Katelyn's Birthday etc.

Well I haven't posted here about as long as I haven't written in my journal-so I guess the past 4 months are just lost to life without documentation...oh well.  I can't think of much that has really happened in our lives anyway.  One thing I wanted to write in my journal before Katelyn was 2 was that she can dress herself-pick out the outfit put the pants on and shoes-needs help with shirt but can get a nightgown off by herself!

And for some of these you just need to use your imagination because I'm too impatient to upload them to the external harddrive so that I can rotate them--hey at least you get to see sideways pictures!
In this picture I though the girls looked super cute Marie was going to school and Katelyn thought she was so cool because she found her pockets in her jacket!

 One day Tyler wanted to make a helmet-and asked if we had an empty gallon jug..pretty creative-I helped but still-go creative brain juices!

 Katelyn being cute..she knows when I'm taking a picture and poses-so nice!

 I told Tyler that he could wear this and be a hunchback for Halloween-it's our boche ball set so he said NO way it's too heavy-check out his face~

 I asked her to put out her tongue for this picture-so cute!

 Marie made this mask herself-we still can't throw it away she is so proud!

 Can you believe it-I'm actually in a picture!

 Yep we like to play with our food..who doesn't?

 For Bunco last month it was dress as your favorite book character-not that she's truly my favorite but it was an easy free costume and my friend Tiffany did my hair totally awesome and made me mop shoes to go with it!  Marie calls it donkey hair and said I was hideous!

 Katelyn is now 2 years old!  Here are a couple gifts and cake!

 Marie is so happy to climb in the tree in the front yard..all by herself!

 Katelyn got this for her birthday-can't do it too well by herself but there's plenty of room for 2 skinny girls!

 Marie was playing restaurant and Brandon was being a very nice brother and helping behind the counter then being a customer!

 Katelyn plays with the water at the sink when I wash berries or potatoes this time she was getting her hair wet-silly girl.

This week both girls got shots..Marie is ready for kindergarten!!  Yeah-she is so excited to go!

input and insights for a friend

My friend is doing research for one of her class pertaining to gender roles. She's trying to get opinions not just from this area or religion.  Please leave a comment or email me your thoughts.  Thank you for your time. “Does gender roles define who we are and if so why?”

It's been a while...

I realize it's been a long time since I've written-we've done a few fun things this summer, but I probably didn't bring the camera-phones are so much better these days, but then I have to remember to get the pictures off of Eric's phone which I never remember to do-but I'm sure I can find some good pictures of us doing crazy silly daily stuff.

The kids did 2 sessions of swim lessons this summer, and Brandon and Tyler are jumping off the diving board and loving summer life!  We went to the pool a couple times, and that has been wonderful-and we went to Rigby lake as well, first for me-keeping 4 kids happy and know where they are in a big lake, but it was good.

Currently the boys are both in Flag Football, on separate teams-I believe they are both really enjoying it.  However I know I don't have any pictures of this..but that's just an update.

The girls mostly play well together-Marie takes Katelyn on walks and helps her get things, but often helps too much and wants to pick her up all the time and Katelyn cries-but this is part of life, part of growing up!  She's finally getting a big of hair-which is nice and can be fun at times!

Brandon has been asked to sing a duet in the primary program, the second verse of I am a Child of God..I know he'll do great if he takes time to practice!

Tyler is having sort of a hard time adjusting to the new school. I think he feels left out and without friends, I'm not sure how to help him with that-but he's in my prayers.  I hope he can work something out in the next few months.  The boys have been riding their bikes to school, which I like-but they aren't riding together and it is causing contention between the boys..I guess my little play mates are slowly growing apart. :(

Marie is doing really great in Preschool, she's counting all the time-she could count before but she didn't want to do it a lot and such, so she's practicing with enthusiasm and it's really good.  I'm enjoying my time doing errands with 1 child-it's so wonderful!  Katelyn doesn't really like riding in the car alone..but hopefully she'll get used to it!

Some pictures so you can remember what my kids look like-I'm only in July but I've already spent an hour saving them to the computer-got to run for now!

 here's the boys swimming this summer at the splash park

 -Having fun with water balloons-

 Got Brandon's scary zombie costume out and everybody wanted to wear the mask-even Katelyn but I missed the good picture-

 I got a picture of Katelyn holding a sparkler!!  Yeah!

 -We LOVE olives at out house-Katelyn too!-

 -This is a drain thing Eric put in to help the water drain away from the house-Katelyn Love to play with it, watch the water when it rains and just play with it other days..she's fascinated!

 -This is a really shiny blue bug me and Marie found-so we had to take a picture!

 -Tyler actually smiling!-

 -This is Tyler the Lion!-

 -The kids and a good neighbor friend-they all squished in the recycling bin!-

 -Is it really snowing in Idaho Falls in the summer????  No just Styrofoam-yeah that was a pain to get out of her hair and off her body..it was fun for a few minutes..