Ella's First Steps!

Ella has officially taken her first steps!!! We were at the park with our homeschooling group, all sitting on the ground and she had a great time walking from mom to mom. It was amazing how sturdy she was in standing. She would stand up and then just laugh & laugh! She was having so much fun. And of course we would all clap & cheer for her, so she would not only clap but blow kisses as well. It was precious.
She is also teething at least 3, possibly 4 of her 12 mo. molars right now and just finished teething her lower incisors, poor thing. She's tough though, hardly fussy at all over them.

Homeschool Literature Fair

We did a literature fair today at Joey's house. It was so much fun. The kids had a blast and it was great to see what everybody worked on, as well as getting some great ideas and books to add to my long list of books I want to read. :D

Even the mom's did their own presentation as well. It was great.

Adorable Aisa next to her sail boat creation.

Rapunzel in her tower

They did such a great job.

Cole having fun driving cars on "the mountain"

The kids played outside for hours while the moms hung out on the patio. It was a perfectly beautiful day to just be outside. Ahhh, therapeutic.

We made a fruit pizza as part of our literature report. Part of the book talks about sharing the good, so that's what we decided to do... and it was good :D

We did ours on one of our favorite special books by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, "Incredible Me"

St. Patrick's Day

So we ran across a white shamrock on the floor next to some water paints. "What's this?" Obviously somebody dropped it while we were out. There were paints next to it, so the boys decided that we should paint it. When they started painting it, words, pictures and lines magically began to appear! "The leprechauns must have dropped it!" So they followed the map and this is what happened:

The Leprechauns magic treasure map!

The thrill of the hunt! The map first led them to the TV.

The excitement is evident on their faces. This is Trey's "I found candy" victory face (and stance). Then the map led them to the BBQ outside and from their to the piano.

Cole showing me what he found on the piano... more candy!!!
The map then led them to the table, toothbrushes.... and finally, to the bed.

The Leprechaun's treasure left on their bed! Gum, fruit snacks, crayons, and a couple more gold chocolates. Pretty lucky find!
(They now keep talking about 'those sneaky, tricky guys' and maybe they'll leave us candy.)

Shelf Canyon

So it's beautiful down here for hiking right now. We've been doing a lot of it and loving it! We just live a few minutes from Snow Canyon and have been hiking there a couple times each week, but last weekend we went to Zion and did I hike I never knew about there. It's called Shelf Canyon and it's a slot canyon. It was a lot of fun and a great hike for teaching the boys how to do more 'technical' hiking (balancing your weight, etc.). Notice their little backpacks full of toys! CUTE!



Ha ha ha! Uh yeah, this is not a picture I would post, but I find it funny that Matt told me I'd have to crouch down a bit if I was going to fit Ella through. Looks like there's enough room to me... he's such a tease!
Notice the little stick in Cole's hand. The boys HAVE to have a stick when they hike. They just can't hike without one. So cute.

Matt helping everybody up a Big step. This was pretty interesting with Ella on my back and a low overhead. We didn't get any pictures of the more difficult sections of the hike... they were more intense and we didn't think of a picture till we were past it.

Slot canyons are just awesome! Trey was NOT in the mood for having his picture taken however. This was a first and really quite strange. He said he didn't like the cold rocks and that made him grumpy. :)

Ella and I on our way down! She was soooo tired, poor baby! She sacked out the second I put her in her car seat. Then we went to Sol Foods for lunch! Yummm. I LOVE their salad bar and literally ate 2 lbs. of food! (Yeah, they weighed it).

Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

The homeschooling group celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at our house today. It was so much fun. We made characters like those you might find in the books, played Pin the Star on the Sneech, watched The Lorax and had all sorts of goodies (not to mention the kids just playing together and the mom's hangin' out). I made cupcakes in ice cream cones, Joey brought Dr. Seuss snack bags, Kamas brought juice jello, and Janelle brought Oranges from Cali. and lemonade. Kids loved it.

Trey, Cole, Janelle & Angelisa creating Dr. Seuss characters. Above is Joey's craftwork.

Aisa holding Ella. She is such a sweet girl and she LOVES Ella.

Right: Trey's creation (Cole made one just like it but was destroyed before I could get a picture). The boys had a great time with the toothpick aspect (obviously) :D and these weren't so much to look at as they were for playing with :).



Joey (left) and Kamas (right) looking through Dr. Seuss books for ideas.








Of course the mom's all have as much fun as the kids creating their Dr. Seuss characters!