This beautiful girl is in the DOUBLE DIGITS!! 10 years old!!!
Happy birthday Ashlyn! We are so blessed to have you in our family!
We had a fun day of her getting the day off from school and she wanted to help her sisters with their school work, we made her birthday cake, read with Grandpa, watched Ella Enchanted, and ate at Outback. She felt so spoiled and so loved!
Look how grown up she is....she definitely looks older than 10.
When we were in Utah, Katie (Skyler's wife) made this cake for Skyler's birthday and it was delicious. Ashlyn really wanted to make this cake for her birthday. Well it turned out so delicious and it was a lot of work.
It is a big deal for us the make a cake because first, we really don't eat cakes for birthdays. We usually do brownies and ice cream and second we aren't bakers. The week before we made frosting that looked like scrambled eggs and so we were nervous that the cake wouldn't turn out. ha ha.
It is called the Ultimate Chocolate Cake by Cakes by Courtney.
I recently read/listened to the book 7 Habits of Highly effective people. I loved this book so much that I was inspired to teach my kids these habits. We decided to take the next 7 weeks of our FHE and teach the kids these amazing principles. The first one is BEING PROACTIVE. We did this activity where we had a soda can and and water bottle. We would give examples of various things that could happen throughout the day like stubbing a toe, having a good breakfast, someone callls you a name, all sorts of positive and negative experience/emotion. Then when it was negative you shake the soda and water bottle up. Then at the end you open them up. The soda can will bubble and overflow and the water bottle will do nothing. We had a discussion about attitude and how we can chose to be reactive and be a SODA KID or be proactive and be a WATER KID.
It was a fun lesson and then the next day I got frazzled at a certain point of the day and Brinley said, "Mom, are you being a soda kid?' It was so adorable and humbling ha ha.
We were playing the card game Trash which my mom taught the kids. We had a great time and they would tell me that I was playing like Grandma (which I was losing at the time) Sorry mom!
The kids' favorite place in Dallas! GREAT WOLF LODGE!!!
We had a wonderful weekend in Dallas and enjoying the waterpark. It has been about a year and a half since we been because of COVID. It was fun to go at this stage of life. We didn't have a baby we had to tend to and the older kids were more independent to go ride the waterslides on their own. We had a blast!
We got Dip'n'dots to share
We played the Megiquest where we have a magic wand and are given tasks to do. You have to find certain objects and wave your wand at it and then complete certain tasks. The kids had a great time doing it.
A new way to where his mask... ha ha.
We ate at BJs Restaurant and we got the pazoockies- it were a huge hit!
We enjoyed a day playing at Urban Air. It has rocking climbing, trampolines, warrior obstacles, ropes courses, and play gym. We love to go here as a family. My favorite part is to see the girls go outside of their comfort zones and try new things that scary them. The ropes course and the rock climbing are the best place to see these girls shire.
This thing is a lot scarier than it looks.
When Ash would come down, she would always land in this spot ha ha
This picture reminds me when I was there. When we first got there, some of the girls went on their own and they were so scary. Looking up I was trying to talk them threw it and thinking it isn't that far off the ground, they shouldn't be that scared. Well my perspective changed when I was the one up there. It reminds me of this quote that I hear in Brene Brown's books by Theodore Roosevelt
Morning yoga
Family Tube Ride
Emmett is learning is to recognize the alphabet and the sound of each letter. He knows A-I right now. It is funny because he doesn't know the names of the letters, but he knows all the sounds of the alphabet. Thank you for the movie: Letter Factory.
He loves finding the letters and erasing them.
This little guy wanted to be Superman at Preschool.
What a cute/strong hero!
Claire lost 2 of her teeth. Derek tied a string around the tooth and Claire slammed the door. She did it 2 times and the Tooth Fairy came!
2 down, many to go!
Also her permanent teeth are already growing
Derek and I want to share our love for learning self development and mindset to the kids. I recently read the book 7 Habits for Highly Effective People. I absolutely loved it and wanted to teach the kids. I looked online for some activity ideas and this is one that we did recently.
The first Habit is BE PROACTIVE. I held a soda bottle and a water bottle in my hands and I gave a scenario of different positive and negative events that could happen throughout the day. Whenever it was negative I would shake the bottles. When it got to the end of the story, we opened up each bottle. The water didn't react, where the soda exploded. We had a discussion about how we can choose our attitude and how we react to things.
Sometimes I wonder how much the kids understand. The next day after this lesson I was getting frustrated about something and Brin said, "Mom, you are being a soda kid." I laughed out loud! It was so true!
Claire loves to read this Book of Mormon
We enjoy going camping!!! The weather is cooler and it is so much fun! We got a lot of camping stuff for Christmas so we were excited to try them all out. We went to a place called Powell Partk.
ABCs in the sand
Our new camping chairs
This was a fun evening where we sat around the fire and shared stories and sang songs. It is fun to have great conversations with the kids. They are growing up so fast.
We loved our camping spot! In the mornings were the most beautiful sunrises.
This girl finish her Kindergarten level!!! I guess she is moving on to 1st grade! She is so excited!
School in the cold morning weather, all cozy inside.
We got a hammock for Christmas and it was a hit. The kids would be out on it all the time, even in the cold weather.
We had an ice cream party! We went to the store and got 3 different types of ice cream because everyone wanted something different. So we had a tasting contest and the cookie dough was a great hit. (we never buy cookie dough).
Also another hit was the fudge brownie
The new hobby- chess. It was fun to hear Desi explain the names and their jobs to Emmett.
Derek got this area to go to an area in the campground that no one was and we camped out here for the afternoon. We made the tent, brought games, puzzles, and chess to enjoy the scenery and each other. We had a great time!
Ashlyn is very good at wanting to play games and getting everyone involved. She taught us all a game called Spud. We all had a great time!
We also brought our fire pit and roasted s'mores. Delicious!
