Rodeo fans

The little girls and I went to the Rodeo at the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden. Not sure why or how it happened but Rodeos became my guilty pleasure. I am a trauma nurse and rodoes are a trauma nightmare but I can't stay away. Ellie has come a long way with rodeos. When she was 3 or 4 I took her to the big Days of 47 rodeo and she was crying and yelling at the cowboys to stop hurting the calfs the entire time. Everyone sitting around us was wondering why on Earth I would take an animal rights activist child to the rodeo. Brin gets worried about the bull riders and sometimes has good reason to. Last night one of the cowboys got knocked out when he was thrown from the bull. Yikes! But we still go to rodeos. We love cotton candy and popcorn and dusty seats. But this is not to say I would EVER let a child of mine participate in any rodeo event....just so we are clear.

No more brace face

Kyla got her braces off after 2 and a half long years (and thousands of dollars). She has a beautiful smile. She now has a glitter retainer that she will wear forever (unless she wants to do what I am doing and get braces for the second time!!)

Valentines Day 2009

I gave each of my valentines a sack full of Valentine goodies. Brin got a new dress, Kyla new shirt and Ellie a game. Each of them got lip gloss (it's a family thing!!) We made these cute and yummy lollipop cookies. The girls took valentines around to their friends house with some cookies. On Sunday we had our special Valentine dinner by candle light. I heart my girlies!!

RAD kids

Ellie's class at school was involved in a program that teaches self defense. The program helps to prepare kids for different situations and how to be safe. I love the idea of this class. She is a great kid and it was fun for Brin and I to go watch her RAD kid program graduation.....and you thought I was just calling my kids RAD...which they are!!

Swimming Party

Ellie invited her friends to a swimming party. We went to Clearfield Aquatic Center. It is an indoor pool with a water slide and small lazy river. After swimming for a while we went to Ligori's Pizza for dinner. Today was actually Elle's REAL birthday. Happy birthday girl!! We love your guts and hope you had a fun week! (To round out the week we had the cousins over for dessert on Sunday).

Ellie's birthday dinner

This year Ellie chose to try a new place for her birthday dinner. She usually likes the Mayan but wanted to eat at Tipanyaki this year. It was yummy. It was Ellie's first time to eat there. She loved to watch our chef. He made onion volcanos and flipped shrimp at everyone around the table to catch in their mouth. Kyla went 2 for 2....what does that say about her big mouth :). We had a great time and loved the food. Ellie even got a birthday serenade from the table and dessert.

Ellie gets her ears pierced

Sorry for the brief commercial...now back to Ellie's Birthday week. Next after much waiting and anticipating, she got her ears pierced. She was nervous after her big sis got through telling her how it would feel--but she did great. Now she is the proud owner of holes in her ears!! She is now awaiting the day she can actually change the earrings and wear some of the cute pairs she got for her b-day.

Ellie's Birthday WEEK

If you are in my family you get a birthday week not just a measley day. I love birthdays ... not getting older- just birthdays. Ellie was born on a Friday the 13th and her birthday this year falls on a Friday the 13th, cool huh? So we set straight to work on the partying. Ryan got Elle tickets to the Jazz game. They played the Dallas Mavericks. We had to get a game that fell on a night that didn't conflict with the girls dance, and that is not an easy task. Me, Ryan, Elle and Brin went. It was great! Ryan and Ellie wore their JAZZ gear. Ry got Ellie the shirt and hat she has on in the pics. We also made a sweet sign for Ellie to hold up so she could get her face up on the digitron. This didn't happen but she looked adorable holding it up. Ellie is a huge Jazz fan and knew all of the chants and cheers the crowd does. We ate ice cream, pop corn and candy (do you see a trend on all our outtings??) The Jazz won! What a great way to start off the birthday week....

Circus comes to town

The circus came to Utah for a few weekends and we grabbed the show in Ogden. First we hit Costa Vida, our usual dinner stop and sat at OUR table. This is becoming somewhat of a tradition for us and food we all love. The circus was fun. We sat on the 6th row up. You could ride on the elephants (for a small fee, lol), they had bright pink and blue poodles do an act that Brinner and Ellie loved. There was a one person trapeze act that was cool and guys riding inside a ball on motorcycles without crashing onto each other that was awesome and a trauma nurse's nightmare!! We ate lots of treats and enjoyed a fun family activity. It is fun to have Brin getting to an age that we can take her to fun things like this and not wish we had stayed home. Oh, don't get me wrong, the girl is no angel and was threatened with us leaving her there as the newest member of the circus, a talking monkey!! but she is getting much better.

Indoor Soccer

Kyla is my soccer maniac. She lives for soccer. Right now is indoor soccer season, with the snow all over the ground and all. She plays every position, that's what she gets for being so athletic. For Friday's game she was put in as goalie when ours was late arriving. She did awesome and the other team only scored on her twice. She doesn't love it....but the things she does for the love of the game. Kyla is the one in the bright yellow shoes, she said that was a good way for people to tell who she was as she streaked down the field. Her team is in blue jerseys and she is # 8; 0 is her bff, Chloe. She has a yellow penny on in the shot of her as goalie. Oh... I almost forgot, if you look closely you can see hot pink in her hair, permanent hot pink. Oh the joys of having a teenager!!

Science Fair Project

Ellie is in 5th grade this year and was required to do a science fair project. She chose to study the different freezing times of various liquids. The due date crept up quickly but she worked hard and got it done. The amount of homework and projects this girl has easily makes me even for ever asking my folks to help me with any homework ... up through high school. The pictures are of my...I mean Ellie's project :)

Chuck E. Cheese's

A brand new Chuck E. Cheese's opened in Layton a few months ago and Brin has had her eye on going there ever since. Every time we drive past it she says "Chuck E. Cheese's.....where a kid can be a kid!!" So we finally went on Monday Jan 19th. I remember going as a kid and the pizza being like crackers with sparce cheese on it but playing a lot of skee ball. I am happy to report the pizza was pretty good and they have a salad bar and all- you- can- drink drinks. We had a blast. It was way crowded and loud but I'm sure a big part of that was my 4 year old having the time of her life. Ryan even got in on the action and mastered a safari hunting game. It was the one attraction that all the dads seemed to gravitate to. It was the only game he played...besides taking a brief respite to beat Kyla at air hockey. I loved that they stamp your hand when you go in and check it on the way out that you are only leaving with your own kids. Nice touch and reassuring since the place is crowded...did I mention that already??

Lava Hot Springs

So every summer the girls and I go to Lava Hot Springs. And every year for the past 3 we have had major events happen around the same time. So we decided to try a winter vacation to see if that breaks the string of bad luck. The girls didn't have school on Martin Luther King day or the Tuesday after so we headed up to Idaho. After looking around at some of the Inns and Hotels (this town is super old and so are the buildings) we decided on The Alpacca Inn. It is the nicest little place up there. It has only been open since July of last year and still looked and felt new. The lady that runs the place is so nice and accomadating. I thought our string of bad luck had continued when we had only been in town about an hour and Brin started complaining of her ear hurting. You might be thinking, well lots of kids do that. Brin has only done that 2 other times and within 12 hours of saying "ouch! my ear hurts" and never mentioning it again, she had ruptured her ear drum and had goo running out of her ear. So our cute inn keeper lady got us a few names and numbers of local instacares and doctors offices if we needed them....it was 8 pm on Friday night. Brin settled down a bit and we decided to head up to the public hot pools. They are out doors and all you see is steam rising around them, hence no pictures of girlies enjoying the pools. Rumor has it that these pools have natural healing powers and who knows maybe they do cuz Brin stopped complaining of her ear and we went the rest of the weekend without a ruptured ear drum! The weather was chilly- like 20 degrees ( I know those of you back East are smiling to yourselves - but I am not a cold weather girl!!) The town has limited eating establishments so we drove to Pocatello one day for a movie - Hotel for Dogs- and mexican food. It was a nice mini vacation and one we will try to make again.

New Year's Resolution....again

So last year I had a New Year's Resolution to "start" a blog, which technically I did, right? Now if you're thinking....what I never saw her blog!! Well the blogsite was created and THIS year my goal is to actually blog on it. Hey, ya gotta start somewhere! So we had a great Chirstmas holiday. My 2 younger brothers and their families surprised us and drove home for Christmas. It was awesome. They both have the cutest kids, even Scott's new little boy is adorable and we all know I am partial to girls. So B and Scott feel free to ship your kids off to Aunt Shar's anytime cuz they are welcome and wanted here with us. ]

After Christmas Kyla and I had to try out our new goods and hit the slopes to try our hand at snowboarding. Now I learned how to ski when I was 5 and thought this would be new but do-able thing. It is a little hard to go from moving downhill without thinking much about what you are doing to having your feet strapped sideways on a board and you can't stand, turn, let alone stop without concentrating on each move. And my butt hurts...... a lot. It has been over 3 weeks ago and I am just now able to sit down without tears welling in my eyes. Can't wait to get back up there :) Oh, Kyla did awesome. She is super athletic and adorable. So adorable in fact that boys were yelling to here from up on the lift!! Ya, I can't take that girl anywhere!!