4th of July!

On the 4th we got to mostly hung out with our new ward family. We love being members of our church. Wherever we move to we have an instant family! So in the morning we went to our ward pancake breakfast and bike parade. The kids had a blast decorating their bikes and then showing them off at the church. Then off to the really long and really hot parade. We had to buy popsicles so as not to die from the heat. The stampede of longhorns at the beginning was the best part. We should have left after that. If you click on the collage and see the stampede pic up close it looks like one of the longhorns wanted to charge the kids. crazy. We went home after that and barbequed and rested before heading out to Kya's primary teachers house for fireworks and smores. This was their reward for being good during class at church. Families were invited. Thanks Kya for being good. The party was fun. Tom said he had never met someone who was more of a pyro that he was. Bro. Steiber's fireworks show was amazing. On the way we pulled over to watch the end of the towns fireworks. It was like being on a date since the kids weren't awake. How romantic.

Yeah for Conor!

No more training wheels for this guy! We're so proud of you Conor T.
Conor wanted me to post these pics. This just happened a few minutes ago and he wants to surprise his daddy and grandparents and Aunties and Uncles with his great accomplishment. We will go and call Daddy now and tell him to check our blog.

Father's Day and Birthday's

June is a very full month at the McDowell Casa. 5 years ago I was ripe with Ky-pie and due to have her on my birthday. She of course decided to come on Father's day instead. Tom says he had no idea how much his little girl would own her daddy's heart. Watch out any future boyfriends or even dates. Tom is already planning and getting ideas of how he is going to handle it. His latest idea is to say to the guy who takes his daughter out, "Remember, whatever you do to my daughter.....I do to you (from The movie New in Town). I already feel sorry for the poor guys.


So first of all Happy Fathers Day to the best Daddy to ever live,

I love how you wish you could be the stay at home parent yet assume your role and allow me to stay home.

I love how you watch movies with your kids just to get extra snuggle time in.

I love how fun and crazy you are with our kids.

I love the great spiritual example you set for our kids.

I love that you teach them that it's more important to have fun than to be to cautious.

I love that you have a mission box that you pull out every once in a while to show the kids.

I love that you will take the kids fishing, golfing and sledding, not just to give me a break, but because you really love hanging out with them.

I love that you make us my grandma Rosemary's pancakes or my moms waffles on the weekends.

I love that you make the best cookies ever and let the kids help.

I love how excited the kids get when you come home, even Crew screams and reaches for you.

I love that you know how to put Kya's hair in a ponytail.

I love that you have given me three amazingly beautiful children!

I love the way you love our kids.






Crew's new thing is to lick Tom. I can't figure out if he just wants to taste what Tom is eating or if he's kissing him, but he kept licking him later that day while we were at the grocery store. Sweetest thing ever!

These are some pics from Kya's Birthday. We can't believe she's 5 and will start school this year. She amazes us and makes us laugh everyday. We're so lucky to have her in our family. So for her b-day she wanted to have a party and go to Build a Bear Workshop. So we had a small party with our backyard neighbors and then went to Build a Bear with Auntie Kindy and Briley. Grammy and Papa surprised Kya and came for her Birthday instead of in July as planned. She loved having them. What a fun b-day surprise! That evening we walked and rode bikes to the mailbox and there was a fun birthday package from Grandma and Gramps McDowell. Talk about perfect timing. Kya loved it! This was an early present from Auntie Kindy and Uncle Nate. It's her own miniature greenhouse. Cool gift!




Amazing Auntie Chell made this adorable tutu for Kya. It is so beautiful. We love it!







Lastly, my birthday was great. I got to hang out with my favorite people. Kya and I made hairbows for the neighbor girl. Conor and I finished reading a chapter book. Crew clung to me most of the day, which I love (I think he's about to pop out a tooth, I can see it just below the surface). Then Tom brought home an ice cream cake and real fireworks to celebrate. For those of you who know Tom, the fireworks are typical of him and the pyromaniac illness he has. The 4th is my favorite holiday so I'm sure thats why he did them, right. Gotta love him. Thanks my sweet family for such a great day. No pics, sorry my camera battery was dead. But here's one of me on Kya's Birthday with two little cuties.

Enjoying Colorado

Besides the amazingly beautiful miles and miles of farm land and cool weather these are some of the things we're enjoying about Co.

These pics of Crew and Briley are actually from right before we moved to Colorado. Tom and I and Crew drove up for a few days to find a house and we stayed with Nate and Kindy. Crew and Briley were so cute together. The Hardy family is definately the best part of Colorado. We love you guys!

Crew loves grabbing at Briley's bows and face. This girl is gonna be tough. Sorry Briley we just love you soooo much!

Cousins! Yeah! We have waited a long time to have cousins on this side of the family. We are beyond excited to get to live by the first one. Can't wait for more.

On our Anniversary Auntie Kindy and Uncle Nate watched our kids so we could go to our traditional Red Lobster Dinner. That morning Kya picked out this outfit and asked if we could call Kindy and ask if Briley could wear the same thing. She loves Briley tons. Thanks Nate and Kindy, for watching our kids and for giving them a cousin.

Tom and I both grew up with gardens and want to teach the importance of it to our kids. We have had some type of garden every year since we've been married, even if it was just some tomatoe plants in buckets. We moved just in time to get a garden in but were dissapointed that the house we're renting didn't have a place to put a garden so we decided it would have to be a container garden this year. Then at church I was reading the announcements and it said to call the Welfare Farm Manager if you're interested in space in the stake garden. They already had it plowed and ready for planting and they irrigate twice a week. They just require that we plant weed and harvest our own crop. Not to be cheesy but this was like a dream come true. The next night for family home evening we were out there planting. We have 3- 125 foot rows. We are growing tomatoes, green beans, peas, corn, turnips, radishes, carrots, bell peppers (red and green), and a few pumpkins and cantaulope. Our dream has always been to someday have a huge garden in our backyard. I want to can the food like I remember my mom doing when I was a kid. Canned green beans from the garden are heavenly.
Notice Crew tasting the dirt. I guess he heard us talking about how good the garden would taste and he thought he'd try it out. He seemed to like it because when I tryed to dig the dirt out of his mouth he yelled at me. Aunt Shannon this pic is for you.

Kya taking her job very seriously.

We went for a Sunday drive a couple of weekends ago and found this cool tower. Crew was asleep so I told Tom it was my turn to be the cool parent and take the kids up it. He got to stay in the van with the sleeping baby. It wasn't long before Crew woke up and Tom joined us. Hmm now that I'm telling this story I'm beginning to question how Crew woke up. Tom? anyway it was fun.





This was actually before the Tower. See what I mean about him always getting to be the cool parent. After this I got to take the kids to a stinky bathroom which turned out to be way to stinky and we had to go find a gas station to use their facilities.

Cold Colorado water. We were wondering why all the fishermen we saw were wearing waders. Tom usually just wades through the water in his shoes. The water was freezing. Tom now needs more fishing gear.

We have our milk delivered from a local farm. My kids say that it tastes better. I have to agree. It's all natural and definately worth the little extra it costs. Good thing our daddy makes amazing cookies so we can truly enjoy our quality milk.

Crew's first haircut

Last night we gave Crew his first "real" haircut! We have had to trim those long wispy pieces a few times starting when he was only a few weeks old. This was the first time we actually got out the electic trimmers and went over the whole thing, with the longest attachment of course. No thanks to Tom, who wanted to buzz all of that beautiful hair off. Crazy daddy. It was hard enough for me to do this much. I will never forget when Tom talked me into letting him buzz Conors hair when he was a little over a year old. I cryed. It was awful. My baby's beautiful hair all gone in a minute. I'm very happy with Crew's new do and now that I look at the before and after, I can't believe we let it get so long! He was so good. He held very still and didn't make a peep while daddy held him and I cut. He has such a sweet disposition.I'm always happy on daddy's lap.
O.k. mama, I'm ready.
They said I'd get a tub tub after my haircut. This is my favorite part.
How do I look?
My daddy is the funniest guy ever!
I wish I could catch mosquitoes with Conor and Kya. O.k. maybe not, Conor got bit.
I love my new haircut. It gets me lots of attention. Notice my new Cars jammies. I got them a few days ago. I was so excited about them. I would grab them and scream with excitement.
Yes those are my lovely lashes. Oh and my bruised forehead from biffing it on our entertainment center the other night. Hey a guys gotta explore EVERYTHING right?

Sweet Potatoe Baby!

They kicked us out of our house in Bagdad because Tom got laid off and the mine owns the houses and they would not extend our lease through the end of the school year as we requested. So we rented a Uhaul and moved everything into a storage unit and are now staying with my parents. Less than a week after we got here Tom got a job offer in Colorado. Right before we left Conor's teacher's (they team teach) told me that he would need to repeat 1st grade. I was shocked because he has done great in school. His Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers at his previous school told us how amazed they were with his intelligence and how he was above average academically. They even told me at the beginning of 1st grade that he was reading at a level well beyond 2nd grade and he got an award for Aceing all of his math tests. He only got 1 word wrong on one of all of his spelling tests. So naturally I was upset and nicely let them know that I disagreed. I told them that he would be in second grade next year regardless of their suggestion. Even if it meant summer school. So we got him enrolled immediately in school when we got to my parents house. Three days later his teacher informed me that she did some assesments on him and she to is shocked that someone would refer him to be held back. She said that he is in no danger of being held back and has the skills he needs to be a successful student.
At first we could not understand what the purpose of moving was, only to find out four days later that we would move somewhere else. What a pain! We now realize that if for no other reason than for Conor, it was all worth it. We are so proud of him and are so happy that he is doing well and enjoying school again. We know that the Lord guides us if we let him and even though we may not always understand his reasoning or timing, we trust him. We know he loves us and wants the best for us.

*This is a picture I took yesterday of Conor. Tom moved to Colorado a week ahead of us so while he's been up there Conor lost one of his front teeth. Tom is sad he wasn't here for it. The tooth next to it is also loose and Conor calls it his Nanny Mcfee tooth. I thought I better hurry and post a picture for Tom before the other one comes out. I'm hopeing it hangs in there till Saturday, when we see Tom so he doesn't feel like he missed out. We miss you best daddy ever!

While we've been here the kids have been without most of their toys and even though Grammy and Papa provide plenty of toys, I guess Kya needs something more. So she begged Grammy for a sweet potatoe she found in the pantry. At first Grammy said "no thats for me to eat." But who can say no to that sweet little face and request for the potatoe to be her baby. So she gave it to her and Kya asked me for a blanket for her baby. I found her a little (handmade by Aunt Joanne) dishcloth. It was the sweetest sight I've ever seen. Later it got even sweeter when Kya asked Grammy to make a pillow for her baby and once again Grammy could not say no. So now sweet potatoe baby has a pillow and matching blankie. We dread the day when Kya's baby starts to rot and we have to explain why her beloved babe will have to be thrown away.

Bull Elk!!??...and job

A few nights ago at about 11:00 pm Tom woke me up to tell me that he got drawn for Bull Elk in area 1 for the early hunt. I told him he shouldn't have checked in the middle of the night because now he wouldn't be able to sleep. I am not really into hunting but being from Round Valley I know enough about it to know that that is a coveted, and not likely to get drawn for, hunt. So my reaction was, "holy cow! congrats, but yeah right it's probably just a cow elk." Don't worry, He has checked it like 20 times since then and yep it is for a Bull. It's all we hear about now. A lot of guys at my dad's work are excited about it because it's cool to even know someone drawn for this hunt. So even though I told Tom that I didn't want him to put in this year because of the money, I'm way excited for him and glad he did. Congratulations love. As I always say, I did marry you partly because of your manliness, and even though I complain when you're gone for hours doing manly things, I do love you for it.
......More exciting McDowell news........
Tom got a job! We will be moving to Colorado and he will be a supply manager at the largest beef manufacturer in the world. It's the perfect job for him, His degree is in Agribusiness & Resource Management and he has lots of buying experience. He enjoyes the purchasing/contracts field. So I'm excited for him. Good thing we're not vegetarians huh. Our lives seem to revolve around meat right now. Actually my dad is in the kitchen right now making elk jerky out of the elk he shot last year. yum. We're at my parents right now until we move. We're letting Conor finish school and then we'll join Tom in Colorado. Thanks Mom and Dad. You are the best for having us. We love you. Also thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, especially our little nephew, Ave, who prays for uncle Tommy to find a job. We appreciate and feel your prayers. We too pray for others whom the economic downturn has effected. The Lord truly hears and answers our prayers. We're grateful for our knowledge and relationship with Him. We feel His love and in return love and desire to serve Him.