Another Teacher's Birthday...And Once Again Thank You Pinterest!

It was Elizabeth's Teacher's Birthday this week and she doesn't eat any sugar or gluten...I know depressing...so we decided to give her flowers. Elizabeth said that she LOVED Tulips, so tulips it was. And of course I had to make a pencil vase for them to go into. I think it turned out cute...

So Happy Birthday Miss Bybee hope you enjoy your flowers and pencil vase!

Soldier Hollow Tubing

Uncle Adam and Auntie Cory gave the girls passes to go tubing at Soldier Hollow for Christmas, and yes we FINALLY got around to going! It helped that we had to do it this week because they close for the season on Sunday! So Josh and I took the girls up the canyon to go tubing. It was 50 degrees outside and there was NO snow anywhere up the canyon which made us pretty nervous that we were too late! Abby was starting to get upset until we got there and saw that they had snow...lots of it! They had SO much fun going down the hill with each other.

There was a tow rope that took them up the hill and they got to do this for two hours! It was SO cold there that Josh and I were freezing and happily they sold hot chocolate. So we got some and when Elizabeth saw that we had hot chocolate she threw a fit that she didn't get any! Yes this is my 10 year old!! When she gets over tired she turns into a 2 year old! And on that note she was done. Abby how ever didn't want to be done and shockingly she went up one last time by herself. Yes it was a Christmas Miracle...that girl hardly ever does anything by herself. Josh and I were so proud of her!

Here is Josh trying to stay warm...after, we went out to dinner. It was a fun couple of hours for the girls. Thank you Ludvigson's for the awesome Christmas gift!

Trudy...Just Look At What You Started!

When Mark and Trudy were up here a little bit ago Trudy came over one of the days and spent a few hours and taught me how to do Genealogy.  Now when she had told me that this is what we were going to do together my first thought was "REALLY...don't you want to go to a movie or do something else?" I have NEVER really cared to do ANY genealogy and I'm not really sure why I even said yes to letting her show me. And to be honest I didn't really think it would amount to much! But I decided to be a good sport and started to think it might be fun. Well...I'm addicted. I LOVE puzzles anyway so really this was a perfect match for me. I am now on Ancestry.com and Familysearch.com putting together the puzzle that is my family! I have gone through my parents files and have taken over and have gotten organized...because really the first step to any puzzle is organization! Josh even printed out this big chart for me to write on because I was getting frustrated clicking from screen to screen trying to remember these people's names...I'm a visual person! I think that my favorite part of this is getting to go to the temple to do my own families work! I found in one of my dad's files a WHOLE BUNCH of temple slips that need to get done. No offense dad but what where you waiting for? And I have been finding and collecting even more names that are just waiting for their work to be done! I'm so excited to find different stories and histories of these people that came before me.

Josh has put a cap on my genealogy  work time. I can get a little tunnel vision and get consumed with my projects...so I get to work on genealogy for an hour a day and longer on Saturday and Sunday! This way I will not get burnt out and I can't remember to feed my family!  And as long as Josh gets fed everything is good! So thank you Trudy for showing me how to get started on the best puzzle ever!

Day Off Of School

Monday the girls didn't have school so I came up with this brilliant plan to go on a bike ride with them. We decided to try to bike all the way to Josh's work around lunch time so that he could take us to lunch. The girls were beyond excited to bike all that way and I was a little worried that I was biting off more then I could chew, but I was willing to try. This is at the beginning of our trip...

...And 5.20 miles and an hour later we made it to the office!  We only had to stop twice for water breaks and once to figure out which way to go to get to the office. We tried to stay on trails for most of the ride and only once had to cut across a park lawn and through a fence to get to the office. The girls did so good. They are extremely cautious kids! Every two seconds Elizabeth, who was in the lead would call out, "Can you see me mom?" And yes I could, because she would not travel more then a few feet away from me. Then Abby didn't like me to be behind her she had to be able to see me, because it made her nervous that she was out there alone with sister! And she didn't want me to be in front of her because she thought I would leave her!! We only crossed one major road which was 1600 right by our house and you would of thought we were crossing the freeway, of how nervous these girls were. Thank heavens we didn't have to cross State Street, we went under it on the trail! But we made it and yes Josh took us to lunch, which made the whole thing worth it!

He loaded our bikes in the back of his truck and after lunch he dropped us off in PG at the trail that would take us directly home. That ride was 3.72 miles and took us 40 minutes to get home. We stopped once for water then found out that ALL of us had to go the bathroom. We raced the rest of the way home...

For the rest of the day we rested! I was pretty tired but surprisingly did well. The girls are already planning our next adventure!

Orchestra Performance

Last week Elizabeth had an Orchestra Performance at a near by school. It was a whole multi-school thing! Elizabeth is doing pretty good with her Viola, so much that we can actually hear the songs that she is meaning to play...somewhat. I am very proud of what she has accomplished this year.

It's not a great picture of the event but Lindon's Orchestra is in the dark shirts they played with the other school for one song then they played alone for a couple of songs after. Elizabeth is the little head behind the piano! Good Job Elizabeth...you are doing GREAT!

Another Skate Night!

It was another Lindon Elementary Family Skate Night! And yes we just HAD to go!! The girls LOVE skate night and it was made that much more fun to have our cousins be there too! Brit brought the kids to skate night and she even skated herself....what can I say she is a better mom then me! The girls LOVE having cousins in school with them. It is so much fun to see them at school events.
The girls stayed still long enough for me to snap ONE picture of them. And Abby couldn't even be bothered to look up! I guess when you getting ready to rock it on skates you just don't have time for dear old mom to take a picture!

Finally...Double Digits!

Elizabeth has been SO excited about her birthday. Every day for weeks she would say, "Guess how many days now?" And you may think wow that would get old....you would be right! And then the day before her birthday she kept saying, "Today I'm 9 and tomorrow I will be 10!" And don't get me started on how excited she is to be in the DOUBLE DIGITS! She is getting so big and it is going by so fast!
The night before Josh and I set up this little surprise for her to welcome in her birthday! She LOVED it and was very surprised! And so our day started... 

I gave her the option of what to have for her birthday breakfast....I figure I can drag myself out of bed in the morning 3 times a year to make my family breakfast on their birthday's! She picked french toast and she was happy she LOVES french toast!

It was donuts/reading day for the fourth graders at school so I went down to the school and read with Elizabeth and her friend. Which was lots of fun!

Then for lunch Josh, Trudy, Mark and I took Elizabeth out of school and out to lunch.  Josh gave her the option of going ANYWHERE she wanted for her birthday lunch and wouldn't you know it the kid wanted Wendy's! Josh tried and tried to influence her pick something else but that's what she wanted so to Wendy's it was!
After lunch Trudy and I took Elizabeth back to school and brought in a treat for her class. Elizabeth's class has a few food allergies and so Elizabeth didn't want to take in a food treat. The day before we went to the party store and found some little toys to bring in and took those in. They were sound makers and their teacher let them make all the noise with them that they wanted for a given amount of time then they were not allowed to touch them for the rest of the day! Elizabeth tells me that only one kid lost his!
That night she wanted for her birthday dinner a home cooked meal of orange chicken and rice and after we had the family over to have ice cream cake and of course gifts. Elizabeth was waiting ALL day for this! 

It was so nice to have Mark and Trudy up here to celebrate with us. I think that Elizabeth was happy with all she got and it ended up being a good day! Of course it's always a good day when you are turning a DOUBLE DIGIT! Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!