I got some new pictures posted today...October through February. Check them out when you get a chance. Kaylee is doing very well in school. She's a smart cookie! Lexi is doing well also. We've been working on pronunciation. She doesn't exactly talk clearly so we've been working on that. I think we're making a slow improvement. Jim got a new truck last week...Ram Cummins Diesel. He's pretty excited about it. I kinda am too. It's a nice truck and will be great on long 4-wheelin trips. We'll possibly be trying it out in April when we go down to Southern Missouri Off Road Park. The dogs are doing good too. Willy is growing like a weed! He's up to around 35 pounds now I think. Taylor's slowly but surely getting used to Willy. There's not as many fights anymore and we actually snapped a picture of the two of them laying next to each other!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Meet our new puppy...Willy! He's a black lab and 10 months old today. Currently he weighs 13 pounds. He weighed in at 4.5 pounds the day we brought him home at 6 weeks of age. We're guessing he'll be around 70 pounds in a few months! Notice I said 'He'. Now we have 2 males in the house! :) Jim thinks he's found his new Jeepin' buddy! Willy has already been out 4-wheelin once and camping once. The girls are loving having a puppy in the house that actually plays with his toys. I can't really say the same about Taylor (our 7 year old Pomeranian). She is still trying to get used to the idea of another dog.

Kaylee is loving school! She has made lots of new friends and getting to know old friends even better. Lexi is doing well. I think she's been enjoying Kaylee's school days also...she likes playing in 'Kaylee's Room' with all her toys! Keep checking the site for new pictures! I'm going to try to get some posted today.

We're already preparing for school! Kaylee is so excited to be going to Kindergarten. She had a great time just picking out her school supplies! We still need to get out and do some shopping for clothes. That should be fun. We have open house about a week before school starts so she'll get to meet her teacher and maybe some of her classmates. I'll be sure and post some pictures of her first day!

We've been pretty busy with spring activities: 4-wheelin, gardening, walks, playing at the park. Unlike the rest of Iowa, we have been fortunate to not get flooded over the past few weeks. It finally looks like we're going to have a dry week!

The girls are doing great! Our biggest problem these days is the sister fights. I'm not sure it's going to get any better. The topics will probably just move from barbies to clothes to eventually boys...shhhh...don't tell Jim! I'll most definitely take the barbie fights any day!

Happy 5th Birthday Kaylee! She was the pretty princess of her very own princess party! Thanks to everyone for coming to help us celebrate. I got pictures of the fun day posted here.

Happy Second Birthday Lexi! She had a great Elmo party last weekend! Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate with us. Kaylee and Lexi are both having fun playing with the new toys.

We've been keeping busy over the last few months. In January, I was promoted to Software Tester at IFMC. It seems to be going well. I can't remember any big details from February. In March, Kaylee had a preschool concert. The kids were so cute singing their songs! In April, Kaylee attended Kindergarten Round-Up...looks like she passed and is going to Kindergarten next school year! Yikes! Also, Jim is in the process of becoming the IT Manager at LCRC. So I guess we've had some pretty big events the last few months!

Be sure to check out our pictures. I finally got some new ones posted!

Happy Holidays! We had a great Thanksgiving and are gearing up for Christmas. We're slowly checking off the "to-do's" on our list: everyone got sick (but is better now!), put up the Christmas tree, made some chex mix, finished shopping, talked to Santa and made my first gingerbread house. I think we are at the point of just sitting back and enjoying the season...it helps that there is some snow on the ground! Enjoy the new pictures!

As you can probably tell, I have been very busy trying to get my website recreated. Let me know what you think or what you would like to see on our site. If you know of anyone in need of a website please pass my name along. I would love to add more sites to my portfolio...for business or personal use.

The girls are doing good. Lexi is trying to get over a cold. I think she's trying to talk. She tries to say "Duck" and will repeat sounds that I make. Kaylee is having a great time in preschool. She is excited to go everyday, even on the weekends!

We're getting prepared for Halloween. Kaylee is going to be a barbie princess in a pink (imagine that!) dress and Lexi is going to be a duck. I'm trying to teach her how to quack! I'll get pictures posted soon.

So there has been lots going on since June. Jim and I have both had birthdays...we'll leave off the ages! Lexi has grown 7 teeth within the last month or so...poor girl! Kaylee got about 5-6 inches cut off her hair. The hair that was cut off is being sent to Locks of Love. They are an organization that takes donated hair and makes it into wigs for kids with cancer.

Kaylee also started preschool this last week. So far it sounds like she is having a blast! I'll have pictures posted soon of her with her short hair and back pack!

Today is the first day of summer and boy does it feel like it. I'm not sure what the temperature is but the humidity is just about unbearable. We went to the Omaha Zoo on Monday. None of us had ever been there before. It was a great day. The weather even held out for us. It was kind of cool in the morning and didn't start getting real hot until later in the afternoon. I think most all the animals were out walking around in their cages. We all had a blast. We'll probably go back in a couple of years when Lexi is old enough to enjoy it more. Kaylee got to see almost all of her Madagascar friends: Giraffe (Melman), Lion (Alex), Hippo/Rhino (Gloria). The Zebra (Marty) had been injured so we couldn't see him. I think the train was the highlight of her day though. It was a pretty good sized steam engine. They blew out a bunch of steam once. That was pretty cool. Check out our pics!

Happy Birthday Kaylee! (Though it's a few days late) Kaylee is now 4 years old. At her 4 year check up, she weighed in at 34 lbs and is 40 inches tall. She's as average as can be on the growth charts.

We gave the girls a sand box for their birthdays. They have been playing in it quite a bit lately with all the nice weather we've been having.

Lexi has officially been introduced to the Jeep. We finally had the opportunity to go driving around town with the top down. Kaylee and Lexi were having fun waving at everyone.

Happy First Birthday Lexi! I can't believe it has been a whole year! We had a Winnie the Pooh party last weekend. Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate.

Lexi is definitely walking now. It's very cute to see her waddling around. She had her 1 year check up today. She's 20.25 pounds and 30.5 inches long. She's sleeping off her shots right now.

Kaylee is sitting beside me with her Barbie laptop. She's practicing her letters. She thinks it's pretty cool that we all have laptops. She just asked if we could switch computers. I don't think Daddy would like that idea!

I finally took some pictures of Kaylee at gymnastics today. I had to take pictures through a window so they didn't turn out real good but you'll get the idea. She seems to like the classes most of the time. She's scheduled to take classes through May. I think we'll take a break over the summer. Maybe we'll try some swim lessons instead.

We got a new truck last week. It's an '03 Ram. It's pretty nice and will comfortably seat all 4 of us. Jim thinks he's going to be able to tow his Jeep someplace like Moab (Utah) to go 4-wheelin. I think I need to go 4-wheelin with him a few more times locally before I'll be ready for that! We don't have any pics yet but I'm sure we will soon.

In kid world, Kaylee is still her active, talkative self. She's going to be our little chearleader someday. Lexi is trying to walk. She'll just take one step right now but she seems very determined to learn.

As for the weather, about 2 weeks ago we had a blizzard here and today it reached 76 degrees! Go figure. Like everyone says...That's Iowa for ya!

Lexi is waving pretty good now. She will look up from whatever she is playing with and start waving at whoever is around her. It's pretty cute. I also put away her bottles. We're now using sippy cups all day! Now if I could only get her to start liking chunky foods we can get rid of the baby food too! My babies are growing up so fast...It's kinda sad if you think about it. Kaylee had gymnastics class this morning. She is doing pretty good with her tumbling and gymnastic activities. I'll try to take a camera in with me sometime to get some pictures.

Lexi is now officially saying "mama" :)

I am in the process of making big changes to our website. There is now a new home page. (Thanks to Jim for "The Shanks Family" image) One of these days I plan on adding my recipes to this website. I have hopes of making this Notes page a place where I can enter notes regarding o ur family and/or upcoming events.