Region Inspirations

Since Kali and Sadie both won 1st place in their school Inspirations Program, their work moved on to the region level. Earlier this week we were given an invitation to attend the region awards ceremony and tonight we found out that Sadie's dance piece got an honorable mention and Kali's won 1st place. Sadie was bummed that hers didn't come with a medal and Kali was pretty excited that she won until she realized that hers was the only submission. She won by default. I'm curious to see how she does at the state level.

Mission Call

The end of last month, Mom and Dad submitted papers to serve a mission and their call arrived today. They have been called to the Wichita, Kansas mission and will be serving as military liaisons for the Fort Riley army base. They report to the MTC on April 14th. I'm so glad they decided to serve a mission and can't wait to hear their experiences.

Gymnastics Runner

Kali was invited to be a runner at the University of Utah's gymnastics meet against Oregon State. A runner sits down on the floor with the judges and when the scores are given, they put them up on the signs and rotate them around for everyone to see. It was such a cool experience for her to be so close to the gymnasts.

When we first arrived at the Huntsman Center to watch the meet, we ran into Swoop. Emma was terrified and didn't want to get anywhere near him.

The meet was a little long for the girls, but they got a few things for free from spinning a Ford advertisment wheel (scarves, bags, chapstick) that kept them entertained.

And when the meet was over, Kali got to go around to all the gymnasts and have them sign a poster for her. It was a pretty cool experience.

Tired

When we got home last night, it was bedtime. Ashlyn had fallen asleep in the car but I woke her up to go inside. A minute later, this is where I found her. She walked to the door, dropped and was out cold. I asked her about it this morning and she doesn't remember a thing. It was pretty funny.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school. I saw someone else do a donut in their daughter's hair not long ago and suggested it to Sadie. She loved the idea and was all smiles when she saw what it looked like. After school she couldn't stop talking about all the attention she got. She said some of the teachers even took pictures with her.

Kali requested blue hair with pink curly pipe cleaners. It also turned out very cute but I think she was a little disappointed that she didn't get as much attention.

The Clark Planetarium

At the beginning of the year, our family set a goal of visiting one educational place a month. This month we decided to go to the Clark Planetarium. I hadn't ever been there and was really surprised at how much there was to do for free.

They had some really interesting things to see and do. The girls had a blast.

They even got to walk on Mars.

Hair Cut

A couple of days ago, I found this stash of hair and knew right away what had happened. Ashlyn has been using the scissors a lot lately and a couple of times I found her acting a little fishy but didn't think much of it. She's typically pretty responsible with scissors, but this pile of hair says otherwise. I could tell from the different colors that this was hair from a lot of different Barbies and dolls. After finding about six of her sisters' dolls with damage, I stopped searching and gave her a punishment.

Then today I noticed this. Emma's hair has some lovely straight cuts making her hair very short on the front left side. I suddenly knew that some of the hair I found the previous day belonged to Emma. I remember thinking some of the hair was very soft and couldn't think of which of their Barbies had such nice hair. That's because it wasn't a Barbie's hair, it was Emma's.

Then it dawned on me that she probably cut her own hair too. I began questioning her and she immediately burst into tears and admitted to it. I began searching her hair and luckily couldn't find any serious damage. I think she cut hair to the length of her bangs so it blends nicely. I guess the silver lining is that I may end up with a hair stylist in the future.

Family Temple Visit

Kevin sent out an email about a week ago letting us know that they would be in town and wanted to know if anyone would be interested in doing a session at the Jordan River temple. He thought it would be a good idea since Mom and Dad are waiting for their mission call and we won't have an opportunity to do something like thing again for quite some time. Not everyone was able to go, but a good-sized group of us went. I'm so grateful to have a family that has stayed strong in the gospel. It's so neat to be in the temple with them. I can't imagine anything more like heaven than that.

Afterward we went out to eat at Leatherby's. It was a ton of fun. I don't remember going to restaurants with my family growing up or even as adults so it felt like a first.

Valentine's Day

We had such a wonderful Valentine's Day this year. As always, Josh and I left a special present on the doorstep for the girls...

...journals. And the girls were so excited. Josh recently did a family home evening lesson on journal writing and ever since then the girls have wanted their own. They were the perfect gift. Then Josh only worked half a day so that he and I could go out to eat at Red Robin (surprise, surprise). Afterward we went to see Frozen, finally. Our girls have been dying to tell us about the movie but we kept telling them that they had to wait until we watched it. It was such a cute movie and turned out to be a wonderful date.

Earlier in the week, we spent an evening as a family making hearts to "heart attack" grandmas and grandpas on Valentine's Day. The girls loved getting creative and made some really cute hearts.

But I think they loved surprising their grandparents with them on Valentine's Day even more. It turned out to be super fun!

And last but not least, the girls gave us a Valentine's Day gift, a beautiful performance of singing and dancing. They even provided us with a play/pause wand so that we could stop them anytime during the performance. It came in very handy for taking this picture. We love our girls.

Date Night

Josh has recently started taking the girls out on dates. Once a week he takes one of them out for an ice cream or frosty at the place of their choice. The girls love the one on one time with him!!! Tonight was Emma's first date, and she had a blast. According to Josh she was quite the little goof ball. She kept running back and forth on the bench to get bites of her ice cream, all the while squealing.

Inspirations Winners

Kali and Sadie both entered the Choreography/Dance category for their school Inspirations Contest and both won. Because their school is so small, no one else entered the category for either of their age divisions. Thankfully they were in different age divisions because they were both super excited to have a 1st place medal. They especially liked the attention they got from their classmates. Sadie couldn't stop talking about how everyone at school wanted to sit by her the rest of the day. And Kali said that it took her a long time to get back to her seat during the assembly because everyone wanted to give her a high five.

Discovery Recital

Kali and Sadie got to perform for us tonight what they've been working on in Discovery over the last five weeks. Sadie participated in a class called Princess Camp and performed a dance to the song Do You Want to Build a Snowman. They had some really cute choreography and Sadie did great.

Kali participated in a class called Show Time and performed to Jellicle Cats from the musical Cats. She got to both sing the lyrics and do some acting/choreography. Not only did she make an adorable cat but she did an amazing job performing. She's very gifted at being dramatic and I can't wait until she can participate in a school play.

Book Reading

Josh caught these two enjoying a little book reading together. They don't always sit still for us to read to them, but they were sure enjoying looking at books tonight.

Ice Castles

I heard about the Ice Castles in Midway and just knew we had to take the girls to see it. Today was the perfect day to go since we didn't have anything going on. We drove up in the early afternoon and to get there before it got too crowded.

Online it said that princesses sometime come and visit the Ice Castles. Specific days were listed that they'd be there and today wasn't one of those. However, when we walked in, look who we found--Elsa, Ana, and Rapunzel.

We even found Olaf.

Then we started exploring. There was a maze and my favorite, the slot canyons.

Then we realized they had an ice slide. We had to stand in line for a while, but  we crawled up a small ice tunnel to a landing where a worker told us when it was safe to slide down.

We all tried it. I was afraid it would be super bumpy or that someone would get hurt, but it wasn't bad at all. It was actually kind of fun. Ashlyln loved it so much that she insisted on going down by herself (she went with Josh the first time). Sadie was nervous, but ended up having a blast and Emma loved it too.

After a while, we left to get some dinner and returned about an hour later. We heard that they turn on colored lights as soon as it gets dark to light up the ice. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, none of our evening pictures turned out very well. We also didn't stay very long because so many people were there that we were afraid we were going to lose someone.