The new trampoline

In spite of my better judgement, we decided to buy the girls a trampoline (with the help of money from my dad--thanks dad!). Needless to say, the girls are thrilled! They want to jump day and night and I have to admit that I have been out there a few times :). Hey, it's great excercise!

Hanging out with the Ruff's

Last weekend our good friends Becky and Richard Ruff drove 8 hours from Iowa to hang out with us!!! It was so fun to catch up and let the girls play together again. We were able to go shopping in Nashville and have the best BBQ ever in Owensboro (Nathan's home town). The time went by way too quickly and we are hoping that they will come back and see us during Richard's fall break. Here are some pictures of the girls--they love each other so much!

Hailey and Emma

Rachel R. and Alison

Sarah and Rachel C.

What crazy girls!!

This was taken by Nate's mom at Moonlite BBQ

What a great weekend!

The end of a great season!

Thursday night marked the end of a great soccer season! I felt like I was running around like a crazy woman getting them to their games and practices (plus dance and gymnastics), but I absolutely loved this season! Both Rachel and Alison had amazing coaches and made good friends on their teams. We loved being outside and cheering them on! Here are a few pics of the spring season.

Rachel

Alison

What cute sissies watching Rachel play!

One of Alison's teammates has an older sister named Leona that loves Hailey and gave me a little break during the games.

They are both saying that they want to play again. Fall season will be here before we know it! Next up is their dance recital on June 12. They have darling costumes and have been working hard. I will post pictures soon!

Easter/Hanging out with Grandma

I decided to take the girls and get their pictures taken a couple of weeks ago in their Easter dresses. The pics turned out pretty good, so I wanted to share. If you are a close relative reading right now this may be a mother's/father's day spoiler!

The girls together :)

Rachel

Alison

Hailey

Coloring eggs for Easter. NOT one of my favorite traditions. I must admit that the smell of vinegar combined with hard boiled eggs makes me nauseous! The fact that Hailey was trying to eat the yellow dye didn't help any. Oh well! The kids had a great time.

The creations. My favorite part about this picture is Hailey crying in the corner.

Easter morning

New Webkinz from the Easter Bunny

Two days after Easter my mom flew into town to speak at the Evansville, Indiana Women's Conference (my mother-in-law's stake). She did a great job and we had a fun time hanging out and shopping in Nashville. We are already looking forward to seeing her again--next time in ORLANDO!!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

On March 26th my little Rachel turned 7. That weekend we had a birthday party for her. It was 1 and 1/2 hours of screaming and squealing. Rachel was thrilled to have both her friends from church and her friends from school together.

Here is the crew. One of the only perks of having the bishop as a husband is that it is really easy to borrow a table and chairs from the church.

They had pizza

And decorated cupcakes

Alison cried off and on all weekend saying "I like presents too!"

I think everyone had a good time!

I have to say that birthday parties are not one my favorite things. I am glad that we have a little break until Alison's 5th in August!

An Update--Finally

Obviously, I have been in a little bit of a blogging rut. I guess winter just does that to me. I decided today that an update is LONG overdue. So, here it goes. After the ice storm things were bleak for several weeks. The kids missed 10 days of school and unfortunately they have to make them up. BLAH! My kids will be in school until the 2nd week of June. What do you do? After the storm Nathan and I took a whirlwind trip to Salt Lake without the kids (thanks grandma and grandad!) We were so excited to see family and friends and satisfy many of our Utah food cravings (can anyone say Bajio???) Here are a few photos from the trip:

The night we arrived we had dinner at my brother Dan's house with my mom, dad, and grandparents. So much fun to see everyone!

My dad with Dan's girls Leah and Olivia

Grandma and Grandpa K.

Lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (so yummy!) with Nathan's brother Will and his wife Kristy

After we came back it seemed like we just couldn't get the whole family healthy at the same time. All three kids had the stomach flu (one kid a week) and I had a sinus infection. We are now finally feeling healthy and we have been enjoying some beautiful spring weahter. Here is a picture I took of Rachel and Alison a few weeks ago--notice the coats--it was still cold outside. I make the kids play with their moon sand on the back portch (regardless of what the weather is like). I definitely don't want that mess in the kitchen!

Princess Hailey has become obsessed with dressing up. Everyday it is something new :)

Anyway, sorry about my lack over posts over the last couple months. I will do better! We have lots going on with soccer, dance recitals, and lots of fun summer activities to look forward to. Our biggest news is that we booked a vacation to Disneyworld in September. I am thrilled to not only have something to look forward to, but something to plan over the next several months! So fun! Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well!

Lots and lots of ICE

This has been such a CRAZY week! As many of you have heard, we had 2 major ice/snow storms this week that resulted in schools being closed all week and power loss for over a million people in Kentucky. For those of you that don't know what an ice storm is, here is a picture to give you an idea:

Picture every tree limb, power line, and even every blade of grass coated in ice. In the sun it looks like the trees have been dipped in crystals. It is beautiful at first, but add more ice and six inches of snow on top and we had (have) a disaster on our hands. The problem is that the ice and snow on the trees became too heavy for the trees to bear and the trees started to break. Tree limbs have fallen on power lines, houses, and roads creating a real mess for the power companies. We were without power on Tuesday, so we decided to go to Nathan's parents house in Owensboro because they still had power. That night I woke up and felt the chill in the air--I knew that their power was out too. Luckily, we had a small propane heater, propane stove, and even a small generator. We stayed for two days and two nights and then got word that power was back in Hopkinsville, so we made our way home (dodging fallen trees on the freeway). Our power has flickered off and on a lot (giving me anxiety attacks--seriously!), but it seems like our power is now stable. The same can't be said for Nathan's parents and many others in W. Kentucky. We have been told that it will be a couple of weeks for some. People in Princeton and Paducah don't even have water, so we are considering ourselves very blessed right now. I have learned from the past 4 days that we were not nearly as prepared as we should have been. At the request of a couple of friends, I will compile a list of things that everyone reading this needs to have on hand.

1. Several Flashlights with extra batteries. Sound obvious? They are sold out EVERYWHERE here. You need to have them on hand.

2. Small propane cooking stove (with extra propane): If it is 50 degrees in your house the last thing you want is cold food. We had lots of hot chocolate--life saver!

3.Cash. We found a few grocery stores and gas stations open, but they were only taking cash. You should have at least $100 in small bills.

4. Propane heater: This was a huge help during the day. At my house we have a gas log fireplace that works when the power is out. We love it!!

5. Candles. We left a couple of large candles burning all of the time in the bathroom. It is surprisingly dark in there during the day.

6. Manual can opener. All I have is an electric can opener, so all my canned food is no help without a way to open it!

I would say that these are the essentials. If you don't have these things let my experience be a wake up call to each of you. There is nothing more terrifying than wondering if your children are hungry or freezing. We have made it through and I am so thankful to be sleeping in a warm bed tonight!!!