LONG awaited update :s

So.....It has been a LONG....I mean LONG time since I have updated!!!  I really have no good excuses, but life has just been busy lately!  So, here's the latest update from our family:

KayLynn Grace:  She has grown and changed so much in the last year (it's been at least that long since I posted!!!)  She goes through spurts of wanting to be a big girl and then wanting to be our baby.  She is so adorable when she is teasing you!  She has those big blue eyes that sparkle when she smiles.  She was so excited to start dance this summer at the Ottawa County Dance Studio.  She is always moving and groving when there is music on.  She had her dancing debut at the Ottawa County Fair (yes....I will post a video as soon as I can get it downloaded to the computer).  I was a little worried when we started to get her ready and she didn't want to put on her tutu, but we got her in it and she had a blast!  She can't wait to start the fall class (they had this week off and all she has done is ask to go to dance.....stating "I NEED Bridgette (her dance teacher)!!!" when we saw her at Pizza Hut)!  She continues to grow and amaze us each day!!  We thank God everyday she is our littlest Lady Bug :)

Alta Joy:  She had her first year of preschool this last year.  She was so excited to start that all summer long she asked if it was the first day of school yet.  When I started back to school, she thought it should have been her first day back also.  We told her that she had to wait until September 6th.  After that, every morning the question was asked, "Is it Sept 6th today?"  Through out the year, we were constantly amazed with Alta's love of learning and her ability to soak up information!  Alta started gymnastics when she was younger at Parks & Rec in Salina.  She was inviting to participate in the class that would start her road on the competition route.  It was twice a week.  She enjoyed it when she was there, but it started to get a little too much for our family schedule.  We finished the school year out in gymnastics, but decided to take the summer off.  She tried t-ball, which let's just say it was a very interesting experience as a parent (Daddy was the official coach and I just helped when he had to work and couldn't be there)!!  We have decided to let her try competitive cheer with a team here in Minneapolis.  She is getting ready to start her second year of preschool (which means that she will be going on Monday/Wednesday/Fridays) and she is so excited!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for her and we are truely blessed to have her as our firstborn!

Travis:  He has been working his butt off lately!!  Not only has he been serving and protecting us in a professional manner (working 15 hour two days in one week!!!), but he has been doing a lot for our family (especially me)!  We updated our bathroom (paint, new curtains, mirror) to start our housing projects over Thanksgiving break.  That was just the beginning..........Over this last spring break (yes....way back in March!!), we decided to turn our extra room in the basement into a playroom/guest room.  We were just going to repaint the walls that weren't paneled and scrape the paint of the paneled walls.  It was going well....we ended up having a contest to see who could get the longest peice of paint off the wall at one time....until we got to one corner and it was no longer the same type of paneling.  There was only about a total four foot section that wasn't the same type/color!!!  Well, I am going to head back on topic and I will post pictures and finish the story on another post :)  After spring break, we had a pipe leak in the ceiling of our bedroom (that ran down the wall and ruined carpet).  We still hadn't finished the wall around the egress window, so we decided that we needed to just jump right in and redo our room at this time.  It took awhile (8-10 weeks), but I LOVE our bedroom now that it is done!  I will post pictures of the finished project (I took a couple pics during, but not a lot).  When we got that done, we had about two weeks of nothing going wrong at our house.....which then came the hot water heater going out, so Travis replaced that.....which was a HUGE project because the last one installed was installed incorrectly (only by God's protection, nothing ill happened to anyone in our family) thus creating more time, work and money spent.  Once it was installed, the water line came into the house broke.  He replaced the spicket that burst the next night (after the hardware store was closed) and had to be replaced again. 
After all that work that he did at our house, he has been working with his dad building bookshelves for my classroom. 
So, now when you see Travis.....you know why he is so tired!

Me:  I am so excited to be starting my fourth year of teaching!!  I had to move my classroom this year, but I am okay because it means that we are going to start full day kindergarten at Minneapolis this fall!!!  I love being a wife and mommy to our beautiful girls!!