Swinging!

We have an old swingset in our backyard that we've had for several years.  Emma and Samantha have pretty much grown out of it except when they are monkeys and climbing around on the bars.  The actual swings don't interest them much anymore.  But now that they have a baby sister, swinging is fun to do, especially if they can hold Clara.

Clara really enjoyed her first swinging experience!!!

These are just a couple of recent photos I took of Clara.  Last week she finally started sitting up on her own for more than just a few minutes.  She still falls over occasionally but only when she's reaching for one of her toys and she loses her balance.

Her jumper is more fun for her now.  She jumps and jumps when she is in it, but she bounces on just her left leg.  It's so funny to watch.  Maybe that means she will be a lefty, like her mommy! :)

Happy 7th Birthday Samantha!

On Tuesday we celebrated Samantha's 7th Birthday!  It's hard to believe that seven years have passed since this sweetheart joined our family but she is definitely worth celebrating.  She started off having a great day at school where she was given her birthday crown and brought treats for her class.  Then Mark took a couple hours off of work to come home early so we could have some time at the park playing softball which was lots of fun.

We came back home to have birthday dinner and open presents.  Her first present she was thrilled about because her sister gave her a pack of Lip Smackers lip gloss!  She LOVED it as you can tell!

I guess her biggest gift was her new American Girl doll.  We picked out the Molly doll because she has glasses just like Samantha.  Now she can bring her doll when we go visit the American Girl Store in Minneapolis in a few weeks.

As always she was spoiled rotten and had a super day!  We love you Samantha!

Family Traditions

Twice a week the school guidance counselor comes to Samantha's classroom to teach little lessons such as manners, kindness, differences between good behavior and bad behaviors.  Last week the kids were asked to draw a picture of a family tradition and this was what Samantha drew:

She drew that her tradition was family prayer, morning and night.  I was so proud of her when I saw her drawing and I'm sure that not many kids in her class would have drawn a picture like this.  As a parent you worry so much that the things you are trying to teach your children are not going to stick and that we're not doing a very good job.  But this picture made me feel like we must be doing something right and that makes me feel so good!  Plus, it's a little reminder that we need to keep up on our "family tradition."  Thank you Samantha!!!

Anyone For Lefse?

Recently our ward had a Family History activity.  Part of our assignment was to bring a dish that reflected our heritage, or where our ancestors came from.  Since I am mostly English and French we decided to try to find a recipe from Norway which is where Mark's lineage is from.  We decided on making Lefse Bread.

We found a recipe that looked simple enough and we gave it a try.  I made the dough up ahead of time and then we got to work.  Unfortunately, it took WAY longer than we thought it would.  I figured it would be a simple frying process but it actually took us nearly three hours!  We were pooped afterwards and we still needed to get to the ward social.

Although they were very delicious with the cinnamon sugar that we added, I don't think that I will be making these regularly because of the time factor involved.  However, it was a good experience to go outside our comfort zone and connect to our heritage a bit better.  And the ward activity was super fun so it was well worth the effort!

Emma's Accomplishments

As I've mentioned earlier, Emma joined the Union County Children's Choir this past January.  On Monday she was able to participate in an all day music festival here at the University.  Children's choirs from all over the region came.  They learned alot about music and got to know other students from other schools.  Then that night they had their final concert of the season.  She did wonderfully and their choir sounded so sweet.  It's been such a good experience for her!

Several weeks ago all of the third grade classes in the district went on a field trip for Stewards Day and learned about water conservation.  All of the students were asked to draw a picture of some kind depicting the importance of conserving our water.  Emma came home yesterday with a new yearly calendar.  Twelve pictures were chosen to be a part of the calendar and Emma's picture was one that was used!!!  Her picture is shown in the month of November.  She was given a new T-Shirt, a calendar, and a bunch of candy as a prize!

Good job Emma!  We are so proud of you and all of your talents!!!!!

Afternoon at the Park

On Monday we weather was so gorgeous - 70 degrees!  Emma had other plans, so Samantha, Clara, and I decided to meet some friends at the park.  We really wanted to spend time outside enjoying the warm sunshine.  It was Clara's first trip to pay at the park and she thoroughly enjoyed being outdoors.  We did take a little precaution and kept a hat on her head so as to prevent any sunburning.

We also decided that she was ready for her first trip down the slide!  Her big sister took great care of her and held her as she went down.  So happy they were!!!

We are so happy that Spring is here and that we can enjoy the changing seasons.  We are looking forward to many more outings to the park!

Happy Easter!

Easter is here once again!  It was the perfect weekend to celebrate this special holiday.  We opted to stay home this year rather than getting together with family and just do our activities here.  We started out with coloring eggs.  Clara tried to participate but mostly she just enjoyed watching her sisters.

After a great morning at Church we came home to begin our festivities.  But before we got started I took some pictures of the girls who looked so pretty in their Sunday dresses.

The Easter Bunny hid lots of eggs and we had a great time loading up the Easter baskets.

Even Clara found an Easter egg!

AND....she had her first Easter basket!

It was such a beautiful day outside so we took advantage of the weather and went on a nice family walk.

The Easter Bunny brought Emma and Samantha softball gear!  They had new mits, a bat, and a couple of balls.  They enjoyed practicing together.

It really was a very nice day.  We talked about the importance of the Easter holiday and it's special meaning.  We heard good talks and lessons in Church.  We had yummy food and enjoyed being with one another.  It was sad to see the weekend end. :)

April Conference

We LOVE General Conference in our house and we look forward to it every six months.  We put together lots of activities and snacks and we really enjoy having a quiet weekend and listening to the words of our Church leaders.

Emma and Samantha did a great job listening and they tried hard to pay attention.  We made a flower garden on our wall.  Each apostle had a flower and the girls would color the flower and write down what the subject of the talk was.  It was a big hit!

We also grabbed a cute photo of Clara!  She did a good job during conference, too. :)

It was a great weekend and we are already looking forward to October conference!

Walla Walla

During Spring Break, we decided to take a day trip over to Walla Walla since we had never been there together as a family.  We went to several places to visit including the Whitman Mission historical site.  They have a small museum there and a theater to watch a short video.

Unfortunately it was very rainy and we didn't get a chance to walk the trails.  We'll have to go back again and have the full experience.

We then stopped at the Walla Walla Children's Museum.  Emma and Sam learned alot about science!  Clara and I stayed in the van so we could have a little nap.  Traveling is exhausting! :)

We stopped at a yummy BBQ place for lunch.  Mark had been craving BBQ and we found a great place.  Then we went to a cupcake shop for dessert which was a highlight for the girls.  On the way home we took the back way home through Tolgate and the mountains.  This was one of the snow drifts we came across.

We had a very fun day and it was really nice to do something together as a family.

Seeing IS Believing!

Several months ago, Samantha brought home a notice from her school saying that she didn't get a good score on her eye exam when all of the children were tested.  When I contacted the school, I was told that there was an unusually high number of students who didn't pass so they thought maybe something was wrong with the exam or that whoever was helping with it didn't do it correctly.  We decided to put it on the back burner.  Over the past several weeks Samantha was complaining that she was having a hard time seeing certain things while she was at school so we decided to go ahead and make her an appointment with the eye doctor.  As it turned out - she had perfect vision in her left eye, but her right eye was working at about a 20/70 vision.  So glasses were ordered and Sam was able to pick them out herself.  They arrived today so we went to pick them up.

She looks so adorable and she is absolutely thrilled with them!  We just had to take a couple of pictures to show off the new "look."  We go back in four months to see how things are going and hopefully that right eye starts to adjust and get better!!!

Emma's Choir Concert

One of the activities that Emma is participating in right now is the Community Children's Choir.  It is through Eastern Oregon University and she is really enjoying herself.  Last week she had her first concert.  The program was on the Oregon Trail and the kids put on a little play and sang lots of songs.  They had to dress in pioneer costumes and thankfully we had a bonnet for her to wear which fit the occasion perfectly!

She did such a good job.  Emma has previously suffered from stage fright and hasn't always enjoyed being in front of other people.  But she has gained lots of confidence and even had to memorize a line for the play.  I see Drama and the Theater in her future!  Samantha had lots of fun watching and is looking forward to being able to join the choir next year when she is in second grade.

This is just a cute picture I took of Clara.  She enjoys sitting in her Saucer and looking out the front door at the outside surroundings.  We had some lovely weather last week so she spent lots of time looking and observing. 

Happy Birthday Mark!

On March 3rd we celebrated Mark's birthday!  It fell on a Saturday this year so we were excited to be able to spend the whole day together as a family.  First thing that morning, the girls woke him up with breakfast in bed and a homemade candy bar card that they made.  It turned out really cute and Mark thought it was a wonderful gift.  Of course, the first thing that they asked him was if they could each have some of the candy bars.

We decided to drive to Baker City to see the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  It has been years since we went there so it was something Emma and Samantha were looking forward to doing.

The Interpretive Center follows the history of the Oregon Trail and sits on the actual trail.  There are lots of displays about the pioneers and how they traveled, which routes they took, and the many hardships they faced.

The girls thought that this handcard was pretty impressive.......

....as well as the giant, stuffed buffalo!  We had a really nice time and before leaving town we grabbed some milkshakes for the ride home.

One of the things that Mark is very proud of is that he has an ancestor who was in the Willie Handcart Company that crossed the plains in 1856.  Her name was Martha Webb Campkin.  She was a widow with five young children and they all made it to the Salt Lake Valley which was a miracle considering the dire circumstances they were in.  Flash forward to 2009 when we have a senior couple from our ward who served their mission at Six Crossing.  During their service they came across a book that a good sister from Utah had written.  She compiled the history of all of the Saints who were in the Handcart Companies.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a record of Martha or her second husband, Thomas Young.  We gave that information to Brother and Sister Brown who forwarded it to the book's author.  There are several editions of the book published and each time there is more history added.  Flash forward to 2012 - I was able to get in touch with the author and we had a wonderful discussion over the phone and she sent me her most recent edition of the book which now has Martha and Thomas included!  The book is entitled "Tell My Story, Too" and it is a precious resource to learn about the lives of these devoted Saints.

During our discussion, Sister Alphin told me that she had learned during her research that two sisters, Emily and Julia Hill, had traveled with Martha and assisted her with the children along the trail.  They became dear friends.  Emily eventually wrote the words to the hymn, "As Sisters In Zion" and one of her descendents wrote a book about the lives of Emily and Julia.  This story intrigued me and I thought about maybe getting the book.  Well, two days later, I received my weekly email from Deseret Book listing their specials on books.  It just so happened that their special for the week was this particular book!  I knew it was meant to be and I quickly purchased a copy to give to Mark.  The book is wonderful and talks in great depth about Martha and her family.  Both books are now family treasures!!!!

Hopefully Mark enjoyed his birthday gifts and felt how much we love and appreciate him.  Happy Birthday!!!!