March 2014

Brynley learned how to swim this month at the age of 3 1/2 which is great for all the swimming we do.

 We went to the annual Deseret Ranch Rodeo. This year we were able to go with cousins which was fun. Brynley couldn't handle the smell when we first got there, she had a few gags before she adjusted to the smell of barnyard animals.

At the end of March was Spring break. This is how the girls spent the first couple of days of spring break before our camping trip. They lined up chairs and pretended they were on a train and would color, read, eat  snacks, make phone calls to eachother, etc. I am always so glad when they entertain themselves and play well together.

The second half of spring break we went camping 6 hours away in a Florida State Park with some friends. We could have done without the drive but the camping was fun and everyone traveled well.

We went on a tour of a cavern

We did a little hiking to a waterfall

 Shortly after our hike it started raining and would not stop. It rained all day so we found some other non-camping activities to keep us busy for the day starting with lunch at Arby's and a trip to the movies.

After the movies we went bowling

 Then to Goodwill to see what fun outfits we could find.

                                        
We ended the day with Pizza Hut and came back to a dark soggy campground and the tent still standing. The patio part of our tent had caved in so we did have to set that back up. The next day was nice and sunny for packing up to go home. It is much harder packing up a wet campsite especially because when you get home you have to set everything back up again to dry out but we still had a great time and enjoyed the outdoors.

February 2014

During November/December Charlie had this outdoor BBQ area made. It turned out really nice, don't know what we were doing with out a BBQ for the last three years.

 Valentine's Day was nice this year. Daddy came home with flowers for all his girls.

 Daddy also cooked dinner for us this year, Hailey requested steak. We played our annual Valentine's day games and then...

 ended the day with Grandma's famous Valentine cakes she makes for us every year.

Looks like we have another one who loves to do puzzles.

 Hailey took it upon herself to make a Pinata. She looked it up on the internet and completed the whole project with help from Aubrey. It turned out to be a surprise Pinata for finding out whether we were having another girl or boy.

 The girls came along to the ultrasound appointment to find out what we were having. Dad missed most of the ultrasound but since the baby wasn't cooperating to find out if it was a boy or girl he was given a second chance to see. The tech had us wait in the waiting room while she saw another patient and then she tried again, when we were about to give up hope she finally had a peek. The tech wrote down what we were having and put it in an envelope and then I took it to the store and had them fill a box up with the color of balloons that matched the sex. We then went home and opened up the box as a family and found out together.

 It's another girl!!!

 We had some friends over for dinner and celebrated the news with Hailey's Pinata.

We ended the month with a trip to Fort Myers for Cousin Christopher's birthday and ordination to the priesthood. The kids tried to go swimming but they spent most of the time freezing and shivering.

January 2014

This is the month we announced we are having another baby. I seemed to have misplaced my ultrasound pictures so when I find those I will post them here.
I also went on a little trip to Las Vegas for my Aunt Loretta's Memorial service and was able to see and visit with my family while Charlie and the girls stayed home.
On the last day we went out and did some sight seeing. Every time I texted Charlie a picture of where we were and what we were doing he would text a picture back with a similar activity. I know they were busy cleaning and going to chuck e cheese so I was surprised when they had time to find clever ways to send similar activity pictures. It was pretty funny and made my day.

December (2013)

Hailey's 4th grade class went on a field trip to St. Augustine, Florida. It was an all day field trip that started at 6:30 in the morning; we didn't get home until 7:30 at night. I went with her to chaperone because I didn't want her gone that long on a field trip without me. I was 2 months pregnant at the time although no one knew but Charlie and I. I held up pretty good. When I keep busy I don't have time to worry about the nausea. We did a lot of learning about the history of the oldest city in America.

Here we are at a fort

 Here she is learning about archeology

 Here she is with her two besties in 4th grade on a trolley tour of the city.

It was quite a long day and I'm not sure if I would do it again as a field trip but it was interesting for me to learn about Florida history.

One night the girls decided to dress like Santa and Mrs. Clause, I thought they did a pretty good job coming up with outfits.

 Family Christmas Eve party at Uncle Kelly and Aunt Terry's. Santa came for a visit.

The girls wanted to sleep together for Christmas Eve so they got the sleeping bags out and slept on the floor. It reminded me of when I was young and we used to do the same thing. Although I think Brynley ended up in bed with Charlie and I half way through the night.

Just like when I was young they lined up by age to go out to the living room for presents. (Unlike when I was young they waited patiently for their parents to wake up first)

 Checking out what Santa brought them.

 Looking at their stocking goodies

Presents from Santa

 Once again the girls made gifts for each other which is a fun way for me to spend time with them helping them make the gifts and it is fun for them to give a gift they have worked hard on.
This year Brynley got in on the action and gave a gift to the girls. I was trying to make coloring pages on the computer out of pictures for Brynley to make them coloring books and I printed one off but didn't like the way it turned out and I told Brynley to color it to see if it would work. While I was trying to figure things out she spent time coloring the picture which happened to be the three of them together. She went to the cabinet with a stool and got  down mini marshmallows, found toothpicks and put marshmallows on toothpicks like little marshmallow kebobs. She then put the marshmallow kebobs in a baggie and brought it over with the colored picture and showed me she was ready to wrap the girls present. I thought it was perfect, it was right from her heart and something she worked on instead of the complicated thing I was trying to do.

Aubrey made a memory game out of pictures of their cousins for Brynley.

 Hailey got a bag and put their picture on it to personalize the bag for Aubrey

 

Aubrey picked out beads and hung a necklace for Hailey and Hailey actually wears it quite regularly.

 Hailey wanted to make something with felt so she made a "paper doll" out of felt for Brynley.

I thought it was about time to introduce the girls to some boy toys since our house will never be filled

with them. 

I guess I forgot to take pictures of Christmas evening but we had Grandma and Grandpa Pahulu over and Brian and Mich'ele's family over for dinner and a few more presents.

 

 We usually go to a gingerbread party every year but our friends that host it were sick so they brought us the homemade gingerbread kit and we ended up making it after Christmas during Christmas break.

 For New Year's eve we had our Fort Meyers cousins in town so we partied all night. The kids set up tents and watched TV outside.