Jesus

Kailer started crying in the car the other day. I asked him what was wrong. He said he missed Jesus and wanted to see Him, and he just wanted Him to come back to our "island".

What a sweet boy.

North Carolina

For my birthday, my amazing husband bought me a ticket to go home and visit for a week. It was a wonderful week, and went by way to quick. I didn't take near enough pictures.

The flight there was not too bad, just long. Kodee did pretty good other than crying herself to sleep for half an hour.

I got to eat lots of yummy food, but still didn't get to all the places that were on my eat list. Yes, I had an eat list. I got to eat at Chicfila, Wilbur's, Pizza Inn, Bojangles, Krispy Kreme, and Andy's. MMMMMM.


Kodee with her classic Krispy Kreme hat.

We went to the NC State Fair. The fair in North Carolina is about 10 times bigger than the "fair" here. We had a fun day of walking around burning the calories from too much fair food. Pretty sure we should have done much more walking.


Where's Krystal?


Oh, just getting her hair did.


Prayer meeting at the fair anyone? You get a free silly band just for hearing about the Lort.


Kodee's favorite fair food? Ice.


With Grandpa. Collecting as usual.


Mother with her Pepsi.


My brother JL, with Danielle.

I didn't get to see everybody I wanted to see. Or visit with some of the people I did get to see for only a few minutes. There is never enough time!


Kodee with her pretty cousins Kay-Lynn, and Summer.


Kodee in her chair, the only thing she was friendly too the whole visit.


Kodee with her future husband, Jayden.

The flight home was hell. I went to bed at 1 am the night before and had to wake up at 3 am to make the 7 am flight out. We got to the airport only to find that the flight had been canceled due to weather in Chicago, where my layover was. They were able to put me on the 6am flight that had been delayed until 10am( all other passengers were delayed until 5pm that night, and then later canceled, so I am glad I at least got that far). Kodee fell asleep and I held her the whole time waiting for 10am. We finally boarded and there were maybe 10 people on the flight. I always complain about delayed planes thinking it is a cop-out, but never again. The flight was 3 hours long, the last hour getting to Chicago was like riding a roller coaster. I love roller coasters. But not while barfing in a tiny bag, while holding a crying baby. I'll pass. I have never gotten motion sickness before, but the flight was crazy. We had a half hour layover where I was able to get a motion sickness pill(that cost me 10 bucks..rude! take advantage of the poor sick people? I would have paid double), which pretty much knocks you out, and finish my "sickness" layed out on the airport bathroom floor. I managed to get myself on the plane and survive the last three hours of travel. I asked for a cup of ice and Kodee entertained herself with that while I fought to keep my head from falling over. I later learned we were the last flight allowed out of Chicago due to the worst winds they have had in 7 decades. Not a part of history I was excited to be there for.


Finally on a plane and still sleeping!!

I was so happy to see my Brian, and my little Kai and Katie Beth. I promised them that if they were good while I was gone, I would take them to a special place when I got back. So, we had to hurry and get to there places before they closed, since I was way later getting back than we had planned. Katie Beth got to go to Build a Bear, and Kailer got to go to a train store. I forgot to take pictures of Kai because I was so out of it.


Here is her puppy she chose. She named her Kayla.


Pampering her puppy.


Kailer, you can have a turn...

Sleeping Beauty

This sweet baby is still my little sleeping beauty. Every time I walk in her room and see those fingers my heart melts.

157

Two days before my birthday, my friend Ralph at Scoresby Farms gifted me with 157 ears of corn. I spent 8 hours the next day (not including clean up, sorry Bri, I really couldn't move my fingers) shucking, washing, blanching, cutting, bagging, and freezing all that corn. I ended up with 27 quart size bags of yummy sweet corn in my freezer. Can you believe I actually can do something semi-housewifery? Me either.

27 is old.

I had another birthday. Other than feeling suddenly like and old woman, it was a great day. We went and got take out, who wants to deal with the stress of three kids in a restaurant on their birthday? While we were waiting for our dinner we walked around K-mart since we haven't been there in years (and really probably won't go back for a few more). Katie Beth found this pinkie pie costume and decided she wanted to change her Halloween plans. Too bad. She already chose Princess Peach last week, so she settled with just a picture of herself as a Pony. Day with my cute little family, yummy Jaliscos for dinner and a chocolate chip cookie cake for dessert. What's better?

First Hair Cut

I bet you thought this would be a post about Kodee. Right?
No, actually this is for Katie Beth.
She is almost 5 and had her first hair cut this month.
I miss her long hair but she sure does look cute!

Oh yeah

Found these too.

Brian got a lot of fishing stuff for his birthday, so a few days later, we went to the river and fished. hahaha. Ok, so we brought the fishing stuff and the kids splashed around in the water.
And the kids thought we were having fish for dinner. Really.

Happy Belated Birthday

I guess these pictures were lost and I didn't even know. When I was transferring all my pictures last week I found them.

Brian turned 30! Old huh?
He really does feel old. And so do I. For some reason we aged a lot this year, maybe just in our heads, but we all of a sudden feel like old folks. We will get past it, don't you worry.

Brian's parents came for his birthday. We had a little cook out and his favorite cake, better than sex cake. We were a little nervous about the 30 lit candles that created a ball of fire, but everyone survived, and we had no visits from the fire department. Wonderful.

Just wanted to give a small shout out to my handsome husband. I love you Bri, and if we are old now, I want to grow really really old together. Thank you for all you do. Stop making me look bad. HAHAHA.


Opening presents, with a little help of coarse.


MY favorite present, s'mores! Thanks Wendy!


SURPRISE!


That took a big breath.


Kodee loves birthdays. And yes she can not eat with out a foot on the table.

m&m's anyone?

Kodee looked so big and cute for church on Sunday we had to get some pictures.


Katie Beth looked pretty cute too, but she is impossible lately.


Kailer looked handsome as always, but he was too busy.

Grandpa's Girl

Here is the only picture I got of Kodee and her Grandpa. She sure loved on him all week.

Grandpa's Shoes

Kodee looooved her grandpa! She sat with him and played with him the whole week. I am so mad I never got any pics. I did take one on my phone so I will have to see if I can get that loaded on here. Here she is playing with his shoes, she had a party with those shoes!

Dad and Ducks

My dad came for a surprise visit last week. I didn't get any pics of him and the kiddos. GRRR. While he was here we went to the greenbelt and fed the ducks. We hadn't done that yet this summer so the kids were super excited. Usually when we go the ducks have had so much bread they are too lazy to swim over to get more, but this time tons of them swam over as soon as we broke out the bread.

PreSchool..

Katie Beth is loving preschool. Every morning she wakes up and asked if it is a school day. She is doing great and is such a smarty pants.

sleep over

Kai's first sleepover with his buddy Tanner. I guess it wasn't sleepoverish enough to sleep on the top bunk?

First Day of Kindergarten

Back to School! Kai is in Mrs. McCammon's PM class and we love her. We had a meeting with her, the school psychologist, the resource teacher, the speech therapist and the occupational therapist last week. Kailer seems to be cruising right along. He hasn't had any issues, he is ahead in the curriculum and he loves school. What a sigh of relief. I am so happy this is going to be a great year for him. I wish I would have gotten a picture of him lined up with his class, he is taller by at least a foot than all the other kids in his class. Kailer is such a good kid, we love him!!

INL Summer Picnic

Brian's annual work picnic was in July. The kids always look forward to it and start asking when it is as soon as July fourth is over. We drove all the way to the fair grounds for it a week early this year. We got there and realized that we (Brian) had gotten the dates mixed up. So back to Idaho Falls we traveled with three screaming children. When we finally got to go the next weekend the kids had an awesome time again. They had their faces painted, jumped on a million blow up castles, including one with a water slide and one that was a hot air balloon, got to spray and run through a fire hose, and ate way too many snow cones and cotton candies.

splash park.

When my mom was here, we took the kids to the splash park in Rexburg. They didn't seem to enjoy it as much this summer. Kai was ready to go after being there for not even an hour. Katie Beth finally went down the slide for the first time and survived, but she didn't want to do it again, or do anything much really. Kodee loved it and had a good time playing in the little spouts on the ground. Either way, it was nice being back in Rexburg a few hours for a little visit. We went on campus for lunch, and I think that was probably their favorite part of the trip. The food. What's new?

Kai having a fun time.


Kodee just chillin in the water.


Katie Beth waiting behind the truffle shuffle for her turn to go down. She's also praying that the bucket doesn't refill with water and dump on her. She timed her first trip down the slide very carefully.


Pretty much scared for her life. Not sure why, she does much crazier things on a daily basis.


GO KATIE BETH! Did you get your picture mom?

Peace Out

Face Plant

Fourth of July

We had a great day celebrating Independence Day. For dinner, we had our traditional meal of hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, watermelon, and later we did s'mores by the fire pit in the backyard. We went to Fort Hall to buy fireworks this year, and we had a pretty good show in our front yard. We had two or three "mishaps", but we all lived, so that's good news. We missed my brother this year, he is usally here visiting during the fourth, but couldn't come this year because of work. My mom was able to come for a week though, so we had a great July fourth and a great week!


Kodee in her red white and blue.


Katie Beth in her red white and blue.


A small attempt at a pic of the girls.


Brian doing work on the grill.


Kailer ready to party.


Bri doing work on the s'mores.


Katie Beth so excited to see the big fireworks she picked out.


Kailer with his green smoke bombs, those are always a hit.


This was his favorite, it was really cool.


She was more cold than excited, dang Idaho.


Kai thinking it was getting a little loud.


Katie Beth went in and got her robe, like I said, she was cold.


Here is Bri's "favorite, i have to have it" firework. It was a dud.


Me and Katie Beth trying to stay warm, ignore my lazy eye.