A New WORLD

Last night Bill and I made a HUGE step.... we've entered the world of HIGH SPEED INTERNET. I am sooo excited! For those of you who don't know, we've been using dial up for the past 2 years. We've been patient for a long time, but this past week it became evident that it was time to upgrade! This is exciting on multiple levels for us. I'm mostly excited b/c now I can post pictures with ease and my blogging can be more consistent. Plus, I've wanted to try some digital scrapbooking, but dial-up just doesn't cut it. HOORAY! I've got a lot of catching up to do- watch out for picture overload!

I've Been Tagged

I got tagged by Melody to complete the questions below. I'm behind in blogging right now, so this is a great place to start catching up again. I've had trouble uploading picutres- you've got to love dial-up Internet. :) Hopefully tonight or tomorrow all systems will be working!

When you get tagged, just copy the questions, answer them and then YOU tag 4 more people.

4 Jobs I've Held
1. Pharmacy Technician
2. 1st grade Teacher
3. Kindergarten Teacher
4. Piano Teacher

4 Movies I can Watch Over & Over
(I'm not a huge movie repeat person, so this one's tough)
1. You've Got Mail
2. October Sky
3. Freaky Friday
4. This week it's "Barbie Rapunzel" for Madisen and I

4 Places I Have Lived
1. Murray, UT
2. Provo, UT
3. Palos Verdes, CA
4. Henderson & Las Vegas, NV (We love visitors!)

4 T.V. Shows I Enjoy
(I'm not a big TV watcher, either)
1. Dancing With the Stars
2. The News
3. The Office
4. Oprah

4 Places I Have Been on Vacation
1. Lake Powell
2. Houston, TX
3. Phoenix, AZ
4. Denver, CO

4 Favorite Foods
1. Caramel popcorn
2. Fresh fruit
3. Pork salad at Cafe Rio- they just opened one in Vegas- HOORAY!
4. Any goodies that my friend Jen makes! YUM!

4 Websites I Visit Daily
1. Gmail
2. Favorite Blogs
3. Myfamily.com
4. I only visit those 3 regularly, although #2 is multiple site rolled into one.

4 Place I Want to Visit
1. Hawaii
2. Nauvoo
3. The mountains in UT
4. Disneyland

Here are the 4 people I am tagging:

Karlea

Amy

Lisa

Laura

A little late

Friday was the mark of Caitlyn turning 7 months old. It's been a busy weekend, so the info. is a bit late. (NOTE: The pictures are still lacking. I think I figured out why... Bill changed the setting on our camera so I think they're too big to upload on dial-up. So now it's time to decide if we're going to upgrade our Internet service or go back to having grainy pictures. Such tough choices!)

Here are a few updates about Caitlyn at 7 months:
*Caitlyn is SUCH a happy little girl! She seems to always have a smile on her face, and man is it contagious!
*In addition to being happy, she's sooooo content. She plays with toys by herself or next to Madisen for a long time! She only gets fussy if her diaper's dirty, if Madisen is in her face or takes a toy away, ot if she gets herself stuck by the piano or in the entry way.
*She's learned to push herself up from her tummy to a 'sitting' position. She hasn't figured out how to put her legs together for stability, so instead she sits in the splits. People always comment on how flexible she is.
*Now she can rock on all 4's and is really trying to figure out how to make her body move beyond that position. She can army crawl on her tummy. The real crawl is coming soon. :)
*She loves her baby food. She gets so excited when I get the bowl and spoon out, she knows what's coming. When I sit down to feed her she opens her mouth wide and then closes it quickly. She almost looks like a snapping turtle. It's so cute!
*Caitlyn has made her dad proud. All day long she babbles "da, da, da da". I love when I say it and she responds.

***Today, June 26, I took her to the doctor. She's a healthy and growing small girl. She's in the 5th percentile for weight (14 pounds) and 20th percentile for height. She got her shots and she was pretty clingy tonight. It's so sad to see her hurt, but it's for her own good. Hopefully she'll feel better by tomorrow or Thursday.

It's Happenening...

right before our eyes. Our sweet Caitlyn is learning to crawl, and getting stronger at sitting up! Yikes! I don't know if I'm ready for 2 mobile and curious children. When she's on her tummy she scoots forward using her arms and pushing on her toes, and now she's starting to pull her knees up. She obviously goes farther in the kitchen or the entry way as opposed to the carpet, but she's getting good. She's also good at scooting backwards on her tummy. It's really funny to watch her spin around and try to reach a toy, especially b/c her right leg is usually straight out to the side or parallel to her body, like the picture I posted of her a few weeks ago. One of my favorite things about Caitlyn is that she loves her sister! Whenever she hears Madisen's voice she turns her whole body to look for her, even if she's a room away.

The "Wicked" Weekend

Last weekend I got to fly to Denver with Caitlyn to meet my mom, sisters, aunts and cousins. (Madisen stayed home with her dad.) It was a quick and fabulous trip with the soul purpose of seeing the Broadway musical, "Wicked". We of course squoze in a visit to the Botanical Gardens and the Aquarium, followed by a delicious dinner at a quaint restaurant nestled in the heart of downtown Denver. Denver is a BEAUTIFUL city! It's green, the mountains are close, and the city was very clean- a lot like Salt Lake, actually. I really enjoyed driving through town b/c there were a lot of older buildings and some beautiful churches. It was such a contrast to Vegas.

"Wicked" was incredible! I highly recommend it to anyone- it's in LA and New York continuously right now. The plot was clever and witty and I love how it was, in my mind, the PERFECT prequel to the Wizard of Oz. The overall message was that you can't judge people based on their appearance, beauty comes from within and also a message of friendship and loyalty. It was so refreshing to be entertained by something that focuses on the things that are right and good about human nature! The music was fabulous- I couldn't help but smile as I walked out of there. Thanks mom!!!

Here are some pictures of us at the Aquarium. It was an impressive aquarium, especailly since we weren't near the coast! The fish weren't all tropical or ocean fish they had incorporated stream and lake fish which I thought was great considering we were near the Rocky Mtns.

Kellie & Caitlyn by the toucan

Caitlyn & Grandma checking out the Rainbow Trout

The shark swam by just as mom clicked the picture

A trip to Houston

Caitlyn REALLY wanted to help Madisen blow the bubbles!

They flew these airplanes all over the house and the back yard.

Of course the dog had to go feed the ducks, too!

Madisen really liked riding in the kayak with her daddy!

This is a bit late, but I still wanted to include some pictures, etc. from our trip to Houston over Memorial Day weekend. We got to go for 4 days and spend time with Bill's whole family! It was great that we all got be together, all 12 of us! We swam, kayaked, played games, blew bubbles, saw "Pirates", took golf cart rides, had a water balloon fight, played tennis and went to a pizza place where Madisen and Matthew got to play some video games and ride rides with their daddies. Madisen really enjoyed playing with Matthew, he even taught her how to play Candyland.

Saying goodbye to an old friend

Well, tonight it happened. We parted with our 1992 Toyota Camry- it was an "Oldlie but Goodie." I've owned it since 1999- she and I have quite a history together! It was the first car I bought, it got me through 2 years of college, 3 years of teaching school and 2 1/2 years of motherhood. There were 171,000 miles on it and it probably will go that far again, but we weren't willing to put the money into it that it needed to have the AC fixed- yes the AC is broken and we still sold it to someone here in Vegas.

This is how it happened: I posted it on Craigs List at 3:30 this afternoon for $1500. (CarMax said they'd give us $500.) Within about 20 minutes I had 9 emails of interest come to my inbox. The title that caught my eye was "Serious Cash Customer For Your Toyota Camry", luckily it was the first one I received, so I called the guy. We decided that he'd come at 7 p.m. He arrived about 7:30 and after a test drive and some price haggling with Bill, the lucky man was the proud new owner of the Toyota Camry and we are $1200 richer. I signed the title away and we are officially a 1 car family! Not for long, of course! We're in the market for something new, details on that when it happnes. :)