Let's Play Catch up!

This summer has been CRAZY!!! We have so much to update going all the way back to March! Let's get started!!!

It had been quite a few years since we had family pictures taken and we wanted our good friend, Kimberly Nelson (Tilt Photography), to take them for us before we moved to Seattle! They turned out awesome and we LOVE them! Thank You Kimberly!

This piggy picture is one of my favorites! It was the last picture that we did and the family didn't want to do it...mostly because they had to lay down on lava rock (ouch!) and we were at a 45 degree angle! My mom was there to help out with Berkley and she had to keep pulling us back up on the track, by our feet, so that we could get the picture! We had being shooting for 2 hours at this point...everyone was tired and spent, but I really wanted this picture! Of course Berkley was a no go! Thank you mom and thanks to my family for appeasing their mother!

OUR MOVE TO SEATTLE

A year and 3 months after our move from Atlanta, GA back to Orem, UT, Brackon received another promotion that brought us here to Maple Valley, WA! Our good friends that lived out in California when we lived in Rancho Cucamonga, Joe and Shalyn Nelson, were living out here and we gave them a call when we found out we were coming! We wanted to get the 411 on the best place to live. Of course, they directed us to their neighborhood. Shalyn actually found our home for us! It has been so much fun to be close to them again!

We love our home! We have fabulous neighbors and love the ward too! We live in an 'L' shaped cul de sac and we are on the 'elbow' of the L! We have a great little park across the street from our house that the kids love to play at...when it's not raining! You can see that there is a retaining wall on the far side of the park so the kids can't get out of the cul de sac.

There was quite a bit of rain at the beginning when we first moved in, but the summer has been gorgeous! Normally, we've been told, it doesn't get too sunny until July or August, but this summer has been very sunny and hot starting in May. We are going thru a crazy heat wave this past week and are DYING!!!! It's been in the high 90's and has even gotten to 101 which is a new high in the history of the state of Washington! Some of you may be thinking, "That's not a big deal!" It is when you don't have A/C in your home!!! I know...who doesn't have A/C!!! The folks that say you don't need A/C must not live here in the summer!!!! Our home at 10:30 pm is 88 degrees and it's much hotter upstairs! It is grueling to attempt to get to sleep at night! On the news this afternoon they said that only 14% of homes here in WA have air conditioning! HELLO!!! Granted we only need it for two months out of the year, but talk to anyone that is suffering without it right now and they'll tell you it's worth it!!!

BERKLEY TURNS TWO

Our little Berkley turned 2 on April 2nd, which was the day we moved into our new home so we don't have any party pictures. As a matter of fact, we didn't even have a little party for her. We were going to do one when we got settled, but we all know how long that takes, right?! She's 2 and won't even remember...we hope!

Berkley has such a fun personality right now. She is starting to talk a lot more, but we still can't understand her sometimes so we joke about her being so brilliant that she can speak chinese before she speaks english!!! She loves to talk on the phone and do anything her big sisters are doing.

Berkley is in a big girl bed now and loves it! We moved a TV and DVD player into her room to keep her in her bed. I know what some of you are thinking, but honestly, when you're used to your down time at night and the baby starts getting out of bed and doesn't go to sleep until 11pm, you get desperate!

Our little birdie, also still has her bottle and I KNOW that I need to get rid of it, but truthfully, I'm not sure that I'm ready for it because she takes it to bed and has them at nap time too! I've tried putting her milk in a sippie cup and she will have nothing to do with it!!! I've decided that I need her to help me put all of the bottles in a garbage bag and then we need to throw them in a trash FAR, FAR away from our home...otherwise, I will be diving into the trash if the crying gets to be too much! Wish me luck!

EMREE TURNS 8

Our sweet Emree turned eight at the end of May! She is getting so big. She has such a bubbly personality and I love the way she crinkles her nose when she smiles. She loves to play with all the kids on the block and is friends with everyone. Emree is our little tomboy and loves to wear a hat! She always has one on and more often than not it is turned sideways! We are so glad that she is in our family!

She has a good friend named Derby who lives across the street from us and her birthday is at the beginning of June so we did a combined b-day party!

We had a Mexican fiesta with a pinata...

sombreros and lots of food!

Emree, Maddie, and Derby are BFF's and always have a great time together!

Emree also got baptized! We are so proud of her! Grandma & Grandpa Livingstone came out and so did Aunt Patti and her kids. It was so nice to have them here with us. I completely forgot to take pictures with everyone.

MORGAN

Morgan has become fast friends with the kids here. She is going into 6th grade next year which is Middle School. She's excited and has started to look for things to put in her locker. I remember decking out my locker when I was in Jr. High and loved doing it! It's so fun to see our kids growing up and doing the things we used to do. It seems like so long ago and then sometimes it seems like only yesterday!

Our little Shmoopy has such a fun, loving personality and she loves to tease...wonder who she got that from. ;) She and her friend Abby are inseparable and want to spend every waking moment with each other! They are so cute together!

Abby will probably die when she sees the picture that I posted, but it was the only one I have of her and I think it's darling! I wanted to post one of the two of them together, but there wasn't one!

KENNEDY TURNS 14

Kennedy has been having an exciting summer! She flew down to Utah on the 18th of June, 2 days before school let out, to go to Girl's Camp with her friends. She has been gone for 6 wks and has been all over the place. She has been staying with G&G Livingstone, her good friend Maddie, she's gone to Colorado to see Aunt Honey and her family for Riley's baptism, St. George to visit G&G Curtis and cousins! She has been busy as a bee and we have missed her a lot!

Kennedy turned 14 yesterday and I honestly can't believe that we have a 14 yr old! Kennedy is the most responsible young lady you will ever find! Our neighbors out here say that she's my mother because she's always reminding me of things I need to do! What would we do without our sweet Kenners? We are so glad to be getting her back tomorrow! We have all missed her a lot.

Thank you to everyone for taking such good care of her for the summer and especially on her birthday! She loved going to get her piggies painted with Grandma Curtis and going out to breakfast with Grandma Livingstone. She was so excited to be going to a sleepover with Cassi at Aunt Micki and Uncle Spencer's and to dinner. You are all so awesome!!! We are so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Kennedy starts early morning seminary (6 am) now that she will be in 9th grade. It kills me! So grown up!!!

This is Kenners and her friend Sierra. They have a lot of fun together. She's excited to get back and see her.

Well that about wraps things up for us. We hope that you are all having a fabulous summer! I will definitely do better at updating our blog more frequently since this just took me FOREVER to do!