Tumbling

Now that Kali is in 1st Grade, she gets to begin Discovery. She got to pick from tumbling, ice skating, and tae-kwon-do. She chose the first and is loving it. We always knew she would be a natural at tumbling, but that was only reinforced when her teacher asked me if she had ever done tumbling before and said that she would have already passed her first level based on her performance on the first day of class. She has always been full of energy, afraid of nothing, determined, and super coordinated.

Goofy Girl

This is typical Sadie humor. For some reason or another she put her shorts on backwards this morning. When I told her they were on backwards, she thought it was hilarious and insisted on wearing them that way the rest of the day. Then she walked around sticking her toosh out just for added emphasis. Silly girl.

Family Photos

Once again, my talented sister-in-law took some pictures for us. Here are a few of our favorites.

I'm actually kind of surprised she was able to get such great shots when she was having to deal with these crazy kids. If one wasn't pulling a face and standing funny, one of the other two were.

The Beauty Salon

Sorry, I know this picture isn't the best, but it shows a fun tradition I have with the girls when Josh isn't home. They love to do my hair, and I must admit, I love having my hair done by them probably as much as they like doing it. It's very relaxing. Ashlyn has even joined in the fun. The only downfall is that they like to use the spray bottle and the hairspray so I end up a little sticky and wet by the end.

First Grader

I thought Kali was going to be so excited to be in first grade and no longer have just a half day of school, but I was wrong. Instead she got sad. She was worried that she wouldn't ever see us. I had to assure her that we'd still have plenty of time together and that she'd have the entire weekend off. She was still a little unsure of how she felt and didn't seem to be looking forward to the new school year until we met her teacher and his aide. They were so nice to her. They took her on a tour of the classroom and showed her the class pet (a tortoise). After that, all she could think about was starting school. Her first week went wonderfully and she's just as excited about first grade as she was on her first day back. Hopefully the excitement continues.

Boulders

We began a new project at our house, retaining the dirt on the first level of our back yard. It is turning out to be a much larger project than I thought it would be, but isn't that always the case (especially when you're dealing with 300-500 lb. boulders). I love seeing the progress. One day our back yard will be in working order and child friendly. Josh can't wait until I stop giving him these physically taxing projects.

California

My Aunt Mary passed away last week after a hard battle with Cancer. Ashlyn and I were fortunate enough to make the trip out to California for her funeral. At first I didn't think we'd be able to go, but after pulling together with several of my siblings we filled two vans full of people and split the gas money. Aimee and I drove and we squished Sara, Brett, Hannah, Brian, Keily and some kids in the remaining seats. It was crazy but fun. Ashlyn did surprisingly well with the car ride. She only cried once and whined a few other times. She was probably the easiest kid of the bunch. I think that the stops at the Salt Flats were her favorite parts both there and on the way back. It was a good opportunity to get some energy out.

The funeral was beautiful. And I must say that the prayers were probably my favorite part. They were so heart felt and faith filled that you couldn't help but fill the spirit.

Unfortunately we missed the dedication of the grave because we got lost on our way to the cemetery, but we didn't miss the opportunity to take some long overdue pictures.

This is my mom, her mom and all of her siblings but Daryl who lives in Florida and was unable to make the trip out for the funeral.

And this is Uncle Ron's family minus Aunt Mary.

While there we stayed with Aunt Gail, visited with family that we haven't seen in a long time, and had a little fun too. We went swimming a couple of times. Ashlyn wouldn't touch the water the first day and instead spent her time entertaining herself with things like other people's flipflops. The second day she warmed up to the water and had a lot of fun.

We visited the Nimbus fish hatchery. Unfortunately it closed five minutes after we got there so we didn't get to take the full tour.

We spent one day visiting some places that held a lot of memories for Mom and Dad. And Ariane took us to Old Fair Oaks to see Grandpa Bair's block. I felt famous seeing it. It's near one of the street corners. It says Evan Bair Family 10. The 10 is for his ten children. I guess Great Grandpa Astle had one right there nearby, but somehow I missed seeing it.

And of course we got to see the Sacramento Temple. It's right next the the Mormon Center which is the church were they held the funeral. We were hoping to do baptisms or a session, but they were closed for cleaning the entire time we were there.

Reading

We do a lot of reading at our house these days. Josh is always reading some sort of chapter book to the girls, Kali does a lot of reading on her own, and I try to read to the girls most days too. As you can see Ashlyn even likes to be in on the fun. We have also filled the chair pockets in the van with the dollar books for the girls to read while in the car and the girls seem to love it. Ashlyn's favorite book in the car is called Louder Lilly. She has practically torn it to shreds and even eaten a few chunks out of it. Thank goodness it didn't cost a lot.

Pictures

My talented sister-in-law took pictures of my girls for me and I was so impressed with how they turned out. Here are a few of my favorites.

Kali

Sadie

Ashlyn

The Girls

Sadie's Birthday

Our little Sadie is now four years old. She was so excited to turn four and is already counting down the days until she turns five. We had to laugh on her birthday because we told her that she got to choose what we ate and did that day and she took that advice very seriously. When Kali told us that she wanted to play in the sandbox that morning, Sadie said, "No, remember, I get to choose what we do today." We then had to explain that she could choose the activities that we did as a family when there was a choice to be made. But she still didn't quite understand, and all day long we were reminded that everything was her choice.

Family came over to celebrate with cake and ice cream. She chose a castle cake but didn't eat hardly any of it. She preferred the candy.

Favorites

Food.........................Pizza

Toy.........................anything little

Game.........................Freeze Tag, Colored Eggs, Candy Land

Movie.........................any Barbie movie