Olivia's Birthday

Olivia turned six on September 18th. She is getting so big. We have really enjoyed having her in our lives. I can't believe she is our six year old princess.

Kelly had the opportunity to help Kyle move from Atlanta to L.A. They had a lot of fun and did it in two and a half days.

Olivia's first day of Kindergarten. She is the tallest in her class!

For the past few years we have been going to the Balloon Festival in Eden. It has been a lot of fun. We have to leave early in the morning to get there in time. The kids have had a lot of fun seeing the different balloons.

JJ's Bite

We went to Springville to attend Chris & LeeAnn's boy's baptism. After the baptism, we went to LeeAnn's parents house (Doug & MarJean) to have pizza and visit with family. When Lisa and I were going to college we rented the basement in the little house next door to them. We became friends with the couple just the west of us, so we left the kids with LeeAnn & Chris for a few minutes to visit our old friends. When we returned, Chris informed us there was an altercation with JJ and the dog. I thought it was with Besty, Doug's fat bulldog. However, it turns out it was the cocker spaniel belonging to their other neighbors. Unprovoked, the dog lept out of its owners arms and ran to JJ, biting him on the cheek. (No fault of LeeAnn -- She feels really bad)

I was just grateful that it didn't get his eye. We spent several hours at the InstaCare. Though he had a pretty good size puncture wound, the doctor opted not to stich it because the scaring would most likely be worse. We left with a prescription for some antibiotics and some Bob the Builder stickers. He was a really good trooper. The dog's owners "offered" with a little pushing to pay for our expenses ($80 in copays) which I believe was the least they could do. What an exciting day!

Brenda Whitby caught a 60 pound King Salmon. J.J. thought he was pretty cool standing next to it.

J.J. and Olivia loved riding in the boat. Grandpa took them for fun rides. Livi even liked sitting there waiting for a fish to bite. They enjoyed their trip a lot.

LeeAnn caught a 40 pound King Salmon. She caught it while she was out on the river in the first hour she was out on the river. I have been married to Kelly nine and a half years and have yet to catch any Salmon off the Kenai river.

Kelly was just tired, but Lisa she had on a patch so she wouldn't get sea sick. She could not stay awake for the life of her. We went on a Halibut charter and each caught two Halibut each. Lisa never caught any of her own fish though. Fred caught one and by the end of the trip the crew were all fishing for her.

Olivia, Tyler Jessee, and J.J. are standing out front of the Kenai cabin.

Here is the very talked about Kenai "cabin". We had to have a lot of men putting in the granite island. It looked as though some of their veins were going to pop. And you can't forget the granite stairs in the garage that lead up to the second floor. The house is gorgeous and has been fun to be able to go up and stay while in Alaska

Olivia and J.J. got to see the chocolate fountain in Anchorage.

The kids got to ride horses at Pioneer Park.

We visited quite a few places and enjoyed spending time with family.

We had the King family reunion this summer. It has been so much for. We got to meet a lot of fun new cousins. We visited a lot of the church sites here in Salt Lake City. Kelly joined when he could.

We finally got a swing set. YEAH!!! The kids don't have to go over to the neighbors house anymore. It sure has been fun.

Our little girl has graduated from Preschool. She sure has grown up fast. We are so proud of her.

This is Kelly's new toy. Although J.J. thinks that it is his also. We all enjoy riding in the Shelby Cobra. It has been a fun new addition to our lives.

Visiting Nana and Papa Strong. They are sure loved. (both ways.)

This all came from our backyard. There was even more up on the street behind our house. No one has cleaned the ground cover in I don't know how long. we found old beer bottles and hub caps along with many other disgusting things. The backyard looks a lot better.

Easter was fun this year. The kids are getting old enough to understand it. Coloring eggs was really messy.

Our little man is two!!! He is growing up so fast. As you can see his most favorite things in the world are cars. He plays non-stop with them.

Livi decided that J.J. needed to dress up as a princess. Cute, but dad wasn't very happy.

JJ Gets Tubes

After countless earaches (and finally having a good health insurance plan) we visited a ENT doctor last week who recommended that we get tubes in JJ's ears ASAP. He already had one eardrum rupture and the other was close. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly they were able to schedule his surgery.

We left the house early this morning to get to the hospital by 6:30 a.m. We got JJ all checked in and then changed in his little outfit. They let him pick a stuffed animal (a giraffe--I'm sure it makes Carol proud) and we waited for his doctor to arrive. They whisked him away (with some tears shed) and took him back to the operating room. Lisa got a little teary-eyed knowing her little boy was going through something that she couldn't help him with.

We grabbed a bagel for Lisa at the cafeteria and the doctor was in the waiting room briefing us not fifteen minutes later. I think the whole procedure was under 30 minutes. The doctor said his ears were worse than he thought. He was happy we got the procedure done.

We went to recovery and there was little JJ...crying in the nurses' arms. He was happy to see his mom and snuggled right into her. He ate almost an entire cup of ice chips and then a popsicle. (That's my boy.) They gave him some liquid Loritab and which made him a little tired. After about an hour in recovery they sent us home. He fell asleep on the way and then we put him to bed. He slept from 9:30 until 1 p.m., ate lunch and played a little, then went back down for another nap from 3:30 until I got home at 6 p.m. We hope all the sleep was from his medication and he will sleep tonight.

He's our little trooper. I think we underestimated the amount of pain he was really in. We're grateful that we were able to get it taken care of. Lisa and I look forward to seeing if his speech picks up a little more and his balance improves. He's only ran into the wall once this evening--but no bruises yet. He's now back to eating anything and everything. He's eaten four dark chocolate candies while I've typed this post. I think he's already made a full recovery.

Gingerbread House

Sorry the picture didn't turn out any better. I didn't have a tripod nor the patience to keep trying so this will have to do. In the week between jobs I didn't have an excuse not to put on Christmas lights. Fred taught me if you're going to do something, don't do it half-heartedly. So this is what happened. When you have a house with wood siding, it makes it really easy to hang the lights. It made the misses happy that our house looked festive for once. I'm now known as "Clark Griswold" to my next door neighbor.