Texas

On July 1st we had to say good-bye to my brother and his family. They would be moving to Texas where my brother was to start his new job as an accountant. They would be moving on the third but we were leaving for family camp the morning of the  second so we had to say our good byes early. It didn't seem like anything different from all the other times we've said bye from our Sunday family dinners when we'd be seeing them the next week. I think it was because we were the ones leaving their house instead of them driving off with their truckload of belongings. It didn't really hit me till we went over to their empty house the day after we got back from camp. It was so sad seeing my kids run around asking "where is Callie?" "where is Callie's bed?" At one point Owen and I were just hugging each other in tears, missing our sweet Callie. I think he and Callie had a special bond. They loved playing together and were always looking for each other. Owen also adores Madison. Ever since he first met her he loved her. Every time we saw a baby or a picture of a baby he would point and say "baby Madison." He even told me he wanted one. He assured me he didn't want me to have one, HE wanted to have one ("one"meaning a baby). Sadie loves them both too but I think she might have been a little jealous because they stole the attention of her brother so she didn't show too much interest. She did play with Callie every once in a while but not as much as Owen. One thing I'm really happy we did was getting pictures taken with Callie. We went to jcp and got some individuals of all the kids and then a pic of the three of them together. It is now hanging in our living room and I love looking at it and seeing my kids look at it and remember Callie. It's just too bad Madison wasn't born yet when we got them. Anyway I need to end this post because once again I'm in tears missing them too much and need to think about something else. Here are some pictures.

Owen and Madison

These two poor little girls were both not feeling very well and wanted nothing to do with picture taking

"tickle tickle tickle" These two are such goofballs!

Hugs

After being bribed with smarties, we get smiles.

Madison was not very happy and her and her mommy were about to leave, so we didn't get a very good pic with her.

This one's a little better. Caught her between screams.

Summer fun

Our family loves the outdoors. As soon as it started warming up that's where Rick and the kids would be all day. Rick was a little excited and planted seeds a little too early outside so not everything came up but we did get a lot of good stuff growing. Some of the plants in our garden are carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, purple beans, peas, cantaloupe, watermelon, beets (which I found out I have a liking for), raspberries, blackberries (haven't gotten any berries yet though), cucumber, lettuce, strawberries, chives, pumpkin, red sweet corn, popcorn and a variety of squash (some of which are volunteers from last year). Once again I'm very grateful for Rick and his ability to do such an amazing job in the garden. He spent many days out in the hot sun turning dirt to get the ground ready to plant. The pictures of the garden here are from June 25th. We also have three fruit trees we planted last year. An apple, apricot and plum. The apple and apricot are on either side or our front yard and the plum is in the back. You can see the plum tree in the second picture of Owen on the right side of him if you look closely. We actually got 3 apricots but I neglected to take pictures before we picked and ate them. They were the most delicious apricots I've ever had in my entire life! I can't wait till next year!

This is after a day at seven peaks. We live close enough that they give us 2 free season passes every year. Next year we will have to pay for Owen though. :( I'm surprised they gave us one for him this year. We got it a month before he turned 3 and 3 year olds have to pay. They asked for birthdays, so oh well, I'm not complaining. He loves going swimming!

 Rick's mom found this slip'n slide in her shed and gave it to us. Owen loved playing on it! Sadly he only got one use out of it before it burst.

He looks so big here! I can't believe it!

 Sadie wasn't interested till later, after I put the camera away. She didn't last long though. She slipped, got wet and didn't like it.

 This is the corn as of 6/25/2012. You can see the peas on the right and behind Owen's head and a squash plant in the bottom right corner.

 Here there is squash, a couple tomatoes, peas, onions, garlic and I think there might be a pepper in there too that I forgot about. Everything's small so it's hard to see in the picture.

                                                           .   

This is our neighbors pear tree which we benefit from. They don't ripen till fall but they are delicious. It also provides great shade in the evening.

Blackberries, raspberries and tomatoes           

along the fence and carrots, cantaloupe,        

and a cucumber. 

 After playing outside on the slip n slide I don't know what went through Owen's mind but after a while I realized I didn't know where he was. I went looking and looked in his closet. This is what I saw first...

 Then I looked a little closer...

 and I found him! I don't know if he was playing and fell asleep or if he meant to fall asleep there but it was a good hiding spot.

Father's Day

The kids had a ton of fun making Fathers Day cards for Rick! Owen more so than Sadie but she had fun too. I love seeing how much they've grown and how they're attention spans are increasing. Sadie got a little bored with it and once she had drawn a little bit she was done and ready to get down but Owen just kept drawing. It made me realize how big my then almost 3 year old is.
This year for fathers day we got Rick a drill and toolbox and a singing bird clock. I've been looking everywhere for one and finally found one at the Hallmark store in A.F.
Here are the pictures of the kids making the cards.

Our crazy life

We had a pretty crazy two weeks with my family. First, on Friday, May 15, we had Kaden's Kindergarten Graduation which we were all able to go to. I didn't get any pictures there. :( The next week on Thursday we all went to Halie's Elementary School Graduation.

Here she is walking in

This was a surprise to me, her and some friends got up and sang an Adele song.

My beautiful Sadie who refuses to ever leave her hair the way I do it. At least I try. Hopefully someday she'll start leaving it...

All of the pictures of her are blurry but it's all we have so it has to do. They're out of order too.

That night the kids and I went with my family to Halie's play. They did so great! I was so impressed with their performance and seeing Halie up there made me proud. The only thing that would've made it better would be if I could've sat through the whole thing. Between Owen's bathroom breaks and Sadie wandering around, it was pretty hard and I missed some of it. They got DVD's of it though, so I'll have to watch it again sometime.

That night the kids and I just slept at my parents since Rick was at work and we needed to come back out he next morning, anyway. Friday, May25th, we went to the Elementary School Dance Festival.

We were late and missed Kaden's :( but we saw Halie's and then the video of Kaden's when we went back to my parents' house.

Halie's in the red and her friend Kylee is two over on the right. They did GREAT!

The next Wednesday, May 30th was Shaina's High School Graduation. We had my mother-in-law watch Owen and Sadie so Rick and I could enjoy the graduation kid free. I'm glad we did. The seats were cramped and there was no room for kids to walk around.

Here she is with our mom and dad

I'm so proud of my sister. She has really grown up into a beautiful and smart young woman. I love her so much, and so do my kids, which is great!

Right to left: Callie, Jason, Shaina, Me. Kaden refused to be pictured. We finally got one with him but that was on my mom's camera.

Love you, Shaina!

Today, June 2nd, 2012 marks a huge step in my life.

I ran my very first 5K! Believe it or not but I had so much fun! It was really hard and I was really scared at the end because I literally could not breathe (I felt like my lungs were closed up), but I still cannot wait till the next one! I'm also very glad to have a husband who is supportive and came and ran with me.

Here we are before the race. We look tired.

And here we are after the race back at our house with our numbers and the $50 gift card I won!

The race was at Springville High and went up a really steep hill and was a little harder than I anticipated. All I did to prepare for the race was run on a treadmill at the gym, which I know is easier, so I was a little nervous going into it. Even though it was different and felt harder, I still finished in the same amount of time that it usually takes me at the gym. I was so surprised and excited. Our time was 31:08, which isn't very fast, but I'm still proud of it. :) Today was a big accomplishment for me and I'm glad Rick was there to share it with me.
Oh, they also did a raffle after the race and I won a $50 gift card to Cabelas! I'm excited to go spend it on whatever I want!

3 Years of Accomplishments

January 10th, 2009, Kelsie Allphin and Rick Wirsch were married to each other. Today, three years later, our family has grown and accomplished many things. We welcomed Owen Richard into the world July 18th, 2009,and 4 months later found out we were pregnant with our second bundle of joy. Our little family was sealed for time and all eternity in the Manti, UT temple on Feb. 27th 2010. Sadie Marie was born July 23rd, 2010. I was very surprised and thankful for the love Owen had for his new little sister. They got along so well for the first year. Lately has been more of a jealousy struggle at times but they are still so cute when they're getting along and playing together. People ask us all the time if they're twins.

For the past three years, Rick has worked full time at the State Developmental Center and gone to school full time, year round. At work, he moved to the morning shift (6:30-2:30) right before Owen was born, which was a great change. In the Fall of 2009 he went to the Utah Fire and Rescue Academy and was told he would be able to get a job right after graduating but when that time came in Dec of '09 and he started applying and testing at dozens of departments, we found that we were misinformed about the job hunt and Rick decided to alter his degree slightly to give him a better chance at a job. He changed from Emergency Services to Emergency Management. He still wants a job as a firefighter but this degree was faster to achieve; not easier, but faster. In the summer of 2010, he took a break from UVU and took an EMT Intermediate class at MATC. He started back at UVU that Fall and moved to the night shift at work (9:45pm-6:15am) in order to get all his school work done and graduated in December of 2011 with his Bachelors Degree. I am so grateful for his hard work and determination and ability to come home and manage to be a great dad to our kids after his hard nights at work.
About a month ago, Rick applied for a job at Gold Cross Ambulance as a part-time Specialty Driver and also as a full time EMT I. He interviewed up in Salt Lake and they really liked him and the schedule he had to work with. They told him there was an opening as a driver here in provo but they weren't hiring EMT's yet but he was put on the list for when they were again. He left thinking that he had the part-time drivers job in provo. A week or two passed with no call and then one morning, his phone rang and he was offered a Full-Time EMT-Intermediate job up in Salt Lake. I was so excited for him! I didn't understand why he wasn't as excited as I was but who wouldn't be a little nervous about working on an ambulance. I know I could never do it. Even though this isn't the job he was looking for, it is a big step in the right direction and hopefully this job will be enough experience to get him a job at a fire department (and hopefully having his degree will help too).

Last December, after nearly 6 months of searching for the perfect house, we found and closed on our house here in Provo. I was working at the time from 1:30pm-10pm and Rick was working midnights, so it was nearly impossible to find time to get the work on the house done and moved in. We were determined to get moved in by Christmas though. Our first night in the house was Christmas Eve, we barely made it. Shortly after moving in, we adopted my family's dog, Chico. He's a small pompoo (Pomeranian/poodle mix) and Owen and Sadie love playing with him!

I am so grateful for Rick's decision on the morning of October 19, 2008, in asking me to marry him. We have had many hard times but many more amazing times together and I look forward to spending the rest of forever with him. I love Rick so much and each day our love for each other and for our children grows more and more. I am so proud of my little family and I love them so much! I don't know where I'd be without them.