Family Birthday Party

Last Sunday we had a get together with my brothers and sister and their families for Kaylie's birthday. Here she is with her brownie cake (she doesn't like cake). She has a math problem on her brownies, which is a long standing family tradition in my family. So it says 8 plus 3, which represents her turning 11 years old!


Kaylie got to choose the menu for her special meal and she chose BBQ food. Scott made BBQ chicken, hot dogs, pasta salad, jello salad, watermelon, grapes, chips, and lemonade. It was a great meal thanks to Scott. I was too worn out to help...so I just put chips in a bowl!

Here's the guys on dish duty...chatting and enjoying time together.

One of the highlights of the night was that we got to "Skype" with my parents in California. This way they got to chat with everyone and they got to be in on the festivities!!

Tyler Black

Since I have been recovering from surgery and my brother Ryan has been sick its been a long time since we have all been together. It was so fun to see Tyler and he has grown up so much. He is all smiles, its just darling!! Here are some photos of him with his adoring cousins!

I think he could have been entertained all day being surrounded by his cousins as he was!!

Cousin Fun!

It was so fun to have the cousins together! Here are some cute photos from that evening together!!
Cute Abby and Uncle Jason!

Kaylie the birthday girl and Bella...

Kaylie and Cameron trying to make Tyler laugh!

All the boy cousins!! There are 4 boy cousins on my side of the family and here they are...it was fun to be together!

Catching up a bit

Well its time for me to catch up a bit from being so behind on my blog these past 2 months. I know I've had a good reason, but its time to catch up!! Scot still fit in 2 competitions this summer despite all the craziness. I'm sad I wasn't able to be there to support Scott, but I just wasn't up to attending. One event was a personal triathlon and another one was a team triathlon. Way to go Scott!! He came in 15th out of about 230 competitors in the personal race. He is already talking about how he can better his time next year!! =)

Kaylie took a few classes this summer including a few sewing classes and a cake decorating class!! Here is the cake she made!

Our garden got mostly neglected this summer---I wonder why--but we still managed to grow some vegetables for our family to enjoy!

Here's a view of the lovely staples I had this time...last surgery I got 25...this time I got 50 instead! Yikes! This photo was taken 2 weeks post-op on the day my staples were to be removed. People are always commenting on how they can't believe I had this surgery without the Dr's shaving my head. Well they did shave all along my head its just that with my curly hair styled just right, or pulled in a pony tail you can't tell. =) Gratefully the 'buzz cut' I have all along my head is very narrow. So for all you that were questioning that--here is the proof!!

Cedric & Jana's Visit

My dear friend Jana came to help take care of me and my family during our first week of school. It was a DREAM having her here, she helped out so much!! She brought Cedric with her and Kyler loved having a playmate during the day. It helped ease the transition for having Dallyn gone all day at school. Kyler sure is missing his brother during the day!!

Kyler and Cedric..its been a year since Jana and Cedric visited last time but they played great together. It sure was great having them here!

Another exciting thing happened this past week...Kyler started preschool at Busy Bee Preschool...he is my big 4 year old now! =)

Back to School

Well a few weeks ago the kids went back to school. I was still recovering from surgery but Jana was nice enough to take some photos for me! Here are the kids out front of the school.

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Cameron started 4th grade this year, he has a fabulous teacher too. He is enjoying his new star wars backpack--we'll get another picture later!

Kaylie is one of the big kids on campus as she is in 6th grade now. After 5 months of home schooling she is back in public school and she has an amazing teacher this year so Kaylie (and Mom) are thrilled about that. Kaylie has all of her friends in her primary class in her school class so its a pretty sweet deal!! Her school class has 18 girls and only 7 boys!! Isn't that amazing? Mom misses having Kaylie home but knows that its best for her to be back at school again!

More First Day!

Here's some more photos of the kid's first day!

Dallyn started first grade this year! Kyler and I both miss having him around during the afternoon...the school day seems so long with Dallyn gone but he is loving it!

Here's a photo of Dallyn in his new classroom!