the next morning. Blake left for another bike ride before the rest of us got up. We all slowly woke up some time after and got breakfast. All was fine and dandy until the girls started to spill their cheerios and we had "attack of the ants" again coupled with "attack of the flies, biting horse flies, and bees". One bee was particularly attracted to Kelsey's white shirt and chased her around the campground for about 10 minutes. She was running around the campground yelling "Shoo, Shoo, Shoo!!!" I started laughing and she did too until about the 10 minute mark when she cried in tears to me, "Mom, I'm tired of running". I quickly sent her to the car. Then Mylee was dancing around the camp because she was about to wet her pants. So I loaded all the kids up in the car and drove down to the bathroom. Ahhh....no flies, no bees, no ants!!! The car was nice!!

When we got to the bathroom we had to use the men's side because the girl's bathroom floor was covered with giant fire ants and spiders were under the toilets and around the stalls. I stayed there for a while getting the girls' teeth brushed and such, monitoring the outside to make sure no males showed up to use their bathroom. When we arrived back at camp, I left the girls in the car and got their clothes from the tent. I dressed them all the in car and got them lathered in sunscreen. I then moved them all back to the tent to have them help me roll up the sleeping bags and to keep them away from the ants, flies, and bees again. As we were walking back to our tent I noticed our neighbor just coming out of her tent, she had been "sleeping" still during our whole morning brigade!! Opps!! Welcome to family life Miss! Blake arrived shortly after from his bike ride. We packed up camp and drove to a place to take a small hike with the girls.

Our hike was nice and short. We visited a replica of Charles Goodnight's dugout from the 1800's. He settled there and raised cattle for many years. We then hiked along a trail and collected leaves of different plants and talked about the different rocks found in Palo Duro Canyon. We ate lunch and then we were out of there by 11:30 AM. Our ride home was pleasant.

Kelsey's First Day of 1st Grade!

Today was Kelsey's first day of 1st Grade and of course she LOVED it!! The morning was a little rough when I dropped her off because of some mix-ups of where she was supposed to sit. She went directly to the place her teacher had her information on back-to-school night and took the breakfast ticket at that spot (the school provides free breakfast to all the students). Well, come to find out it was another little boy's spot and she took his breakfast ticket--opps. We eventually found her spot and I got her school supplies put away in a bag that her teacher provided us. The little boy showed up and I gave him Kelsey's ticket so he could get breakfast. The next hang up came when Kelsey came back with her breakfast. Lanaea saw the cheese stick Kelsey got and stole it. Kelsey then grabbed it back and Lanaea screamed. I then took the cheese stick back because I couldn't control the screaming and was still helping unload all of Kelsey's school supplies. Then Lanaea was biting through the plastic into the cheese stick and Kelsey wasn't happy about that so grabbed it back, then Lanaea screamed again. Ahhhh!! By that time I had finished helping Kelsey and got out of there really quick. I was so embarressed that Lanaea was making such a scene! Little stinker.

After school Kelsey told me they sorted all of the school supplies all day and worked on a workbook. She also got to go to PE after lunch and had a good time. Once again she has her clothes set out just right. Kelsey's a keeper for sure!!

Before our walk to school with a picture Kelsey drew for her teacher.

This is her breakfast--a breakfast pizza, looks like pizza with saugage, whatever!

Kelsey after school.

1st Grade School Supply List:

2-Crayola Crayons 24 Ct.

1 Crayola Markers Thick Classic 8 Ct. Washable

1 Binder View Hardback Vinyl 1" Asst.

1 Folder Pocket and Brad Blue

1 Folder Pocket and Brad Red

1 Folder Pocket and Brad Green

1 Folder Pocket and Brad Yellow

10 Glue Stick .21 Elmer's Washable 1 Cnt.

2 Facial Tissue 160 Ct.

2 Clorox Antibacterial Wipes 35 Ct.

1 Index Cards 4x6 unruled 100 Ct.

1 Reclosable Slide Bags 22ct.

1 School Box 8.5 x 5.5 x 2.5 Space Maker

1 Scissors 5" Sharp Fiskars Left/Right Handed

2 Pencils #2 Wood 10pk

2 Eraser Pink Bevel

2 Hi-Liter Pen Style Fluorescent Yellow

1 Expo Dry Erase Chisel Asst. 4 Pk.

1 Story Tablet

1- 1/2 inch ruled tablet

2 composition books.

Kelsey All Ready for School!!

Tomorrow Kelsey starts 1st grade. She is SOOO excited. She went through some of the new clothes we got her and this is what she picked out. Don't you love how she layed them out!? She even picked out the shoes she is going to wear and tucked them in her shorts. So cute!!! She also drew a picture for her teacher that reads, "I am so excided I'm in you,re class!!" Spelled just like that. I was impressed that she got the you're in there even though she had the apostraphe as a coma and it's really "your". We'll let you know about her first day tomorrow!!

Unwelcome Residents

On Sunday, August 14th, Kelsey came running to me saying, "Mom!!! There's a cat and 2 kittens behind our shed!!! COME SEE!"

Mom: "WHAT?!!" I then went running
Mom: "Blake!!"

I won't say what Blake wanted to do with them, but I completely disagreed with his method! So I took the matter into my own hands. I'm sorry for you cat lovers out there, they are not my cup of tea and they aren't welcome in my backyard! I have to admit though, this cat was pretty--she had beautiful blue eyes as did her adorable kittens.

The next day I called animal services. They said I would need to come pick up a cat cage and then once I caught the cats they would come pick them up and take them back to the animal shelter and be put up for adoption. This was all a FREE service by the way, phew!!

I picked up the cage and was hoping that Blake would take initiative to set the trap up--I was a little intimidated by this whole process and he was LOVING every bit of how I was dealing with this "situation". I think he didn't help because he loved seeing me do it--he thought it was hilarious! So I set the trap up and put some tuna fish at the end of the cage. Within 5 minutes I had one kitten caught. I was hoping I could get all three in the cage at one time and the people at the animal shelter were optimistic that I could, but I chickened out in trying to catch the other two and just called animal services to have them come pick up the cat. They were there within 30 minutes. They left the trap for me to catch the other two. Later that evening I caught the mother and then I caught her last kitten the next afternoon. I felt horrible that I hadn't been able to catch all three of them at once and that these sweet kittens were separated from their Mother, but it was a necessary evil.

That evening I looked at Blake and smiled saying, "LOOK who took care of the problem by herself!!". We both laughed.

On August 16th, Mylee had her final dance class. Her teacher had put together a cute program for us parents to watch. Mylee isn't one to show much expression when preforming in front of others, but she did enjoy it. At the beginning of the class her teacher had the kids to stretches and do different dance steps across the floor. Mylee was very good!! Then they preformed a tap, ballet and jazz dance for us. It was really cute. The class ended with the kids dancing with a ribbon however they wanted. Mylee got a balloon and some candy at the end of class--that made her day!!

I love her long curly hair!!

Last Day of Cheer!!

On August 11th, Kelsey had her last day of cheerleading. The class was two hours rather then the normal 1 hour. The first hour they stretched and did some stunts, cheers, and tumbling.

The second hour her teacher had filled a bunch of water balloons up for the kids to have a waterballon fight. The teacher didn't anticipate how quickly kiddos can go through those things! The kids had a lot of fun though. At the end the kids did a little performance with all of the cheers they had learned over the summer. It was really sweet!!


Then we all went back inside to the gym for her teacher to hand out awards. Kelsey got the "Bendy Straw" Award because she is so flexible. Her teacher also mentioned how quickly she learned and how she was able to do some things that some kids had never been able to do--a fish roll. I was so proud of her!! Blake and I have decided to save up our pennies to put her in gymnastics this coming winter after we get back from living in Fort Worth, Texas for 4 months (November 11'-March 12').

Neighborhood Party

On July 30th, we had a Neighborhood Party. It was a lot of fun. I was involved in the planning of the party--which ended up being a lot more work then I was anticipating, but it felt good that I was doing something to help make our neighborhood a better and more friendlier place. Before the party we had a neighborhood parade. Families were encouraged to come with their bikes, cool cars, etc. for the parade. We have a policewoman that lives in our neighborhood that led us through the neighborhood. The girls had a blast. Both Kelsey and Mylee rode their bikes that we had decorated with streamers and ballons and I pushed Lanaea in her stroller with ballons attached. There was even a family that showed up with their horses!! The girls were pretty excited about that!!

The parade ended at the party location--an empty street between two empty lots. It was perfect. A couple of other neighbors had gone to Sam's Club that morning to buy all the food and another neighbor was able to get a large grill to cook all the food. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks and the bread and condiments to go with. Odd house numbers were to bring a side dish and even house numbers were to bring a dessert. We had a great turn-out of food and people. My next door neighbors own a jump house company so they let us use two of their jump houses at the party. It was GREAT! I enjoyed getting to know some of my neighbors better.

I also invited all the neighbors in our neighborhood to participate in a food drive our church was putting on for the South Plains Food Bank. 20 bags were brought filled to the brim with food. Kelsey was elated when she was able to bring that food to church the next day as they were having a contest in primary to collect food. Blake unfortunately was working that night so he was unable to attend.

Precious Moments

Last Sunday I asked Blake if he could give me a blessing. He pulled a chair out into the family floor and we had the girls sit on the couch so they could participate in the blessing and see their daddy exercise the priesthood. Blake gave me a special blessing. After my blessing, Kelsey asked if she could have a blessing. Blake gave her a really sweet blessing. Kelsey was beaming when he finished, it meant a lot to her that her daddy could give her a blessing. Mylee was a little hesitant to get a blessing, but got on the chair after some positive encouragement. Her blessing too was very sweet and special. Lanaea during all of this was running around, climbing up and down the couch, etc. However I knew she was observing what was going on because after Blake finished with Mylee’s blessing Lanaea came up to the chair and sat down, folded her arms and sat very still. Taking advantage of the moment, Blake gave her a very special blessing. I wasn’t so touched by his blessing as I was by Lanaea’s behavior during it. She sat perfectly still the whole time and kept her head slightly bowed. I cried during the whole thing. The spirit spoke so loudly to me that she was perfect and a child of God. I couldn’t help but embrace her after her blessing and thank my Heavenly Father for sending three of His perfect, sweet, and innocence children. I also realized as I have many times before that family is what life is all about. There is nothing that brings more joy then being married and raising children with the person you love.

Gapalee

Mylee affectionately named her baby doll Gapalee, don’t ask me where that name came from. Kelsey said she came up with the name—that doesn’t surprise me, I don’t know where this girl get these names!! Gapalee is Mylee’s little companion. She goes everywhere with her. She even has a little baby carrier that she carries her with on her stomach. Most night Mylee will brush her teeth, change her diaper, take her on walks in her baby stroller when we go on walks outside. She’ll change her clothes throughout the day and is very adamant that Gapalee has her pj’s on for bedtime. Kelsey never played with dolls this way; it’s been really fun to watch.

"I Want Some Mama"

Lanaea can now say a whole sentence: “I want some Mama.” It’s the cutest thing ever!! I don’t know what it is with my two youngest kiddos, but they LOVE food!! Lanaea would eat all day if I let her! If she sees something she wants to eat she’ll come up to me and say, “I want some Mama.” There are times though that she will use that sentence for something other then food. For instance one day I was putting her to bed for the night and as soon as we walked into her room she saw her blanket and said, “I want some Mama.” I gave her her blanket, she started sucking her thumb—as she always does at bedtime—and drifted off to sleep.

"My Mylee"

One day as we were all kneeling down for prayer at bedtime Mylee said something about "My Mylee". I asked her what she meant by “My Mylee”. She then explained to me that My Mylee was right next to her. She also said that she looks just like her only she is really tiny. Kelsey then chimed in and said, “Yea, and I have a My Kelsey”. So we now have 5 kids in our home however, two of them are imaginary. I don’t know what I would do without these kiddos!! They make me laugh and bring me so much joy.

Serving at the Food Bank

On July 6th, we went as a family to the Food Bank to bag 50,000 lbs. of potatoes someone anonymously donated to the South Plains Food Bank. It was such a neat and special experience to serve together as a family. Both Kelsey and Mylee got into action—Lanaea hung out in her stroller. Mylee enjoyed bagging potatoes once the giant bags got low enough for her to reach. Kelsey carefully placed the bagged potatoes into bins. I want to do more things like this as a family.

This service project was only a small portion of a much larger service project our stake puts on every year. This year our goal is to collect 300,000 pounds of food to donate. As a family we participated in this effort by inviting our neighbors to bring a bag a food to donate to the South Plains Food Bank to a neighborhood party I helped plan. As a family we collected 20 bags of food and many others said they would use the recyclable bags we gave them and drop the food off at drop boxes for the food bank in our local grocery stores. Kelsey and Mylee felt so proud and good when they were able to bring all that food to primary the day after our party—they have been working hard as a primary to collect food for the food bank.


Lanaea has had about enough!!