Watch Out 3rd Grade!

Katie is off for her first day of school. I never thought she would go to bed last night. Infact, I planned on getting back on a routine a few weeks early to get ready for when school starts but "THAT" never happened. Anyway, I was trying to get her in bed by 9:00 but it was 10:30 by the time she crawled into bed. I'm not sure if she was just too excited or it was my lack of parenting skills and discipline. I set her alarm and told her she needed to be up and ready in the morning because we should be there early. Well, 6:00 rolled around and I didn't want to get up. I thought I would have to drag her out of bed but while I was showering, she came in and asked what she needed to put in her backpack. I couldn't believe she was already up. Infact, she was all ready for school by 7:15! THAT NEVER HAPPENS! She was trying to hurry me along. Grandma had made her some of her favorite bubble bread for her first morning of school. (its kind of like little rolls that are rolled in cinnamon and sugar) She couldn't wait to eat them!

Joe stayed home with Alyssa while I took her to school and sure enough, waiting in the hall, was her friend Haley. They are in the same class! Watch out Mrs. Gambles! We already assume that they probably won't be sitting by each other because all they would do is talk and giggle. When we walked in the room, Aunt Mary greeted her and she was told she could sit anywhere she wanted. Well....it's kind of obvious who she would choose to sit by and there just happened to be two empty seats by Haley! I overheard Mary tell someone that this seating arrangement might only last for today! : ) Written on the dry erase board was "WELCOME TEAM GAMBLES" and Mary had little gold medals for the kids to wear. It was cute. Katie came up to me before I left and said now her last name is Gambles. I guess you can't tell that she loves her Aunt Mary! I left without even crying! I'm sure she'll have a blast this year! THANKS AUNT MARY (MRS. GAMBLES!!) ...oops. I told Katie she needed to call her Mrs. Gambles and not Aunt Mary!

This is the outfit she wanted to wear. We found a cute shirt with a dog on it that says, "DOGS ARE FOREVER" and she was in love at first sight. Who would have guessed she likes dogs or any animal for that matter?! : )

Her hair cut~ She really likes it and I'm sure it will get easier to do. Today I fussed a little more than I normally do. I think she was relieved to know that!

Where did the summer go?

Well, tomorrow Katie starts school!!!! AHHH!! My big 3RD GRADER! I think the last time I really cried was when Katie started Kindergarten and I was pregnant with Alyssa. I think it was mostly the hormones though. : ) I wasn't sure what I was going to do all by myself at home but soon found out it was kind of nice to have a little bit of time to myself, to do some laundry and clean and not have the house all torn up when I finished. Then Alyssa came along two months later and life was crazy again! Now there have been times, I ADMIT, that I just couldn't WAIT for school to start. (I'm sure my kids would agree that I probably haven't been the most patient mother lately. Especially trying to get our house going, which by the way should be finalized this week!! YAY!!) It seemed like we always had 3 months of summer vacation but it now is only 2 months and that is just not enough time for us with so much going on. It seemed this year that we never had a spring...we just went from freezing cold winter to blazing hot summer. It even snowed in June!!! I'm not complaining of the heat because the minute you do, it seems that winter comes sooner and stays longer. So "I LOVE THE HEAT, I LOVE THE HEAT!! Yep, even if I am 30 weeks pregnant! : } Katie is so excited for school. We had gone school shopping a few weeks ago and when she found out she had Aunt Mary as her teacher, she wanted school to start the very next day. She definitely has been counting down. Alyssa thinks it's pretty cool that Aunt Mary is her teacher. She says, "I just can't believe it!" I just hope that I can pry her away from the classroom in the morning after I drop Katie off. Who knows, Mary may have to add Alyssa to her class list too! : )

Yesterday, Katie had her friend Haley over and they decided at the last minute to set up a lemonade stand. Just as they got things set up, Haley had to go home so Alyssa was Katie's helper. Our street isn't such a great street to do business on. It isn't busy at all and we hardly get any traffic. (Which I am not complaining about, but for the Lemonade business, it makes for a slow day!) Haley and Katie made signs and then would walk up and down the street yelling, "Lemonade for sale!" Grandma and Grandpa Hopkins, Brandon and Grandma and Grandpa Gambles stopped by along with some of the neighbors. They did pretty good. I don't think anyone just paid the 5 cents they were asking. They were getting tipped pretty good! Then when they would leave, Alyssa would say, "Thank you for coming to our lemonade stand!" It was cute! They sure had fun. Maybe we'll have to set one up on Grandma's street next time.

Yep, if you noticed, Katie convinced me into letting her cut her hair! It turned out really cute. It's an "A" line so the back is really pretty short. Everyone thinks it is so cute on her. I was going to do before and after pictures but forgot. I will get better pictures tomorrow when she starts school. : .. (

What we've been up to lately....

Well, I'm sure just like everyone else's summer, our's has been really, really busy. Since Katie's baptism we have gone to Bear Lake for a Gambles family reunion, worked on getting started for our house, camping in Wyoming (which was so gorgeous and tons of fun!, THANKS David & Amber), sold my favorite "sporty mama car" : ( , did more stuff with the house, went to Bear Lake again, go to Joe's softball games, & now I'm hoping we even get to build our house this summer, so I had to take my frustration out somewhere. I decided to cut off my 2 year old's blonde little curls. Eeekk! I know. Watch out Katie! Alyssa loves her haircut and it is way easier now. Plus it always grows back. I know Joe hates it when I get in these moods. Just once he would like to have one of his girls keep their long hair. (Sorry honey!) We went to the good old Caribou County fair and yesterday, Katie and I got to spend the day school shopping! Already you say? Yes, I know. Where the heck did the summer go? It seems as though we haven't really even had a summer. August is already so packed that soon it will be September and then the baby will only be 8 weeks away. Oh, how I am NOT ready! I was at least hoping the house would be close to being done by the time the baby came but I am just pulling for Christmas at this point! Here are some picts of our busy summer! Enjoy!

Kailey and Alyssa giggled so much just bouncing on the tubes that Scott and Mary brought. It was funny to watch them.

Our "hopefully soon-to-be" view from our property. A week or so ago, we drove out to the property so we could remember why we are wanting to build. While we were out there, we saw two deer feeding on what would be Mom & Dad's yard and some of ours. It was fun just to watch them. They were really hard to see because of the fall wheat but occasionally their ears would poke out and you could see their little antlers too. Alyssa loved to use Daddy's "noculars" to see them!

This is the view of Great Grandma Gunnel's ranch house from our property. I'm sure in the house we will be able to see a little more than the barn but Mom & Dad's you will be able to see the whole thing! It's really neat to see it there and to learn more and more of the little things she did while living in that little white house.

Camping:

The clan at Gray's Canyon! Boy was it gorgeous! We even had pet deer in our camp! Every day you would see them around and we even saw them at night in our camp. Kailey dumped her popcorn and the next thing we know, Amy has a deer feeding right behind her chair! : )

This is a cute picture of the grandkids that Amy did for Mom! She likes to have this on her desk at work! Finally, they were all looking at the camera! : ) CUTE KIDS!

Aunt Amber had a butterfly flying around her and it landed where she could get it. Alyssa went crazy over it and so Amber put it on her. It seemed like that was all she talked about but it was cute to see her fuss over this little orange butterfly.

I'm not sure how to post a slide show in the middle of your post so I will put them at the end.

My Black SS Chevy Impala~

Well, when your husband is the Sales Manager at a car dealership you just need to learn NOT to get attached to certain things. Well, I opened my mouth about a year ago and said I would really love to have a black SS impala. Well, it wasn't a few weeks later and Joe had one to show me. An couple in their 70's had bought it and 3 months later said it was "too much car" for them. So Joe had me come and drive it. I was hooked. We could do it with the two girls and it was a sporty little thing. I loved driving it but then we found out baby #3 was coming and we still thought that we could fit everything in it.

Well, we kind of tossed around the idea of getting a bigger car but thought we would wait a little bit. One day, Joe called me up and said there were some people at the dealership who wanted an SS impala but they just sold their last one and to clean out my car so they could "just" drive it. Next thing I know, Joe almost sold it. I wasn't really too happy about it because I wasn't sure what we were going to do without it. We also had someone else who wanted to buy it too. While out camping, Amber talked to me a little about what we were going to do and I was still sold on keeping my car for awhile. Well, on the way home, Joe and I were talking and then next day, he had the same people before come back and it was SOLD!!! (Ok, I told him that it would be alright to sell it even though I had really mixed emotions about it). Alyssa was so upset that Daddy sold her car! She loved that thing and so did we. I felt like a "Sporty Mama" even at '29'. (Katie likes to remind me and everyone else as to how old I am. Thank you Katie!) I think Joe will miss "hot-roding" around town.

I wasn't without a car for long.. It only took Joe two days and now I am driving an Eddie Bauer Expedition. I really like it and it will be good to have 4 wheel drive again, especially for when we move in our house. I will post some pictures later. I give Joe a hard time about how I loved that car so much but boy is it nice to have some room! I'm not getting any smaller and neither are my children! : )

Bear Lake...Again!

Joe finally had a day off so at the last minute we decided to go to Bear Lake for the day. The girls had a blast swimming and I just sat in the shade in our reclining camping chairs and watched. Joe was playing washing machine with them and they loved it. Alyssa had on water wings and would flex them occasionally for us and then float on the noodles with Katie. Sometimes I got a little nervous because she would start to float away....but Joe didn't let her go far. Now every time we talk about swimming or water, she always brings up her day at Bear Lake.

My baby's curls are gone....actually they're still there, just not as long! : )

Alyssa would sometimes have me straighten her hair and it would go clear down the middle of her back. She looked a little too grown up when I did that. This is only her 2nd hair cut. I snipped off her black baby hair and saved it so it was about time for another good "trim". Her hair is curly, at least for now. Katie's was until she got her hair cut and then it has been straight ever since. Having it short is sure alot easier and she loves it. I have been trying to get her to let me cut it but she would only do it over to Grandma's house. Maybe she felt that Grandma would bail her out if her mom really messed up. I guess I'm not too bad with a pair of scissors but I definately am not going to start a new profession! : )

Before:

After:

We had to bribe her to sit still with a blue popsicle!

My SS Impala

Bear Lake..again!