The Kelly Family

Emma has been really good about potty training this week. I think she is about there, she just needs to learn how to hold more in her bladder. There are times when she goes to the bathroom 4 or more times within an hour. Today she went number 2. She plopped three pieces, and they all landed together at the bottom of the toilet. She looked in to see her accomplishment, and said "Hey, there's Mickey Mouse ears!" I looked in to see, and they kind of did look that way. She was pretty proud of herself.

We are going to have another little boy. I am 20 weeks along, and found out today that our baby is a boy. We are pretty excited. Savanna and Madalyn really wanted the baby to be a boy. We let them come to the ultrasound to see the baby, and afterwards Savanna told me she was really lucky. I asked her why and she told me that she always gets what kind of baby she wants. She really wanted Emma to be a girl, and now we're having what she wants again. I told Emma that we are going to have a little baby boy, and she told me "I don't want that kind." I asked her what she wanted and she said " A baby girl!" Oh well, you can't make everyone happy. Nick and I are excited and we are all going out to eat tonight to celebrate.

Hey, I just thought that I would let all you family know when Madalyn is going to be baptized, so if you want to try and tackle the Wyoming roads, you can come. She is going to be baptized,(as far as I know), the first weekend in December, which is the 5th, at 10:00 am. I know that most of you probably won't be able to come, but you are all welcome if you can.

A couple of days ago I went to walmart to get some needed groceries. Among my many items I happen to have some canned chili. When I was checking out, the lady working the register rang up my chili, and said "Mmmm, homemade chili sounds really good." I thought sure, that would be good. Then she said, "Is that what you are making tonight?" I looked at her and thought "Are you talking about my CANNED chili?" I just politely told her no, because I wasn't having chili of any kind that night. I guess if you heat it up at home, it is homemade. Sounds good to me. Emma is such a funny girl. She likes to disagree about almost everything. Sometimes I tell her that she is a little stinker, and she will say "Yes, I not." We will then "argue" back and forth "Yes you are," "Yes, I not." It is one of my favorite things she says!

Our newest family member is Charlie, our cat. We adopted him from Cat Rescue and he is a perfect fit for our family. We have had him for about 3 weeks now, and my children just love him. (So do Nick and I) He is a really mellow cat, and lets the kids tote him around everywhere without any fuss. He does run away from Emma's crazy movements, but he likes her when she pets him. He was about 5 months old when we got him, so not a tiny kitten, but he has already grown a lot since we got him. He is a little lazy, and loves to sit in our laps in the evening. We named him Charlie because of a book that Nick loved when he was a kid. He still has the book and my girls love it too. The book is about a stray cat (that looks just like our Charlie) who finds a good place to live where people take care of him. Though we named him Charlie, we already have some nicknames for him: dweeb, nerd, pb cat (pooh breath cat) and turd. They really are all terms of endearment, we love him! Here ...

So Laurel knows that I give her a hard time because she often spends an hour or more getting ready to just go to Wal-Mart. I tell her that she could roll straight out of bed and look better than everyone else that shops there. Well...now I have proof. Someone sent me a link to this website which does a great job of confirming all of the Wal-Mart customer stereotypes. http://peopleofwalmart.com/ Enjoy! (Sorry if your picture showed up on here.)

Madalyn and Savanna went to their first day of school on Wednesday. I thought that by the end of the summer I would be ready for them to get back into school, but I was really sad. Madalyn and Savanna are both gone all day long now, and I have to say I miss them. They really love school though and are happy with their teachers. When I picked them up from their first day of school Savanna said she wished it was the next day already so she could go back to school. Madalyn told me that she has the best teacher ever because they get to have a snack in the morning. (She belongs to me, she loves food) This is the first class she has had with a teacher who reserves time for snacks. They both have some of the same kids in their classes as last year, but a lot of different kids also. They were both so excited to wear new clothes to school and have had fun picking out their outfits. (They are such girls!) I am sure they will do well this year. Emma and I have had a lot of fun together. Her favor...

I ran my first 10K yesterday. Tiffani came to visit me kind of last minute, and ran it with me, yay!! It was her first 10K also, and it was awesome to run it together. I had a goal of running it in under an hour, and I was able to meet my goal! I ran it in an even 55 minutes, averaging 8.6 minutes per mile. I ended up placing 4th in my age group. (That's probably just because there wasn't as big a turnout as there usually is though.) Tiffani says she was a rock star and ran it in 57:58 minutes, averaging a 9 minute mile. We both were so happy about our times. My awesome friend Ada and her husband (along with a bunch of great people in my ward) also ran the race. Ada skunked us both with less than 53 minutes. I don't remember her exact time. Nick was really nice and watched our kids, plus Tiffani's kids, plus Ada's kids while we ran the race. He had 10 kids at our house. When I called him to see how he was doing he said he had only lost two kids, so things were great...

We went camping this last week with Nick's family. We had a lot of fun, which I will tell you about in my next blog. This blog is actually dedicated to Nick's BUM shirt. He got this shirt when he was in the 9th grade, and a few years after that he began using it as a camping shirt. He continued to wear this shirt every time he went camping, year after year. Well, he wore the BUM for the last time. This year after wearing it he burned it. Everyone had to watch as his famous shirt was burned. I have to say though, for being at least 16 years old, it was still in pretty good condition before it burned! Nick holding it for the last time. Into the fire it goes. We thought it was funny that you could still see the letters and stripes so well as it burned. Goodbye ol' friend.

A couple of weekends ago we had my family's reunion. It was so much fun. We had fun with all my sisters and parents on Friday and then on Saturday we joined my Mom's side of the family for their reunion. I have a couple of uncles with boats so we did boating and eating, and just hanging out and having fun. My favorite was being pulled on the raft with Nick, and my sisters Wendi and Tiffani. My uncle Kirk pulled us, and he is a crazy driver, trying to knock us all of the raft, which he had great success in doing. I was laughing so hard, I could hardly breathe. Here are some pictures from Saturday. Emma and her 2nd cousin Cambry Madalyn and Naomi (cousin) Savanna with a bunch of her cousins. They had so much fun together! More cousins on the raft. All of my sisters and my Mom. (My sister in law Sara wasn't there, so she is missing.) Sisters and Mom My Mom is such a good sport. Ha Ha Tiffani, Candice, Rochelle, Wendi, Me Nick and I Tiffani, Me Madalyn and Sava...

Okay, so I have finally gotten around to posting pictures of my house. I have been really busy with getting the yard work done, and I am still not caught up like I would like to be. It is coming along though, and I love my house. This is the front view This is the front facing the side. Nick is closing the gate to the backyard. Notice the rainbow in the sky. This is the flower patch in the front yard. It still needs a little weeding, but it's not too bad. This is the other side of the front yard. I love the rock. This is my garden in the backyard. I should have taken a "before" picture. It was covered in weeds. Getting it weeded has taken a lot of time! This is a rainbow that was outside our home on the fourth of July. This is the living room. I didn't pick it up before I took pictures, so you get to see books, shoes and other kid stuff. This is the kitchen/dining area. Madalyn and Savanna were working on puzzles. This is Emma in our family room, and her...