Display of Achievements

Brandon and I attended Riley's Activity Day's

Display of Achievements.  Riley's age group

acted out a small skit about Little Red Riding

hood.  Riley got to be Granny in the skit. 

She only had to say, "Come in Dear".  

Which was great for Riley's shy personality. 

But the wig made the part!  Riley

has great leaders that put a lot of their time

into making these activities special for the girls.

I'm so glad Riley has something like this that

she can look forward to and accomplish things

herself.  Another great reason the church is such 

a blessing in our life. 

Family Swim Night

We met up with Brandon's parents and siblings and

their family's to swim at the Bountiful Rec. center

and have dinner after.  It has become an

annual thing we do and we love it!  Brandon's parents

are so kind to pay for us to swim as well as have us

over for dinner which is always so yummy.

Lisa only knows how to do the best of everything.

We are so grateful for her and her love. 

Owen just loves the freedom in his floaty.  And

 swims everywhere.  He is showing Brandon his 

big boy muscles.  

 The girls just had their swim lessons not long ago

and felt a little more daring to swim away from

the edge.  

Sierra still needs her life jacket but has no fear

of flipping of the edge.  We were all doing

are own thing when we noticed Sierra just

flipping off the side of the pool.  I don't think

you are allowed to do that but no one noticed her

little body flipping.  So I got her on camera! 

 After a couple hours of swimming and going down

the slide Riley was tired and ready for dinner. 

Soap Experiment

So to keep my kids and I from going completely crazy

while they were off track we decided to do a little

soap experiment.  I learned of it on Pinterest of course!

We took a bar of Ivory soap and put it in the 

micro wave for almost 2 minutes and watched it grow.

It was cool watching it grow.  It was very 

fragile thought.  You could easily smash it

and have soap dust everywhere. 

We put it in a mixing bowl added a little bit of water and 

food coloring and let the kids press the soap into 

shapes.  Now they can have their own soap

shapes for the tub.  

Swim Lessons

I signed the girls up for swim lessons while they

were off track.  They were every morning for 2 weeks with 

Friday off.  It is nice that the classes are not

to big but unfortunately I don't think that will be the 

case next year with more schools going year round. 

The girls had great teachers and progressed onto

the next level.  Riley and Paige were in the same class

 and had Teddy as their teacher.  Sierra had her same

teacher as last year.  Sierra's class was just right for her.

A casual take it easy kind of a class.  You can tell she 

did what she wanted most of the time. 

Riley I think got over her fear of jumping into the

deep end.  She is a strong swimmer and did so well

this year.  Paige stayed right up there with Riley.

Owen sat with me really good.  I thought he would

want to get in the water but he was content watching them 

or staying close to me.  The snacks helped of course! 

Sierra

Paige

Riley

Home Depot

After Riley's piano recital we stopped at Home

Depot to pick up a few things and saw that they

were doing a free clinic for the kids.  Of course

the kids wanted to do it.  The Home Depot aprons

were luring them in!  They got to build a race

car with nails and glue and got their own

apron which they came home and wore it all day

playing like they were Home Depot employees. 

Brandon did have work that day but we were not

in any big hurry and it felt so nice to just have a 

casual take it easy Saturday.  We have not had

one of those at home for a while.  Usually 

we have things going on and Brandon has to work.

I hope we get more of those Saturdays. 

Riley's Federation Piano Recital 2013

Riley had a Piano Recital and played her 

2 Federation pieces.  She gets better and better

from recital to recital.  It's so nice to hear the

church hymns and primary songs played in our

home!

Sierra fell a sleep

Poor sweet Sierra fell a sleep waiting for a turn on the computer.

I was paying some bills on line and she asked to play on the

computer.  I told her I'd be done in a few minutes but she

must have been to tired to wait.  She crawled in our

cubby where we put our blankets and fell a sleep.

I'm sure it's also because she was sick.  I thought it was

cute!  It is just the right size for her.  The kids call it the cave for

 what ever animal they are pretending to be.  I love taking pictures of 

my kids when they fall a sleep in funny places.  I wish I could

fall a sleep that easy!  

Skiing at the Cabin

Most everyone had Presidents Day off work accept

Brandon so he took it off so we could have a long

fun weekend at the cabin.  Brandon's parents and 

his sister Katie and her family came up. 

Riley got right to work doing what Riley does.

I'm not sure there is a name for it but all the family

knows what to expect with her.  She entertains

the little ones great.  I guess it was a Bear Lake

 family fun center.  She was still on a natural

high I guess from going to the Syracuse family

fun center that she decided to make one at the cabin.

She made wrist bands for those who went in.

You even had to sign in at the desk. 

What an imagination! 

Owen and Bailee chilled on the couch watching

t.v. and eating snacks.

Saturday Brandon and I went to a funeral and left the kids

at the cabin.  While we were gone Riley got a fantastic

idea to have Grandpa teach them how to ski so that

when Brandon and I got back they could surprise us

in thinking they were naturals their first time. 

However Paige slipped up and told me so Spencer explained

but Brandon did not know and wanted to help

Riley slowly down the hill when she just wanted to 

go for it and it bothered Brandon.  Poor guy we all 

knew but him. 

My girls did do good and I'm glad they did not give up. 

Sierra kept begging to try.  And we wanted to let her

but the boots and skis were so big for her. 

She was pretty sad about it.  So we'll have to

find some small enough for her and go another time. 

Brandon got some time with sweet baby Jace. 

Owen loved playing outside. 

He got real giggly when he got the bright idea to throw

snow balls at everyone. 

Valentines Day

Valentines day is a fun day for us.  The kids get 

dressed up cute and I do their hair in a fun way. 

And we take pictures on the stairs.  Owen is so

cute and was very photogenic.

Same with Sierra

I don't tell them to pose.  I just say "smile" and

they make up the rest!  

And Riley just laughed.

I love my cute kids! 

 This is how we did their hair.  Made Hearts with

their hair.  There is not much I can do since their

hair is so fine. 

Sisters being silly. 

Me and my cute boy! 

This is what valentines they took for their friends. 

Riley took the guitar one and Paige the candy watch.

Sierra made it easy on me and bought some from the store. 

Grandma Avery stopped in on her way down

to her dads house to see the kids and give them

a valentine.

Grandma Gardner also delivered a valentine

for the kids earlier before dinner. 

Things did not go as planned for dinner so we ended

up getting a late start with our night and got to bed

late.  But the kids did not mind. 

We decided to go to the Family Fun center

in Syracuse.  We were just going to go bowling

but it was league night and there were no lanes open. 

So we played miniature golf,  Laser tag and the kids

bounced around.  

Owen loved it! 

The kids slid down together great the first time but

I did not have my camera ready so I told them to go again

and poor Owen did not have much fun.  He is a tough

boy though. 

The kids loved the laser tag the best.  It took a while to get

the hang of it but eventually they had a blast.  Owen could not

fit into a vest so he shot my gun a few times but then just ran around 

being sneaky like us.  It was nice being the only ones in there playing. 

Daddy Daughter Dance

The girls school, Bluff Ridge Elementary 

had their annual Daddy Daughter Dance.

The girls look forward to that each year.

And Sierra was so excited that she

got to go this year with her sisters.

And I got more time with my boy!