One ends and another begins

Kassie and Emma both played soccer this season and it was so fun to see them play. Emma was so very excited to score a goal and Kass did an awesome job.

This was such a cold day!!! Freezing rain pelted us in the face and the girls were bundled up in tons of layers. I'm just glad our next sport is inside!

But now that soccer is over, it's time for basketball! Kassie is lovin' it. She's had 2 games so far and has had a couple of basket shots and lots of great blocks and steals.

Kass is the one shooting the ball. It makes our Saturday mornings early and busy...but it's great to see them having fun and excelling in activities!

Once I get pictures, I can show you that Amberlee has been in a gymnastics class. She has the best time and loves doing cartwheels, round-offs, and splits all over the house...and when I say all over the house...I literally mean ALL OVER the house. She is ALWAYS doing her little acts ALL the time! She can't get from one end of the room to another without doing a little cartwheel or something along the way!

I love these girls!

Our trick-or-treaters!!!

Kassie was super-girl, Emma and Amberlee were cats, and Laicee was a spider witch.

Harry Potter's Little Sister?

This is how we spent our general conference morning after a game of turtle tag.

Poor Laicee was running away from her sisters and fell right into our speaker.

She had to have 2 stiches on the inside and 5 stiches on the outside. She felt much better once the ER nurses gave her a little cute teddy bear. Apparently, she is doing fine :)

...and we're off!

I admit it, I did get a little misty-eyed taking Amberlee and Kassie to their first day of school. They were so excited, anxious, and cute and I was so happy for them and it made me thrilled and sad all at once. But then, as I was leaving the school parking lot...I turned the music up and did a little car dance! Yay for a new school year! Kassie (who likes to go by Kassandra at school) is in the 2nd grade. Amberlee is in Kindergarten and Emma is going to pre-school 3 days a week.

Something special for each...

1. Kassie turned 7 years old on July 12th and for her birthday she wanted to get her ears pierced! After a couple weeks of debate, we decided to surprise her with a trip to the mall to get it done. She was so excited and nervous but she put on a brave face and entered into this rite of passage!

2. I am jealous of Amberlee's hair. It's long, silky, thick and beautiful. It obviously does not come from me. She has been asking for months to get it cut...not just trimmed...she's wanted it super short. I finally relented this week and took her (and all the girls) in for a hair cut. Little did I know that Amberlee had enough to donate to Locks of Love! She was so excited that she could help kids who didn't have any hair. And yes, I did tear up and cry a little...but it really was so sweet to see her be so excited about helping other kids (ok, and I was a little sad to see all that beautiful hair be chopped off)!

3. Emma, my 3 1/2 year old party animal, decided that she was old enough to ride a 2 wheel bike without training wheels! She asked Kev to take them off and viola...within minutes she was riding like a pro! My kids definitely do not get their balance from me! It's so funny to watch this little cutie riding down the street!

4. Is it illegal to lock a child into a crib? I would love to make a crib top that you can lock each night! Laicee can now climb out of her crib! This is what we found last night...so cute!!!

Pure Tenderness

We have been absent from our blog for a little while...mostly due to our unexpected trip to Utah when our sweet little niece (Kevin's brother JJ's daughter) passed away. Although we knew her life would be limited when she was born a little over 2 years ago, we were not expecting her to go at this time (Heather, her incredible mom, just had a baby girl 2 1/2 weeks before this).

Hannah Jane was born in January of 2007. She was born into an imperfect body with a chromosomal disorder causing her to have only 1 eye; She couldn't really see or hear. She had weak lungs, heart, kidneys, muscles and a body that didn't really grow as it normally would. And although she had this body, her spirit was absolutely perfect. She was the most genuine, purest, most wonderful person you could ever be around. When her Dad blessed her as a newborn, he prayed that she would be able to fulfill her life's work, that people would want to be better because of her, and that her life would glorify our Savior Jesus Christ. In the short years of her life, she and her family were able to realize in very touching and personal ways how she had fulfilled each one of those. She is such a beautiful and special girl and we are so very grateful to have her be part of our family. Her dad relayed a quote he found in the book One Tattered Angel that really touches my heart..."In our church we believe in the ministering of angels...You and your family have been privileged to minister to one".

It was early Wednesday morning on the 3rd of June when we got the call from Kev's mom telling us about Hannah. We quickly realized throughout the day how important it would be for us to be there and how important it would be for the girls to get a real and genuinely personal lesson about eternal families. We packed up the car and by Thursday morning we made the 3 day drive out to Utah to be there for her burial on Monday. It was truly amazing to see how our entire family came together during this time. The girls loved being with their cousins again and most of all, they more fully understand that because mom and dad got married in the temple, we can be an eternal family when we die. We are grateful to our loving Heavenly Father for His abundance of tender mercies. We know it was time for Hannah to go, and we know we are better because of her. We love you Hannah.

Kevin and JJ

Here's to my little performer

Kassie had her first dance recital last weekend and I was loving every minute of being a girl's mom! Because she really loves being on stage, it was even more fun to put the make-up on her and dress her up in her costume. So here are the recital pics...and the video footage will be added soon (especially since she was SO funny bossing everyone around on stage!)

Kassie and couple of her cute friends! (abby, Kass, alex)

Afterwards we treated all the kids to ice cream!

Emma's Little Puppy

What cracks me up the most is that Laicee assumes this role very well. She barks and/or meows, is happy to be on a leash, and eats out of bowls and hands! Who needs real animals?!?

I Love Dance Recitals!

Amberlee had her first dance recital yesterday and it was adorable! She, by nature, really does not like performing in front of people (she still has yet to give the prayer/scripture/talk in primary and ends up in tears every time)...so the fact that she was up on stage was amazing to me. It was so fun dressing her up in make-up and her little costumes! We had so much fun!

Amberlee and one of her best friends. They have had so much fun taking this class together!



Amberlee was SO excited when her pre-school teacher came to watch her!

















And here's a little snippet of one of her dances! She really does smile when she dances...just not in front of everyone...and notice how she's the first one to run off the stage...totally cute and funny!

talent runs in the family...hopefully

I hope that through pure genetics, my kids can somehow be as talented as our amazing cousins! Kevin's Uncle's family (his wife and 7 kids), stage name "The Lowe Family", has been performing in Branson, MO for the past 10 years. They have now taken their show on the road. A couple weekends ago they came up to MI and we were able to go to the show with our 3 oldest kiddos! All together their family plays 50 different instruments-beautifully, they dance, they sing, and they put on such an amazing show! The girls sat mesmerized during the whole performance! It was so much fun to see them all! Here is a link to their YouTube page. Check out the snippets from their shows and also their new music video, "We Will Go On"...it's really awesome!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/thelowefamily

The next day, we were so excited to have the Lowe's all over for lunch before they headed back to Branson.

Uncle Bob and Jer-Bear have something in common...besides being brothers, they both fell asleep in this chair...with little girlies smothering them with random hugs!

Kassie told Doug she would rub his feet if he paid her...and she held him to it!

We love you guys!!! It was GREAT to see you again!!!

As a little side note, our cousin Kendra, who's part of this whole family, is now the Keyboardist and female vocalist for David Archuleta!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu7khh8VZBs