Matt's Mission Call!

My brother Matt just got his mission call on Friday, September 19th! He was really excited, he was really hoping it would come this week! He got to the mail and saw the letter from the church and called my mom at work, who flew out the door as soon as he called her. They met at my Grandma Sparks home where he opened it for them. Melisa and I were really not wanting to wait for him to tell the rest of the family today, so we drove over to mom's house to hear him read his call on Friday. And here it is, Matt is going to be serving in the Atlanta, Georgia Mission! He will report to the Missionary Training Center on November 19th, just one day after his 19th birthday! Mom is hoping that Alexis (my stepsister) and I don't go into labor while they are down in Utah, since we are both due around the same time! With my history Matt will probably be able to meet  Autumn before he leaves! It will be really weird to have him gone for 2 years! Mom and Alex will have a nearly empty nest with Sarah being the only one at home! Here are some pictures of Matt and the girls after he told Melisa and I where he was going! And FYI, when Matt gets back from his mission Lily will be in Kindergarden and 5 1/2 years old, Cloey will be 4, and Autumn will be 2 years old! Too crazy!

More of Cloey!

It seems I am posting a lot about Cloey, with her birthday and all. However, I couldn't help posting this too. She crawled into her high chair around 6p.m. or so and just sat there, I think she and Lily were watching a movie. When I looked over at her she was totally out! It was too cute! She had a nice mark on her head when she woke up. The other picture is of Cloey's fingers poking out from under the door. She was supposed to be going to sleep while Lily was going potty before bedtime (YES, Lily is completely potty trained, YAY!). It was too cute to see her fingers under the door!

Hanging out on Cloey's 2nd Birthday!

On Cloey's birthday we decided it would be fun to go to the zoo as a family. Both Lily and Cloey couldn't wait until we could leave for the zoo. At least until we let Cloey open her presents from mom and dad. We got her a trunk that had disney princess dress up clothes. It was a pretty cool little trunk that included 4 different princess outfits and some cute jewelry and head bands. They have so much fun dressing up and playing pretend, and mom and dad get some good laughs at their cute princesses. Nonetheless, it took some convincing to get them back into regular clothes so we could go to the zoo. When we got to the zoo we all had a fun time, the girls love animals and it was great to watch them get so excited with each animal! Their favorite part of the zoo was the merry-go-round, neither of them was that happy when it ended.

There is a rose garden near the zoo that we walked through on the way back to our car. Lily and Cloey love to smell flowers and pick them, so it was tough to keep them from picking the beautiful flowers after they smelled them. We had a very fun day, and we are very grateful to have Cloey in our lives. She brings us such joy and love and hope she enjoyed her birthday!

Cloey's Birthday Parties!

We had two parties for Cloey, one with Brian's family at our house. The other party was a combined party for Sarah (Tammy's Sister), Marley (Cloey's cousin who also turned 2), and of course Cloey! She had a lot of fun at both parties and here are the pictures of all the great times she had! 

Cloey and her cousin Nauva chowing down on some

cupcakes! YUM!

Cloey opening her present from our friends Bryson and

Heather. She really loves the princess sleeping set!

Cloey modeling her new garden gloves from Uncle

Jason, Aunt Angie, and her cousin Nauva!

Cloey blowing out her candles!

Uncle Jason, Aunt Angie, Aunt Amanda,and Grandma

enjoying Cloey blowing out her candles!

Our friends Bryson and Heather on the couch, Grandpa is on the

floor, and Nauva is showing Heather her cup.

Here are the pictures of Cloey's party at her Nanny's house.

Cloey is modeling a very cute dress that her cousin Annika gave

her. Cloey put the dress up herself, it was so adorable.

Sarah, Marley, and Cloey getting ready to blow out 

there candles, with Aunt Mandy, Uncle Chad, and 

Annika watching.

We brought our kiddie pool and a bigger pool over to 

have a pool party after having cake!

Cloey is just hanging out with Becca's daughter Kaylynn,

and Annika is swimming around in the floating 

hippo. Cloey is so cute in this picture, if you click on 

the picture you will be able to see her face better. 

She really does have some funny looks!

Silly Girls!

We went to a pool that belongs to one of Brian and Jason's clients for a family swimming part. Grandma and Grandpa were there, Amanda, Jason, Angie, and Nauva. We all had a lot of fun! Lily was miss daring! She was jumping off the diving board with no fear whatsoever. We had to keep telling her to wait until daddy was ready to catch her. Cloey wants to do everything Lily does so she got up on the diving board and then she froze. So we had to help her jump. About every time that Lily jumped Cloey would get up there too, but again would freeze. I played a little motorboat game with Cloey, at the end of the game you are supposed to blow bubbles. Well she would put her whole face in and laugh hysterically, she thought it was so funny that she would end up putting her face in before the end of the rhyme! Too cute.

Cloey and Daddy having a good old time!

Lily and Amanda swimming around.

Daddy gave Lily and Cloey a horse ride to their beds!

Daddy was pretending to be sleeping and Cloey tried to wake

him up by jumping on him.

The girls were playing dress up and Lily walked up to me and 

said "Mom take our picture!" it was pretty sweet.

Camping Adventures!

We went camping this last weekend with some family and friends. We had originally planned it with our friends Bryson and Heather and added some more good friends. We drove up towards Stanley and found an empty campground there! It was nice to have the campground all to our selves. The girls love camping! The sad part about the campground is it had recently had a lot of trees cut down! so there was bits of the trees everywhere! Making it hard the little ones to walk and keep their balance! Needless to say they have some nice looking souvenirs from the twigs on their legs! Lily and Cloey really had fun playing with Taylor and Mason(JD and Kerry Motley's boys) and of course Nauva their cousin! Cloey always looks forward to seeing Nauva, she was always asking "Where Na?" and Lily was always wanting to play with Taylor and was sad to see them head out on Sunday! It was really nice to get away and relax from Friday through Monday! It was nice to have our trailer to camp in, it was really cold at night! We felt bad for Melisa and JD who came up just for Friday night, because they were gone before we even got up on Saturday! Bryson, Heather, and our family went and found a small lake or pond to swim in near where we camped last year. The girls had fun splashing and playing, until Lily got too cold and Dad had to wrap her in a towel on a chair while we stayed in for a little longer. After swimming we drove around the lake to check out some of the camp areas there. As we were driving Heather spotted a bear! We stopped and he stopped and just stared, he was probably only 30 feet away or so! It was crazy! Then he ran off into the woods! Sunday we played some fun frisbee golf with Jason and Angie! I am terrible at throwing a frisbee so we had some good laughs! Sunday night we had the campground all to ourselves because everyone had left. So after the girls went to bed Bryson, Heather, Brian, and I sat around the fire for a while. The stars were beautiful and the fire was nice. As we were sitting there Brian turned his flashlight on and pointed it directly behind him and there was a deer! She was very pretty, but did scare me at first, you just don't expect to see a bigger animal 15 feet from where you are sitting! Anyway, Monday we packed up and came home, much to the disappointment of the girls, they did not want to leave! Cloey was telling me "No Home!" it was pretty cute! That was our camping adventure!

We brought up a volleyball/badminton set that the girls had fun playing 

with. They were always trying to put the poles together.

Bryson, Heather, Brian, and I were playing Phase 1o and looked up

to see the girls in these chairs playing ball!

Here is Lily "reading" the Ensign after her nap, too cute!

Here is Brian and Cloey just hanging out, they look a bit tired!

Yummy Tomatoes!

This year we planted some cherry tomato plants and some pea plants. It has been a lot of fun to teach the girls about them. Lily is now always telling us that the tomatoes have to turn red first! When they are ready Brian takes them out to pick them. It is a special daddy-daughter time. They love it! Not to mention eating them. The tomatoes are usually gone within the hour with all three of them munching! So here are some pictures of them picking the tomatoes!

Family Fun!

Last Tuesday there was a pretty big storm that swept through Boise and the girls were completely taken in by it! They stood at the window for nearly the whole morning watching the rain come down! 

The weekend before the storm both the girls were sick! Cloey was first, she started her fever Thursday and was a lot better by Sunday, mainly it was her teeth that were very painful. However, Sunday morning before church Lily ran into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet(yay for doing it there and not everywhere!). I felt so bad for her, after she was done she said, "Mommy, I'm not having fun anymore." if that doesn't pull at your heart I don't know what does. She had a weird sickness. She had a fever but it wasn't bad enough that she was down for the count, she would play with Cloey then lay down on the couch for a while and repeat!

 So her are some pictures of my sicky girls playing!

Patchwork Post

I wanted to finish posting some pictures of the girls, so my real post is down below a ways. Today is a little patchwork! Have a great day to all!

Cloey has the cutest expressions!

There's a smile!

Lily playing at Grandma and Grandpa Keeley's

Cloey playing croquet!

Such concentration!