Happy Birthday, Emily!

Can you believe it? Emily is 6!  She is growing up so fast.  

Emily loves being six and she loves being in kindergarten.  She has made so many new friends and looks forward to going to school everyday.  She is doing so well in school too.  Her teacher is really impressed with how well she can read and says she is a very good student and always follows the rules and is nice to the other kids.  I am glad she is doing well and liking school so much.

Emily's birthday was on Sunday this year just like the year she was born.  Before church we let Emily open one present.

It was exactly what she wanted... Elsa and Anna Barbie dolls!  Emily loves the movie Frozen, just like every girl her age.  Because she loves it so much, she wanted to have a Frozen themed birthday party with all of her friends.

Because her birthday was on Sunday, we had her birthday party on Monday.  She invited all of the neighborhood kids her age as well as some new friends from school.  We had fun playing Frozen games.

We started the party by having the kids color Frozen coloring pages while they waited for the other kids to arrive.  The kids could also make paper snowflakes if they didn't want to color. We also had a frozen block of ice with little toys inside of it.  We gave the kids spoons and let them try and chip away at the ice block to try and get the toys out.  This was similar to the way Kristoff in the movie cut ice blocks for his ice business. 

When everyone had arrived, we opened presents.  Emily got a lot of fun new toys from her friends.  She especially loved the the microphone that played the "Let It Go." song from the movie.  She sang and performed the song for us over and over again. 

After the presents, we had our first game, Ice Block Races.  In this game, the kids had to pretend they were Kristoff and put their ice block on their sled and race to the other end of the yard.  This was a really fun game until two girls got ran over by the sleds.  They got their legs scraped pretty good and we felt so bad.  We decided it was time to move onto another game.

Next we played "Pin the Nose on Olaf."  This was a fun game and the kids had fun trying to find the right place for Olaf's nose.  I made this Olaf out of a cardboard box and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  I think I am going to use it for the Christmas party at Emily's school.  

Finally it was time for cake.  We all sang Happy Birthday to Emily and she blew out her candle.  Emily loved her cake and even helped me make it.

I just made a simply decorated cake this year but it still fit the theme.  Inside was the fun part though.  The inside of the cake was blue and white, the colors of Frozen. Ever since I made Russell's colorful birthday cake, Emily has wanted one too.  So here is her colorful cake.   I also made cupcakes to match.

The fun part of the party planning was making the gift bags for the guests.  I included four simple things that went along with the Frozen theme.  First I made white glittery play dough and called it "Snow Dough"  I gave each guest a baby food jar full of this dough.  Next I made simple fleece scarfs for each gift bag.  Then in a small Ziploc bag I put together large and small marshmallows, stick pretzels, and mini chocolate chips.  Attached to this bag was a tag that said, "Do you wanna build a snowman?"  And finally I included a small bag of Hershey's hugs with a tag of Olaf saying " I just want to give you lots of Hugs!"  These gift bags were really fun to make.  Along with the gift bags, I also made a few decorations.  I made paper figurines of Anna and Elsa as well as a pendant with pictures of the movie characters and a bunch of paper snowflakes.  Emily helped me with the snowflakes and made most of them.

After most of the guests had gone home, we had some more fun with the ice blocks:

Brinley, Emily and Brielle tried to see who could stand on the ice block the longest before their feet got too cold.  I think Brielle won because she was wearing shoes!  Logan also loved the ice blocks and was soaking wet from sitting on them all day.  Emily, Colby, and Brielle also had fun pulling each other on the sleds and racing with the ice blocks.  

I had also planned one more game that we didn't get to during the party but afterward, these three wanted to play it.  So we did. It was called building a snowman in St. George!  We wrapped Brielle, Emily and Colby up in toilet paper and then decorated them like snowmen.  They turned out so cool!  Their favorite part was pretending they were the Hulk and ripping out of the toilet paper after the picture.

Emily said she had a really fun birthday and loved having all of her friends around to play with.  

Happy Birthday, Emily.  We love you!

Braden's Eagle Court of Honor

Sunday we attended Braden's Eagle Court of Honor.  

We are really impressed and proud of Braden for working so hard toward this great goal.  Braden received this award the day before his 15th birthday which is really amazing.  He has done so many merit badges and has done so well in the Scouting program.  He has really enjoyed it too.  Here are a few pictures of Braden and his family.

Here are all of the Eagles in our family (except for Justin who was not there).  Our own Eagle's nest is growing!  Way to go guys.

Here are some of the awards and things Braden has done during Cubs and Boy Scouts.  Congratulations Braden on all of your hard work.  This is a great achievement.

Snow Canyon Homecoming

Snow Canyon Homecoming was this weekend.  Tyler wanted me to take pictures of his homecoming group and date before the dance.  

I had been working on Emily's Elsa Halloween costume and finally finished it right before.  Emily's dress looked like a homecoming dress so we had her and Tyler pose for a picture before I took the others. 

Here is the cute couple:

Here are a couple of the fun group shots.

Tyler said he had a lot of fun at homecoming this year.  This group was really funny and it was fun taking pictures of them.  I hope the like how they turned out.

Bounce Houses and Big Slides

As we were driving home from Colby's soccer practice the other day, Emily and Colby spotted a bunch of bounce houses at the park.  We decided to go check it out and found out that a local car dealership was having a customer appreciation party.  Even though we were not a customer, they let a join in on the fun.  We got free pizza and cookies and also got to play on all of the fun bounce houses, slides, and rides.  The kids had a blast.

As you can tell by the big smiles on all of their faces these three kids had too much fun.  This was a fun activity.  Logan especially bouncing everywhere and Emily and Colby loved the big slides.

Thank you IV Seasons Auto for throwing this fun party and feeding us dinner!

Soccer Kids

We are getting back into the swing of things now that summer is over and school is in.  To keep things exciting we signed Emily and Colby up for soccer.  They have really liked going to practices and games.  Emily is getting better and not as passive as she was last season.  Colby just likes kicking and chasing the ball around.  This year we signed up with the KICKS soccer league. 

 To start off the season, we attended a soccer clinic put on by the Dixie State University men's and women's soccer team.  

Emily had a blast participating in all of the different drills and groups but Colby was a little intimidated by all of the people and wouldn't leave our side.  Russell took him up on the football field and kicked the ball around with him while Emily was doing the clinics.

Finally it was time for our first games!  Here is Colby.  He is #3 on the Red Knights.

He has fun playing and likes his teammates and coach.  He is not very aggressive either and is perfectly content just running after the ball or watching the other boys kick the ball.  He will kick the ball when there is no one else around but once the kids swarm the ball he is out of there.  He does like to doing the kick offs or corner kicks and can kick pretty far.  

His little games are funny to watch.  The kids are only 3 so they lose interest pretty fast so usually there are only 3 quarters or else the 4th quarter is much shorter than the other three.  By that time, the kids are done and just want their post game treats. His coach, Chris, is a good sport and pretty patient with these seven 3-year-old boys!

Here is Emily.  She is #6 on the Purple Princess Posies. (They couldn't decide between princesses or posies so the coach just combine them!)

Emily also has fun with her teammates and has made new friends with all of them.  They are a really good team and have some really good players.  Emily is getting better and does really well in the practices.  She also tries really hard in the games too.  She is not as aggressive or fast as some of the other girls so she doesn't get the ball often but when she does, she kicks the ball so far.  She is even trying to get in there and kick the ball away from the other team too.  She has even done it a few times.  She likes playing and has fun at every games and practice.

Here is her team of seven 5 and 6-year-olds.  Ashlynn, Emily, Millie, Emmy, Peyton, Rachael, and Eleanor.  Her coach, Jon, is really good and is teaching these girls some good drills and soccer skills.

We are having fun going to soccer games every Saturday and practices every Monday and Thursday.  I am an official soccer mom!

Feeding the Moos

It is Dixie Round Up Rodeo time here in St. George again.  Every year we take the kids to see the rodeo livestock when they come to town and this year was no exception.  

The kids loved seeing the animals, or Moos and Yeehaws as Logan calls them.  They definitely had a blast feeding hay to the cows and horses and petting their noses.

These kiddos were not at all afraid of the animals and stuck their hands right in the fence to feed the them.  I love seeing the big bulls.  Emily liked the baby colts, Colby liked the horses and bulls, and Logan loved everything.  We spent at least an hour seeing the livestock and feeding them hay.  This is definitely a fun tradition.

Family Trip to Zion

For Labor Day we decided to spend the day in Zion National Park.  The kids had never been to Zion before so it was fun to take them on some of the hikes.  The whole time we were there, Russell and I kept asking each other why we don't come here more often.  Zion was so beautiful.  Yes it was hot but it was worth it. 

The first hike we went on was Emerald Pools.  

This was a beautiful little hike perfect for the kids.  We brought the wagon for Logan to ride in but he did not want to ride, he wanted to walk.  So we walked really slowly for him.  Finally he did get in the wagon but he was not happy about it!  Emily and Colby were troopers and hiked the whole way.  

The water levels were low so the pools were not very big but that was okay.  We still liked the hike.

We stopped at the middle pool because the trail to the upper pool was not kid or wagon friendly.  When we stopped the kids stuck their hands in the water to cool off. Then we had lunch.  Everyone was starving after that big hike.  All three of the kids scarfed down whole sandwiches as well as the snacks we brought.  After eating, we played around in the trees being tricky:

We hiked back to the visitor center and took a little rest in the shade as we waited for the shuttle to pick us up.  Probably Emily and Colby's favorite part of the whole day was riding the shuttle bus back and forth.  

Our next hike was Weeping Rock.

Here we stood underneath the Weeping Rock and occasionally got wet from the rock's water.  Logan loved the water and played in every puddle he could find.  The lookout point from Weeping Rock was amazing.  

By this time the kids were getting tired but we wanted to go on one more hike just to say we did it.  I wanted to hike to the entrance of the Narrows. 

Obviously we couldn't hike the Narrows especially with kids but it was a really nice hike to the entrance.  One of these days Russell and I will hike it together.  It is on the bucket list.  When we got there, Emily wanted to cool her feet off in the river.  The water felt so good.

While walking the trail to the Narrows, Colby and Logan passed out.  They were both so tired.  This was just one more perk to having the wagon!  It seemed like everyone we walked by asked us if they could have a ride in our wagon too.  

Finally it was time to head home.

Like I said before, the bus ride was every one's favorite part of the trip.  We had a great time at Zions.  We definitely need to go back soon.  Russell and I are thinking of just buying a year pass so we can go more often.  Happy Labor Day!