The Fair

I know this post is a little late, but I just found the pictures of the Utah State Fair. We love going to the fair. There is something about looking at all the animals, browsing through the vendors, riding the rides, and of course the delicious food!

This year we went to the little hands farm. Somehow we missed it last year. The kids thought it was a blast. Everything was their size and they were able to see how a real farm works, from planting the crops, feeding the cows, getting their milk and selling it. They felt like they were really doing it.

Kallie driving the tractor Keegan gathering eggs.
Shantel milking the cow

THE BIG YELLOW SLIDE!!

Who goes to the fair without taking a ride down the big yellow slide?

Here is me and Kallie going down the slide.

Daddy and Keegan...is Keegan having fun?

Shantel and Gary loving every second!

Lagoon - It's where fun is!

We got free passes to Lagoon this year and just now got a chance to use them. Can I tell you this was the best time to go. The weather was perfect and the lines were short. They are doing there Frighmares for Halloween, and because most of that stuff starts in the afternoon and goes til dark, we got there when it opened and beat the crowd. I went with Shantel a few years ago with her dance group and we haven't been back, so this was Kallies first trip! She didn't know what to expect and was a little scared to go on the rides at first. So Shantel got on a ride and Kallie watched watched at her sister having fun, so we decided to do a little bit of a slower ride to start Kallie off. The cars below were just perfect to let her get a taste of what fun she could be having.

If you are able to click on these 2 pictures (above and below) to enlarge them..do it! You can see the pure JOY in the girls faces. Just the look on their faces makes the trip worth it!

I know there is alot of pictures, but I wanted to share how much fun we had.

All Stitched Up!

Here is an updated picture of Keegan. We have had the stitches out about a week and it looks great. I tried to get a better picture, but the goofball insisted on sticking out his tongue...esp. since he new I was trying to get his lip. He is such a trooper and hasn't let this slow him down. He is good at helping us apply vitamin E to the site (as he is Mr. Independent). You can barely see the scar of the actual stitches, what you can see is the abrasion above it where a layer of skin peeled off.

Back to School

Shantel is the Big 1st grader this year. She is sooo excited to eat lunch at school and have 2 recesses! Her teacher is Mrs. Buchanan and she is lucky enough to have two of her little friends in her class too. I am excited for the school year to see how much Shantel will grow.

Walking Shantel up to the 1 st grade doors!

Shantel in line waiting to go in.

Kallie started her second year of preschool with Miss Chris. She wass excited to see Miss Chris and her friends again (only, they are not going this year ;( ) We are not carpooling this year, which takes a little pressure off me. Kallie has grown over the summer and can spell her name and write it... well, as well as a 4 year old can. I can't wait to see what she learns this year.

Kallie waiting for school, with curlers in her hair!


Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to school she goes!

Here is a picture of Keegan after Kallie got out of the car and headed into school. He was upset because he wanted to go to school with Kallie. What will he do for 2 hours alone with just me and Gar? I am excited to spend some one on one time with my little guy.

Keegan in Stitches..and I Don't mean Laughing!

We spent our Sunday night at the ER with Keegan. What happened? He was running away from the neighbors front door and Shantel was riding her bike down the sidewalk and BAM! They ran right into each other. He fell to the ground, Shantel fell to the ground and the bike flipped and landed on Keegan.

Gary ran over and threw the bike off Keeg and ran him home yelling we needed to go to the hospital for stitches. I saw the blood, ran into the house and grabbed a rag with ice and held it to Keegans mouth. We left the girls with our neighbor and sped to the ER.

Here is a picture of the battle wound before stitches!

The MD in the ER decided it would be best due to the location and nature of the injury that we should have a plastic surgeon stitch out little guy up, and there may be a possibility of having to do touch up work later in life. Because it is right in the middle of the face we opted for the plastic surgeon, so they called the on-call MD to come evaluate.

1 hour after being admitted to the ER, he shows up to fix our little man! We had the ER tech hold his head, I held his arms and Gary held his legs. Both my guys were so brave and did well.

Here is our little guy after the MD stitched him up. He was crying so hard he put himself to sleep. The wound itself was an amazing 3.4 cm on the outside and about 2cm on the inside. Because it split in a T shape, the surgeon had to trim off the lower part of the wound to make it a clean cut to heal better. The final count of stitches....unknown. They had to stitch in layers. From the outside what I could count is approx. 20.

8 on the outer lip

7 inside and about 5 in his gums.

Keegan and Daddy waiting for the plastic surgeon to come! He got a new friend from the hospital.."Green Bear". How lucky that Green is his favorite color. He held on to him all night.

Keegan wasn't sure what really happened to him and why everyone kept looking at him. Finally he got curious and started feeling around. So I gave him a mirror to see it all. He looked and stared open mouthed at the amazing stitches. Touching them softly at first them after about an hour he was ready to have them taken out and started pulling at them...it is going to be a long week, trying to keep him from pulling those. All night he kept looking in the mirror at them. He is so swollen and last night we was so numb that he could quite swallow and would, as he calls it, slobber down his chin.

Here is our little trooper this morning. Still swollen and looks like he has been through the ringer, but all in all doing well.

We go back to the plastic surgeon later this week to take the stitches out and make sure everything is healing and no followup is needed!

All Girls Soccer

We decided to try soccer again this year with Shantel. Cousin Ella asked if we wanted to join the team. After our last experience with it and Shantel NOT being impressed, I thought I would ask her if she wanted to play again leaving out the fact that Ella was going to play. (I didn't want to sway her decision). She shrugged her shoulders and told me "sure, I'll give it a try again". What a mature response, I can't believe how old she is getting.

Shantel ready to play. She is on the yellow team as you can see and Gary couldn't be happier that her colors are black and yellow!

A few action shots from her first game. After the game she told me she loves it, esp. being an all girls league! Shantel is a natural athlete. She dribbled (is that the right term in soccer?) the ball all the way up the field and then another girl scored a point for the team. Shantel thought that was the coolest ever!

Kallie also informed me that she wants to play soccer, but all the pre-K teams were full...next year.

If you want to check out a game, they play Saturday mornings

Flat Iron Park located 1700 East 8600 south.

Sep 12 10:15

Sep 19 9:00

Sep 26 10:15

Oct 3 9:00
Oct 10 10:00

Oct 17 9:00

Bring a blanket or some chairs and snacks and enjoy a great soccer game!

A Day at the Lake!

We had the opportunity to go boating with our friends Rick and Leah a few weeks ago. We headed up to the lake in the morning and had to leave that afternoon. It had to be a short day trip because duty called at work and I needed to be there at 7. (the joys of nursing!) This was the first time we have been up all year and we had a blast.

Here are pictures of the kids playing in the water. Last year they had nothing to do with life jackets and this year they didn't put up a fight. They actually got used to the idea that they could float in the water with them. Not afraid to go in this year, they were fish and refused to get out of the water.

We went tubing..or rather the kids did..and yes if you look close I put Gary in the Kid category! At first the girls were a little cautious with the idea of being pulled by a boat in the middle if the lake. After a few minutes and a few bumps they were loving it. Of course Kallie was a little less nervous than Shantel..she is the fearless leader! Gary finally got on so Keegan could have a turn and he loved it.

Had to throw some pictures of us in there...don't mind the blinding whiteness of our bodies...like I said it was our first trip out! See, we really do get out and do stuff!

Keeg asleep in daddy's arms on the boat.

Here is Gary water skiing. It has been over 5 years since he has been. It took him a few tries to get up..which the kids thought was the funnies thing to see him fall over! Once he relaxed he got right up and was showing off his skills.

We had a great time and give a BIG thanks to Rick and Leah for taking us out. Of course Gar wants to buy a boat now..but we'll see what happens ;) I am just sorry we had to leave so early. Hopefully we can get out again before the season is over...which is coming fast.