Spring!

While vacationing in St. George over the Spring Break weekend, we stopped on Sunday and snapped some photos. You know the kind where you are all dressed up and everybody puts on their best smiles. Yep, it really happened that way! Okay, not quite...Chloe cried twice. We managed to get some good photos even so. Just thought we would share them here.

Free digital ecard made with Smilebox

(We'll share some other "fun" photos from our trip down south in another post.)

Where to start?!

When it comes to blogging, as with so many other things…I am a bit behind!  Those of you who still check blogs regularly and are disappointed that nothing has been posted here since August of last year, I apologize!  I am going to do a quick post here, just so that Chloe can look back at this one day and know that her parents did do birthday parties for her too!  I will hopefully post a few other things as well.  If I am using this as a journal or record or our family, then I better get to it!

 

October 2011

Chloe turned 4.  Everything was Rapunzel!

We had “hazelnut soup” (aka broccoli soup) & braided rolls for lunch, cupcakes served in a frying pan, and played pin the nose on Flyn.  She opened presents and they finished off the afternoon watching the movie and sidewalk chalk outside.

She was in heaven!

 

November 2011

I discovered Pinterest.  What a wonderful thing!  For those of you not familiar, it is an on-line place to save the ideas, recipes, thoughts, etc. that you find out there on the web.

Pinterest was a life saver for Thanksgiving this year.  I wanted to try some new recipes and they turned out great, especially the cherry pie!

Stephen smoked a turkey again this year.  You may recall the pictures from last year (2010)…

This year went much better (on the right)!  Stephen rigged up his smoker to run on propane this year instead of the wood.  It still had a smoky flavor but wasn’t nearly so blackened!

The tree in the backyard has gotten quite tall and drops quite a few leaves.  The girls enjoyed an afternoon playing in the leaves.  Burying themselves, falling backwards into the pile and even a little shower of leaves with daddy’s help.

 

 

December 2011

The girls have done some dancing this year.  Earlier in the fall they danced at the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point and in December they performed at the Festival of Trees at the South Towne Expo Center.  Avery loves the stage and gets so excited.  Chloe is slowly warming up to the idea.  After the disaster that was the Lagoon Dance Competition earlier in the summer, where she simply stood there and shook her head “no”, we are happy with anything she does on stage.

 

 

At the Annual Legacy Dance Year End Performance at Flip’s Gym, the dad’s had a chance to get involved.  The girls practice something called Drill Down at dance each week where they have to listen carefully as their teacher, Miss Mo calls out directions:  right face, left face, about face, etc.  It helps them to be better focused as a dancer.   This year they included a Dad’s Drill Down!  No way Stephen was doing this without a little cutie on his shoulders.  He did alright, but could have used a little more practice!

 

We took our annual trip to see the lights at Temple Square.  This year we went with our good friends, the Pulsipher Family.  Gary was kind enough to take a picture of our family…

(yes we are blurry…don’t worry we teased Gary about his photo skills!)

We rode the trains downtown and had dinner at the food court at the Gateway (not for lack of trying to find something else!)  The kids enjoyed the lights, the train ride and the time with friends.

  

Santa delivered in a big way again this year.  The girls were all too happy with the pile of presents.  Avery got some new squinkies, clothes, a new bedspread (made by me!  with help from my mom) and some books.  Chloe was also big into the squinkie thing this year, she also is our little fashionista!  All things pink and sparkly were on her wish (and get) list.  Even her Tag Leap Frog reader came in pink!

 

Avery loved her new quilt and her owl hat.  The quilt was a last minute addition to her Christmas because I was feeling guilty.  I had purchased the fabric a year before to make it for her birthday.  Needless to say it didn’t happen then.  So this year I stayed up late nights to sew it all together, got it to our neighbor to quilt and my mom bound it all in the week before Christmas.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think so is she!

 

Well, that is a long enough post for now, hopefully I will get back here again before next Christmas!