She'll hate me for this...

Here is Grant's good friend Grayson...The are the greatest of buddies. He is the friend that we went to the park with. His oldest sister is also named Kiara, so that was a bit confusing, but fun too! My camera battery died at the park, so I don't have any other fun pictures of all of them playing.

Okay, so I needed to start with a "nice" picture of her...First time at the park. We met one of my friends at the park with her 4 kids (one of whom is Grant's good friend above). This was Kiara's first time in the swing and she LOVED it! She giggled and smiled and clapped her hands the whole time. She is in mid-clap in this picture.

Okay...so really...yes, this is sort of mean to take a picture of her super chubby thighs, BUT, we are going to want to remember this later in her life and be able to reflect back. At least that is my excuse...She will probably want to burn these pictures though! I still think the pictures doesn't do it justice...she is even chunkier than it shows! HA! I could just eat her up!

She is chunk through and through and I love it! I don't think she could get any cuter, can she? HA! So even though she may hate me for it (hopefully not really), I just couldn't resist capturing her "chunk" on camera!

4-H time

The first step in getting the sheep used to the boys would be sitting in their pen with them. They each held some feed and hay in their hands and let the sheep come close to them. The key is sitting quietly and not moving too quickly or it will scare them...It took awhile but they got the hang of it! :)

We (well, my dad) sheared all of the lambs too. We have 10 picked out but will only take 3 or 4 to the fair. This allows us to pick the best ones as the fair gets closer. We have it narrowed down now and will focus on 4 of them, with the others just being back-ups in case something would happen to the others.

We have begun walking the lambs for exercise as well as getting them used to walking when WE want them to, as opposed to only walking when they want to. The easiest way to "break" them and get them to walk is to use a walker that my dad made. Their front legs go on the walker ledge and then the boys walk them behind the garden tractor...this builds the muscles in their back ends. It is a challenge when starting off because they try to drag and we have to stop and get them up again to walk. After a few times walking them, they are doing MUCH better and walk very well.

The joys of 4-H have begun...only 18 more years and Kiara will be out of 4-H...Wow! 18 years of doing this...REALLY? It is fun, but hard work as well as time consuming, especially with soccer, baseball, school, meetings,etc, etc....! Whew! But the boys are having a blast and that's the main thing.

Bragging

So I have to brag a little bit. In an earlier post I showed Grant's artwork that was chosen to be on display at a local art gallery. We got a letter this week that out of all of those "select" pieces at that show, his was chosen to be in yet another art show this weekend. There were only 3 chosen from each grade level in all of the elementaries. We are so excited for him. It is being displayed in our high school, along with some high school award-winning artwork. Hopefully we will go see it this weekend and get another picture with it....but I just had to brag a little bit!

Trip to PA

Aunt Heidi and Kiara hit it off right away!

Uncle Andy had fun giving her rides in the laundry basket!

Uncle Steve

Uncle Chad


Aunt Jul bought Kiara her first pair of shades and she actually kept them on for a few minutes before taking them off and chewing on them! The first week of April, I had spring break. The boys had already had their's so Kiara and I decided to fly to Pennsylvania for a few days to visit my in-laws out there. It was Kiara's first flight and I was really nervous. She did wonderfully and slept on all of the flights. She is such a good baby! Kiara and I had a blast in Pennsylvania and the time FLEW by. We missed our boys back home, but it was a great trip! Kiara was very excited to see her big brothers and daddy when we got back into South Bend...after a LONG lay-over/delay in Detroit. It was good to be home too!

Great Grandpa Overly with Kiara

Paw-Paw and Kiara
Grandma and Kiara
Kiara at 6:30 AM in the airport, ready to fly out and see Grandma and Paw-Paw! She looks so enthused huh? About like me!

By the way...i always forget that I'm supposed to load the last picture on first and do the one I want at the top first...so they aren't in order. Oops! Oh well...at least they are here!

Big Girl Bath

Here are a coule pictures of Kiara taking her very first big girl bath (not in the baby tub). At first she just looked at me like I was CRAZY, and then with the first big splash of her toy, she was a happy little camper! She splashed like crazy and laughed and giggled the entire time! Too sweet. She wants to stay in as long as she can splashing and "talking". This was back at the end of March by the way...I'm only a month behind now!

Catching up

So yes, it is time for me to catch up...I'm going to work at catching you all up wtih our lives in pictures a bit at a time...hopefully a little each day until I am done. Awhile back, maybe around the end of March, we finally had a day that was in the high 50's to low 60's. We decided that our pit/catchall area that we call the garage needed to be cleaned out. So, we all headed out to work on it. Kiara wasn't sure what to think of it all, but sat and watched us sort, dump and move things around for part of the afternoon. Notice her Broncos jacket!

Then the boys had had enough cleaning for the day and decided it was nice enough to break out the baseballs and gloves. They don't like playing together throwing it back and forth because there tend to be arguments about bad throws and whether it was on purpose etc...so Daddy took a break and played catch for awhile since they helped out in the garage. My boys and their sports...and just being outside. They were very happy this day!

My Cheerleader

So, yes, it has been AGES since I have gotten on here and done anything...my apologies...I have so many pictures to put up and comments to share....lots has happened in a month as far as pictures go...but I'm just swamped right now. So, to humor "The Backdoor" (blogger friend), here is at least one new post with a cute picture...In Pennsylvania Kiara somehow got into this position and then when "uncle" Chad lifted her arms up I couldn't resist taking her first cheerleader pose. Too cute! She is growing so fast and my heart aches that she will be one already. Anyway...I promise I'll be back soon...hopefully yet this week!