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.

Gymnastics Meet

We went to a University of Utah gymnastics meet tonight and had a fun time. Kali gets to be a helper with the scoring during a meet next month so her coach wanted her to come watch a meet to get a feel for what she'll have to do. Unfortunately we were so high up that Kali was having trouble seeing, but it was still fun to go.

Emma had a blast because she spent the entire time walking along the seats. Sadie, on the other hand, was bored out of her mind. She didn't like the fact that she had to just sit there. She wanted to be down on the floor. She was, however, infatuated with the U sign. She wanted to know why everyone kept holding their hands in that position and decided to give it a try. Josh was pretty horrified to see what she was doing. What did he expect when we were at a University of Utah meet?!

And for some reason we always luck out at sporting events and end up near the mascot. The U's red-tailed hawk, Swoop, came up and gave the girls a high five. They were pretty stoked.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

We have a tradition with our Family Home Evenings. The first song we sing every single time is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and it gets a little crazy. The girls run in circles and jump off couches and have a ton of fun. We've done it for a couple of years now and it's a great beginning to the evening. Not only is it a way to round everyone up, but it helps put everyone in a good mood and gets the attention of the little ones.

Snow Fun

Josh finally had a Saturday with nothing going on and spent the day outside in the snow with the girls. They had a blast. Especially because he built them a snow cave.

Had it not been for the fact that the following day was a Sunday, Josh said he would have slept in it. It was plenty big and warm.

Princess Camp

Sadie is doing a class called Princess Camp for this session of Discovery. She is learning how to be a princess and today they were focusing on how they talk and walk. Sadie did such a good job walking with a clipboard on her head. She was so proud that she was the only one to walk around the chair and back without dropping it a single time.

Sledding

The girls have been dying to go sledding and we finally got our chance. Unfortunately, Kali took Ashlyn out on her first run down the hill so there were a lot of tears and some pouting, but eventually everyone ended up having fun.

Frisbee Dodgeball

On New Year's Day we got together with the Smith side and played frisbee dodgeball. We gave Brady and Jordan soft frisbees for Christmas and wanted to show them how fun they were. Everyone had a blast, including the kids. And we were all super sore the following day.