Three-Day Party for Hanna

We celebrated Hanna's 10th birthday for 3 days. It was a party.

On her birthday, we had a special breakfast, took cookies for her class to share, and opened her presents after school. I had to go to the Relief Society March 17th party (what they call it in Canada no matter what day it is on, more commonly known as the Relief Society Birthday party). Austin and the girls went to junior roping and to Dairy Queen for dinner.

Day 2 of the celebration: Hanna's friend birthday party.

She invited 3 girls who are a grade older than her, 2 boys from her class, and Jill's friend, Payden. We rode horses at the Agridome. One of her friends wouldn't even get on a horse at first, and by the end she had moved from riding to the pony to riding Levi. They just rode around for a while. Then we played musical chairs (where you jump off your horse to get a chair), barrel raced, stick horse relay, and then a foot race through the arena. Then Hanna opened presents and we had a target shooting game with the new rubberband guns we gave them. They had fun - they are good kids. Camree on Levi

Annie winning the relay race

That night we also had a special steak dinner with Grandpa Buck & Grandma Nunn.

Day 3 of Hanna's celebration:

We went cross country skiing in Wateron with Sarah and her family, our family, and Grandpa & Grandma. (Thanks to Barb who watched the 4 youngest kids.) It was really fun and so beautiful. The snow was slushy by the end of our journey which made it really hard to ski. But still a fun day!

Austin recreating (hardly ever happens, you know)

Hanna

Jill

Sarah, Jill, Julia

Grandma Nunn

Our whole group - we made it to the lake!

This is the church in Waterton. They still have a ton of snow there. Will spring come?

Then we had cake and ice cream for Hanna's and Taylor's birthday.

There's a Leprechaun Behind You

Lucy was the one to make a leprechaun trap this year. Although she didn't catch him, he did turn our juice green. And you know what that means, Mom and Dad's feet turn green if we drink it. Lucy and Carly would not drink the green juice. But Austin and I did, so we had green feet all day.

Lucy's leprechaun trap

Kaylynn's green feet

Carly giving the green juice a dirty look

Green for school:

Jill won the extreme green award. She had green everything, except she didn't choose green for her new braces that she got on St. Patrick's Day.


Here is the before picture (so we can decide if it is really worth the money:):

Jill getting braces on

Jill with braces on - She wasn't thrilled I was taking this picture 5 minutes after she got her braces on - you can't see them very good - we have a 1 1/2 years to take more pictures with Jill's braces

Stages of Life

This is a more of a journal entry than an exciting news post.

We all go through stages of life. As a new parent, you worry about your newborn or toddler and think a certain stage may never end... pacifiers, not sleeping through the night, clinging to mom, etc. But soon you learn to not fret so much because it all passes and new stages start. Here is a snapshot of our family's current stages of life:

Carly

*Imitates everything her sisters say and do
*Is a jabberbox (I told her that was her name a few weeks ago, sometimes when someone asks what her name is, she says Carly Jabberbox)
*Changes her clothes a few times a day and is very particular about what she wears, only wants to wear her favorite clothes
*Yells "I don't have to go" while she sits on the toilet going

Lucy

*Asks every day if she can play with a friend
*Prefers to not wear jeans, she is okay with wearing them to school, but at home she wears sweat pants, shorts or skirts
*Loves to play barbies
*Is a bit slow in getting ready to go, although she is getting better
*When we say, we are going to go to .... she says, I don't want to go. Then when it is time to leave .... she says, I don't want to leave.

Hanna

*Still has a big imagination - she loves to go outside and explore as a pioneer, an Indian, or Amelia Earhart.
*Loves to play the Wii
*Prefers not to clean, stuffing things under beds and in closets is better (although she has improved the last few weeks)
*Playing basketball, riding horses and entering rodeos, in the school choir, enjoying activity days at the church

Jill

*Is taller than her Mom, developing into young lady, worrying about her appearance (face, hair, clothes, getting braces this week)
*Extremely book smart, does awesome in school - lacking common sense on occasion (she will even admit that)
*A standout on her basketball team (she is tall, aggressive, understands the game, becoming a good shooter) - not always graceful the rest of the day (walking into walls, tripping on stairs)
*Self-motivated, she has been in Young Women's for 6 months, she is almost half way done with Personal Progress
*Has a quick wit, but also likes to bug her sisters

Kaylynn

Kids, Church, Exercise
*Most of my life is spent helping my kids and husband (cooking, cleaning, doing hair, driving them to places) - I love it
*Church also takes part of my days (I am the Relief Society secretary, visiting teaching, etc)
*I am on a fun exercise kick right now. I have always enjoyed exercising (fair weather walking/running/biking, cold weather- Denise Austin or Biggest Loser exercise DVDs in my living room. I enjoyed 1 1/2 years of aerobics at the church in Hyrum. Current schedule: run 3 mornings a week inside the junior high with some other teachers, once a week Yoga class at the junior high, 2 mornings a week going to a kettlebells exercise class at the church, doing my DVDs on the off days in my living room, plus an occasional women's basketball game on Thursday night. I could really be skinny if I stopped making cookies:)
*Social networking is part of my current stage, too. I check email, blogs and facebook a few times a day so I can feel like I had a conversation with someone

Austin

*Adjusting to his new principal job with only 300 students, learning to understand the Native American culture (1/3 of his students), refereeing junior high basketball games (Still missing his old school and friends)
*Riding horses EVERY day. He is riding colts for Dixie, which takes a few hours every day. He rides our horses and ropes. He helps our kids ride and rope and barrel race and tie goats, etc. He teaches junior roping once a week. He helps at the rodeos in Cardston.
*1st counselor in Young Mens - just spent this last weekend camping in the snow
*Making jokes and keeping our family always laughing and happy

I Was Warm

I got to go with Austin to an "international" education conference in Phoenix, Arizona. We drove through blowing snow and drifts to Great Falls, Montana and flew to Phoenix where the sun was shining.

The first day we went and found a team roping to watch. It was at the house of a man from Cardston that goes to Arizona every winter. We decided that being a snowbird would be a good way to go.

The other excitement we found was to shop and eat. We did this over and over. Austin even went with me to the mall twice. When our husbands went to the conference, we shopped and shopped some more. I got some great bargains on clothes for all of my family. I did have to buy a new suitcase while I was there to bring it all home.

One morning I did go with my friend, Barb Salmon, to the Mesa Temple. It is so pretty inside. The outside is beautiful, too. We appreciated it even more because we haven't seen flowers or green grass for so long. We also went to the visitor's center which was great, too.

On the temple grounds, they have grapefruit, orange and lemon trees.
They told us we could pick some, so we did.



We did sit by the swimming pool for an hour after a long day of shopping before we had to pick up our husbands from their conference.
(Barb Salmon, Cheryl McMurray, and me)

Then the time came for us to put our long pants and jackets back on to fly back home.
Kaylynn & Austin at the airport



Our awesome traveling companions, Cheryl & Ken McMurray
(Ken is Austin's vice principal)

Ken & Cheryl boarding the plane


Austin and I were the very last people to board the plane. We didn't even get to sit together on the way home, but we had nice seat mates.

I wish I had taken a picture of the runway when we landed in Great Falls. It was -11F and all of the workers were completely bundled in snow clothes doing the cold dance. The airplane even slipped a bit on the ice when it was turning in to the dock.

We missed our kids and were glad to be home, but we wish spring was here. Thanks to Austin's mom and sister for watching our kids while we were gone.

Here are the highlights of their week:
-Not going skiing because it was too cold
-Swimming at the indoor pool
-Sewing pillowcases, skirts and capes (a skill they wouldn't learn from me:)
-Celebrating Grandma Nunn's 60th Birthday