Fall Colors

Fall Colors
"The greatest work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home." - Harold B. Lee

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Daddy Daughter Dance

Now that Emma is eight years old she is able to attend Activity Days at church every other week.  It's something she looks forward to doing and all the girls get to help plan which activities they would like to do.  There are 13 little girls in her group and the one thing they all really wanted to do was hold a Daddy Daughter dance.  Officially it was called the Daddy Daughter Dessert Date Dance!  This dance was something that Emma was highly anticipating for weeks!  The only glitch was that Daddy had to be out of town all week for work at the Police Academy.  This was very disappointing for Emma and Mark.  We thought about having Emma's Grampa or one of her uncles come and take her as an "adopted" daddy, but that really didn't feel the same.  So, on a whim, Mark called ahead of time to the Director of the Academy and explained our predicament.  Fortunately, the Director is a family man himself and had no problem with allowing Mark to leave a day early in order to be back in time to accompany his daughter to the dance.  Hooray!  The day before all the girls got together and made banana cream and chocolate cream pies to serve and also helped out getting the decorations organized.  Emma got all dressed up the night of and looked absolutely adorable!
Daddy made it home in time to go with Emma.  There was no way he was going to miss his first Daddy Daughter dance.  They had a wonderful time together dancing and being with friends.  Hooray for all the daddys who brought their daughters.  It was a very special night for everyone.

Easter and Birthday Weekend!

This year Samantha's birthday fell on Easter Sunday!  What a double treat for her.  So, we decided to get together with all the family in Hermiston for an Easter egg hunt and birthday celebrations.  We really had a wonderful time with everyone and thankfully it was spectacular weather!  We started off our day with a hike at the butte in town.  Even the little kids came along.  This was our group before starting off!

We all made it to the top and the cousins were VERY proud of themselves!  It was a really neat view overlooking the city.  Even Jordan and Eliza made it to the top, even though they aren't pictured here.  Jordan is three and his mama is extremely pregnant so it took them a little longer than the rest.
Here is Daddy with his best girls feeling very confidant on their accomplishment!
I love this picture - we found a spot for all the kiddos to sit and they all saw Gramma and Grampa at the bottom waving to them.  The kids yelled and hollered lots of "YAHOOS!" since it is a favorite saying of Gramma's.
Even Miss Lillie enjoyed herself and was very well behaved on Mommy's back!
Here is aunt Hollie posing with the kids.  We had so much fun making it to the top that nobody wanted to go back down.
However, the good part about making it back down the mountain was that we could all go back to Uncle Jon's house for a fabulous Easter egg hunt!  There were so many eggs to find - Emma was quick to get going!
Lillian took her time.  She found one egg and was quite content to play with that one egg - especially because it was in the dirt and rocks.  Who doesn't love playing in the dirt?
Here is all the kids filled up on sugar and fun and having a great time!  We are only missing Luke and Katie in Arizona.  Wish that they could have been there with us to join in on the festivities.
Of course, it was also Sam's birthday but the week before also included Kennidy's 9th birthday and Aunt Hollie's birthday.  (We won't share with everyone how old she is).  There was TONS of yummy desserts and all the birthday girls blew out their candles perfectly.
Happy 6th Birthday Sammy!  We can't believe how much you have grown!
We came home that night and colored Easter eggs for the Easter bunny to come and hide for us the next morning.  The girls were very creative.

Unfortunately, Mom forgot to take pictures on Easter.  I suppose I was too caught up in the festivities.  The Easter Bunny brought them new scooters which they absolutely adore!  They have spent so much time outside getting exercise and enjoying themselves.  We also had a birthday dinner for Samantha and opened presents.  Of course she was spoiled rotten from everybody.  It really was a perfect weekend and we loved being with our family!