Robert Knowlton, MBA!!!

He did it!!! Rob finished the last day of his last class yesterday!!! We are so incredibly proud of him!!!

Since he worked for a year and a half before going on his mission, he didn't even start college until after we got married. He took classes for three years at Ricks College, then when we moved out to MA, he switched to online classes because he was working full time as well. He worked the whole time he was going to school for his Bachelors, and half of that time he was working full time at a more than 9-5 job. He finished his Bachelors when Megan was about 10 months old, took a few years off so that I could finish mine, then dove right back in. He has worked full time the whole time he has been earning his MBA and by the time he started his MBA we had three children and were pregnant with Jack. He has done such an incredible job of balancing school, work, family and church and has even somehow managed to work in boxing and working out! I don't know what his GPA is for his graduate classes, but I know he got an A in this last class! He worked so hard to try and do all his school work during breaks at work so that he could spend time with us when he was home. He's done such a wonderful job and we are so proud of him!!!

I love you R0b! Congratulations!!!!!

Christy met me at Fidelity last night (I told Rob I had to help Christy go find something at a store) and the two of us decorated his desk with balloons, crepe paper and candy. I couldn't think of a reason to grab a camera (they were both in front of Rob when I left), so please pardon the quality of the pictures! We made a mortarboard and diploma out of poster board (I really should have just bought graduation stuff in June when it was out!) ~

New teeth and Megan's birthday outing

One of Jack's top middle teeth finally broke through last week, so he no longer looks like a baby vampire :) The other one has just barely broken through, so it's not really showing up in pictures yet. I tried to get a good shot of them . . .

Just a random picture of Rob reading to the kids after getting home from work on Friday . . .

I love this picture of Beth :)

and this one of Jack (eating a chocolate chip cookie) and Beth (who just finished her cookie). They are such good friends!

We originally planned to have a party for Megan, but we gave her the option to pick one friend and go out to lunch and to a movie and that is what she picked. The chosen friend was Paula, her BFF (best friend forever for those not familiar with the current abbreviations) from Kindergarten. Paula lives just a few streets down from us and she and Megan love spending time together, although honestly we haven't done much since school let out except go to Paula's birthday party. Meg asked Rob to be the one to take them. They went to Chili's for lunch, then watched "Wall-E". I haven't seen it, but Rob says if you're into sweet robot love stories written for children, it's pretty good :)

Happy 6th Birthday Megan!!!

Yesterday my oldest baby turned 6!!! I seriously don't know where the time went! I remember being wheeled down the hall in my hospital bed with her in my arms after she was born and wondering how the world could continue to go on as if nothing had changed when this incredible little person now belonged to me :) Megan has brought so much joy into our lives! She continually amazes me with her accomplishments and her never-ending interest in everything. She loves learning and always has so many questions - I seriously should have gotten a PhD in philosophy and another one in science before having her so that I would be more prepared to answer her questions :) I love her imagination and her innocence; her enthusiasm for life and her desire to throw herself into anything and everything.

Yesterday we took it easy for most of the day. Jack has been teething and therefore really fussy. All the kids have been stuffed up and feeling slightly under the weather, so we've been trying to rest a bit more than usual. The girls spent much of the day playing with their My Little Ponies - currently their favorite toys. Later in the afternoon they migrated to the library and all three had quietly staked out little spots for themselves. Jack played in there for a while. One of his favorite things to do is pull all the books one by one off two specific shelves that are at just the right height. Megan used to do stuff like that too. We figure at least he's learning to love books!
Jack decided he had pulled enough books out and came and cuddled with me :)
That evening, the kids and I loaded up into the minivan and picked up Rob from work. We have a family tradition that on your birthday, you get to go out and eat wherever you want. Megan picked Mimi's Cafe. We had a lot of fun! I was really impressed that virtually as soon as we sat down, they brought out a small bowl of cheerios and some saltines for Jack. The girls loved the bread basket and Kylie ate so much of my salad that she didn't eat much of her chicken fingers, but salad is healthier anyway :) Beth and Megan ordered fruit instead of french fries with their meals (Meg got a hamburger and Beth got choc chip pancakes for those of you who are interested) and Beth LOVED the fruit. She didn't eat almost any of her pancakes, but her fruit was demolished :) The got little cups with choc pudding and crushed oreos and gummi worms for dessert (they were called "dirt cups" and Meg was originally very concerned about eating dirt).

After dinner, we drove Rob back to his car (which was still parked at Fidelity) so that he could go with the elders to an appt. and we headed to Christy's. Christy had planned on joining us, but was sick, so we got her a muffin to bring to her instead. Christy asked us to stop by on our way home anyway so that she could give Megan her presents. She got Meg two My Little Pony houses - the rainbow house and the popcorn movie theater! Megan (actually all the girls) loves them both!!! She also got each of the girls lei's and cool pens with feathers and springs with toys on top of them.

Beth found Christy's skydiving helmet and wore it around the house for a few minutes :) I think I may have a future skydiver on my hands! Kylie tried it on too, but took it off before I could get a picture of her in it.
Christy got out little sundae cups to celebrate Meg's birthday, but she only had two candles - a 3 and a 0, so Meg got to blow out a 0 candle since that looked more like a 6 then the 3 did.
We headed home and as soon as Rob got home from his appt with the elders, we gave Megan her present from us. She got a pink Barbie scooter!!! Rob and I thought about getting her a basic silver one that she might be able to use for a longer period of time, but Rob really wanted to get her this one - he said that Meg is still his little princess and he wants to hold on to that as long as he can :) We did ask Meg if she would prefer to trade this one in for a silver one and she said no, she loved this one :) I told her why Rob picked it out and that made her feel really special!

Meg was really sweet and let everyone have a turn using it . . .
That night we got to bed really late. Meg and Jack share a room, but she asked Rob that night if after Jack was asleep, she could go into Kylie and Beth's room. I went in to check on them before I went to bed and this is what I found . . .
All three snuggled up together on Kylie's little pull out couch :) I'm so glad my girls are such good friends! I am so blessed to have the children I have! Happy birthday Miss Megan!!! I love you!!!

Megan's family b-day party

Sorry it's been so long since I posted on here. First of all, I was spending time with my mother :) Secondly, Jack is getting four teeth and hasn't been sleeping very well, so I've been a bit tired. He finally had one of his top middle teeth break through (before that he had 4 - two in the middle on the bottom and the two on the sides of the middle ones on top - sort of interesting, but I've decided he was paying homage to the imminent release of the last book in the Twilight series) and actually slept (gasp!) last night, so hopefully the worst is over :)

We didn't do anything earth-shattering during the last week of Nona's visit. Nona and I worked on 2009's family calendar and just about finished it! Obviously, there are still some pictures that will be replaced or added as there are several months left in this year and many milestones - Jack's first b-day (approaching disturbingly fast!) and Travis's homecoming (yay!!!!) to name a few.

On Friday we drove Nona to Fidelity so she could go with Christy to the drop zone and watch her sky dive. On the spur of the moment, the kids and I went too. The kids LOVED the planes and watching the sky divers land. They had an air conditioned room with a movie on and bean bags for kids, but the kids didn't want to watch the movie. They wanted to stay outside and play with the rocks and chase dragonflies and watch skydivers. Beth was so funny! We told the kids where we were going and what we were going to watch. We got there and after watching the first set of skydivers land, Beth turned to Christy and said "OK! Your turn! Get going!" When Christy got on the plane, Beth said, with loads of pride in her voice, "that's MY Kiki!" We got some pictures, but they are on Christy's camera, so I'll have to have her bring it over and download them on here. We had dinner on the way home at IHOP (Nona's first time there). It was a really fun day!

On Saturday we took it easy, did our shopping, then Nona, Christy and I went out to dinner with one of Christy's friends. We went to a Mexican restaurant and found out that Nona doesn't like Italian food??? That was very surprising as my family is pretty big on Italian food and we (at least Christy and I) had no idea that Mom didn't like it! Saturday night Jack was up literally until 4:30am, with both Megan and Beth waking up at point too, so only Rob went to church. Nona took care of the kids and let me sleep :) Thank you Nona!!!

I think this was Sat night? Jack fell asleep on Nona's shoulder :)

Sunday evening Christy came over and we had a family birthday party for Megan. Her birthday is actually this coming Thursday, but we wanted to celebrate with Nona. Megan got to open her presents from Nona and Papa, Susan, and an extra one from Molly. Nona and Papa got her paper dolls from Alaska (which she LOVES) and they got all three girls a rolling pink suitcase that works as a carry on or will be great for sleep overs at Christy's. Susan sent down the watch she used to wear when she was younger. Megan promptly had Rob help her put it on and announced to me (after Nona told her not to get it wet) that she was never going to bathe again because she didn't want to take her watch off, plus she never got very dirty anyway (her words, not mine). Molly sent her another My Little Pony set. The girls are really getting into those. I have to say that they are much more interesting now then they were when I was growing up - they even have clothes that button and fancy horn rimmed glasses!

Meg and Kylie posing with Meg's paper dolls

Jack enjoying shaking a Walmart bag

Meg modeling her watch

Rob got a surprise graduation present, or rather two of them - Nona and Papa bought him a gas card to pay for two months of gas to take him back and forth to his boxing gym. The girls and I are giving him 6 more months of boxing lessons (he was going to stop with this month). Rob has a week left of this final class, then he is done with his MBA!!!!! We are so proud of him!!!!!
Megan got to pick out dinner and dessert for Sunday while shopping on Saturday. For dinner she wanted meats, cheeses, and bread with fruit. We had sopressata, prosciutto (Kylie's favorite), and ham, a smoked German cheese and colby jack cheese, a whole grain french bread and a whole wheat french bread, and canary melon, a yellow melon similar to a honeydew melon. We had an all natural sparkling pink lemonade to drink. She picked out a strawberry crunch cake and duck candles for this party. Susan and Papa helped to sing her Happy Birthday through use of the speaker phone.

Presents from Molly!

We had a package delivered to us today from Molly :) It had presents for everyone! The girls immediately ripped their presents open to unveil My Little Ponies for each of them! Beth's has a surfboard. Kylie's has dress up outfits including fancy horn-rimmed glasses and a cape. Megan's has two outfits including a cheerleading outfit complete with shoes, a pom-pom and barrettes! They started playing with them right away, and other than Beth (who is asleep on my lap), they haven't put them down since opening them two hours ago!

Jack got a box with brightly colored shapes that fit through holes in the top. He absolutely loves it! Kylie tried to sit down and "teach" Jack how the shapes fit in the holes and he threw a fit because he wanted to play with them himself - not have someone else showing him what to do :) He doesn't bother with the top for right now. He dumps all the shapes out, then puts them back in and stirs them around with his hand so they bang together (he's big on noises), then gets up and walks around holding the bucket. Thank you Molly!!! Your gifts were perfect!

Molly also sent me a box of beautiful shells that she collected for me at various beaches on the Cape (Cape Cod). Man, I miss New England sometimes! I really miss the beach especially! You're right Molls - you can smell the ocean on the shells :) Thank you so much for collecting them for me!



I forgot to mention the present Molly got Meg to wear at her birthday party - it's a set including a birthday girl crown, glittery clip on earrings, a beauty-queen style sash (complete with pink feathers!) and a star-topped glittery wand! I left it in the box so that it wouldn't get broken before the party, but we will be sure to take pictures of her wearing it!

Nona gets here!!!

Yesterday afternoon we loaded all the kids into the car and headed off to the airport to pick up Nona!!! Every summer my mom comes down to TX for the Mary Kay Seminar and she makes sure to get here early and stay late so that we get to spend some time with her :) The girls we so excited - all week they kept asking if that day was the day that Nona was getting here.

Once we got back to our house, the girls gave Nona the present we made for her - a huge sun hat with handprints made by Megan, Kylie, and Beth (in their favorite colors) and Jack's footprints in blue on the very top. We even found one that had pink on the inside because Nona loves pink since it was Mary Kay's favorite color. Within minutes, the girls had Nona on the couch surrounded by a mountain of books for her to read to them :)

We love you Nona!!!

Christmas in July

Yesterday we had the Footes over to play for the afternoon. The girls (except Jorja and Beth) created a play for us about Santa. Megan, with the help of a red skirt and sweater and beach ball, was Santa. Jalynn was Rudolph, Jessica was the little girl and Kylie was the dad.

Rudolph pulling Santa's sleigh

Santa putting the presents under the tree (you should have seen Santa climbing up the side of the fire pole to get into the house - not an easy task with a beach ball on your tummy!)

Jorja deciding to give an impromptu act and be a live doll under the tree

Santa going back to the North Pole after delivering the presents

The dad with his present from Santa

Curtain call

and a picture of Beth