~My Baby Is Walking~

So it is official. Lexi took her first steps today! She had been walking around our coffee table and pushing a stroller for over a month now, but today she took her first steps without holding onto anything. Woot! Woot! My baby is growing up :(

She got so excited when we were all clapping and shouting for her, that everytime she would take a few steps she'd stop and clap. (She's been clapping for a few days now, since we saw Kell dance at the Football game.)

Walking at 11 months old! Doesn't she look so proud of herself:) As parents, we get so excited for the first steps, but a week later hate it because now the chasing begins.

~Our Little Cheerleader~

This past week Mckell has been attending Weber High School's Cheer Camp. She has had a blast learning the cheers, dancing, and playing with all the other little girls. On Friday, they performed during half time at the Weber vs. Viewmont football game. It was fun to see Mckell walk out on the football field waving to the crowd. She LOVED all the attention :) This past week has been soooo crazy with cheer camp, school starting, football practices, Dave's soccer games, soccer practices, etc that I thought I wasn't going to make it. :) But seeing how cute Mckell was in her cheers/dance, it made all of the craziness of the week worth it.

This "W" is the gift that my graduating class gave to the school. Sad to say that I think that this is the 1st time that I've seen it :) It wasn't ready when we graduated.

Mckell and Tayleur. Tayleur has babysat Mckell for years and our families have gone on many family trips together. She is the reason we signed up for cheer camp. Mckell loves her!

Mckell and her cousin, Jasmin. They are the best of friends!

~Hunter's 1st Day of School~

Well, it's official. My baby is now in the First Grade. I can't believe how old he is getting. He is really excited about school this year. He actually has the same First Grade teacher that I had, Mrs. Hill. How funny is that! She is even still in the same classroom that I had her in years ago. Hunter says that she is very nice, and he loves school. Infact, he told me that he can't wait until his first long day of school (they have short days the first 3 days of school). We'll see how long he feels this way :)

Hunter and his friend Rexton, heading off to the bus stop.

This is them, last year, on the first day of school. I can't beleive how much they've grown :) They look like boys now, not like toddlers.

Hunter getting off the bus. (he's still too young to care that I met him at the bus stop and am taking pictures of him :)

I hate to admit this, but I had a really hard time to day having Hunter gone. I thought about him all day long, wondering if he made any new friends in his class, if he was eating all of his school lunch, if he knew where the first grade bathroom was. I have really loved having my kids home over the summer, but I know he is glad to be back in school and I know that he is in good hands:)

"I just wanted some Starwarses"

Yesterday morning, Mckell went into the pantry looking for something to eat. She spotted a bag of Starbursts on the top shelf, so she proceeded to climb up the pantry shelves to reach the top. Well, she ended up falling off the top shelf and hurting her arm. We took her to get x-rayed and no her arm isn't broken (thank goodness), but she has to keep her arm in a splint until the pain goes away. And just if you are wondering she did get her bag of Starbursts, or Starwarses as she calls them :)

~2nd trip to Browne Lake~

At the beginning of the summer, we went on a camping trip to Browne Lake with Dave's side of the family. This time we went with my side of the family. When we went in June, it was still a little bit chilly, and being August I thought forsure it would be warmer. Boy was I wrong!

The first day up there, it rained off and on all day. When we arrived at camp, it was beautiful. Blue skys, lots of sunshine; that is until we finished up setting up camp. As soon as we got everything set up, a storm blew in and it rained cats and dogs. It is a good thing our camper has an awning, because everything went under there; camping chairs, play pen, dirt bikes, you name it. It was amazing how much stuff we crammed under the awning. So we spent a few hours inside the camper playing card games, which was a lot of fun.

We spent the trip riding 4 wheelers, fishing (but didn't catch a thing), sitting around the camp fire telling scary stories, going on walks, etc. It was a very enjoyable trip.

We saw huge trout in the water, but they were not biting our bait, so Dave thought he'd have better luck if he got out into the water. It didn't work :)

Our new little campers! The last camping trip we went on, Lexi did not do good at all. She cried all night long, could be because she had a fever but I wasn't sure if it was because she wanted her own bed. So I was really nervous, but she did great. I was also nervous about bringing our new dog Marley. Up to this point, I was getting up with him 3 times a night, but he slept through the entire night camping. Halleluia! He stayed in camp, didn't bark, he was perfect! I was shoked at how easy he was.

Mckell was our little dish washer.

It was fun to get away with my side of the family. Next year hopefully my brother Mitch, and brother and sister in law, Richard and Cassie will be able to come too.

~What did I let them talk me into????~

So I think that something must be in the water. Everyone is getting a dog. From the Mckay family, to Trichelle, to Kari, it seems that everyone is adding to their families. Well we just did too. I'd like you to meet Marley, Our Yellow Lab. :)The kids have been asking for a dog for about a year now, and Dave and I have gone back and forth on whether to get one or not. I mean getting a dog is a lot of responsibility and we just didn't know if we were ready for it or not. After all, we still have a little baby.

Well Saturday, Dave got up early to head over to Sportsmans to check out their fishing report for our camping trip this coming weekend. As he got to Sportsmans he noticed someone selling lab puppies right outside. He went over to check them out, not thinking about getting one (at least that is what he's told me :) He saw them, and thought the kids would love to come look at the puppies, so when he got home he asked the kids if they wanted to go. They did, but I insisted that he better not get their hopes up because there was no way I was getting a big dog. If we were going to get a dog it was going to be a little thing.

Well, the kids went just to look, but immediately fell in love. Even Lexi loved the dogs. They came home to get me to take me back to pick one out. I kept trying to talk the kids into continueing to look around so we could find a small dog like a Yorkie or Shitzu, but they insisted that these were the dogs they wanted. After a lot of persuasion, they finally talked me into getting one. So we went back and made it official. WHAT WAS I THINKING???

No seriously, Marley has been a pretty good puppy. He yelps when he needs to go to the bathroom (so we know when to take him outside), he lets Lexi maul him to death and he just sits there, and he sleeps a lot (but I know he is still is a puppy and that won't last). My biggest complaint is that it is ME getting up with him at night to let him go outside. I'm not even the one who wanted to get him and it is ME getting up 3 times a night to let him out. Can you tell that I love that?:) But in all fairness, the kids have been GREAT with him. I have not had to clean up poop once (Hunter's job is to shovel it up after he has gone), during the day the kids totally take care of him. They let him out to go to the bathroom, play with him, make sure he is comfortable etc (if only I could get them to do this at night, lol). But the kids all adore him, and it is fun to watch them take care of him, so I know that my sleepless nights have been worth it, well maybe :)

So I don't know how to take this, but Lexi has only said "Dada" for quite a while now and for the life of me I can't get her to say "Mama". Well she says "doggie" (or that is what it sounds like to us, and she only says it when she is looking for Marley) What is up with that?

Hunter was soooo disappointed that we wouldn't let Marley sleep with him. Well, he was up at like 6:00 the next morning to be with him. When I came out into the room at about 8:00, this is what I found. Hunter sleeping in his bed, while he slept on the floor. He's to funny!

So I totally don't know anything about training a puppy, so any advise would be greatly appreciated.