The long awaited update!

Hi all, sorry for the long leave of absence. We have been busy as the end of summer break came and went and we plunged right into the school year. As of late we have been making salsa with vegetables from our very own garden (we are very proud), bottling peaches, and school shopping.
In August Mckenna began kindergarten. That's right we have an almost 6 year old can you believe it? I have a hard time thinking that just 6 years ago we started our family, where has the time gone? She has a boy teacher and at first was not excited about it, especially because we are having a boy baby-she feels boy locked, but luckily after her first visit with her teacher he had won her over and she loves being in his class. I get the opportunity of assisting in her class every week and helping in the classroom with the 26 children, yikes! Mckenna is also in gymnastics and does an awesome back-bend, and is working on her cartwheels and handstands. She tells me that she wants to change her name to read Makenna instead of Mckenna and she has even begun signing her name like that, we tell her it is not the same, but having started to read by sounding out letters she says "well that spells Mckenna" and I say yes, but that is not your name. She didn't get it and I didn't know how to explain, so all we could say was sign with a "c" not an "a". Lame reason, mom!
David started a new job just over a month ago where he only works 3.5 miles from home; compared to the 80 mile round trip he was making before, we are very happy. Dave, on days he is not at the gym, comes home for lunch and walks with us to take Mckenna to school, that is a lot of fun and will be really helpful when the new baby comes.
Joshua turns 3 in a couple of days and let me tell you I think he missed terrible two's but is making up for it now that he is on the brink of 3 years old. Sheesh! Luckily he is fully potty-trained and so we get a little break from the diapers for a little bit. He is so excited his grandma Deedee is taking him to build a bear for his birthday and he can't stop asking, if today is the day. He recently had his speech assessment with Alpine school district to see if he qualifies for further assistance in his speech progression. After a grueling 1.5 hours of testing, in which Josh was exceptionally patient, they concluded that he passed with flying colors and was right on track, if not above, for his age level. The ladies who tested him were raving about him by the time we left and were amazed at how well behaved he was. Good job Josh!
I have been working on making bedspreads for Josh and baby Laverl, thanks to the help of family it has been a quick process. In addition to assisting in Mckenna's class, Josh and I get a chance to work together and learn new things while she is in school. I am sure I do other things, but talking about what everyone else is doing is a lot easier than talking about the things that I do that seem so monotonous and boring. You know, clean the house, get fat, take care of the kids, keep getting fatter, necessary shopping, spend time with family, etc. Anyway, we are all doing well and are excited for the fall to come. The leaves have started to change and we love to be by the mountains at this time of year.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Mckenna and Josh painting a bird house that daddy brought home, they made a mess and ended up painting their shirts (Dave's shirts).

Grandma "B" and Josh on the mule at Yellowstone.

Mckenna and Josh on the four-wheelers with Grandpa "B".

Mckenna and Josh riding the ponies at Thanksgiving point while attending a Kids on the Move activity. And touching a fake sheep while looking at the animals.

Mckenna and some girls from her dance class the day of rehearsals.

Out of sight out of mind!

So, I feel bad for all you avid bloggers that look at my site and are constantly annoyed because of my lack of regular postings. Let me tell you it is easy to forget about doing it when I don't have Internet at my house and it doesn't look like we will be getting it in the near or distant future. Now I would love to have it but due to our current housing arrangement it is not possible. So I can't say that there will be any improvement in the days to come. Today I will update you on our recent adventures and activities.

Dave- He is loving having a garden and the progress that we see excites him (this being our first). He has recently trenched the garden and spends hours every 3 days making sure the water gets to the trenches. We also recently celebrated our 7th anniversary, which was fun. Are we past the hard part yet? At work, Dave's station is being sold and so we are anticipating with bated breath to see what that will entail.

Me- I spend most of my days chauffeuring children around to all their various activities that I put them in. Also, as many of you know and many don't. We are expecting our third child! SCARRRRRY! But we are excited and plan to have a good Christmas with this little one. We get to find out the gender in 10 days! The kids are really excited and each attest to having babies in their tummy. (Josh has two!) So besides trying not to be grossed out by weird smells and trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid constant jabs at my stomach everything is going pretty good. Also, I am the secretary in our ward primary and I am loving it. I have to say that it is probably one of the best callings.

Mckenna- She has been really busy this summer, she has recently finished her swim lessons and was ecstatic that she passed level one and can now progress to level two. She is also doing gymnastics and piano each week. She is really excited to go to kindergarten this coming fall. She is ambitiously learning new games and working on her cartwheels. She loves to hold the new babies that have come to our family. Just recently she found out that one of her great-aunts was feeling ill and promptly asked "is she was having a baby?" She was told "no" and then Mckenna continued to say "my mom gets sick too cause she is pregnant, because she is having a baby." Many people have found out from her blatant honesty and curiosity that she is going to be a big sister a second time. She will be lots of help, I hope!

Joshua- I am really proud of him. Joshua is deathly afraid swimming! I asked him why and he says "I will go under the water." We took Mckenna to her first day of swim lessons and Josh watched with rapt attention. The second day he was begging to do swim lessons. So I signed him up, a little reluctantly. The next day he was so excited to get his suit on and go stand in line but when it came to going in the water he began to cry. With a lot of coaxing and the help of his teacher he walked into the water. The first day they tied a noodle around his waist and floated him to the deep-end, that did not go over well, he cried almost the entire time. The second day he didn't want to go and reluctantly got his swimsuit on, and I again helped him into the water. From that day on he really progressed, he got into the water by himself, he let them hold him without screaming in the deep end. By the last day he was getting his hair wet, doing the dive hand motions on the side with the class and loving it, he even went down the big slide with his teacher, once was enough. They passed him to level 1 so I hope by next year he has progressed even more. Josh is still doing his speech therapy and transitional classes, and if you have interacted with him you can see how much he has progressed.

Anyway, sorry about the length of this post but that is, for the most part, what is going on with our little family. Hope all is well with you and yours!