Kaylee takes after her father

She growls. It's pretty funny. I'll try to get it on video one of these days.

It's begun...

Actually, it began over a week ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting any video till now. Kaylee is crawling!!! Well, it's more like dragging her body than crawling, but she's getting around and it's oh so cute!

DI rocks... and now so does Kaylee

I had the best find at DI yesterday! This cute keyboard for $3! I was worried it wouldn't work because the batteries in it were dead, but I decided to chance it. It works great! It goes on a stand, but we've taken it off so Kaylee can play with it now. The only problem with it is the microphone stand is broken (I've put tape on it to cover the sharp edges) and it's missing the stool to sit on, neither of which bother me. It has so many cool features to it. (And to all you germaphobes out there, don't worry, I sanitized it extremely well.)

Here's Kaylee playing the keyboard and rocking out!

I love Joel's help!

What happened when Daddy gave Kaylee a bath...

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(same hairdo above and below)

Vote for your favorite!

Time to push Joel's post down again

What happened when Daddy fed Kaylee...

Facial War

So. . .Beth thinks she can push my post down after only two days, does she?

Well I'm growing a beard!!!


Take that, Bethany!!!

I scream, you scream...

...we all scream for yummy 4th of July homemade ice cream! This is a little late, but I told my sister, Kim, I'd let her know all of the ice cream flavors there were at the big 4th of July party my extended family has every year.

For all of you who don't know about the Wilkey 4th of July party, let me tell you... it's awesome! We have a bbq and potluck, there's a cannon shooting candy, we have a wonderful patriotic program, fireworks, and this year there was even a train pulled by a 4-wheeler. It's great! But my favorite part of all is the homemade ice cream! I think we had around 11 this year (and yes, I tried them all... I'm pretty sure everyone does that).

Alright Kim, I should have done this on the 5th because I'm not sure I'll remember all of them, but here goes:

• Raspberry (2 of them)
• Raspberry and strawberry
• Peach w/roasted pecans
• Rootbeer (mine)
• Blueberry
• Oreo
• Andes mint
• Burnt almond fudge
• Amber, I can't remember exactly what yours was except that it was delicious... Raspberry chocolate? I know it had two amazing flavors.
  

And I might have missed 1 or 2. It seems like there was another chocolately one. Ashley, help me out with the ones I've forgotten!

This is the rootbeer ice cream I brought. It was a little melted by this point, but it was yummy!

Back to Reality and Bills

Wow. These last few months have been a bit crazy. With Beth's sister's family here for most of last month and my sister's family here for most of this month, lately we have been constantly travelling, constantly busy, constantly fighting traffic, and constantly having fun.

It's been great and we're going to miss having them around. However, with all this fun and travel (curse you, gas prices!!!) we went a little over our budget. Whoops. So now it's time to cinch up our belts and start getting back in the habit of saving again.

Luckily, I was reading a friend's blog and I found this video. It helped us. And I think it will help you, too (just click on the play button):



So, that's that. I guess Beth and I aren't going to get a Wii, TiVO, a laptop, StarCraft, cable, a dog, Captain Crunch, an HD flat-screen TV, new pants, a NetFlix subscription or a wave runner this month.

We'll see about next month's budget, though. . .

Calling all Aggies!

Joel's cousin is going to Utah State in the fall and needs to start looking for housing, but isn't sure where to begin. I told her I have a bunch of cousins who went there and that I'd ask for any advice you can give. So... anyone have some advice I can pass on? Mostly about housing at this point (good places to live, places to avoid, what a good rate is, etc.), but if there's anything else she should know right now please share that too. Thanks!

A must read!

Sorry I'm posting a ton all at once, but I just have to tell you to go to Joel's blog to read the latest post (It's Not Just You) and the comments. The comments are pretty long, but I swear it's all entertaining. If any of you don't know my story about the crazy homeless woman living in my apartment building here's your chance to read about it.

Busy Summer

Well, Joel's brother, Mike, is the one that got after us for not updating this time, so I'm posting for him. I'm not sure I'll ever go into detail about anything in my last post. More just keeps happening and I can't keep up.

Since the last post we went to Lagoon for Joel's work party, we went to a friends sons birthday party and bbq (I have no clue where the apostrophes go in that, so I'm not even going to try), Joel's sister and her family got into town for 3 weeks, everyone's been sick, we saw a pre-screening of The Rocker, I had a girls night with my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws, we had a Hilton 4th of July party, and more. And we have a lot more planned this week. It's been a lot of fun (except for everyone getting sick. Apparently that's a requirement when sisters and their families visit for a few weeks. Luckily none of us have gotten then flu, though Kaylee does have a bad cold).

The posts below tell more about Lagoon and the Hilton 4th party...

Hilton 4th Party

Every year the Hilton's have a big 4th of July celebration on a Saturday near the 4th. The party starts out with everyone going to a fish hatchery and catching some fish to be cooked later. Kaylee liked looking at the fish, but I'm thinking it'll be more fun for her next year. Joel and I didn't catch fish this time because neither of us like to eat it. We'll start when our kids care about catching them.

Then we all go up to Camp Atoka to hang out. We have potatoes, onions, bacon, and fish from the grill and a bunch of salads and desserts. Then a bunch of people go tubing down the river. I hate cold water, so I stayed out. I figure I'll go when I have kids talking me into it. Joel went and loved it. We did put Kaylee's feet in the water and she thought it was the best thing ever! We then hung her over it so both her hands and feet were in the water. She thought it was pretty cool to be able to splash in the river.

After that everyone gets changed into warmer clothes and we hang out. Usually there's a campfire we all sing around, but not this year. We still had the fire, but it was mainly for the kids to make s'mores. It was a good time. I only have pictures from the fish hatchery because I was too lazy to get the camera out at the camp grounds, but other family members took river pictures, so I'll see what I can do about getting those. Here's the fish hatchery:

Lagoon

This was fun, but both Joel and I are more excited to be able to take our kids (Joel's parents watched Kaylee for us). It was one of the busiest days I've ever been to Lagoon because there were a lot of big work parties. It was even difficult to walk on the paths because there were so many people. We were only able to go on each of the rides once (except the rocket- we went on that one twice), but it was still a good time.

I do now officially hate the Jet Star. At the end where it has the stop sign to warn you of the sudden stop I got completely clotheslined by the seatbelt. I saw the sign and thought I was bracing myself enough for it, but apparently not. I really thought I had broken a rib, it was so painful. It's still really bruised. I will never ever go on that one again.

My favorite ride was the new Odysea ride. I realize it's more of a kids ride, but I thought it was so much fun! Wicked was cool, but it went so fast I hardly got to enjoy it. The ride I think is scariest is Joel's favorite ride. It's the Rocket Re-entry ride. It's the one we went on twice. I seriously freaked out both times we went on it. I love it, but it scares me more than any other ride. If you really want it to scare you go at night on the side that faces the pavilions. It's so scary because there's really nothing in front of you at that height.

Here are a couple pictures of the day...

Joel's first ride on the Samurai

Joel in front of my new favorite ride, the Odysea

Both of us in front of the Odysea. Joel got soaked! It made me laugh so hard I was crying because he couldn't avoid it. The picture's blurry (a nice lady offered to take the picture), but it's the only picture of the both of us there, so I had to post it.

Kaylee had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa while we played at Lagoon