Lots to catch up on! Part I

CAMPING
Over Labor Day we went camping up in Cumbres Colorado. Joe's family has a cabin made out of old boxcars. It rained a lot while we were there, but we had a lot of fun. Joe and I set the tent up just minutes before a storm hit. Luckily we stayed dry through the night and the girls stayed asleep through all of the thunder.

The Boxcars

The backside of the boxcars. (With deluxe outhouse on the right!)

The land. (Look at all those mini-vans!)

Inside

Inside, the two rooms. There's two big bunk beds in one and one bunk bed in the other.

Aly taking a hike with Grandma and Jacob.

Kayla spent most of her time picking flowers.

Joe and Braden playing catch.

Kayla taking a stroll with Hannah and Katie.

Waiting for the train.

Kayla and her buddy Braden.

Here comes the Cumbres and Toltec train!

Joe's cousin, James, came and spent some time up there with us. They put in a zip line a while a go. Here's a video of James showing us how it's done.

I've been slacking!

I've been lazy with my blog lately! Not too much has been going on here. We've finally gotten back into a schedule around here. Kayla is loving school. Her teachers are Mrs. Prager, and Mrs. Grey. They are very sweet ladies and are great teachers. I was a little worried about how good the program was going to be, but it's very good. Kayla brings home a homework assignment every night and has a reading log we have to keep up with. She has impressed her teachers with how well she can recognize letters and she can even write them all now. She also can write her name without any help at all. I've been working on her with reading and she's starting to get the smaller words down. Hopefully she'll be reading books by the time she's 5. She's also getting ready to start her soccer season. She got to meet her team last week. They don't have a team name yet, but they are orange and black. I'll post pictures of her as soon as we have her whole uniform. Joe is going to be a referee for her team. It should be a lot of fun. I think I'm just as excited about it as she is!
Alyssa has suprised me with how she's adapting to Kayla being gone. I thought she would play with all of Kayla's toys and enjoy having me to herself, but instead when I ask her what she wants to do, she asks to watch her favorite show and lay on the couch the whole time Kayla's gone. I think she just enjoys the quiet. For me, it's been different only having one kid at home again. Grocery shopping sure is easier with just one.
We're getting ready to go on a vacation!! We're going to go camping with Joe's family for a few days and then we're heading up to Colorado Springs and Denver for a couple of days. I'm excited to get out of the house for a change. I've never been to Denver or Colorado Springs either. Plus, I get to see my new nephew Sam and his big sister Naomi. That should be fun. I'll have plenty of pictures to post when we get back, so until then....

Welcome Sam!

Sam Andrew
9.5 lbs.
Congrats Erin, Steve, and big sister Naomi!

Kayla's First Day of School

Today was Kayla's first day of school. (We thought that she was supposed to start on the 29th, but they actually don't start the preschool until the 14th.) She only went for an hour and a half today to get used to the setting and the teachers before next week. She loved it! They got to play outside, have circle time, and snack time. She didn't want to leave! As you can see in the picture, she has to wear a uniform to school. I had to order toddler size pants and they're still too big! Maybe by the end of the year they will fit. Where did my baby go?

My Little Girls

At the girl's doctors appointments we finally got their actual weight and height. We are happy to announce... Kayla is finally on the growth charts! Her whole life she's been way under where they don't even have a line. She is now in the 25 percentile in weight and the 50% in height. She is now 28.5 lbs. and 39" tall. Aly on the other hand remains in the 5th percentile on both. She is barely 21 lbs. and 31" tall. They were sad after they got their shots so we went and bought them a little pool.

Aly pouting in her daddy's lap.

The Popsicle cheered her up!

I love this picture of Kayla.

My girls.

Our garden. Since we have sand under the rocks, we had to plant everything in planters. We've got tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and cherry tomatoes. We had chilies but they didn't make it.

Finally Updating

Kari Ann told me that it was time for me to put something new on my blog, so here it is. The last month has been kind of crazy. Right after Aly's birthday we ended up going up to Farmington for Joe's aunts funeral. Since I was going to be going up for July 4th anyway, I decided to just stay up there and Joe came back home for work. I was up there just over 2 weeks. We stayed pretty busy and had lots of time to spend with the family. The girl's really enjoyed having their cousins to play with. On July 4th we spent the day swimming and having a BBQ with my family. That afternoon, Joe surprised us and showed up. He had told me he wasn't going to come back up, but he did anyway. It was a nice surprise because we missed him. We did fireworks that night with Joe's family. Aly was scared of them so her Aunt Amy took her back in the house and they watched from the window. Saturday Joe and I got to go on a date (which doesn't happen very often). We went and saw Get Smart. It was pretty good, but at the same time it was ruined because there were some really annoying people in the theater that kept repeating the lines and laughing really loud at parts that weren't funny. Joe headed back home on Sunday, but the girls and I stayed because Kayla took a dance class at the Kiddie Kollege with her cousin, Jaylee. She had a lot of fun and she did really good at the recital too. I'm going to post the video, but I don't have the cord yet so it will have to wait. (For some reason every store in town is sold out of the firewire we need to connect our digital video camera up to the computer. We have to order it online.) We came home on Friday afternoon. I drove through 3 separate rain storms. Thank goodness the girls slept so I could concentrate on driving. I'm also glad I had the van because our Nissan doesn't handle well in bad weather. Anyway... we're home and settled now. The girl's had doctor appointments last week and they both had to get shots. Then they were sick the day after that. Kayla starts school next Tuesday so I'm trying to think of fun things to do for her last week of summer break. She's going to a year-round school so they start a lot earlier than most schools. I'll have to post some pictures of her in her uniform. Well, that's all for now. I'll try not to get so behind on my posts anymore. :-)

The night before we left for Farmington, Kayla fell of her bed and hit her face on her dresser.

Kayla got a haircut! This is while we were waiting for her turn.

At the fireworks with their cousin Allison.

My surfer girl with Grandpa Churchill. She refused to put her swimsuit on that day.

Jaylee and Kayla getting ready for dance class.

Our little ballerinas.

My sisters and I had went and had pizza at a park one night. No kids!

This is how the Churchill's spend their 4th of July.

Aly's Birthday

Here are some pictures we took from Alyssa's 2nd birthday.

Aly's not too fond of cake so I made her a giant chocolate-chip cookie instead. She wanted My Little Ponies on it, so I just stuck them in big gobs of frosting. She loved it!

She loves Barbies, but didn't have any of her own. (And Kayla's not so good about sharing hers.) Kayla got her a purple ballerina Barbie and her Grandma Stradling got her a set of swimming Barbies. She was so happy! (Unfortunately, Kayla thinks they are hers now too and they have been fighting over them.)

Every since Kayla got a bike for her birthday, Aly's been asking us for one. Her feet aren't long enough to reach the pedals, but she can still scoot it around.

I took this picture on the morning of Aly's birthday and I liked it so I wanted to share it.

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ALY!!!!!!
We Love You!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Jon too!
&
Happy Anniversary to Greg & Tara!

It's Potty Time!

Aly has decided that she is ready to use the potty. I have been holding back because I'm not ready for it. (Doing tons of laundry, chasing her with the carpet cleaner, taking her in nasty public bathrooms, etc.) She kept telling me she wanted to go potty, so I finally got it out the other day. She hasn't actually used it yet, but she sure likes to pretend that she is. When Kayla starts school (July 29th!) I'll start getting serious about it.

Tagged

My sister-in-law tagged me, and since I've never done one and I have a few minutes, what the heck!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I just finished junior high.
2. I was growing out my bangs. ( I haven't had them since!)
3. I met Joe at my b-day party 10 years ago.
4. Babysitting full time for Kyla and Colby Spears
5 . Can't remember what else

5 things on my to do list:
1. Vacuum out my van.
2. Clean the garage.
3. Figure out what to get Joe for Father's day.
4. Schedule Dr. appointments for the girl's shots.
5. Pay bills :-(

5 Favorite snacks/food:
1. Olive Garden salad and bread sticks
2. Green Chile Stew from Golden Pride
3. Dion's Pizza with their ranch dressing (addicting!)
4. Cheese Popcorn (The kind you buy in the bag. We can't find it anymore though!)
5. Risen candy. Yummy!!!!!

5 Things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Pay off any debts we have.
2. New wardrobes for me and Joe (The girls have enough clothes!)
3. Buy Joe a truck (I still love my car and would keep it for a while)
4. Buy both sets of parents any cars they want, pay off their houses for them, and give some to all our brother's and sisters.
5. Put the rest in a high interest savings account so we won't have to worry about money ever again.

5 bad habits
1. Diet Coke
2. Sometimes I get so into a book that I completely tune out my children. They have to come climb all over me to get my attention.
3. We eat out to much. I don't like having to cook and clean my kitchen up every night.
4. I have OCD. (No seriously! My DVD's have to be in a certain order, as do the toys, dishes, refrigerator, cupboards, etc. If the girl's loose a toy or piece of a game, it will keep me up every night until I find it! Joe can move a DVD to a different spot when I'm out of the room and I will notice it the second I walk in. I get panicked if they're out of order! Those are just a few examples though.)
5. Letting my kids watch movies in bed. It started as a once-in-a-while thing when they were being good, but it's just so nice have the house quiet at the end of a long day and it makes it easy to put them to bed. I'm working on that one though. They only get a movie in bed a couple nights a week now.


5 Places I have lived:
1. Ontario, California
2. Farmington, NM
3. Albuquerque, NM
4. Socorro, NM
5. And back to Albuquerque, NM

5 People I tag:
1. Kari Ann
2. Katie
3. Tara
4. Paul
5. Whoever else wants to do it

Kayla's Birthday

Kayla had a good birthday. She got spoiled rotten of course!

She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake, but I couldn't find any figurines any where so I just did strawberries. Then at the last minute I found a doll she had gotten from McDonald's a while ago, so I washed it and stuck it on to make her happy.

She got her first bike!

Practicing with Dad. She's so little that she's having a little trouble getting the bike going. (No muscles) We have to give her a little push. She's getting a hand of it though.

All day Thursday, Kayla kept saying, "I wish my cousins could be here for my party." Then her cousin, Jaylee, surprised her and showed up at our door Thursday night. On Friday we went back to the Explora museum with Kari Ann, Keven and Jaylee. We had a really good time. Thanks for surprising her Jaylee!

Two Birthdays!

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet Kayla!

And....


Welcome Owyn Merrill Churchill!

We Are A Happy Family

This is the Churchill gang.
Kayla likes the version that my brother Steve made.

And Another Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA!!!!

Another Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday !!!

To Hannah

& Noah!!!!

My sister-in-law, Dana, and my sister, Katie, both had babies on the same day and even in the same hospital. Happy 3rd Birthday to Hannah and Noah!!!

Happy Birthday Papa!!

Happy Birthday Dad!
We love you!!!!
(I love this picture of my Grandma Churchill holding my dad!)

The Ways They Sleep

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of Kayla asleep under the changing table. She's done that a few more times. We've also found her asleep inside of a Little Mermaid tent. Alyssa started to sleep in a big girl bed a few weeks ago and when we went to check on them the other night, this is how we found them.

Explora Museum

This weekend we went to the Explora Children's museum here in Albuquerque with Joe's sisters and their families. It was really neat. If you're ever in Albuquerque, you need to go with your kids. It was all hands on activities. They had a huge bubble table, a room of mirrors, a music section, and all kinds of other things. My girl's loved it!

Our nephew Braden playing in the bubbles with Alyssa.

Kayla, Andrew, and Aunt Amy

Joe riding the high wire bike.

Our niece, Hannah, about to fall into the fountain. (Thankfully she didn't!)

How many Kayla's are there????

This room is actually the elevator! It was huge!