Catching Up

I know it has been forever since I have last posted, and I don't want to make this eternal - I will try to be brief with everyone's comings and goings. I will start clear back from Halloween! It was a great day. I took the girls and got their hair cut and styled. They were both princesses (again) this year. McKenna really hated it from the start as she really wanted to be spiderman - but by the evening time and enough compliments, she was feeling pretty good about herself. Kylie on the other hand ate up every moment and enjoyed every compliment. She didn't want the night to end. Tyler elected to be Darth Vader and he looked great! They all got quite the stash of candy and Halloween was a huge success!

The morning after Halloween, November 1st, Tyler was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The baptism started at 10 a.m. and his dad performed the baptism. It was such a sweet moment for us as parents to see him all dressed in white and make the choice. He looked great - but he was really nervous. After he was "dunked", he told Allen that there was no way his sisters would ever be baptized because they would be too afraid to go under the water. He was quite proud of himself! He was able to enjoy the rest of the day with his grandparents, and his cousins who drove up from Utah (a 5 hour drive) that morning. We sure appreciated them doing that!

Thanksgiving was great. We had my parents over for the meal, and Allen did most of the work. It tasted great and it was nice just to enjoy the day. Also, during the week of Thanksgiving, all three of our children starred in a couple of commercials for CalRanch Stores. So we got to see them on t.v. and they were really excited to see themselves on t.v.

December has been a crazy busy month. Allen had a conference for his student leaders on December 5th and 6th. Below freezing temperatures and a lot of work - but he was grateful there wasn't a couple of feet of snow. Usually there is and the vans and buses usually get stuck - so he felt grateful for that.

We are all looking forward to a wonderful Christmas - but of course especially the kids. Lots of Christmas songs and movies, letters to Santa, and lots of questions about the Reindeer. We live next to an elk farm, which the girls think are reindeer. So they come up with some pretty funny questions as they try to think it all out in their minds.

As for me, I am doing okay. It's been a tough go with this pregnancy - and yes...definitely worse than my twins. I see the Dr. often and have been put on "partial" bedrest. There is a lot of physical activity I am not supposed to do. I am trying to stay off "full" bedrest - but the Dr. thinks it will happen in January sometime. They are wanting me to get to the beginning of February and then whatever happens - happens. But we are hanging in there and doing well. Again, I am extremely grateful for Allen who has done so much to keep things afloat around here.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

It's A....

Had our ultrasound on Monday. We were anxious to know what we are having and so we had hoped they would be able to tell. All of us really wanted a boy, except for Kylie who really wanted a girl. Obviously, we are happy with anything, as long as it is healthy and growing well. We found out it was a boy! Not a lot of great pictures. He wasn't into cooperating at all. But at least we found that everything looks good and normal. He is already 15 ounces and about 10 inches long. We're excited! Of course, we can't agree on any names, so if you have any great suggestions, let us know. Otherwise his name will be Indiana - what the kids are already calling him!

Go Cougars!

Saturday was a fun day. We woke up at an insane hour of 5 a.m. and got ready. We woke up the girls and drove them to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the day and then took Tyler and were on our way to Provo Utah. Allen's sister was very kind and gave us tickets for the BYU vs. UNLV game. We got to Provo around 11 a.m. and after just a little bit of wandering around went to find our seats. They were really great seats on the west side and not too far up - thankfully - it was easy to climb to.

The game was frustrating. Expectations were high. So each team took turns scoring. We knew whoever had the ball last would be the ones to win, because of how it went. We were happy it was the cougs that won.

Allen made two friend! :) There was a guy sitting in front of us who was really getting on my nerves. Talk about A.D.D. Every few seconds he would just stand up and clap and cheer. Which I know, great spirit...blah blah blah. But it was really annoying. Anyway, he liked talking to Allen and what he thought of everything. At the end of the game, he even gave Allen a high five! The other guy was sitting next to me for the first half of the game. He loved talking to Allen also.

One part that Ty remembers the most is Allen boo-ing the UNLV coach. The coach really was a punk. He was getting into the ref's face even before the game started. He wouldn't stay on the sidelines, but was constantly on the field. At one point the crowd was really screaming at him to get off the field and calling him a loser, etc. Our section was also into yelling at him. Allen has a loud voice and got up and called him an idiot and told him to get off the field. Somebody down in front screamed "yeah, what he said!"

Tyler has also decided that he wants to play tackle football. It is all he is talking about right now. I guess we'll see. I don't think he realizes how painful it will be.

Anyway, we did well on timing and got back around 8:30 p.m. We were all in bed by 9:30 p.m. It was a fun day and nice to get away for just a bit.

IV Therapy

Not a very fun week it has been for me. I was in bed for nearly 3 days with horrible pain. I called the Dr and they had me come in on Tuesday. They decided to test for kidney stones...came back negative. They did find however that I was dehydrated. I don't think that is the complete problem, but they put an IV in me and gave me two bags of fluid. As the second one was near empty, I got up to try and find a nurse. Then it just emptied - there was nothing there. I finally got a nurse and I went to go back in the room. I found out the reason why they don't let those bags get fully empty. I looked down and there was a lot of blood that was being sucked into the tubing - coming out. I just don't do well with needles, but especially blood. I nearly passed out as they took the tubing off and I could feel the blood gushing and going everywhere. Yucky! They decided to leave the IV part in my arm and told me to come back today.

What an amazing husband I have. Every 4 hours he had to shoot saline solution into the catheter in my arm. So gross. How amazing for him to do that. Words cannot describe how wonderful he has been these last few months! He has done most of the cooking, laundry and heavy duty cleaning, while taking care of me and the kids, and working full time. Everyone asks how I got through twins. I don't think it would have been possible without such a great spouse who just helps where needed!

I went back to the Dr today and they made me promise to try this new anti-nausea medicine. I promised - otherwise they were going to leave that thing in my arm. Kylie was really cute. She kept wanting to hold my hand to make me feel better because dad wasn't there to do it. I thought that was really cute. McKenna just gagged. I guess we know who takes after who!

All is well now. I did however decide to two things: (1) I am never going to go back to the Dr again until this little person comes out and (2) I would never make a good drug addict. I don't care how great the drug is- if you have to shoot up - I would never ever do it!

District Champs!

We had the opportunity to drive to Rupert Idaho and attend our nephews last home football game. It was homecoming and they were playing against Jerome who for whatever reason that I am not quite sure of, was ranked number 5. It seemed like a tough game at first - but Minico easily pulled away. All six touchdowns were scored by Skylar "Poke" Morgan - our nephew. It was a great game and he is phenomenal to watch. Thanks for letting us come!

By the way, I am still figuring out this blogging thing. But the first picture is the team coming out of the giant football helmet. The second is our nephew, number 6. The third is of Tyler, McKenna and Kylie before the game started. The fourth is McKenna and Kylie at the end.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

I know everyone always says, enjoy them when they are young because before you know it, they will be grown and gone. I guess I just can't believe 8 years have really flown by. Tyler is such a great kid and a huge blessing to us - we can't wait to see what the next 8 years bring!

Ty had a great birthday. We went to Riot Zone for his birthday - and while it totally isn't worth the money - we could get so much more out of lagoon - it was still fun and we managed to get a few great pictures.

Tyler was ruthless in the bumper boats. He loved crashing into everyone and getting us all soaking wet. It worked for me because Kylie was with me in my boat - but poor dad had McKenna and she was very upset that she got wet. Which was a litle surprising coming from her. He even went after Grandpa Blake who was just trying to stay out of everyone's way!
He got some great presents. He loves building and creating and loves legos. He got a huge container of nothing but legos - including a bunch of star wars ones.

He did get his own set of scriptures with his name on them. On Sunday he and the girls were playing "church." He had them sit down like they were in a classroom and he read them scriptures for many hours on Sunday. Kind of funny.

The funniest part for us was a long time ago we promised him we would get him a new bike if he learned how to ride one. Of course he learned to ride one in 5 days and so we got him a bike for his birthday. All week he kept reminding us that we told him we would get him one and I think he was getting concerned that he didn't ever see one. The morning that we celebrated his birthday he again was asking about it. I didn't flat out lie to him, but I led him to believe that we didn't get him one and instead got him other important things that he needed. He was so disappointed. Apparently he even told his Grandma and Grandpa that we didn't get him one. We snuck the bike in the garage and made him take out his garbage and it took him a while to see it, but he finally saw his bike. Kind of funny.

All in all, it was a great birthday. He is really looking forward to his baptism on November 1st. That's the bummer of having a birthday right before General Conference!

Fire Safety

Saturday, Rigby was having a fire safety day at the firehouse - meant mainly for children. So we decided to swing by. The little ones were really excited. First we stopped at the smoke trailer. We learned about different fire hazards around the house and how we need to be careful. Then they filled the trailer with smoke and had the kids get on their hands and knees and crawl to the bedroom, where they made their escape by climbing out the window.
After they climbed out windows, we went around to a lot of different stations they had set up. Their absolute favorite was using the fire extinguisher to put out a fire. They each got a chance to use it - I just wish I had pictures from the front. Sorry!

Kind of a funny side note..this guy that is helping the girls hold the 10 pounder extinguisher, used to help Kyle get all of the extinguishers ready for RA/HR fire training. He told me how he got to fill all of them back up. It just reminded me of the video that Kyle had made - in his extreme monotone voice and the line that says......"Fire is hot." I know some of you will get a laugh out of that!

Anyway, after all that fun they had cake and prizes - where we actually won two smoke/fire detectors. They will go great in the basement. They had this little remote activated fire engine that the girls liked...although you couldn't tell. They got stickers and a smokey the bear pin to wear. All in all, it was a fun time and the kids learned a lot.

Surgery Day

I had my surgery yesterday. I was originally supposed to be there at 10 a.m., and then the hospital called at 9:30 and said they were behind and to come in at 11 a.m. Ugh...I am pregnant and not feeling well and I hadn’t had anything to eat since dinnertime the night before. That was almost lunchtime and by the time I got there, I had a morning in which I was very sick. I get there and decide to let them know right away that I had been sick all morning. They put the IV in and gave me medicine right away to help me not be so sick. So there I was...waiting and waiting, and waiting.

Finally...1:30 pm they come in to get me and wheel me away. First they put a pain killer in my IV which immediately made me feel like I was going to pass out. They wheel me in the operating room and I got one more anxiety drug before the spinal block. It pretty much made me feel so great that I slept off and on throughout the surgery. I did however, was able to ask the anesthesiologist where he was from. In case you were wondering, he was from Texas, and they weren’t hit by Ike. I remember asking him why he would come to Idaho. It was the job offer. I remember telling him it was a lot different then Texas and I can’t believe he would come here. Obviously, I was out of it!

After recovery, back to my room where before I was promised I could eat anything I wanted to. Well that wasn’t true. Apparently the gas was out and all they had available was a bag of chips, a fruit cup that was not good at all, and a milk shake. After 19 hours of not eating - that’s all they had to offer me? Whatever!

Obviously I was unable to leave the hospital until I could walk. I wasn’t fond of my second nurse at all, and I probably left a lot earlier then I should have - but with Allen’s help I was able to leave around 6 p.m. We only had to wait 1 hour (UGH) for the prescription and we were home by 7. What a long day.

Anyway, thank you to all of you who had so many kind wishes and thoughts. I really appreciate it. Glad it is over. The best part was I got my date for my ultra sound. Six weeks - on October 27th. We are looking forward to it!

Fabulous Day of Football

What an amazing Saturday we had. The day began with us heading down to Pocatello. Our nephew Skylar "Poke" Morgan plays football for Minico High School. There were four high schools from the state of Idaho who were chosen to play against four teams from California in what they called "The Rocky Mountain Rumble". Minico was up first and played a high school named Cofax.

Cofax begins the game by kicking off - Poke caught the ball and ran it down for the first touch down of the game. It was so fun and amazing to watch. He has a lot of speed and as soon as he pulled away a little, the distance between him and anyone else kept growing farther and farther. It was useless, that poor other team couldn’t catch up at all. Poke ended up scoring 3 of the 4 touch downs for Mincico. The final score was 28 to 6. It was so fun and we were so excited to be able to watch him!

Then....what could make a great start of the day even better?? You got it. The amazing BYU-UCLA football game. It was incredible! I must say, I don’t even feel bad that it was a shut out game. BYU did great.

Wow....we love fall f ootball Saturdays!

Life's Surprises!

It started back in college. The phrase "I'm never going to...marry a boy from Idaho." That changed into, well it's okay that he's from Idaho, because he doesn't want to live in Idaho. Well you all know where that got me. Here we are coming up on 9 years of living in Idaho.

Then there was the phrase "I don't want girls. I think we would be very happy with just boys." This thought coming from several years experience in working and living as a head resident of a girls dorm. So naturally we were blessed with twin girls! Ha ha! Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor doesn't he.

Well just recently when we been asked our phrase has been "no, were done having kids. We're really great where we are at." We both were excited with the future as Jenn had been selected and was being trained to move into a full-time position at BYU-Idaho in just 1-2 years once her trainee retired. Well surprise...we are now expecting baby # 4 at the end of February. Life is a roller coaster, so many ups and downs, however, I have come to peace with it all - not that I was extremely upset - but peace in knowing for whatever reason this is Heavenly Father's plan for us. Obviously, I should have learned by now to never say the phrase like "I'm never going to...or I don't want..." :)

Anyway, I had my second Dr.'s appointment today and things are good - and no - it isn't twins again, of course the doctor didn't know we were having twins last time until the 7 month mark. It will be weird to care for just one - the last time we did that was almost 8 years ago!

I am also a "first" for the Dr. You know how they check your throat glands? I literally freaked out when he put his hands around my throat. He was just lucky I didn't go with my reflex of throwing my elbow backwards. Anyway, he thought that was kind of funny and he's never met anyone with a throat issue. Also, for those of you who know - I am a high risk pregnancy and I have to have surgery with each one. My surgery is scheduled for Sept 16th to hopefully cut out any major problems. Anyway, just an FYI!

First Day of School

Hooray! Yesterday was Tyler's first day of second grade. His teacher is Mrs. Hale - this is her first year at Lyman elementary. They have actually switched up a lot of teachers and school staff and traded with Archer elementary. I think that is because when the new school is done in December, they are combining both Lyman and Archer into one school. Anyway, although Ty won't admit it, he was excited. We took some pictures of him in the morning, and as you can tell, he was acting like it was no big deal and I was crazy for wanting pictures. But he got off okay, and even got home okay. He has one friend from last year in his class again this year..so that's been good. I know it will be a great year for him.

Celebrate Youth Day

Madison County has a grant to do a special youth day, on the day before school starts. They set up all sorts of booths and games and inflatable rides at the park, and it is all free. We have never gone before, but decided to attend it this year. For me, it was kind of a spur of the moment decision. We dropped Allen off at work and then headed to the park.

We ended up parking about 3 blocks away - but it didn't matter, because the kids were so excited. However, immediately after getting out of the car they start running down the sidewalk. Kylie missed the step and did a face plant on the pavement. She has fallen a lot lately, and she is used to sticking out her hands - which she did - which saved her a lot of pain. When she stood up, she was bleeding like crazy from both knees and one of her hands. I asked her if we should go home but she said no. So our first stop...the bathroom to try and clean up a little bit. I knew our next mission was to find band aids which luckily there were at the information desk! Band aid on, things were going better!

We stopped by the sheriff's booth and the kids got creamies and stamps and stickers. They had a line for a train ride - which I wish I would have known better and stood in. There were only about 5 people in line. When we circled back, it was about a hundred or more. They had cotton candy, popcorn, all sorts of carnival like booths where at each stop they would get a prize. They had dentists there passing out toothbrushes and toothpaste. There was a free book stop - where they each got to choose a book. Then over to the big grass area where they had all of their inflatable stuff. They also had a huge multi story fire truck ladder raised with hose spraying water with kids getting soaking wet and having a blast. We went and checked out the apache helicopter that the national guard had there. They each got to climb in and sit down in it and look around at all of the controls. I was amazed at how huge it actually was - because later when it took off, it didn't look that big in the sky.

By this point, the lines were kind of long and I was getting kind of tired, so I told them they could get on one inflatable. They chose the big slide. McKenna and Tyler get in, no problem...they were told they could each go twice. So they do it twice, get out, and Kylie gets in - being told she could go twice. So she climbs up, comes face first down, climbs back up and "hides." She absolutely refused to come down...knowing she would have to get out once she did. Finally, one of the volunteers went up and kicked her down.

We decided to leave and go get Allen and go home. But we had to go back because they were also doing a raffle of all sorts of cool prizes. A bike, the wii, wii fit, telescope, etc. Tyler really wanted to see if he won anything. By this point, parking was non existent so I dropped Allen and Ty off and let them go. I circled back around and actually found a great parking space, so we went in search of Allen and Ty. Just then I get a phone call from Allen - Tyler is lost. Can't find him anywhere. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people at this thing (they also had free dinner for everyone). I get there...we can't find him at all.

By this time panic had set in and I decided to go up to the front and asked the Mayor (as he knows Allen) if he could make an announcement at the beginning of it - to see if anyone can find him. They announce his name, say he is lost, and to come up to the front. Lo and behold...up pops Tyler from the first few rows he was sitting in. I don't think he understood how concerned and scared I was - because he didn't consider himself lost. He knew right where he was. I think he was more bugged that he lost his great spot on the grass! Ugh! Anyway, we didn't win any prizes, but we did wait in line and took that train ride. It was fun and I know the kids all really enjoyed themselves. I wish I had pictures, but it was a spur of the moment decision and I wasn't prepared! But I think we'll try it again next year.

Keeping Up with the Jones'

I know it has been so long...and it seems like so much has happened...where to begin?

The rest of July was a good month. I celebrated yet another birthday - so I guess that's a good thing. Although, I really don't feel that old. On the 26th of July, we were able to travel to Twin Falls and with Allen's family, toured the Twin Falls Temple. It was so neat to see and we feel so blessed that our children have had the opportunity to see two temples this year. It has generated a lot of great discussions about the gospel and families - so hopefully they will remember it!

After the temple we had a little reunion with Allen's family and it was so great to see everyone. It is hard keeping up with them all and their happenings! One funny thing about this trip, we pulled off in Burley to get something to eat, and while we were driving, we got pulled over by a cop. Allen thought the speed limit was 55, but apparently that was "back in day" as it is now 45. He let us off with a warning because "everyone was buckled up and the two younger ones were in their booster seats." The funny thing about this was that very day we were fighting with McKenna about why it is important to be in her chair and have a seatbelt on. We told her we'd get in trouble if a cop pulled us over. Now she knows we aren't bluffing!

So far, August has been great too. Tyler finished up another soccer season. They won all but two games and hopefully he had fun and enjoyed it! Tyler also began riding his bike by himself. I am amazed at how well he has done. In just five days, with the help of his Grandpa, Tyler learned how to ride his bike. Now it is his favorite everyday activity. I guess I should get my bike in working order!














Last week Allen and I went on his yearly retreat with his work. This year, we all loaded up on the bus and we went to Grand Targhee. We were at this same location two years ago, and as Allen and I thought about it, we realized that there were only 4 couples that were present at the same retreat just two years ago. As a side note, at that retreat, President Clark and Elder Kerr focused a lot on change and how change is good. Change is nothing new to us here at BYU-Idaho as it has evolved from Ricks College. I guess we didn't realize how much had changed until there were only us 4 couples who remember how we were strucured just two years ago.

Last years retreat was extremely intense and meetings all of the time, including the bus ride home. This year the comment was made by the V.P. that people complained last year about it being too intense and not enough free time so they took care of that problem by getting rid of the person in charge last year! (Actually he was transfered and made an associate v.p. -so they didn't fire him or anything). He then said, "so this year, we bring you up here on a bus, with only two stores and hours of free time!" The advantage of having gone two years ago and remembering the place - and seeing how much free time we were going to have, we decided to take the wii with us. It was great! I think Allen only won one round of tennis...ha ha! Anyway, it was good and we were well fed and made it back down the mountain alright. I wonder what next year will have in store!

Anyway, that's it for now. Sorry this one is so long!

Gone Camping!

Well, we finally did it. We loaded everyone up and drove to the mountains to go camping. I know what you are thinking - how sad that our kids haven't ever been camping before. It just seemed a little hard with such young ones...although I know all of you do it and get through it. I guess I haven't been brave enough to do it until now. So we planned a camping trip with our friends Lauren and Cody.

Tyler, McKenna and Kylie were so excited. All Friday they were anxiously awaiting. You can imagine how long the car ride was with them constantly asking "are we there yet?" We had planned to go to Warm Spring River in Ashton, and we drove there, but found that they were all full. So from Ashton we took the scenic byway past Mesa Falls and on to Island Park to the Buffalo campground. Not a bad place at all. Quite shady and beautiful and thousands and thousands of mosquitos. The one thing we forgot of course happened to be the repellant. So we left the "men" in charge of setting up tents and we went to the nearest gas station to buy bug spray. It was of course ridiculously priced but it far outweighed the price of potentially getting the west nile virus. So the first item of business....spray every inch of us all with repellant. After that, it was quite enjoyable.

We of course had smores and biscuits on a stick with honey butter. It was great! The kids were so anxious to go the tent and go to bed! I have to tell you...it was extremely cold. I tucked the kids in with tons of blankets and they were surprisingly out really quickly. I was doing pretty good until about 4 a.m. when someone lost a dog. From that point on, I couldn't fall back asleep. It was pretty darn cold, I had to go to the bathroom - but no way was I going to walk in the pitch black all by myself to the bathroom being an easy target for the bears. I then realized why most people in Idaho who go camping a lot, all have trailers. It is way too cold for tents. It was near freezing and it is the middle of July! Then Kylie was freezing and by the time I got her all warmed up and sleeping again, it was light outside.

The funniest part was Tyler was up and dressed and sitting outside in the "porch" of the tent by 7 a.m. McKenna was so excited that as soon as Allen got up, she immediately jumped out of bed and got dressed telling us the whole time she was waiting for us to get up. Kylie on the other hand, took her time getting up and out of the tent. Funny girl.

Saturday was so great. Cody and Lauren had brought their 4 wheelers and so we drove to Macks Inn and from there took a trail that actually goes to Yellowstone. We were about 10 miles from Yellowstone when we decided to turn around and come back. It was so fun, but the dirt was caked on us like I have never known. I couldn't touch my hair, or put my finger through it because it was so thick. Allen laughed and said that I actually had a different hair color. After we ate hotdogs for lunch (of course), we packed up and came back to Rexburg. It was about the right time to come home and I think all of the excitement really got to the little ones. Before we were even out of the campground, they were all fast asleep. All in all, it was a great experience and later that evening the first question asked is "when can we go again?"

The carousel

I am sure you can tell...all of these little ones belonged to us, except for one girl with dark hair and some woman standing next to her kid/grandkid.

Cousin Fun!

What a fun week! My brother Scott and his wife Emilie came up and we got to spend a little time together. Tyler and the girls love seeing their cousins - and so here are some pictures! You guys should come up more often!

Water Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day! Low 80's and a slight breeze. We all loaded up in the van and went to the water park with just about everyone else in Rexburg! The little ones had a ton of fun and poor McKenna, by the end she was shaking so badly because of that slight breeze. I just thought I would post some fun pics. I posted the pictures at the end because in the sunlight it amazed me at how blue their eyes were. Can you believe I have 3 children with all blue eyes? It is awesome!

Country Living

As I was laying in bed at 5:30 this morning, I was reminded of a time when we were traveling to Utah to visit family. Tyler was probably only 2 and the farther we got away from Idaho and closer to Utah, the more he looked perplexed. Finally he said "Mom...where are all of the cows?" Living in Idaho there seems to be a plethora of them and Tyler used to love them! Then I began thinking of the time when we were up in Victor Idaho staying at a cabin. We had to walk to a different cabin to use the restroom facilities. Imagine my fear as I was inside - really needing to take that walk - but hearing an entire pack of wolves howling like crazy. Which brings me to why I was lying awake at 5:30 a.m. (UGH!) . Well, I was laying there listening to a huge herd of elk as they were bugling. They are just down the road from us (about 4 houses down) - and they were extremely loud and obviously happy. If any of you "city" folk would like to experience country living at its best...come on over!

Happenings!

As this is our first post...I thought I would give you all a little of what we have been up to lately! So be prepared as it may be longer then planned.

Tyler has been out of school for over a week now and he has been enjoying his "free" time. He loves reading so luckily for me that hasn't been hard to push. He will be starting soccer soon and if the weather ever gets warmer, we plan on going camping and to the water park! On May 28th Tyler was in a rodeo at the Madison County Fairgrounds. He did the mutton bustin' event and he did great. He was the first one out of the gate and held on for a good 7 seconds before he fell off. As his mom, I was grateful for the ambulance inside the arena just in case there were any injuries. I think my heart was pounding more then his! For his efforts he was rewarded with a gift certificate at the Riot Zone. So I guess that is something else we will be doing this summer.

McKenna and Kylie just keep growing and truly before I know it they will be in Kindergarten. I am kind of glad they have one more year just so I will be able to spend a little more time with them. Everyone has told me that the first few years are all about survival - and then the fun stuff comes. I didn't realize I was in survival mode until just recently when I am finding the rewards of having twins. It was fun when they were little - but it is extremely more fun now!

McKenna is very much into sports and the rough and tough kind of stuff. She fell in love with the rodeo and the whole scene. She has been after us to be able to be a participator next year. With her though I am afraid once we start - it will never just be the one event and the next thing I know she will be riding bulls. Then my heart will really be pounding. Besides, we all know how I feel about horses. Kylie on the other hand is more sensitive. She loves singing and knows words to all sorts of songs - she picks it up really fast. She can sit for hours looking at books and practicing letters. They are both completely opposite in personalities but are the best of friends - and can be the worst of enemies at times. However, if you mess with one - you will end up with both of their wraths. That should make school fun! :) I pity the poor kid who will be dumb enough to pick on just one of them. As they get older, that bond gets stronger.

Allen is doing great and staying busy. We had a rare weekend where he was actually able to take Friday off, and he had Saturday off and it was nice to spend some time together. He did a lot of work around the yard which is helpful. We are hoping to be able to get to Yellowstone this year and are planning a camping trip in Ashton. Even more exciting is that his ward will not be in operation during the 6 week break in August/September so he will be able to join us at church! We are all really looking forward to that time.

As for me - I keep track and try to keep up with everyone else! Isn't it great?! Every now and again I work in the cashiers office on campus and with the ticket office for various events. I am really enjoying it a lot. I enjoy taking little classes here and there and one day when I have more time...I will spend all of my hours making quilts. I have found that to be very addicting for me!