Caitlyn and Kylie Have Birthdays!

I know, I know. I'm a slacker. It's been months since I updated our family blog. Truth be told, we've had the craziest busiest few months of our lives it seems. Many times I would get to the end of the day, sitting on the couch, laptop in hand, and set out to update everyone, at least add some pictures, or jot down a few paragraphs. But, I would set it aside, exhausted from the day, with the promise to myself that I would update first thing in the morning. Obviously, I lied to myself. :) Many of you are now on Facebook, and see pictures and things I upload there (although I'm not so great about that either), and I used that as an excuse to keep putting this off. I realized the other day, that not all of you are on Facebook (if you are and we're not 'friends' on Facebook, you can find us at http://www.facebook.com/theknutsons) and therefore, updating here is still important. Plus, on Facebook you can't get the whole story, right?

 Since I have a ton of updating to do, I've got a strategy. I'm going to update with recent happenings and work my way backwards, still adding recent things as they happen. That work for you? First on the schedule, Caitlyn and Kylie's birthdays!

 Caitlyn turned eleven on the first of this month! Amazing, huh?! It's hard to believe she will be a teenager is two years. Shh! I didn't just say that! She is still very passionate about animals and aspires to one day be a veterinarian or work at an animal shelter. Although, a recent obsession with all things fashion has put thoughts of fashion design in her head. :) Catlyn is still taking Irish dance, taking both hard show and soft shoe this year. She is doing very well, and as usual excels at the dramatic and expressive side of dancing. She has grown by leaps and bounds in the last several months, and is all arms and legs at this point. She is the sixth grade and doing very well. Her favorite subject? Literature, of course. She literally reads a book every other day almost, and I'm talking 500 page books! For her birthday, she asked for a gift card to Barnes and Noble! Caitlyn still enjoys art and drawing as well, and she's always working on a new sketch or painting.

Caitlyn opted to have her own personal slumber party this year for her birthday. Usually her and Kylie have a joint sleepover, but they decided it was time to take a break and have their own parties this year. Her and her friends spent the night doing pedicures and manicures, dancing to the sounds of Celtic Woman (Caitlyn had fun showing off her Irish dance skills), and watching movies. My friend Jyll made Caitlyn a fashion-inspired cake that she loved!

Kylie turned nine this past weekend, and changes more and more everyday. She is very girly now, but still has that tomboy fire in her on occasion. She is excelling at TaeKwonDo and is now a red belt along with John David. Jeremy recently starting taking TaeKwonDo again, and they are all able to be in the same classes each week. having the push from Jeremy and the support he brings being there with her, Kylie has really become more focused and motivated. She is also taking clogging this year in dance, which is a perfect fit with her personality! Anything that is high energy and keeps her moving! She is in third grade this year, and her favorite subjects? English and Literature. What is it with my kids and books? :) Kylie is also very much a fan of art, and is always doodling on something. She continues to be full of life, but often shy. Her smile is contagious and she seems to have the rare gift of seeing a need and filling it. Always super compassionate, she is skilled at comforting others and somehow always knows just who needs the joy her smile brings.

Kylie wanted to have a fun and energetic birthday party, so we scheduled a party at our local Pump It Up, and inflatable playground of sorts. It was super fun, and the kids all had a great time. My favorite part? I didn't have to clean up! My friend Jyll did an amazing job on Kylie's cake as well, creating a Hello Kitty head that had everyone ooohing and ahhhing. It was almost too pretty to cut! I hated not to make the girls' cakes myself this year, but I never could have done the great job that Jyll did and the girls were so happy! I happen to get my new camera that I ordered that day, so there are LOTS of pictures form the party. I was super excited and loving my new camera! :)

Kylie and her best friend Bella

The slides were everyone's favorite...

... including Jeremy's!

Caitlyn and friends

Didn't take long before everyone was sweaty and tired from all the bouncing and jumping!

The staff was amazing and treated Kylie like a queen!

The boxing ring proved to be the most popular attraction. Looking fierce, Caitlyn!

Kylie loved the glittery bow!

Valentine goodies bags

More Pics

I found some more random pictures from this last month or so I thought you might enjoy! :)

Our Fall Schedule

We started school this past week, even with all the hurricane craziness. Believe it or not, the kids had been begging to start school. The summer boredom had set in and they were dying to get going. With four of them doing school now (Luke does preschool 2-3 days a week for about two hours, John David is in 2nd grade, Caitlyn is in 6th grade, and Kylie is in 3rd grade) it took a little to adjust to a new schedule, but they all did fabulous their first week. John David learned all about seeds this past week in his Science lessons, so we did a fun science experiment about seeds. I posted all about it on my website, and you can go here to read that, but here's the video I took of his explanation. Too cute!


Our normal Fall schedule will start back up this next week, with dance on Thursday nights and Tae Kwon Do classes twice a week. Kylie is taking a clogging dance class, and Caitlyn is doing a second year of Irish dancing with hardshoe and softshoe Irish. Both Kylie and John David are currently blue belts, and will be testing for their brown belt in early October for Tae Kwon Do. This is a big accomplishment and bumps them up to the advance classes, with only a few more belts between them and black belt. All the kids are doing really well in their extracurricular activities, and enjoy them very much.

On a totally different note, I keep forgetting to tell everyone about Jeremy's accident. Many of you may already know, but Jeremy was in an accident earlier this summer. A man T-boned Jeremy's truck and totaled it. With the insurance money, Jeremy was able to buy a new truck.... his dream truck! :) It's a very large white Dodge Ram truck with an extended cab, and he loves it! As do we all, because we all fit in it. It has been such a blessing having two vehicles that all the kids fit in, and not having to worry about being stuck without enough seats. Have a great Labor Day holiday tomorrow!

The Last Month in Pictures

Yes, we are still alive and, YES, we have power! :) It's been such a crazy week, and Hurricane Irene did a doozy on our area. We weathered the storm very well, and only lost power for a few days. Initially, the power company was telling everyone it would be at least a week before power was returned, so we were pretty excited when it came back on so quickly. We did fine though, and actually enjoyed the 'unplugged' time with the kids, playing board games, and hanging out.

With our busy schedules, I haven't had as much time to post pictures and such here lately. So I thought I'd post some recent pictures from this summer. Everything from a recent trip to the Science Museum with the girls and their friend, Grace, to pictures of the girls and some of their friends at a party we had one night, to pictures of Luke chilling out.

The kids have all grown leaps and bounds this summer, and I have already started taking stock of what clothing we'll need for the Fall season. They all seemed to have grown out of shoes and everything else. Luke's third birthday was a few weeks ago, and I still can't believe that he's three years old already!! All the kids are acting so much older all of the sudden, and now that Luke is potty trained and I don't have to worry about diapers or a diaper bag anymore, it feels a bit strange. It's been so many years since I wasn't nursing a baby or changing diapers, or pregnant! :) We have definitely entered a new phase in our family, and while it feels great, it's a bit for this momma to get used to. I always laugh when I do laundry, because you can tell so much about our family by what shows up in the laundry. From little Spiderman underwear to itty bitty bras (yes, I said bras!), not to mention the things I find in pockets like lip gloss and lizards, it always warms my heart to realize they may be growing up, but they are still my babies. :) Love you all!

Earthquake and Hurricane - All in One Week!

Yes, you read that correctly. :) It's been a bit of a crazy week here. Earlier this week we experienced a 5.8 earthquake that we luckily got out of with a only nice size crack in our ceiling, some things that fell off shelves, and a few scared kiddos. But now, Hurricane Irene has us in her sights, and the winds are picking up! The likelihood that we will get through this without losing power is slim to none, and after our last bad hurricane (where we had no water for a few days and no power for an entire week), I'm not holding my breath.

We are inside, safe and secure, and prepared for the bad weather. I will do my best to keep everyone updated wither by phone, text, or here on the blog. Keep all of those affected by the hurricane in your prayers!