School's out for the Summer!

 Isabel and Mr McDaniel. We attended the little awards assembly for kindergarten and first grade and Isabel got one for getting 2nd place in the obstacle course on field day.
Here is what Isabel has to say about 1st grade:   I liked math tests.and I like Mr. McDaniel. We went to the Indian Museum and we got to look for stuff and we went on a hike, and saw a Tipi and went in it! I had tons of friends and they are fun to play with.

Abby got an award for her Language Arts testing. she is a big reader but they do a program where you get points for books you read and take test on and it looks like next year we will have to try harder to get more points! She needed 100 pts to go on a special field ttrip, and she had that by January and ended the year with over 200 points, but that wasn't enough to win it.  She is into real chapter books and I am struggling to find good books she is interested in. So much 'tween stuff is all girl drama, or scary stuff. So I have gotten her a few of the classics, and we will keep working on it. Abby had a good year in school, and continues to do well. We are so proud of our girls and all that they are doing and learning. I am thankful to be in a place with good people who are dedicated to the kids, even if it is small.  Sara finished preschool with a party and she is looking forward to kindergarten. Our special teacher who taught Isabel has finally gotten pregnant after years of trying and we are so excited for her. But this means she ended up having to take a year off, so we don't know who Sara's teacher will be. I am sure he or she will be great, but we will miss Mrs. Garchar!

The luckiest girl in the world

Grandpa Kim

Isabel and Mom

A few weeks ago, Scott's parents were down visiting us. We wanted to show them some property our church owns and uses for campouts and gatherings. It is a unique and beautiful place. As we were driving down main street, we passed a little yard sale, and a little red 4 wheeler.  Of course we had to pull over and check it out. It was a Honda 90, and we brought over Abby to see if it fit. Of course, it was perfect. Scott has been looking at online classifieds for months, wanting to get the girls motorcycles like he had growing up. Motorcycles scared me, but 4 wheelers were out of our price range. The wheeler ended up belonging to friends of ours who we go to church with, and it was a great deal and after talking to them on the phone, we took the plunge. It was a very quick decision, but we know a little Honda like that will go forever. The people we bought it from are great and take care of all their things. Their kids have been riding it since they were little, and now have outgrown it, their teenage daughter was sad to see it go! It actually fits an adult but works for the kids as well. The great feature I like, is that it is a pull-start, so no kids can start it on their own. it is also a foot shifter, and so far Abby cannot move it on her own, so it stays in 1st gear and with constatnt supervision, she has a hayday riding it around in the field next to our house. Getting the 4 wheeler meant a lot to Scott, I know he loves anything motorized and is happy to be able to give that love to his kids.  I am happy it seems safe and it is a fun little toy for the whole family. As the other girls get older, they will get their turns. I am happy that so far only Abby really wants to ride alone, I always thought if we got something like this we would need four just to stop the battling, but it is good. and I can comfortably give them rides.  We are planning a camping trip soon, and hope to be able to bring it then, and many trips to come.  This year we are taking a break from birthday parties and focussing on the family and maybe a little bigger gift, instead of spending the money on plates and games for a bunch of other kids. I guess we are going to have a hard time topping this present!

That weekend we spent  bunch of time in the yard, getting the back sprinklers working so we can seed for grass, and water our fruit trees. if you look in the pictures, there are 7 twigs by the fence, someday those will be making us some yummy fruit salad, we hope! It is so much work dealing with the weeds, rocks, clay and everything else, but it is fun as well and we are happy we have so much room for us, the kiddos, and of course, Daisy.

Little of this....

Just a post to catch up a bit...I apologize for not adding more often, but I know I am not alone in Blog neglect!  so here goes:

Our irrigation water came on about a month ago. The line next door to us on an empty lot had a leak, and this is part of what it did to the weeds next to it. it was amazing, it must have misted all night to get the amaount of ice on these delicate,dry plants.

I should have taken more pictures of the whole life cycle, but we ordered Bugville butterfly larvae and had them grow and change, and finally be let go! They come as tiny, motionless caterpillars in a cup full of brown "food", they grow so fast and eat all the goo, spin webs, then go into their cocoons. They all hatched and hung out, until we were ready to let them go. It was a fun experiment, and we all enjoyed watching them. Each girl got to hold a buterfly for a minute before we let them loose, it was kindof chilly that morning, so i am not sure how the butterflies fared, but it was ok.

This is  a more recent picture of Daisy, a day before we got her shaved for the first time! I haven't taken any lately, she is getting so big, so fast! Now she can put her paws up on the counter and table and that is a new challenge! She is quick to steal food! And it's gross when she licks the table. I still haven't gotten past doggy germs, but we love having her around. She spends a lot of time outside now that it is warmer, but we are also working on her inside manners. She is getting much better with some bad habits, bu others have appeared.  She is now almost 6 months old, so just a few more months of puppyhood, and hopefully with all our efforts and some time she will turn out to be a great dog.

This is a picture of a picture, so it looks a little weird. Scott and I passed our ten year anniversary on May 4th. We just had an at home date, I got steaks and we just hung out. it was fun, nothing too exciting since we went on the cruise in February.  Oh, I got Scott an iPad, something we have gone back and forth on, but I decided to splurge for a new toy for him. He loves it, but not more than the kiddos! We have already gotten quite a few fun apps, and it is nice to skype with Scott when he is out of town. Which is often, lately.  Today he is dealing with a forest fire, and if conditions stay the same, there may be a lot this year. 
My birthday came and went, Scott left Sunday the 13th at the crack of dawn to head to Reno, NV for a conference. So he was gone Mother's Day and my birthday. On Monday night Scott had arranged for a few girls to come suprise me. I had just finished putting kids to bed and was starting to clean up when they arrived, so I wasn't quite prepared but it was ok. Carolyn Turnbow, Koryn Knudsen and Liesl Malin came over and brought peanut butter\chocolate pie and ice cream and we just visited. It had been kindof a tough day and so that was a nice ending to it. 31 feels fine, I renewed my driver's license and at least my pictures look quite similar, even if the weight has creeped up a bit! That's ok, cuz i love the four reasons why! Abby and the girls tried to take care of me, make breakfast and cards and stuff for Mother's day and my birthday. The joy of having daughters is that I know they will make my days special as they get older, they are already so thoughtful, and I often miss friends and family during May, so that helps. I know I am very blessed in my life.
Things have been incredibly busy with the end of the year school things and summer things starting up.  Abby had a bunch of field trips, they had field days, water days, ceremonies, and everything else. Baseball started with a vengeance. Both girls have to be on teams with boys, which is not ideal but they both love it and wanted to play.  They have at least two practices and a game each week, and of course end up in different towns on the same nights for a bunch of games. Not sure how we will work that out. Sara chose not to play, which is fine with me, she is more interested in the playground.  Swimmming lesson start next week and all three girls will be in them. One small mercy is that they ended up with different teachers, but the same time! so I won't be driving back and forth 6 times a day.  Some ladies in town are starting a dance studio, so we signed up three girls. Abby in Jazz, Isabel in Tumbling and Sara in Ballet. They are all so excited. But I will be making a lot of trips for that! At least it isn't far in our little town. It is good to be busy, since Scott is pretty much MIA, starting a few weeks ago, until after hunting season. But he is committed to doing some camping and fishing this year, so that will be fun for the girls. We just have to get him out of town and cell phone range!
Whitney turns three on the 30th. She is such a sweet girl, and we all love her so much. She is JUUUUUUUST about potty trained, I am shocked she took this long. It is weird not having a baby, or diapers! No news in that department, but it is not an impossibilty to add to our family someday.
As for me, pretty much the same, still trying to keep up with the girls and Scott and the house and yard. It has been a crazy amount of work getting sprinklers functioning, garden started, lawn worked on and so many other projects. Daisy is worse than a child, sticking her nose in everything we do, literally. The biggest thing is to get grass growing on our dirty weed filled back lot, but the wind sure does blow here and scott is gone so much we haven't put down seed yet. hopefully very soon! Our fruit twigs have all grown leaves and out raspberry\blackberry patch seems to be sprouting back after pretty much dying out on the surface. So we are optimistic. All of this takes time, but we hope to see the fruits of our labors in a few years. Our shade trees are surviving well and fence still looks good. We added rocks to any areas where Daisy would get out and that seems to work. Luckily she would just go to the front porch and hang out until we found her.  Anyways, that is a bitof what's going on, I will write more later!

Crazy Daisy!

This post by : Abby

She is a fun little dog who so far has had a big adventure in our back yard and gotten out. She likes going under things to get out. She goes under the fence, squeezes by people to get to where she wants to go when the path is blocked. She's has not been trained very well but we're doing pretty good with her.
It started when we were going to my cousin's baptism in Tooele. Mom found out that there was a little black goldendoodle there, right outside of Tooele. So we went to go check her out. We wanted a young female puppy. First we looked at Daisy, the smallest of her litter, and then we looked at the second one. When me and my sisters were in the car, we all wanted Daisy.  When we got in the car we all decided on her, we all wanted to call her Cuddles, but mom decided the name.  When we all thought about it, and Mom kept on saying that we may not get her, but now we have a small goldendoodle puppy. When she got here, I don't think she recognized us, because she was all over us, and it seemed like she didn't know us. but she was calm back when we were looking at her. So far she has gotten out of the fence a few times. But we've been trying to work on that, but today she got out again. We do not know what to do with the is crazy puppy.
So far we've got her to jump, stay, sit, roll over, and to stop biting.  She's got pretty big teeth, buuuut she doesn't use them too much, for a puppy. Sh eknows how to stay when mom's getting in the pantry. when she tries to get things, but we can stop her, but now we can have her tempted and then she can look away. Instead of us having to be super duper careful about our stuff. This is "leave it."
I want her to be in the dog olympics because for a young puppy, she already knows lots of tricks. She's gonna be a good olympics dog, cuz when I have her favorite toy and I say Jump, she jumps up with ease. She hasn't got used to us yet, but I know she's going to be a great dog.

Lake Powell in January

It's cold and frozen and deserted!

  Throwing rocks, trying to make a hole

                                       We brought Subway for lunch since there is nowhere to get food. This is the viewpoint above Hite marina

  Here is a gorgeous rest stop on the road to Lake Powell

        

Gotta throw rocks!

  A houseboat rental place

We had never really been to Lake Powell,even though it is quite close to us. Scott wanted to plan a trip down there to check it out. We were hoping to make a loop, riding the ferry and seeing both sides of the lake. However, the ferry is closed in the winter, we found out as we turned off the main road. so we went to plan B and just stayed on the Hite side.  It was a pretty drive as always, if you think rocks are pretty (which we do). We went down to the lake to throw in rocks and found super thick ice. We did finally make a hole. The lake was big and beautiful and silent.we stopped at an overlook and ate lunch while trying to keep the kiddos away from the edge.  We drove over to Bullfrog marina and there was warmer weather and open water. We walked around, stopped at one beach but it was muddy, so we went to the boat ramp which was better. the girls found a bunch of "seashells" and had fun picking a bag full. We also looked at some house boats and just hung out.  Afterwards, we headed back and stopped at the cool rest stop. It had a beautiful little trail and stream. Unfortunately I left the girls' coats in a pile right by the door, so we didn't stay too long in the shadowy canyon. It looks like a great place to hike someday, though.(and of course, throw rocks in the water) So that was a good day trip. The girls liked the lake and are pretty good little travellers, so we had fun. Next time we will go in the summer, I am sure it is a completely different place.

Christmas Time

Whitney liked her dragon from Great Gran! Christmas we always try to be at home so the kids can just relax (and us, too) We had decked out the outside of the house with lights, and the inside with lots of decorations. Scott found a great tree in the mountains for us and we decorated it as well. It was a little sappy, but didn't have the killer needles of last year's tree. In some weak moments, a fake tree starts to saound good, but we love our live trees and are so thankful to live in aplace where we can pay $10 for a permit and Scott can grab a tree at work. We keep planning to go with the whole family, but it hasn't happened yet.  Christmas was a Sunday, and church is at 9, so we planned on just doing stockings before, but everyone was up early, so we just did the presents. All the girls got great things and had fun, and we thank all of you for your gifts. I spent a few days before Christmas purging our toys, so we had room for the new. We cooked a turkey and all the trimmings and just relaxed the rest of the day.

   The day after Christmas, Kim and Jane were able to come down with Christmas #2. Grandpa Kim loves sugar cookies so we made some and got everyone decorating. It was fun. The girls are always up for frosting, baking, and of course, sprinkles. 

 Isabel asked for a Nerf gun and RC car. she got both and loves the truck. The Nerf darts are already MIA, as I expected, but still, Scott and I had fun with them.  It doesn't really work to only have one gun in the house. Perhaps we will get some more. Scottt got an RC helicopter, and it has been a big hit. it is so cool and little, it is amazing to see it fly around the house.  I was a little overwhelmed this year and did not do Christmas cards or neighbor gifts or anything. I felt slightly bad, but I also enjoy simplifying (still feel guilty). Just know that we think of you all often.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, we took some time to tour another beautiful spot. We have been here once before with my dad and Brigitte, but Kim and Jane hadn't been, and the girls didn't really remember.  Needles Overlook is a beautiful place, and even with a little bit of snow it was a great outing.  The views are spectacular, and I look forward to being able to explore more of Canyonlands as the kids get older.  We all had fun and it was a good day.  Don't forget, if you come visit, we will take you to these amazing places, too! or at least point you in the right direction! 

Fall to Christmas Lights

I apologize, these pictures are out of order.  This is the gang at Temple Square. We ended up going right before Christmas and the traffic and parking were insane. I am pretty certain there was a concert at the conference center acrosss the street (which holds around 20,000 people!)It took hours to get up there, but It was worth it, all the girls are just at the right ages to enjoy everything and the weather was great. The hardest part was keeping the mittens out of the fountains. We saw all the lights and displays, and then headed home, late.

This picture was taken at Thanksgiving, after the big meal we took the girls for a drive to see some Christmas lights. There weren't a lot on, but we went down to the Riverwoods shopping center and it had amazing lights! So we were able to get out and walk and see everything, the girls loved it. They have done a lot of work there, making it nto more of a plaza for shoppers. The decorations were gorgeous, and they also had fountains and lots to see. It was a fun time.

Abby participated in her first year of "real" Junior Jazz basketball. She was on a team with 3rd and 4th graders. She was one of the smallest girls! I am sure that will change over time.  She practiced twice a week, plus a game on Saturday mornings, it was busy. It is so fun to watch these little girls who really have some skills! They can dribble and shoot and make baskets already.  Abby did great on defense, but was a little timid going after the ball. We will work on that ;)  But she had a lot of fun and that is the most important. I don't think they really even kept score most of the time.  Isabel is now doing the instructional league, I will have to get pics of her up soon.  She is having a lot of fun with that, as well.

Scott worked on the sprinkler system for our back lot, but stalled on a few things. Finally, with winter snow threatening, I buried a bunch of the lines, and then had him  smooth it out. We were going to borrow a neighbor's tool to drag out the dirt, but we just improvised with some fence parts and it worked great. Sara had fun helping Dad.  There are still loads of rocks, but they are smaller. Hopefully first thing in the spring we can get the water hooked up and get some grass growing back there. We are pretty tired of the evil red clay mud!It sticks to everything, and it stains.  If we can get the lawn going, we may also do a fire pit if we can figure out a cheap but safe and good looking way to do it. We probably will end up picking rocks on the mountain and doing it that way. It will be so fun to be able to just do s'mores at home whenever we want!  And hopefully my lilac bushes are surviving so they will make us some privacy in a few years.

So I guess that was our busy fall!