It's been a couple months since I posted last, and I feel like there is so much to catch up on.  I will attempt to be brief :) We finished up the Spring semester feeling pretty good about how everything went.  We both learned a lot from the 3 months of school, work, and adjusting to being a family of 4.  The stress of my job nearly became too much so many times, I'm not sure how I stuck with it but here we are getting ready to start another semester and we're still here!  I want to post a few pictures from the semester and then do a quick recap of our 7 week "break" and then just jot down a few fun things about the kids (for my memory's sake).

Beginning July 24th and going until September 7th we have the glorious (in most ways) 7 week break.  Jonny doesn't have any classes, and I only have 15 residents.  It has still been a pretty stressful, busy time but it has been awesome to have more time together and to take a couple vacations.  The first weekend in August we had the annual Parkinson family reunion which included a trip to Yellowstone and lots of delicious food and great company :)  Then from the 10th to the 14th of August we had a little vacation in Utah.  We went down for my wonderful friend Kenzi's wedding and had the privilege of spending a few days with Carly, Derek, and Paisley.  We also had an evening and morning with Grandma and Grandpa Hatch which was awesome.

Since time goes by so quickly and I don't have the greatest memory, I want to write a few things about my sweet kids.  I will start with Aliyah.  My fabulous little 4 1/2 month old is so fun and just continues to bring joy to my life.  As you can see from the pictures above, she was chunking up quite nicely for the first couple months, but right around 3 months she started to slim down and get extremely fussy.  All she did for about 3 weeks was scream.  When we took her in for her 4 month well check we found out she had lost weight since her 2 month appointment and after a long conversation with the doctor we determined that I must not provide enough just nursing.  So Aliyah is now getting formula in addition to nursing and we have our happy healthy baby back!  She rolled over both back-to-front and front-to-back tonight for the first time.  She is growing so fast and she just continues to be more and more fun.  Kaleb adores her still and we all enjoy our time together so much.

Now for my spunky little two-year-old.  Life is so fun knowing what is on Kaleb's mind.  He is so silly and loves to share is silly ideas and thoughts with us.  Some of his favorite things right now are plums, trampolines, baseball, making Aliyah laugh, playing outside, and doing his ABC and Number puzzles.  He is learning the alphabet and counting and colors so well.  He loves to be helpful and most of the time he is very obedient and so sweet :)  We recently moved him out of his crib and for now he is sleeping on a mattress on the floor.  He will be getting a bunk bed next week, and we are hoping that will help his sleep a little bit better.  The last few weeks have been characterized by very little sleep since he ends up in our bed every night, sometimes after only an hour or so in his own bed.  It is fun to have him growing up and learning so much.  There are a couple conversations I just have to put in writing so that I don't forget them:

Mom:  I like to call Aliyah "Aloowa"
Kaleb:  I like to call her "Mohawk"

(After Aliyah sneezed twice)
Kaleb:  Aliyah did 2 burps!
Mom:  No, those are called sneezes
Kaleb:  No, those are called "bless-you's"

Oh I love that boy :)