The Nutcracker

Jossalyn was able to perform in the Nutcracker again this year. She had a lot of fun participating. She did a great job and really looks forward to doing it again next year.
Jossalyn the Angel


Jossalyn and her good friend Taylor


Jossalyn, Aubrey, and Taylor. (Jossi can't wait to be a clown!)


The girls came to watch Jossi perform!


Maddy and Jossi


Will and Rylee-the poor younger siblings that get taken along to all the rehearsals! Rylee couldn't figure out why she couldn't be in the Nutcracker!

At the park

We spent a couple hours at the park today. It was such a beautiful day here. The girls had so much fun. Reagan and Jossi had a great time rollerblading and Rylee rode her bike.


I love the colors of the trees right now! So gorgeous!!

Isn't it crazy we are still in short sleeve shirts!! So much fun!

What we've been up to lately

Wow it seems like time is flying by. I wish it would slow down from time to time. We have had a pretty busy month and I'm not even sure what we have been doing. I'll see if I can sum it up.
Jossi ended her soccer season and had a blast. She was truly dissaponted that soccer was over. I was getting a little nervous that she wouldn't like sports and I would be sitting at a lot of ballet recitals! Which would be fine, but I'm glad she's keeping an open mind.

Jossi's class took a field trip to some farm and I went along with them. It was fun to see how she acts at school. She had a great time and even got to milk a cow.

Jossi before school one day. She is quite picky about what she wears, but even more picky about her hair. Can I just tell you it drives me crazy!!! I do the hair, shouldn't I get to pick?! She also asked me last night what those bangs are called that I have and McKenna has. I said "swoopy bangs?" She said "yeah! Can I have some of those?" Seriously?! She's six! I told her to forget it! Maybe when she's old enough to fix them herself.

Rylee for the most part just gets taken along for the ride. We did make it out to Six Flags one day, which is one of her most favorite places.

She also play a lot with her cousin McCall. They have a lot of fun together!

Rylee is also so ready for Christmas. She cannot wait to go to Washington! One morning I went to pull her out of bed to take Jossi to school and she started crying and said, "mom I thought we were in Washington at Grandma's house." She had been dreaming about Gma's and was very dissapointed when she realized it wasn't real. Poor girl! I think this will be one of the longest stretches of time that we've been away. I guess that's what happens when you get tied down with school.
Reagan and I are both also very excited for the holidays. Reagan is probably more excited for the break from school. Between that and work, he is a very busy guy! Anyway, I guess that is a little of what we've been up to. I just hope we can stop and enjoy this time of year as it gets so busy. It truly is the best time of the year! (I also don't mind that here in Texas we still have days in the 70's:)

The Halloween that seemed like it would never end!!

We had a very fun Halloween this year. It was a very busy week with the ward Halloween party, an adult Halloween party, (which was fabulous by the way! Thanks Hopkins!) Jossi's harvest festival at school/favorite storybook character day, (don't you love how they add that on Halloween day so the kids can dress up! Very clever!) playgroup potluck and trick-or-treating at the park, and finally the night of halloween, pizza and fun trick-or-treating with awesome friends! I must say, I feel like my kids' costumes were very well worn! I thought it was pretty funny Halloween night when I was dressing Rylee in her costume and she said "Halloween agaaain mom?! So here are some pictures to show all of our fun.

Rylee as Jasmine! (Every picture I took, she was posing like this!)


Taylor, Jossi, and Reagan- such great friends!


Rylee and friend Samantha


Toria and Jossi (Jossi by the way is the Geisha Elizabeth Swan)


Trunk-or-treating to end the ward party fun!


I didn't see Jossi do this, but I heard she was unbeatable!!


Reagan and I as Jail birds!


Jossi at school for favorite storybook character day (Rylee was nice enough to let Jossi wear her costume for the day.)


Halloween night McKenna was so nice and gave Jossi a ride after she fell and scraped her knee.

By the way, this was also the week that I went with Jossi on her field trip to a farm, and Melissa was out of town for the week, so I helped watch the kids! What a fun, but crazy week! And I forgot to mention that I will never get used to Trick-or-treating when it's eighty degrees!!

Pinkalicious

So for about the last six months Rylee's favorite book has been Pinkalicious. When we heard there would be a play done, I knew Rylee would be so excited. We went with our playgroup from church and Rylee had a blast! She didn't move the whole time. She insisted on bringing her book and she was dressed all in pink along with most the little girls there. Afterward we all enjoyed cupcakes in the parking lot. (Thanks Jamie!)

Rylee all ready to go!!


Playgroup friends


Rylee and McCall

My little helper

Whenever I am doing laundry, Rylee loves to help. She has actually become quite the little cleaner. It's too bad that by the time they can actually really clean, the newness has worn off and instead it is a fight to get your kids to clean. I think I will take advantage of my little maid while I can!

Grandparents/Special Friend Tea Party

Jossi's school had a Grandparents/Special friend Tea party on Friday. Since both of Jossi's Grandparents are not very close, she was lucky enough to have her Aunt Melissa go with her. She was able to show Melissa where everything is in her class and show her some projects she has done. Then they went to the cafeteria and had chick-fil-a sandwiches for lunch. Thanks Aunt Missy for going!
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Stevens for the cute story you wrote for Jossi. She was very excited to hear a story that was about her.

Aunt Missy reading Jossi's story from Gma and Gpa Stevens



I was also invited to go to a tea party with Reagan, one of Jossi's good friends. It was so much fun, she is such a darling girl!

Happy Birthday Jossi!!

Wow! It is so hard to believe that we have a six year old! We couldn't have been more blessed with any other child. Here are six things Jossi loves and six things we love about Jossi:

Jossi loves: (written by Jossi)
1. Rollerblading
2. playing with my friends
3. My Grandmas and Grandpas
4. Mom, Dad, and Rylee
5. Balancing on my toes (I'm assuming from ballet??)
6. My American girl doll

We love Jossi because:
1. She is naturally just a good kid. When she does something wrong, she feels very bad about it.
2. When she has her mind made up, she works hard at what she is trying to accomplish.
3. She is such a grateful child. She loves to tell mom and dad thank you for whatever they have done for her.
4. She has a sweet testimony of Jesus.
5. For the most part, she is kind to her sister.
6. She has a beautiful smile!

Jossi had a very fun day on friday and it started off with Grandparents/special friend tea at her school, but I will blog about that later. She then had cupcakes and cookies in her class for her birthday and then came home from school and had a Hannah Montana birthday party. The girls made pizzas, got their faces painted, and watched Hannah Montana's concert DVD. It was a lot of fun watching all of these girls sing and dance. They were very cute! I must say the highlight of the party was the face painting. A friend of mine, Connie Phillips, came and painted the girls faces. She did such an awesome job and the girls loved it. Thanks Connie!

Rylee- what a fun girl!

So I have been pleasantly suprised how fun it has been to be home with just Rylee. Not that I doubted the fun for myself, but for Rylee. I was really worried that she was going to miss Jossi all day and not know what to do without her. I think in the month Jossi has been in school, Rylee has only asked twice where Jossi was or when she would be home. This has meant however, that Mom has taken over the role of someone to play with. Her favorite thing to do right now is play school. She loves to do any kind of "homework." (Another way she is sooooo different from her sister!) It has been so fun bonding with Rylee and her personality seems to grow every day. She is so much fun!

Another favorite thing to do of Rylee's:


Isn't she so cute!?

Elder Mackay returns!

We have had a great weekend spending time with family and more importantly welcoming Matt home after serving his church mission. What a fun experience it has been to see how much he has matured and changed in two years. Don't get me wrong, he is still the same ol' Matt, but he definitely has grown up. We like to give Matt a bad time because he is the baby of the family, but there is something that happens to a kid when he leaves home for a couple years without much contact with family.

Mom with the first hug!!!

The kids anxiously waiting! They have missed having uncle Matt to play with!

What Darling Girls!!!

So Melissa just gave me this picture and I knew her husband wouldn't go for her putting on her blog, so I thought, why not? The funny thing about it is, these boys are just about as boy as you can get. I'm not sure who or what convinced them to play dress up! Lets just hope their dad's don't see this!!

Cash, Brennan and Jossalyn

First Day of School!

Jossi had her first day of kindergarten today. She was soooo excited. It's definitely a good thing she was excited and wanted to go because I'm not too sure if I was ready for her to go. I have had such mixed feelings, but I know that she is going to love it and it will be great for her. So as a mother usually is, I was unselfish and sent her off to school.
She was most excited to find out that she got "the boy teacher". I was a little suprised by this, but he does seem like he will be a lot of fun. He was also very popular on meet the teacher night. It seemed like half the kids in there were his students from previous years that had to come say hi. Anyway, I think all in all she is going to do great. Lets just hope mom and Rylee can survive the days without her! (by the way, I do want you to know that I got through this day without even shedding a tear. I am quite proud of myself!)

Our Family Reunion/Trip to Washington

So we spent almost three weeks in Washington and a few days of that in McCall, Idaho. We go there every other year for a family reunion with all of my dad's family. With my Grandparents, their children, grandkids, and great grandkids, there are just over a hundred of us now! It is always so fun to see everybody and see what everyone is up to. I always feel so blessed to have been born into such a wonderful family. My Grandparents are such amazing people!! They have really kept the Mackay family as close as can be expected with that many people and everyone living in different places. We had such a wonderful time and really look forward to going back!