Fall Break

I love having my kids home from school! We stayed home and had a great time! Wednesday we played hookie from karate and played all afternoon. Thursday morning we headed up to the Children's Museum at the Gateway. I expected it to be busy but it wasn't and we had a marvelous time. We took my sis-in-law Kristen and her son Jack with us. Jack kept us entertained the whole time with his grown-up conversation. The rest of the day was played away until nighttime when we had a movie night. The kids got to see The Princess Bride (with some editing) for the first time. I tell you what, I had just as much fun watching it as they did. It was hilarious though, Ryan was acting just like the boy in the movie. When I told him the name of the movie he moaned and groaned, so I just quoted the Grandpa and he decided he'd check it out. He then made me laugh the next day when he was telling a neighbor friend about it he had to do the same explanation so that no one would think he was watching a girlie movie. So funny.
Friday Kristen took Ryan and Izzy's pictures (in lieu of school pictures) in the morning at the park (which they took advantage of). Then after a long nap by Ashley we went to Color Me Mine where the kids painted their own ceramics. They loved it! (It's more pricey than I like though.)
That night I got a date (hooray) to play volleyball which was great fun although I was super sore the next day.
Saturday we worked in the yard and played and played.
It's been a great weekend. I'm sad to see it end!

Ashley laughing

Help!

Let's say hypothetically that I have an ultra-bossy daughter whose friends lose interest in playing with her pretty quickly because she wants to tell them how to play. How would I rectify that hypothetical situation before she gets older and it's harder to make friends much less keep them?
Any ideas?
sidenote: the same character traits that make her bossy also help her to be very independent and sometimes incredibly helpful. So I guess what I'm hoping for is to help her create a strength rather than a weakness.

FHE S'mores

We had a couple of friends over for S'mores on Monday night as a final hurrah to summer. The evening was really nice and the kids thoroughly enjoyed each other. I can't believe it took us all summer to finally do this!




sidenote: I'm giggling when I look at the picture of me and Scott because anytime I take a picture of myself I manage to have a double chin. This time I overcorrected. Oh well, at least there is no double chin!
another sidenote: Notice how Izzy is grabbing Jonah's arm. Ryan told me today that she was chasing him and trying to kiss him. Appparently we are going to have to have another chat like the one we had before school started. She's way to young for kissing!!

Hooray!

Someone slept through the night last night and it wasn't me...

This beautiful girl slept from 8:30 to almost 7!!!!! Wahoo! (I should really be knocking on wood right now.)

Summer activities

We had such a busy summer (with baby of course) that I never put up pictures of some of the fun activities we did.
We went canoeing at Tipplefork in American Fork Canyon. The boys enjoyed the fun of the canoes while Izzy enjoyed the mud. (I missed the mud picture, but my sis got it, so maybe I'll post it after it's printed and scanned in - reality - I probably won't post it.)


We hiked up to Stewart Falls with my family. The kids did really really well although Izzy tried to convince Scott and I that she couldn't possibly keep walking several times. On the way back she walked ahead of us with some of her cousins and she didn't ask for help once. I was quite proud of her.
While at the falls we found a few creatures. Ryan found a snake and I found two ticks...on Ashley's blanket!!! Needless to say, when we got home I made everyone bathe, I put every article of clothing in the wash and I said a little prayer. (Ticks give me the creeps!)
Other than that it was a great time!

Izzy's Faith

Izzy and Ryan are having a movie night with some of their friends tonight. Izzy just went to get it set up and couldn't find the remote. She asked me to help her and after about 30 seconds she said, "Maybe we should pray." I was about to tell her to look a little harder but I stopped and we knelt to pray. She asked me to say the prayer. After the prayer we both stood up and started looking again. Then she said, "The last time I saw it was when I was playing with Emma and Gabby." Then she walked to that spot and said, "Here it is!"
She went to turn on the TV and I stopped her and reminded her that we needed to say a thank you prayer so we knelt again. This time she said it. Among other things she said, "Please bless God that he will be thankful that we found it."
I giggled inside and after the prayer gave her a kiss.
I love how my children remind me every day to do what I am trying to teach them to do.