Finally!

After months of waiting and wishing and hoping and dreaming, I have a special announcement to make to everyone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

drumroll please. . . . . . . . . . .

My tomatoes are finally turning red. I am SOOOO excited. Aren't they lovely? I don't know if this is normal but my tomato plants are shooting straight up. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk. One of them is almost as tall as I am. Is that normal?

So our summer has been flying by more quickly than I ever expected. I don't really know if I am ready for Derrel to start school again, but like it or not, it starts in 2 weeks. I also can't believe that in June we hit our 1 year mark for living here. The girls are growing like weeds and Kate is starting to form sentences with all the words she knows. It's really very sweet. Lydia will start pre-school in August and is SOOOOOOOO excited. As for me, I am just trying to stay out of the WICKED heat. We are all doing well. Not much new to say for now.

Oh I guess my little brother, Sam, got married in Denver to a very lovely and sweet girl named Courtney. We were all going to drive out but we would have only stayed less than 48 hours and for 48 hours of driving and 48 hours of visiting, I think our little monkeys would have gone bizurk to say the least. So I sacrificed and took a plane ride (nonstop for extra sacrifice) and went to my brother's wedding. It was WONDERFUL! Here are some pictures:

Our newest addition

So there has been an addition to our lovely family but. . . it's not another human. It's a BUNNY! She was an Easter present for Lydia and Kate. Sorry it's taken so long to announce her arrival=). Here are a few pictures of her. She is mostly white with a few grey spots. She is very sweet and mild tempered. We swore we'd NEVER have an animal in the house but since we now have two of them already, we decided it was acceptable (except this animal lives in the garage). We even have a harness and leash to take her on a walk in the yard=).

Here's CHLOE!

pink stuff vs. white stuff?

So, Kate is now on a different antibiotic than she was for the last 7 days. I guess that the pink stuff was not killing the strain of ear infection she has. Who knew that infections had a color preference? Hmm. I actually recall a time or two when I just wanted to start drinking the stuff myself because it tastes so good;) and now that she is taking another medicine, I can just finish it off, right? (I KNOW you ALL know what I am talking about!) Hopefully a good 10 days of the white stuff will do the trick! The white stuff almost tastes like pina colada, that's yummy, too!

Lydia has made a new friend. There is a family that just moved into our ward from Missouri. They almost look like they could be sisters. I'll have to take a picture and post it to prove how alike they look. They have exact personalities and they like the same things. They can play for hours on end without one fight or argument and they don't get sick of eachother. Now if that's not heaven when you have a 4 year old, I don't know what is. It has been absolutely WONDERFUL!!

Summer Fun!

Too much food!

So the Fourth of July has come and gone. We have watched fireworks, eaten too much food (I don't want to BBQ for 3 months), played with friends and celebrated. I actually forgot my camera for our fourth festivities so these pictures of the girls and me will have to suffice. Unfortunately Kate has been sick the last week and finally decided to get worse yesterday. Amidst the coughing, runny nose, sneezing, fever, she decided it was time to throw up, too. So I took her to the doctor and she found a rotten ear infection. Whew. Now we know what it is and what to do with it. Doctors really are great, aren't they? =)

So, Lydia's new "thing" has been putting puzzles together. She can now put together a 63 piece puzzle all by herself. It's great. It used to take her a while but now she does it so fast, I can't fold a load of laundry by the time she's finished!

Derrel has been busy working on research at the school this summer. We think that he has chosen the lab he will work in to start his PhD next summer. The PhD he will work with actually researches pediatric cancer and such which will be very interesting for Derrel.

Bear with me, I know this picture is horrifying (I REALLY don't like bats) but I found one in our yard the other day. Of course it was dead and in two pieces but I didn't know they flew around here. Here is one of the wings-don't worry, I didn't touch it, YUCK! It was under a wild cherry tree obviously eating the fruit.