Happy Birthday Great Grandma Plate & Papa Jim

Hopefully we will get to see you at some point this weekend. Have a GREAT Birthday!

Love,
Kaitlyn, Kiera, Jennifer & James

Weight loss update

As of this morning I have officially lost 50 lbs!!! I feel great and and I am starting to like what I look like again. Plus the compliments from everyone that sees me these days feels pretty awesome. Today is a good day. :) Woohoo!!!

The Fence is Up! The Fence is Up! The Fence is Up!

It's been a long process but it is FINALLY done! It may have taken four years to get to this day but that doesn't matter anymore because Kaitlyn and Kiera finally have a safe place to play. Last week was one of the hottest, longest, most miserable weeks. Jim and I went up there on day one and got a whopping 3 posts out of thirty out of the ground in five hours. Which was very intimidating. We waited a few days because we happen to do this on the hottest week. Then Grandma Cheek, Uncle Ryan, Dstin and I went over on a cool 110 degree day and put in 10 hours and got another 18 posts out. Luckily Ronnie showed up after he got off work that day and tried out a method he thought would work and sure enough it really sped up the process. We went from getting one post out every hour to one post every 40 minutes then with Ronnie's method we dropped our average to about 10 minutes per post. THANK YOU Ronnie! Day three Ryan, Dustin and I went back at it with 13 more posts to go and got it out in 3 hours. Kaitlyn's party Sunday... Fast forward to more things you've already read about like Kaitlyn going back to school and yesterday rolls around. Putting it in was a million times easier than taing it out but we also had a bit more help. Thanks to everyone that helped yesterday and today...Ronnie, Papa jim, Mama Sharon, Mama Cheek, James(daddy), Dave, Dillon, Ryan B and Kaitlyn for pushiing all the dirt back in the holes Saturday. Without you all it wouldn't have been possible. THANK YOU ALL! For the rest of yous, come out and check it out, it's pretty awesome...

Installation has officailly begun...Ronnie and Papa Jim working on the first couple holes.


Everything all laid out and ready to go up


Kaitlyn and Dillons turn on the post hole digger


Finished!

School's Back in Session

Yesterday was Kaitlyns first day back to preschool. She was so excited and loved having the new wardrobe of clothes to choose from that she just got for her birthday. She knew exactly what she wanted to wear yesterday and today. If this is a taste of what it will be like when clothes actually matter to kids I might be in trouble (money pit) I can hope that public schools switch to uniforms but I highly doubt that will happen. Her going in the AM is so much nicer than PM she is is home by 12:10 which leaves the rest of the day to do whatever we want to do. Just like a replay from last year. Kaitlyn was all smiles getting on the bus and off to school. Kiera hated it she cried for her sister and said she missed her. After a little while she was ok. Today we didn't have to go through all the drama because Kiera slept in. maybe that will become a daily thing :)

First Day


Kiera finally cheering up over the idea



Day 2


On another note looks like the fence is going up this Saturday!!!! I can't hardly believe it. This has been years of battling to get this far. Putting it in has to be breeze compared to taking it out. I will probably cry when we start cementing the poles in knowing how much effort it was to get them out. I hope I don't decide to move soon. Oh my goodness I cannot wait to have a safe and secured yard for my girls! Free BBQ and drinks to anyone who comes out Saturday if anyone else wants to help :)

Kaitlyns 5th Birthday Party

Kaitlyn had such a great time at her party. Thank you to everyone who came out. We hope you had a good time as well. Also, thank you to those who couldn't come that sent gifts.... you know who you are. I asked Kaitlyn last night when she was getting ready to go to sleep what her favorite part of the day was and this is exactly what she said. "My whole party...all my people that came, my new toys, that big huge bear, my tractors, my spongebob cake, my spongebob pinata...everything was my favorite thing." I guess thats what yoyu call a success :)

Here are some pics from the party. Sorry they are all out of order but I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Fun Filled weekend at MaMa and Papa Cheek's House

so I took the girls out to mama and papa Cheeks house so they could hang out with them while Ryan and I went and played some volleyball. We spent the day at the water park. The girls love anything to do with water and were so excited to go back to Alligator park. Kaitlyn has been expirimenting with no armies or water wings or anything and she decided she wanted to jump off the diving board that was over in the big pool. So Uncle Ryan dove first and stayed out to assist her. She LOVED it! She may have belly flopped a few times but after a few times she was swimming all by herself to the ladder. She also snuck down the water slide once but then they realized she was too short even though she was standing on her tip tip tip toes. So that was short lived but she got to do it once. Kiera being the little monkey she is got acknowlaged by the life gaurds as being the 1st little one they ever seen make it up the slide in the kiddy pool. I don't know if she has little built in suction cups on her hands or what but she got up that thing in a hurry, a few times.
Sunday kaitlyn and I went fishing with Mama Cheek and Ronnie while Kiera stayed back and slept in and played with Uncle Ryan and Papa. We hadn't been out in the boat in two years. Kaitlyn picked up that fishing rod and casted the line like she had been dooing it all of her life. Nevermind the 5-10 times I got smacked in the face with the rod, but she had a blast. Ronnie was the only one to catch a fish, but it was a great morning. They went back out later in the evening, Kaitlyn got a new rod at the store and got to test it out. It was more her size but she wanted to use the full size one once back on the water. I heard they caught 3 and someone else said 5 more fish. They had a GREAT weekend.
Next Sunday is Kaitlyns 5th birthday party. We're gonna have it at our house. If you can make it let me know. She said she wanted lots of people here for her party. I'll be sending out an email later today as well. 1pm to whenever Sunday August 15th. Hope you can make it!
Here are a few pictures from our fun filled weekend...

HOT, HOT, HOT... outside temp reading in my truck. The hat index was 112 that day


First time on the diving board, I was having a mini panic attack


Uncle Ryan showing her how it's done



First Dive(belly flop)! She loved it!


Kiera and I watching Kaitlyn dive at Alligator Park





We caught a fish! She didn't want to touch it, she gets that from her mom.


Trying to catch another one with mama


Driving back to dock the boat


There were a few pics above that were not from this weekend, but I downloaded all the pictures from my phone to post the ones from this weekend and just felt like positng a few extras.

Remember, Party This Sunday!