Happy 32nd Birthday Rory!

Last Tuesday we celebrated Rory's 32nd Birthday!  I can't believe it!  It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating his 22nd birthday together, and now 10 years and 4 kids later here we are!  It was a pretty low key day.  I made him a pineapple upside down cake and the kids and I bought him a few presents and that was it.  I guess as we get older birthdays aren't as big of a deal.

Saturday we walked in the Southeastern Utah Health Departments Don't Be a Butthead Fun Run.  It is a tobacco awareness run and this is the second year we have participated.  It was a great turnout and the kids loved it.  Kinlee came home and pretended to be running in a 5k all day.

After the run Kinlee got to dance with her class at a benefit concert at the Price Civic Auditorium.  I was worried she wouldn't dance when she got on stage, but she did great!  She did the whole dance and loved every minute of it.  I was such a proud mama and am crossing my fingers that I'll end up with at least one daughter who dances.

Kadee participated in Reflections again this year.  It was months ago, but the PTA (namely me) has been having a hard time getting an assembly scheduled.  We finally just handed out the trophies and took pictures for the yearbook because we ran out of time.  Kadee took 3rd at the school but didn't place at Regions this year.  I think she did a great job and am so proud of her!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had such a fun weekend!  Saturday morning we all froze our fanny's off and walked in the St. Patrick's Day parade.  It was so windy and cold!  After the parade Rory and I went to the Surprise for Jace.  He's a little boy with a really rare disorder that makes him age extremely fast.  He's 17 but has the body of a 90 year old.  His dream has always been to become a cop, so he was made an honorary deputy.  There were deputies from all over the state there to support him and it was a very special day for him.  After that Rory and I went to the  Home and Garden Show to sit at the Jeff Wood for Sheriff booth and the kids went to play with friends and cousins.  Sunday we went to Debbie's for our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner, everything was green and delicious!  Then today I went to the school and Jamie Cripps and I put on a scavenger hunt for the 3rd grade. We had them go all over the playground and end up in the gym where we had popcorn, green water and a leprechaun waiting to read them a story.  The leprechaun just happened to be one of my very favorite people, Uncle Roger Branch.  The kids loved the story and he was so great to teach them everything he knew about the legend of St. Patrick's Day.

  

School Projects

The kids have been super busy in school preparing for core testing.  They have learned so much this year and I am so so so grateful that they have the opportunity to get a good education.  Kadee participated in Reflections again this year.  She took 3rd place at Wellington but didn't place at state.  She has learned so much this year and has brought home some awesome projects.  Some of my favorites have been the life cycle of a plant and one about frogs.   Connor has been super busy in school also.  He has learned so much typing and has started writing 5 paragraph essays.  He just brought home a paper he wrote about Bengal Tigers and I was so impressed.  They are both participating in the reading Olympics and are hoping to get Gold (they have to read books from several categories and 700 minutes in just over a month). To kick it off Rory took the kids to Dads and Doughnuts at the school one morning.  I've always taken them to Mom's and Muffins, an early morning day where you have a treat and read with your kids, but Rory has never been able to take them before so they were super excited to go with him. Kinlee has learned so much this year and loves her teachers and Matty has started Early Intervention for his speech and has already made tons of progress.  Like I said, we are so blessed to be able to go to school and get an education.

Kadee's drawing of Abe Lincoln

Kadee's Frog Diagram

Connor's One Gallon Man

So proud- Matty at Grandma's with a spatula and bottle hat

C

Kinlee's Seat Pal is not doing it's job!

Rory and the kids before Dad's & Donuts

Kinlee showing off her Valentine bag she made at school

Princess Tea

One of our New Year Resolutions was to take each kid on a date each month.  So in January we took Connor out for ice cream, in February we took Kadee and her best friend to the movie (it was for her birthday too), and in March I took Kinlee to the Princess Tea at the high school with Brittnee and Kaydree.  It was last Tuesday and the girls were so excited!  It's all Kinlee could talk about and she wasn't disappointed.  The lines were long and slow moving, but Kinlee and Kaydree really enjoyed themselves.  They got to meet several Princesses and get their autographs, had their faces painted, got Princess tattoos, were sprinkled with Pixie dust from Tinker Bell, and had cupcakes and pink lemonade.  It was a great night and Kinlee said for her next date she wants to go to the Junior High, lol!

  

Kadee's Baptism

Last Saturday our beautiful little girl made the decision to be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We are so proud of her decision and loved sharing her special day with her.  She was a little nervous, but Kinlee was nothing but excited.  She kept asking us when the "baztism" was.  We got there early and took lots and lots of pictures.  Matthew was so mad and so tired of taking pictures before the baptism even started.  Once the baptism started it was smooth sailing.  Kinlee said the opening prayer, Connor gave a talk on baptism, Debbie gave a talk on receiving the Holy Ghost and Rory baptized and confirmed her.  After the baptism we had a hot chocolate bar in the kitchen.  We had 2 different types of hot chocolate and an apple cider.  We had tons of treats to make the hot chocolate even better and of course had a wide variety of doughnuts to choose from.  We had so much support, our friends and family made sure this day was a special day for Kadee.  I hope she always remembers it and that as she gets older her testimony will grow.

 

Midway Ice Castle

Yesterday we took an impromptu trip to Provo and decided to go to the ice castle in Midway.  We had heard a lot about it, so we called Hyrum and Paola and asked them if they'd like to tag along.  We met up with them at Chuck A Rama and had a nice lunch then drove up to Midway.  The kids loved the ice castle.  It was melting on us as we went through, but the Disney Frozen Princesses were there, and ice sculptor, ice mazes, and an ice slide.  Rory and the kids went down the slide, Rory got stuck and it was hilarious.  He was yelling from the slide to call the fire department because he was stuck and everyone around us was laughing.  It was really a neat place.  After the ice castle we walked over to the ice skating rink and watched people skate for awhile.  It was so fun to be there with our family and good friends.  

The Post Office

Last Monday Kinlee had her first field trip ever to the Wellington Post Office.   She was so excited to ride the bus and even now when I ask her about her field trip all she has to say about it is she got to ride the bus.  It was a fun little field trip, all the preschoolers got to mail a letter to their parents for Valentines Day, and then they got to go in back and see where the mail is sorted and listen to a story about how mail is delivered.  The bus was a little late coming back, so we stood in the hall and sang lots of songs.  The bus finally showed up, after about 40 minutes of waiting and the kids went back to school.  I'm so glad I got to go and experience this fun trip with Kinlee, I can't believe my baby is growing up!

Kadee and her Valentine Box

Connor and his Valentine bucket