Rachel!

Last weekend my dear friend Rachel came to visit on her way back from a Mother's Retreat! It was so good to see her!! She is a true fighter and an inspiration to me! We are breast cancer survivor buddies!! =)

Kaylie's 12th Party

For Kaylie's 12th Birthday she had a fun Hot Tub Late Night Party. Scott rearranged the furniture to make room for 12 gabby girls!!

Kaylie sat up a candy bar with lots of yummy treats as well as brownies and kiss cookies since she is not a cake fan!

She had a fun guessing game with candy (she is such a candy nut!) and the friends who guessed closest to the right number got to keep the jar of candy!

We had quite a hot tub full of girls...yes it really is only designed for 8 but when you are just 12 and super silly you can fit even more in! Kaylie is in the front of this photo!

More fun with the girls...I should have taken a photo of all the girls in their jammies after for the 'movie night' but I didn't. I wasn't feeling very good so Scott took over the party after I went to lie down. And needless to say he is not a photo junkie. The girl's watched Princess Diaries and had a lot of laughs!

Kaylie with her friends singing to her!

Excited about cute little presents from her friends! We are so blessed to have so many great friends here in Centerville!!

GoodBye Tile!

As I have posted before we have been working on putting hardwood in our house and it has been coming along slowly but surely! We decided that we didn't like the choppiness of too many different flooring styles on the main floor of our home. So we decided to bite the bullet and pull out the tile floor.

So here are some before photos!

This is before we finished the wood so we had some lovely plywood still showing under our hutch...as I said, its been quite a process but since our 'handyman' has a day job and can only work nights on the floor (Yes, its Scott) then I have to take it when I can...whenever he can work on the floor is great!

A few of the DURING photos and let me just say there was SO MUCH DUST!! Wow!

The finished entry way...

I love the wood all the way into the entryway now..it flows so much better and it is so much more warm and welcoming than the cold tile.

Love it!!

Babysitting Tyler

Last weekend Kaylie babysat Tyler and she took some cute pictures of the fun times with their cousin. They sure dote on him and think it is so fun to have 'baby Tyler' come play!

Birthday Fun with Cousins

We had a birthday lunch on Labor Day to celebrate Kaylie turning 12. Ryan's family, Amy's family and my family were all there and we had a great time. We went swimming at the rec center, had lunch in the backyard and enjoyed visiting and playing together. I'm so glad we live close enough to get together for these fun times! Here are some photos from our day together!

More of Kaylie's Birthday

Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan gave Kaylie a shopping date with Aunt Laura to go to the mall to pick out some jewelry and have ice cream. Kaylie is excited to have her date with Laura this weekend!!

Aunt Amy and Austin and the girlies were all there to celebrate with us too!

Kaylie on her birthday getting ready to eat her big breakfast of sugar cereal!!

Kaylie and Kyler with her gifts from Kyler...

Dallyn gave Kaylie new ipod earphones and some junior mint socks!

Cam gave her a sporty new watch for Junior High.

On Sunday she opened up her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Black while they were skyping with us.

She got the 12 year old special doll for her collection...this sure was a special birthday for Kate!

Since Monday was a holiday she got to have a 2-day birthday celebration and had sugar cereals for several days...what a lucky duck. We did some fun family activities that day which I will have to blog about soon!

Kaylie's Birthday Photos

Kaylie wanted to have Hawaiian Haystacks for her birthday dinner. So here she is on Tuesday. She had to eat and run to her first Young Women's activity so that was fun for her too...then home to finish more homework...oh my the balancing act of Jr. High we are sure adjusting to.

Kaylie wanted birthday brownies and her brothers can always be counted on for some good laughs and funny faces.

I love Kaylie's facial expressions as she opens her presents..she is so animated.

Kaylie took a volleyball camp this summer and tried out for her school volleyball team. She didn't make the team but realized that she has a passion for volleyball and that she really wants to be on the team next year. So her Dad had the great idea to get her a volleyball for her birthday so she can go outside and practice while the weather is nice. I am proud of her for trying something new and being brave! She was nervous knowing she didn't have any athletic experience but she sure leaned a lot.

Kaylie got some great books from Mom that she had asked for..one about surviving middle school, written by the American girl folks. She got another book from her good friend that was also about surviving middle school by John Bytheway and she has enjoyed reading that too!

Kaylie loves teal and so I couldn't pass up the chance to get her this great Billabong sweatshirt in her favorite color...muted just a bit!

She has been asking for one of these for awhile and my thought was "WHERE?" are we going to put that? But she loves to sleep with it every night so now her room is even more crowded than before but she is a happy bday girl!

Kaylie all ready to go to school on her birthday and yes she is wearing my flip flops to school. They were teal and striped so she just had to borrow them. How is it she can wear some of my clothes already??? My big Jr. High girl!