Whitney turns Three!

 Whitney is growing up so fast! This year we are not doing friend parties, and I have to say I am thankful. three year old parties are a little crazy! Instead of focussing on all the cleaning and planning and craziness, we just did what is important to a little lady...number one being balloons! I asked Whitney what color she wanted, and she started naming every color, so a dozen rainbow balloons were the highlight of the day! For all the kids!

It has been a crazy and busy few weeks and so this time no fancy cake happened. I got a red velvet (our first one ever) from the grocery store, wrote on it with a little gel icing tube, and added princess sugar decorations that didn't match at all! But you know what, it's ok! She loved it, the cake was actually really good, especially for store-bought. There is a little bit of mommy guilt for not doing something fabulous like all my talented friends out there, but it's not hard to let go of all that when I see how happy she is and how unstressed I am.  Next year perhaps I will go all out. But enough about me.

Whitney got a few presents, mostly clothes, but also a puzzle, princess dolls and a little wooden bed for baby dolls.  She was happy with that, and enjoyed the day.

Whitney continues to grow and change all the time, but still remains sweet and cuddly. She is getting some attitude lately, but it is actually kindof funny to watch. My favorite are the freak outs that come from playing with her sisters. You would think she broke an arm, and when she finally comes to me and I ask what's wrong, it is something like "Sara won't let me be Rapunzel!" or "Isabel turned me into a frog!"  so she is entertaining. She also makes stuff up and that is funny as well. Amazing how young they learn to just flat out lie.  She is into Dora and butterflies and Tangled. She loves her sisters, and right now Isabel is her declared favorite. They are cute together. This summer has been such a trial for her little self, while her sisters get dropped off for swimming lessons and dance, she is ot able to do those yet, and it breaks her heart! I feel so bad, life just isn't fair!She loves her Dad and misses him a lot when he is gone. She is starting to love talking on the phone and thinks every time I am on it, it has to be a Grandma on the other end.  She has an amazing little spirit and goes along with what the rest of us are doing, especially copying her sisters, but also grabbing a book and climbing in to bed with me to read, or helping me cook.  We love Whitney so much and can't wait to see what she does over the next year!

Memorial Day

 There is a place on the forest by Moab that has dinosaur footprints. Scott wanted to take us there, so we went on the way back from Grand Junction.

This is one picture of the view, I was so bummed, my battery died right after this was taken. It was quite a big cliff, and gorgeous.

A few weeks ago, some kids came selling raffle tickets to support a local robotics club. The days when I had to sell magazines and oranges door to door in our small town are still fresh in my mind, so I try to support any kids who come by.  This time we lucked out! We won a pretty decent Cabela's gift card! This is a large outdoor equipmet store. It was one of our favorite places to visit, because it is so fun and huge and they have animals and fish and everything. (live fish, stuffed dead animals)  Anywho, there is also a smaller version in Grand Junction,CO. so we headed over there to get some camping gear, and some fishing poles for the girls.  We had lunch at Olive Garden (thanks Jeremy and Crystal for the Christmas gift card) and then went and spent our winnings. Unfortunately, it isn't the cheapest place, and so we didn't make out as well as I had hoped. 4 crazy kids didn't help with organized shopping, but oh well. We managed to get fishing poles that light up when you spin the reel, a nice potty bucket for camping with 4 little girls, some reusable water bottles, and some PowerBait that is fresher than 15 yrs old (Scott says "it's still fine!")  If only the visions of fishing with the children were like the storybooks.  Last time we tried it was a little chaotic. Trying to keep 4 little people quiet and sitting still and not throwing rocks in the water, and not falling into the water is a challenge. So I am thinking we will do Daddy\Daughter fishing dates one or two at a time. We are plannning a camping trip in a few weeks, and I am sure we will try them out then.  Scott says we might be able to rent a boat where we are going, that would be fun.  I am also not sure if they quite understand the reality of whacking a slimy fish on the head and gutting it, but they are actually ok with a lot of that, and they know where meat comes from and they want to eat their fish, so we will see. 
Anyways, after Cabela's I hit a few other stores in the mall, getting some pretty smelling soaps at Bath and Body Works, and then some clothes on sale at Children's Place for Whitney's birthday, and some for Abby, who  is growing out of everything and needed summer clothes. Oh, we also had to get her shoes at Payless, since she also needed those. darn kids just keep growing. Luckily Abby does pretty well at keeping things good to pass down to her sisters. 
After our shopping and playing in the little kids' playground at the mall, we headed back towards Moab, turning off to see the dinosaur tracks. It was a very long day, and we were ready to be out of the car, but we aren't over that way very much so we went. The girls had fun looking for tracks and the air was nice and fresh up there.  The road back went along the Colorado river and it was beautiful to see the red rock and the river, and a few rafters. We stopped in Moab on the way back fo some dinner and got home. GJ is about 2.5 hours away and it was a lot of driving, including our detour, but it was a good day and we are glad we had Scott around for a minute to hang out with us. He has been very busy, but it is good.

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.