The BIG CHOP

A day my beautiful Kaitlyn has been waiting for....

THE BIG CHOP!!

She's been growing her hair out again and really anxious for the ease and coolness of having shorter hair.  I'd asked her to wait until after her baptism for pretty pictures and because I knew for sure it would be warm enough to be staying warm.

So the day came.....

In all she cut 9 1/2 inches off, we'll donate it at Relay for Life in a couple weeks.  She LOVES the new "do" and I'm so proud of her!!

Aunt Sarah.....

Is now a missionary, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She has a SPECIAL assignment though, she's a performing missionary in Nauvoo, Illinois, a church historical site.  She'll learn some shows and serve as a tour guide.  She was among many hundreds of people auditioned, and she was one of 20 people chosen.

We went to College Station to see her during the 2 weeks she had between school and her 4 month mission.

It also coincided with an Aggie Institute Reunion and the retirement party for the long time director, who also serves in the Stake Presidency, this was a group photo of us at the party--we're a fun group!

 And this is us with Aunt Sarah going for a drive in the car....

We'll miss Aunt Sarah-mundo and being able to see her this summer, but we'll go see her in Nauvoo AND we're planning on writing and sending care packages (Sam's got these all planned!)

Walking to school may be harmful for your health

Matthew is walking proof that walking to school may not always be good for your health.

Exhibit A:

When walking to school, sometimes you will fall and skin your knee......

Exhibit B:

Then after skinning your knee, and you run to your mother in tears to tell her about your injury, you MIGHT fall, over-rotate and conk your noggin on the sidewalk and get an even bigger injury!!!

Poor guy, he's just trying to keep up with all the other kids, good thing he's cute!

I will raise READERS

So the other day my kids were complaining they didn't have any books they really wanted to read.

My older two are my children who know how to read and they get books regularly from their school library so I thought we were good, but my children were asking to READ!!

So we spent the afternoon at the library.  

They each have their own bag, my "readers" have their own library cards.  My older two can get as many books as they are old, at least to start, I think Sam ended up with a couple extras.

Movies are always a favorite, we got 5.

Sam was so excited about his books that we checked his out first and then Kaitlyn took her turn, then we did Lindsey and Matthew's.  When I turned around I found Sam lying on his stomach reading one of his new treasures, I should have snapped a picture but I didn't think to.

After this we hit up Sonic for a slushie that we shared.....

Then we tried a new thing (that I heard in an interview with Julie B. Beck of something she did in her house): BRING A BOOK TO DINNER--it was a total hit!  And probably the quietest meal we've had in a long time, if not ever!

Then the kids were ready for bed early, and this is what they did:

I will RAISE READERS!!!

Sam turns 6

Our house is a bit crazy in the spring.

We celebrate 4 birthdays in 22 days, throw Easter in there too and it's busy!

Sam's is the 3rd in this barage of celebrations.  

So this guy turned 6 and with all the hoopla over Kaitlyn's special 8, we tried to make things special for him too.

Of course on THE day Stephen took the day off from work and was the resident watch dog:

Lunch was from Canes (we were almost late, silly 10:30 kindergarten lunch period makes it hard for fast food to have made the switch from breakfast to lunch).

Gifts included some new books (Encyclopedia Brown, A-Z Mysteries, and Magic Treehouse), a remote control car, and a poster of his Book of Mormon Hero Moroni, Grandparents Lewis got him this really cool Lego Star Wars Encyclopedia book that he has since spent hours pouring over, and Grandparents McKneely got him some water guns which we've really enjoyed!

His special treat was a blue cake with sprinkles on top (DONE)--we keep cakes simple around here, I do a lot of things, but I don't do fun cakes.

So Happy Birthday to my sweet, analytical, talkative, affectionate, dis-tractable Sam, I can't imagine our family without you!

Easter 2012

What a special weekend for Kaitlyn's baptism to be on Easter, a sign of new beginnings and new life.  And it's a bonus that we'll always remember when she was baptized.

But because it was Easter, that meant that we had the usual McKneely traditions like the Bunny Run Breakfast!  You see, our Easter Bunny brings breakfast, juice, yogurt, little boxes of cereal, bananas, oranges, along with our eggs.

Because of our full house, this was the tribe waiting on Easter morning....

 Here are some good shots of the festivities....

 

But unfortunately you'll have to be satisfied with these because in all the craziness of getting 16 of us out the door to church we didn't have a chance to snap a photo of all the kids in their Easter duds!

But we did have time to look at some pictures that grandma and grandpa took while on their recent trip to Israel, they were very special to see on Easter because they were of all the places of the last week of our Saviors life.

And then of course there was the Easter feast!  YUM!

Kaitlyn gets baptized

In our faith we get baptized when we're 8 years old.  It's an age of accountability when people know the difference between right and wrong.  Want to know more about what we believe?  go here.

So that being said, Kaitlyn had turned 8 and she was baptized Easter weekend.  It was such a special time for us.

For starters, we had so many family members come for the special occasion, and they all stayed with us, so there were 16 people staying at our house, which is a record I think, sure to be broken someday, but it was most of the McKneely clan.

Here is the special girl on her day in a dress made by grandma McKneely, I think she just glows!! 

She was so happy that day.  During much of the service she was emotional and felt the Spirit, which makes her cry and then she gets embarrassed.  I feel it a blessing that she's learned so early in life what it feels like when the Lord speaks to her heart.  How we love our K!