Advent 2013 - Day 5

Make Christmas cards.  Always need to have some homemade cards to go to family across the pond, teachers etc  then we took a little impromptu trip over to Thanksgiving point to see the reindeer, it was so cold, 11 degrees!

Advent 2013 - Day 4

Unwrap a new Christmas book - we read these tonight before bedtime, both are cute, I think Mr Willoughby's Christmas Tree may be the fave.

Advent 2013 - day 3

Make a nativity.  I love nativities, last year the girls made a flowerpot nativity, then shortly afterwards I spied a really cute simple one on pinterest and so thats what we made tonight.  They turned out super cute.

Advent 2013 Day 1 & 2

Time to kick off the advent for 2013!  Day 1 we were driving back from AZ so it was watch a Christmas movie, this year it was Polar Express.  Day 2 was write a letter to Santa and send it up in the fire.  Kate would like an Xbox or money (she's saving for an iPad mini), I told her those were lofty requests so she added just anything, cute girl doesn't have a big wish list:)  Sara would like an electrik pony, a Hwiyin barbi, and a barbi rider (to ride said electric pony), I told Sara she could only ask for a few things because she has a much larger wish list than Kate:)

Catch-up

One of my (many) summer goals - update my blog more often!  Some happenings around here lately:-

 Kate finished reading the Book of Mormon!  her prize was to pick out her own fancy set of scriptures which she loves:)

 Made cute bags for the girls to take to the library, hope we do lots of reading this summer, Sara wants to do a 'chapter book club' got to try and make this happen for her, I'm thinking of treats and reading a chapter from a book then whoever comes can just play for a while, Sara wants each kid to bring their own book and just read, we'll see...

 Hiked to Timpanogos Cave, had this on my summer list of things to do but when my friend said she was going last weekend I decided probably more fun to do it with friends so we packed up 7 kids and off we went.  A little whining on the way up but we made it and the inside of the cave made up for the hike, the kids loved the stalactites and stalagmites and other formations inside the cave, took more pics but because I dropped my phone on the floor in Costco those pictures that need the flash didn't really turn out.

 Painted faces, turns out Kate didn't really like it because she took a shower to wash it off right after I took this picture, Sara didn't even last for the picture!

 1st day of summer break and Kate decided she would give Sara piano lessons.

 Today while Eric and Kate went to see Epic Sara was playing with her friend, they wanted to make crutches for their dolls, sometimes the Internet is a wonderful place, a quick google search and less than 10 seconds later we had a plan, I had all the supplies on hand (now I don't feel quite as bad for storing so much craft junk) and within 30mins each doll had its own set of crutches.

Spring Break

Fun but busy spring break, we left after church on Sunday and headed to Wyoming

 Monday we stopped at Martins Cove, its a 5 mile to hike into the cove where the pioneers were stranded for 5 days in the bitter weather where they suffered terribly, my girls weren't the most cheerful hikers although Kate enjoyed seeing some of the dead carcasses left by coyotes.  During some of the complaints I tried to impress on the girls what it was like for the pioneers as they were in the snow and wind and freezing temps and for us it was a beautiful day, we even got a little sun on our faces.  Kate said her ankle hurt and was limping by the time we finished, when she got to the car and Eric took off her shoe she had a good size rock in it!  poor girl but she made it through and I have to say that once the girls realized we were going to go all the way around they quit complaining.  The visitors center there was great, I did want to do the short hike to Devils gate but after the big hike into the cove the girls and Eric were done.

  The next day we headed up to South Dakota and first stopped at Crazy Horse, this is the world largest sculpture, so far only the head is complete and it was a project started in 1948, the picture below is what its supposed to look like when its complete, which I have to say will probably be never...

 After Crazy Horse we headed over to Mount Rushmore, amazing!

 There are several fun things to do in South Dakota but unfortunately most things don't open until May or June so for our last day we headed to Reptile Gardens, pretty fun, they have a lot of stuff to do there but again most of it doesn't really get going until June.

 One of the girls favorite things was the giant tortoises.

 For the rest of our last day we spent it at our hotel which had an indoor waterpark, didn't take the camera in there but te girls had a blast.  Thursday we headed home and drove straight through, we did take a slight detour on the way home to glimpse at Devils Tower, you can actually drive right up to the tower and hike around (for a small fee) but we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us so we got as close as we could, snapped a few pics and headed home.  

 All in all a fun trip.

Busy weekend wrap-up

Busy weekend but lots and lots of fun spent with Eric and the girls. Apologies for the terrible pics, I dropped my phone on the floor at Costco a week ago and now its not taking such good pictures anymore.  Friday Sara had her dance recital, here she is backstage with the other girls from her class. 

Saturday morning we took the girls to the animal shelter to look at the cats, they really want one but I'm not quite ready yet to have another indoor pet.

Then we went to Classic Fun Center where the girls skated and played on the inflatables.

 Sunday Sara lost her 1st tooth!  In sacrament of all places:)

 

Kate turns 9!

I can't believe that we have had this girl for 9 years today!  Love her, she is so awesome.  Here she is on Friday testing for her purple belt in karate.

 With her new purple belt on at the end of the test.

This morning she opened presents before church, she was super hard to buy for this year because she said she had gotten everything she wanted for Christmas.  She ended up with a few hit presents, perplexus,  brainstring and some Harry Potter games and a Harry Potter quiz book.  She was surprised and loved her new stuff.

 We had a family dinner, Grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins all came over for dinner bringing her a few more presents, a soccer ball, blockbuster gift card, cash, puzzles and a state quarter collection book.  We had Kate's pick of Orange Chicken for dinner and as it was from Costco it was super easy and yummy.

 Followed by cake, I made a chocolate cake and a green velvet cake roll.

 We ended with a little Just Dance 4.  Fun day for a fun girl.