McKell Update

Life is moving along at an excelerated pace right now. McKenna turned 3 last friday! Can you believe it?!? She was so excited to be getting older because then it meant she would be bigger. She had a great birthday. We had my parents and sister over for dinner. . macoroni and cheese, hot dogs, chips, cottage cheese and broccoli. McKenna got to choose some of it, luckily she loves broccoli. Her first request though was cake and ice cream. She got a keyboard fully equipped with a microphone from us, and a kitchen from grandparents and us. She is really enjoying her presents. Oh yeah. . . and TONS of balloons!

Kate is going in for sugery tomorrow to fix her cleft palate. I got pretty nervous about it last week, but am feeling a little more calm at this point (is there such thing as a nervous calm?). Tyler will be giving her a blessing tomorrow, thank goodness for priesthood! I will be staying the night in the hospital with Kate. She will have to wear arm braces for 1-2 weeks afterwards to keep her from putting her hands or anything else in her mouth. They will keep her from bending her arms. Kate started walking on McKenna's birthday. We're pretty suprised, she was never interested in using walkers.

I've been working on our food storage and emergency preparedness. I used most of our tax return already for supplies. I've felt a great urge to get this together, I'm so grateful for the spirit and inspiration! We are going to be taking a family vacation in June, it was my birthday present this year! We are going to central Oregon to stay at a vacation home. It will be so great to be together as a family without worrying about callings and work! :)

Love Always,

Jamie

Dick Update

Hi girls,
It's been several months since we have heard from anyone, so I thought I would start the trend. Well, the biggest change in our life is our move into our new home (our very own). YEAH! We closed on Feb. 15th (but we had our rental for another two months so we figured we would spend that time doing all sorts of projects before we are actually living there). I painted and painted and painted. We changed lights and scraped all the popcorn off all the ceilings and then I re-textured the ceilings and painted them (AHH - what a project). We laid wood floor in our entry, dining and kitchen. We replaced some appliances in the kitchen and removed the wallpaper in there. We replaced all the bath hardware (towel racks, etc) in both bathrooms. It definitely looks like a more updated house, and we love it. There are a still things we need to finish up, but it is very liveable. Now we are trying to make some headway on the yard. We have lots of trees and bushes (which are mature enough that they just grow and flourish on their own), but we need to revive our grass. I have my spot dug and prepared to plant a garden - I just need to actually get the plants and seeds in the ground (hopefully this week). It's fun! Other than that life is pretty regular. Caelan has preschool twice a week and dance once a week (she loves them both). There are a couple of little camps (reading, art and dance camps) that I have found out about for the summer for her - I am trying to decide which to have her do. Then she starts Kindergarten in the Fall (HOLY MOLY). I found out the other day that here in Kingman they only do full day Kindergarten, so I am trying to get myself ready to send away my little girl away each day for 6 and a half hours. Ben just turned 3 last week. We are finally making some good headway on the potty training. Megan only has 3 more Sundays before she can start going to Nursery - YEAH! She is a busy little girl - she loves to try and keep up with Caelan and Ben, and they are mostly happy to have her join them. Sean was crazy busy with work at the beginning of the year - a lot of stress, but he has hired some more workers since then which has taken some strain off of him (it's much better now). I stay busy with the kids and working with the Young Women. The presidency just got changed around, but I was recalled as the first counselor again, so no change for me. I love it! I try to get to the gym a few of times a week, and we head over to the library for Story Time every Wed. Oh, and one more piece of news - we are expecting our 4th little one in September. I am about 17 weeks along. I have been feeling great, although I am currently in the awkward stage of feeling too fat for my regular clothes, but not big enough to wear maternity clothes. Well, life is good. I hope things are well with all of you. I was talking to Sean last night about the upcoming Crusader reunion, and it was making me long for a reunion with all of the Uppers. My summer is getting crazier by the week, but we should start thinking about planning something for the sometime next year. Well, I love you all tons.

Tera