August in a nutshell...

My girls have taken to crawling into each other's bed pretty much every night.  They play until they fall asleep.  I must say that I love it.  Sure sometimes when they are still awake at 9pm & causing a ruckus...or fighting (in each other's beds pinching each other, stealing blankets, pulling hair...and tattling about it all), I don't love it as much.  But for the most part they play together so well and love being together.  I know that there will be lots of times in the future where that might not be the case, so for now I am enjoying it.  They are so sweet and I wish that I could freeze time and make them stop growing up so fast!

Matt's Grandma snuggling Kate (from whom she gets half her middle name Lou"Anne")

Kate's finally big enough that we can throw all 3 girls into the bath together, which they love, and which expedites the process!

We went camping with Matt's parents, & Barry's, & Heather's families in mid-Aug.   It was lots of fun.  Matt found out after we already had our reservations that he had an all day clinical instructor's meeting in Thatcher the first day our our scheduled trip (He is a clinical instructor for EAC's Nursing program starting this fall - exciting stuff!).  So he joined us in Sedona late that night, which made a long day of driving for him, he left for Thatcher at quarter to 5 in the morning, drove the 3 hours, was in a meeting all day, then that late afternoon left thatcher and made the 5.5 hour drive to Sedona.  He did however get to miss out on packing/loading/driving with the girls/setting up camp/lunch/dinner/etc, so don't feel TOO sorry for him :)  It rained quite a lot that first day, so I got to set up/unload in the rain.  Thank goodness Nana & Boopah came and watched the girls (they had a condo nearby) so I could set up without worrying about them.  Everyone got wet and dirty, but it all worked out!  And I also learned that our tent leaked...A LOT!  :)

 The girls sure brought back a great rock collection!

 We were right on Oak Creek, it was a great spot. 

 Tom was a great sport and often watched lots of extra kids on hikes/walks.  Here he took Isabel down to see the water (my kids weren't allowed anywhere near it without and adult)

 We were able to jump in and cool off during the warmest part of the day, which was perfect!

 jumping off a rock in the middle of the creek

 J. loved to make Kate laugh

 Telling ghost stories

 Iz getting Aunt Heather snuggles

 I CAN'T believe how big Miss J. is getting.  It literally blows my mind.  I can't imagine what it will be like when we come home after grad school and she is driving around and is certainly going to be taller than me.  She was very sweet and snuggled miss Kate/hauled her around with her while we loaded up.

 Nana & the kids

 And of course a camping trip wouldn't be complete without a little drama...

Lily started preschool the day after we got back from camping.   Believe it or not the following pictures are the best (we took LOTS trying to get a good shot) pictures of Lily on her (last!) first day of preschool.  Next year she'll be in kindergarten!

 Some days even the cutest kids (excuse my bias) REFUSE to be photogenic!

 The pic below is of Lily starting preschool last year, see how big they've gotten!

Congrats, if you made it this far!  And congrats to me!  August is blogged and its only th first week of Sept, which means I am fully caught up!  Woohoo!  Now I can blog guilt free!