Lots to catch up on! Part III

Kayla had her first soccer game on September 6th. Her team is the Tigerettes. She doesn't really know what she's doing yet, but it sure is cute to watch!

She's not too hard to pick out since she's the only blonde!

Listening hard to her coach, James.

Joe in action. He's the referee for Kayla's team.

Stretching with her assistant coach, Celina, before the game.

Kayla had school pictures this morning. I curled her hair but by the time I picked her up it was straight again, so we'll have to see how the pictures turned out.

She's really enjoying school and making a lot of friends. One of the boys she plays with a lot is Lexus. He can't speak English and she can't speak Spanish, so I wonder how they communicate, but they seem to have fun.

Lots to catch up on! Part II

Colorado Springs

After we camped we headed up to Colorado Springs. Sunday night we were supposed to go to a balloon glow, but the weather was bad, so on Monday morning we went out on our balcony of our room and watched them in the morning.

Monday we went to Cave of the Winds. I was a little worried that the girls would be scared being down in the cave, but they had no problems at all.

Me and my girls in the cave.

The hike through the cave was about 1/2 mile and had about 200 stairs. Aly insisted on walking the whole thing by herself!

No, the picture's not messed up. At one point in the tour they turned off all of the lights. Kayla and Aly didn't get scared at all, but my claustrophobia started to set in at that point.

The view from the entrance to the cave.

I took these pictures for my dad. This furniture was so cool!

On to Denver.....

We went and hung out with Naomi,

Erin, Sam,

and of course, Uncle Bo. (Thanks again for dinner and the soccer stuff!)

Back in Colorado Springs.... Tuesday we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was so much better than the zoo here in Albuquerque. The picture above is of Kayla about to pet a baby wallaby.

My new friend. The girls kind of freaked out when they saw me go up to it. They thought it was real.

Me and my girls in My Big Backyard. (Everything was giant size.)

Kayla's new friend.

This zoo has the largest herd of giraffes in the world (in captivity). You can only see a few of them in this picture.

A baby giraffe. There were 3 or 4 babies.

Joe petting the giraffe.

Kayla feeding the giraffe a cracker. (Don't worry... it was allowed and we paid $1.00 to do it.)
Below is a video of Joe feeding his new friend. He wanted to come home with us, but there wasn't room in the van.

We also went to Old Colorado City, swimming, and we drove around a lot to see what Colorado Springs was like. All in all. the trip was really fun! The only downside was having to come home. (I had a migraine on the way home so it really wasn't fun for me!) I'm already looking around for ideas for our vacation next year. Any suggestions?

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.