:(

I have a very sad story to tell.  Characters include an iphone loaded with important pictures, a terrible toilet, and a cute girl.  The cute girl was dutifully doing her chores when she asked her kind mother if only she could listen to music on the said phone to pass the chores quickly.  Of course the nice mother obliged.  The phone was carefully placed on the counter and then accidentally bumped directly into the terrible toilet while the cute girl was cleaning the counter.  The poor phone never turned on again.  Phones can be replaced but the pictures cannot.  I told you it was sad.  Most of the pictures don't matter much, but the pictures of Kyleigh's birthday were the worst to lose.  So you have to picture that super cute girl (Kyleigh) turning 9. 

She chose a tic tac toe themed birthday.  We had cupcakes on a platter in the shape of an x and an o.  The tablecloth had tic tac toe boards drawn on it.  Each cupcake had an x or an o and we played a few games with our cupcakes before we ate them.  She had dorito casserole for dinner and her big gift was a new compound bow.  It is camo and will look great in the indian room she is planning for our new house.  Because she started school the day after her birthday we are going to take cupcakes to her class for her 1/2 birthday.  We also decided not to have a friend party this year because she hadn't started school to make lots of new friends yet.  She was O.K. with that, though, because she had figured it out and every other year parties weren't going to land on her 16th birthday.  How funny that she is thinking ahead to her 16th birthday party.  Happy Birthday to my big 9 year old. 

Just the other day Holly and I were riding in a car with a lady who asked how old our kids were.  I said mine were 9, 6, and 2.  Later Holly said she had to take a minute and figure out who was 9.  I agree, it seems like yesterday that Kyleigh was turning 8 and getting baptized.

On another note, I also lost pictures of Kyleigh's first time to shoot her bow, our trip to the Western Idaho State Fair, pictures of Ridge on Bob the tractor guy's tractor, our house as the concrete was being put in, and many, many other things.  Next time I will save them sooner!