A couple more pictures

I thought I put these in with the others, here they are.

Hailey is free as a bird, it was hard to get her to sit still.

Family Pictures

My cute friend Stephanie agreed to take Hailey's 4 year old pictures, I figured if we were already going to the trouble of getting ready for pictures we might as well take family pictures too. Stephanie was nice enough to agree. We went to the International Peace Gardens, unfortunately my kids were anything but peaceful. I wasn't sure we would have any good pictures, because for some reason they were not thrilled to be there. But, Stephanie did a great job and captured some great moments. I love the sweet pictures of Hailey, the one of her peaking around the corner is so perfectly Hailey. I think my favorite one, though, is the one of Aida and Matt. Matt is such a fun dad and I think this picture captures something I see all the time at home, I'm glad to have it documented. I can't leave out the shoe pictures, there's something about girls and shoes. We love them! We have the best shoe fairy at our house!

Girls Retreat

Last weekend I went on a little Girls retreat to St. George with my mom, Merijane & Emily. We had so much fun. It was nice to just hang out together and do whatever we wanted, I love all those girls! I am very blessed to have such great Sisters in Law, I wish Jamie could have been there too. As much as I adore my girls it was nice to have a little break, time to do some of the things I rarely take time for at home. We went to the St. George temple, I love going to the temple, something I need to do more often! I loved women's conference, it got me excited for General Conference this weekend.

The reason I was able to go on this much need retreat is that Matt very nicely agreed to take care of the girls for the weekend. He is such a great dad! They had a lot of fun with him and those who helped (OPI, LANI & GIGI). The first night Matt had the girls Aida was in bed and asleep by 7:00 (a rarity) Hailey on the other hand was still awake at 10:00 when I called and she said she was not even tired and was not going to go to sleep anytime soon. Oh well, that's what vacation is for.

I'm so grateful to Matt for taking such great care of the girls, and making it easy for me to go!

Oktoberfest take two

We decided to try Oktoberfest again since we got there after it was closed last time. We went with my parents, Grandma Cline and her friend. We had a lot of fun. While we were waiting for everyone to get there the girls had a good time playing in the little mining area they have at snowbird, Hailey really wanted to find some jewels in that sand, so she searched really hard, but we didn't find any. Aida did find her bracelet which fell in the water, maybe that could count.
After unsuccessfully mining for jewels we went down to the food tent for a Brat and some German entertainment. We enjoyed fun music and games, Aida quite liked all Matt's German food.
Outside the tent there was a balloon artist, he made the most amazing balloons. Hailey got the tallest princess hat I've ever seen and Aida got a sweet little flower (which she proceeded to pop one section at a time on the way home before falling asleep).
We had a great time. Thanks for inviting us OPI~!

Oktoberfest

Matt took a little vacation from work last week, actually it ended up being a great 10 days. We had a lot of fun. We all enjoyed having him home, but the girls especially loved it. We did a lot of fun family things which we usually don't have time for. We're so glad he was able to take the time off.




Matt and I have gone to Oktoberfest up at Snowbird almost every year since we met. It's a fun little German festival. This year we tried to go with some of Matt's mission friends, but unfortunately they close early during the week. The girls still had a fun time, it was a little chilly up there, but since it was Hailey's third time in the mountains that day she was prepared. We started by camping, then canning peaches in Park City and finished off the day with pizza at Snowbird. Aida's favorite thing was pushing the stroller wildly around since the place was practically vacant.

Hailey's 1st day at the Big Kid Pre-School

Hailey has been so excited to be in the big kid class at school. She started last week and has absolutely LOVED it! These are some pictures from the first day of school. The bag she is holding is one of the ones I made for all the cute kids at Cornerstone Academy Pre-school.

There are 5 adorable kids from our neighborhood in her class which makes for one big crazy and fun carpool.

I can't believe how much Hailey is growing up. she is turning into such a fun big kid. She definitely knows what she wants and is very determined to find a way to get it. She is so smart, being back in school has been great for her. She comes home everyday so excited about what she has learned. We're thankful that she has such great teachers.

The last picture is of Aida, she was waving goodbye just before I took the picture. She has also been enjoying having Hailey back in school. She gets alone time with Mom, and even some with Dad on Fridays. She's always thrilled when Hailey comes home.

Grape Vines

One side of our backyard is lined with grapevine. I love the grapevine, it's so pretty in the summer and I've dried the vines every year to put on my Christmas tree. The funny thing is we've lived here for 5 years and last year was the first year we discovered the right time to eat the grapes. So this year I decided to do something with the grapes instead of wasting them.
Hailey loves to pick the grapes! She always has, she used to eat them even when they were sour (now she knows only to pick the dark ones.)
For family night last night we had a good time picking all the grapes that were ripe. Then we pulled the stems off and got them ready for grape juice. Unfortunately it was 8:30 before we knew it and we didn't even have all the stems off. (there must be a better way to do that) So we'll be finishing up today, I'm excited to see how the juice turns out.
We also discovered that we have two different vines out there, the other one has green grapes. I think we may try to make raisins, we'll see how domestic I'm feeling.

Canning Peaches

I have to start by saying that I didn't grow up doing much canning, I really didn't know much about it. I have learned to really appreciate it, the food is so much better!

My mother-in-law is the queen of canning. She is amazing, not only does she grow all the veggis she also cans a lot of them. Today we canned peaches, unfortunately we don't have a peach tree so we had to buy the peaches, they are deliscious! Jeri was nice enough to let me can them with her at her house. It's always nice to have someone who really knows what they are doing. We had a lot of fun.

One other thing I have to say is that Hailey is growing up! She was a wonderful helper, I really mean it. She pealed a good portion of the peaches and loved helping put them in. She is so sweet every peach she pealed was the most beautiful color or the biggest or the smallest peach she had ever seen. She really was a joy to have as a little helper!

I'm so lucky to have a great mother-in-law who is willing to share her talents with me.

Grandma Jeri's Garden

Matt's mom has the most amazing garden, it's HUGE and everything in it seems to grow so well. She spends a lot of time there weeding, watering, planting and picking. Unfortunately for us it's all the way up in Charleston (by Heber) so we don't make it out there often to help. I wish we could go more often, the girls absolutely love it.

Here are a few pictures from last time we went. The first pictures are of Aida learning to walk in her rain boots, she was a little wobbly and stepped out of them a few times in the mud, but she didn't seem to mind.

Both girls love love loved playing in the mud! Aida unfortunately enjoys eating mud, YUCK! They were both completely covered by the time we were ready to go home, I guess that's one way to judge how much fun they had.

We are grateful to Matt's mom for putting all the time she does on the garden. We have enjoyed the fresh veggis.