2010/2011 First Day of School

The girls were excited to start their first day of school this year, especially Kate who was starting a full day of school (I wish they were still excited about going. :) )  I wanted to make them their favorite breakfast, which is waffles with strawberries and whip cream.

Here they are in their cute uniforms and backpacks.  How cute are they???

Kate's Horse Lessons

Kate LOVES horses, so out of all the activities she had to choose from, she wanted horse lessons.  Although I thought it would be a phase, she still LOVES going after almost a year.  The horse is her teacher's horse.  Her name is Breezy and she's an old, gentle horse.  The pictures are horrible, I know, but we were inside a dusty, dimly-lit barn, so it's the best I could do.

 We had a fun hail storm one September night.  Madsen't were over for dinner, and as they were leaving, it started to hail.  We all sat watching on the front porch until it ended.  The girls were amazed the hail could be so big.  They spent 5 minutes trying to beat each other by finding the biggest hail in the grass.  (Don't look at my UGLY bare-feet in the first picture)

July Activities

I'm trying to catch up on my posts so I'm going all the way back to July.

Lauren had some flavored tootsie rolls she was eating one day.  She was sitting quietly at the table for awhile and I finally asked her what she was doing.  She brought over a tootsie roll flower she had rolled out and made.  I asked her where she learned to do it and she said she made it up by herself.  She's always liked playing with her food.  :)  So creative.

 This was our trip to Fairview for the 24th of July.  We camped at the campsites there at Skyline Resort and attended all the 24th activites like the parade, city breakfast, etc.  We also went to the drive-in in Mt. Pleasant.  We hauled the four-wheeler trailer behind the truck and everyone laid out their sleeping bags to enjoy the movie.  Half the kids were asleep when it was over, but they loved it!!!

 We did a lot of swimming too.  The diving board was a hit this year.  Even though the girls weren't daring enough to do any tricks, Todd was up for the challenge.  He had to show his nephews that he could still do a flip off the diving board.  I got half of him in the pic, but he did it.

Kate's graduation and Lauren's award ceremony

So I thought I'd post these for mom and dad to see since they weren't able to make it. At the end of the year the student's get different awards based on their achievements.

Lauren recieved a Certificate of Award for Achievement in Math and a Physical Fitness Award. Only ten students in 3rd grade received the Math award.  Lauren is definately the Math wiz in our family.  The Physical Fitness Award is awarded to those who pass certain physical skills.  Lauren not only recieved the award, but also a patch saying that she was in the top 75% in her age.  Smart and athletic!!
Kate recieved an Award of Excellence and a physical fitness award.  The Award of Excellence was basically her Kindergarten graduation certificate.  Yeah!! And her physical fitness award was extra special because she received a blue patch for being in the top 90% who sucessfully completed all of the skills.  Only 5-6 students recieved this award, and most of them were 5th and 6th graders.  WOW Kate!!  We need to get you involved in sports!!!! 

Way to go girls.  I'm SUPER proud of you!!!

Valentine's Decor

So I'm finally back on again.  I've had this decorating bug for the past couple of months and recently just put together my Valentine's stuff.  I'm not completely done yet.  I still need to make a banner for my entry coat hooks, and maybe something else to go in the jar. (the two black balls just aren't doing it for me)  So Marci, here's the pictures you've asked for. 

 Even though I spent WAY too much money for the picture, it's worth it because it fills up the space so well.  The other items I had around the house.  Anyway, not that big of a deal, but thought I'd let you all see my house since you don't come over very much. :)

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll try to update the blog on things I've missed posting.  TTFN!

Fire, Fire!!!

Today we came home from shopping to see a huge smoke cloude.  I immediately thought it was the Camp Williams area, but in driving closer I realized it was closer to our house than I thought.  These pictures are taken from our backyard.  These are the mountains just north of us on the other side of the highway.  Me and the girls drove up to North Ranch and the fire had burned up to the back of several homes property's.  Luckily that area is all safe now, but they're still working on it from burning some houses to the east.  Just as long as it doesn't cross the highway... 

Another craft

I'm really behind on all my posts so sorry all of them are at the same time.  This week we did a craft with tissue paper.  I just cut up different colored tissue paper into little squares

and then had the girls glue them onto foil-lined cardboard into a picture. 

When they were done with their picture we modge-podged over it to give it a nice finish.  This is Lauren's craft.  So cute!!

Kate's is just as cute.  (She went a little wild with the glitter glue)

POWELL

We can't get enough of Powell.  Jaron and Kim were nice enough to join us this time without kids for a couples only weekend.  We stayed at a hotel at Wahweap Marina for the 4th of July weekend.  Needless to say we had ALOT of fun.  Friday night we got there too late to get on the water but Saturday morning we were ready to go.

Here's Todd gassing up before we head off.

Jaron with his camera taking those EXCELLENT shots.

Todd the Captain.

Beautiful scenery.

  We rode to rainbow bridge (took 2 hours on the boat on the water to get there...uggg) but it was worth it.

Todd

The group

Me and Todd.  This gives you a good perspective as to how big this really is.  Pretty cool.

We ended the weekend watching fireworks over the Hoover Dam.  It really was a great trip.

Repreve from the heat

While the husband are away, the family will play. 

My friend Leslie and I had absent husbands one weekend (both had to work) so we decided to head up to the canyon for a picnic dinner. 

We went up American Fork canyon and we couln't have asked for more perfect weather!!!

Kate and the girls loved to walk in the stream.

This is the whole bunch of us.

Eating in the beautiful mountains.

I LOVE the mountains and we are so BLESSED to live around such beauty.