Trip to Utah

This will be a long post because it was 3 weeks of fun! I had a hard time selecting what pictures to use. I had so many more than this, but I had to keep the pictures narrowed down. We started out have my family reunion.

It was so much fun spending time with my family. The girls absolutely loved spending time with their cousins. Here is just a fun picture of me with two of my three sisters. Can you tell that I don't spend as much time out in the sun as they do?

Bryan was the favorite uncle while we were at the beach. He played in the sand with the kids and they loved destroying his creations.

We rented paddle boards while we were there. It was so much fun. I tried standing up with it and I didn't feel all the stable or comfortable, but it was fun to paddle out and take my girls on a ride.

I couldn't help but snap this picture because it was just too cute. These are the youngest of the girl cousins and having a moment together.

For one of our fun activities at our family reunion was some of the minute to win it games. It was a blast. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the games.

The afternoon of the last day of our reunion, we cleaned up and packed up camp and then headed over to tour the childhood home of David O' McKay. It was so neat to go through his home and see some of the original furniture, clothes and to see the way the built onto the house.

Before Bryan drove to Salmon Idaho for a friend's wedding, we took the girls to a local fish farm to let them fish for the very first time. They absolutely loved it! They were so proud of themselves for catching a fish.

This year instead of attending the Ute Stampede we went to the Oakley Rodeo. We love going to the Ute Stampede but all of us couldn't attend it so we chose to go to one that we could all attend together. We had amazing seats. Mia just wanted to sit with her Papa. She loves being with him so much.

The 4th of July was so much fun. We made homemade ice cream, had yummy food, spent time with each other, had our own firework show, did sparklers and the girls got to have fun colored hair today.

 There were way too many pictures to chose from and I absolutely loved spending time at home. I had many mixed emotions about coming back. I wanted to see Bryan and be in my own home, but I didn't want  to leave my family.

One Whole Year!!

I can't believe this was my amazing little girl on her first day as a big Kindergarten kid! I was so happy for her to start her school adventure and so proud of her for her desire to learn.

 Here is our first ever school picture of our amazing Claire Bear!!

 She has made many good friends this year, but one an incredible friend...who has quickly become one of her best friends. They even love wearing their matching dresses to school.

 She loved her opportunity to be the V.I.P. and part of this experience was to bring a special treat to her entire class. She picked to bring red, white and blue star sugar cookies. Claire and the class bear helped me make the cookies.

 This is the last time I get to see Claire get on the bus as a Kindergarten Kid.

What an amazing and happy girl we have. We can't believe how much she has grown over this last school year. It was a great year. She had an amazing teacher and she developed a strong desire to learn! We love you Claire!! Thanks for all the amazing experiences you have shared with us this school year!!

Busy but Fun Weekend.

We had two visitors in our home this weekend. The girls were so excited for both of them to spend a few nights at our house. Our first visitor was one of Claire's best friends...Lilly. The first night she was with us, I told all the girls to go get their pajamas on and then I heard them all just cracking up laughing. Needless to say I went in the room to see what was so funny and Claire and Lilly had the exact same nightgown and they were so excited to wear them together.

 The next morning I decided to take the girls to do something fun. Bryan was busy working on our sprinklers so it was just me and the three girls. I took them to a place to paint pottery. Here they are anxious to get started...which is probably why Claire has crazy excitement eyes.

 They each picked out a hot chocolate mug to paint and quickly shouted out colors for me to put on their plates so they could start painting away. It was so much fun to watch the joy they had in painting these mugs. I wish I could take my girls to do this more often! I am so excited for this weekend to come to see how they all turned out.

Saturday afternoon our other visitor arrived. My best friend Peggy came to visit us. She had run a half-marathon that morning and then drove up here to spend a few days with us. We all had a bunch of fun. Lots and lots of laughing happened at our house. Peggy and I taught each other how to make some scarfs. Peggy taught me how to crotchet a "cookie" scarf from a book we both bought....and I taught her how to knit a scarf. While Peggy was here, we also watched movies, played games, danced, read books (well Claire read books to Peggy), got slurpees from the #1 selling slurpee 7-11, visited the 9/11 memorial, celebrated Peggy's birthday and Peggy introduced us to Geocaching...we had fun finding 7 different ones right around our neighborhood.

 It was sad to see these fun times end, but glad we got to make the memories. We like having visitors...who wants to come visit us next? We love it!!!

Amazing Girl!!

This post is all about Claire. We just have to brag about what an amazing little girl she is. She has such a strong desire to learn and achieve. Back in December she set a goal to be reading second grade books by the end of the school year. She had to read, answer questions in complete sentences and truly comprehend what she is reading to us and then take the book to school and read it to her teacher.
Today she accomplished her goal. She read her last first grade reading book and is ready to start the second grade books. CLAIRE WE ARE SO PROUD TO BE YOUR PARENTS!!

It's Been Way Too Long...

It was been a long time since I updated our blog. I am not even sure if anyone reads this or not, but I am still updating it. I wanted to update it a long time ago, but my laptop died. This post will be full of pictures and fun times.
Claire is still doing swim lessons. She is doing amazing. I am so proud of her. She is a little fish...if only she would kick really hard while she is doing her strong arms.  She is so great!!

 Mia was quite excited for this swim lesson session to start. She was officially able to take the tiny tot swim level. She did amazing. She was fearless.

 

I missed posing about Easter. Our kids loved having the Easter Bunny come and visit them. Here are some of the highlights from Easter. First off, here are a picture of each girls coloring on their eggs before dyeing them in their favorite colors. 

 

Here are the girls after going on their Easter Egg Hunt. It isn't the greatest picture of them, but it is about the only one I got them to sit still for long enough to take the picture without it being blurry. 

 Here are the girls in their Easter Dresses. I let them pick their own dresses this year. yes they are holding their dresses up like Sophia does in Sophia the First.

 Then I had to throw in some misc pictures of things that have happened. We had a visit from the Pooper Scooper Fairy. We were so thankful for her visit.

 Just one picture of my girls loving their time with their cousin ...Baby Echo (that is what my girls call her...they can't just say Echo ...they have to say Baby Echo).

The last thing to update is us...we finally after at least 2 years got family pictures taken. We had a great time with these pictures. Here are just some of the many amazing pictures we got. 

 

 

 

There are so many more things we have done...we have been busy finishing up the outside of our house. We still have a lot of work to do, but we have now painted the outside of the house completely. Now we just need to get landscaping, sprinklers and grass and then most of the outside will be completed. 

Scared, Nervous and What a Rush!!

This past weekend we went to Spokane to visit with John, LeeAnn and Katelynn (Bryan's cousin and his family). We had so much fun with them...just like we always do. They took us to a shooting range. I have done this before and was excited, but when it came to trying out this gun I was terrified!! Here we all are after shooting the full auto...Kriss Vector .45!!

 The following are pictures to prove we shot it. You can even see the fire as it comes out of the end of the gun. Hopefully soon I can post a video of us shooting as well. Bryan and John loved it...I was terrified and nervous to do it, but so glad they supported me and I can now say I shot a full auto Kriss Vector .45 machine gun!!

 

Here are the videos....

She is 6!!

I can't believe it has been six years already. Claire was so excited for her birthday and her ice cream cake!

Claire wanted to have a princess birthday party. We told her she could have one IF we were in our house. At that point we didn't realize how crazy it would be...we moved in Friday and Saturday, Claire's birthday was Sunday and her party was on Wednesday. I am so grateful to all those who helped us move, but especially to my parents who helped me pull off everything.
At her party, they decorated crowns, dressed as princesses, watched Barbie Princess and a Popstar and then were able to have glitter fingernails and or toenails...then of course presents and cake. Claire loved every minute of it...her only complaint was she didn't get to invite everyone she wanted (if that was allowed she would have had like 30+ kids at her party).

 

Here are the beautiful princesses...minus Mia (she was still sleeping).

I can't believe that Claire is already six years old and she is already talking about when she turns 8, 12 and 16...oh man I hope the time doesn't pass that quickly!