Golden Birthday

Emily celebrated her 11th birthday on the 11th of March. She had a great day, I took treats into her class at school, snickers bars and capri sun drinks. She chose to have her birthday dinner at Red Robin. Here she is during her happy birthday song from the waiters and waitresses. Chris is taking a picture with his phone, too.

After dinner we came home to open presents, thanks Aunt Laura for the money : ) She scored monetarily this birthday!!

She got phone calls from Grandma and Grandpa Root!

She also wanted a cold stone cake, a cheesecake named desire!! YUM YUM!

One thing about Emily is that she is always happy and has a smile for everyone!! She has a great sense of humor too! Happy birthday, Emily. You are growing to be such a beautiful young lady on the inside and out! We love you!

Getting ready for Kindergarten

This past Monday was kindergarten registration. Baylie had been anticipating this for quite some time now. I called the doctors office to schedule her for a check up and to receive the required shots. She seemed fine with the whole 'shot' situation. I had been telling her for a couple of days prior, "it will feel just like a pinch." The morning of our doctors appointment, she was really nervous and very emotional. Ali had told her she would have to get the shots in her butt and she was scared. Jace, told her she was a 'loser' because she had to get shots and he didn't. Needless to say, the morning didn't start off very well. She wasn't cooperating in getting dressed and having her hair done. She was in tears all morning, telling me she wasn't going! After much debate, I won and off to the doctors we went.
Getting weight taken, 34 pounds which is the 5th percentile for kids her same age. Her anxiety was gone (mostly) at this point. Next, Tia (best nurse ever), measured her height. She is 42 inches, which is the 45th percentile.

We found our way into one of the exam rooms and waited for Dr. Baker to come. I kept telling her that he wasn't going to give her any shots, but that Tia would come back after she saw the doctor to do that. We love Dr. Baker and think he's the best! He even got Baylie to laugh a few times.

By the time it was time for shots, Baylie was feeling more confident about the situation as Dr. Baker and I told her how fast Tia would be and it would be over in no time. When Tia gave her the first shot, she looked over at me (we were holding hands) almost in shock and looked like she might cry but by then, all 4 of them were over and no tears were shed. She was such a big girl and I was so proud of her!
Showing off her band-aids! No big deal after all!

This past Monday was the big day! We headed to the elementary school to get her all signed up for kindergarten. She was so excited and wanted to get all dressed up. While I was filling out all the necessary paperwork, a lady took her away to give her a reading readiness test. The lady told me she didn't talk much but pointed while making eye contact. I sure hope she will speak up once she actually starts school. She did great on the test and the tester told her she was sure that Baylie will do 'super' in kindergarten. This brought a big smile to her face.

Outside, in front of the Rimrock Elementary school sign. Baylie is going to be a 'raptor!' Look out kindergarten, Baylie is on her way!!!

A "Red Carpet" birthday event

This past Saturday, March 6, our sweet Ali turned 7. She wanted to have a big party with friends from school so we decided to turn this into a "red carpet" event. We put on the invitation for all the girls to come dressed up to walk the red carpet. It was a good coincidence that it was the Oscars on the same weekend. It was a little frustrating when I was telling her about it and she said, "mom, what's a red carpet?" Anyway, we went with it! Here's the red carpet! As the girls would get out of their cars, I had Lindsay and Makenna outside with their camera's snapping shots of the girls. Between the two camera's they took over 150 pictures and they were fun to see. Some of the girls acted a little shy and didn't want to pose.

Baylie wanted in on the fun too!!

Strike a pose, Ali! She got a new "dress up" dress for the occasion, and her big sisters added

the make-up! Notice little Baylie in the window? She was there for most of the girls who came pictures too. We had to do 're-takes' so she wouldn't be in any of the pictures they would take home. Silly Baylie, just wanted to see what was happening outside.

Ali's turn to walk the red carpet.

Once all the girls had arrived, we quickly downloaded the pictures and sent a picture of each girl to the one hour photo center at wal-mart. The girls got to decorate a frame with rhinestones and stickers (if they wanted their name on it). Once the photos were done, Chris went to pick them up and then we put them into the frames the girls decorated for them to take home.

While waiting for the pictures, we ate pizza and then we went downstairs and played the candy bar game. This game is such a hit with all kids. We also played musical chairs, and had a slide show of all the pictures Lindsay and Makenna had taken for them to watch and use the wii to color and doodle on.

Ali opening her gifts.

She was an easy girl to please. She wanted just a homemade chocolate cake.

Here she is with all the friends that came to help her celebrate her big day. It was such a fun afternoon being able to see all the cute girls dressed up. Ali loves playing dress up so this was really fun for her too. It really didn't matter whether the girls were in dress up clothes or just their Sunday best, all of them looked so cute and had a great time together. Happy birthday sweet Ali, we love you!!!

Sweet 16!!!

This past Saturday, Lindsay celebrated her 16th birthday. I wanted to make a big deal out of it since I think turning 16 is a big deal. I had planned for a couple of weeks to have a surprise birthday party for her. Her best friend Avery was my accomplice. She told me who to invite and then helped me keep Lindsay out of the house while I got ready. Lindsay thought she was going to the movies but had forgotten her money, luckily and they had to come back and get it. I decorated with a few posters which were made by my friend, Nicole. I also had 16 pink roses and 16 pink balloons. Here is Avery in the middle, they played the game "signs" for hours. We ended up with 19 of Lindsay's friends to help in her celebration.

Here is the birthday girl, with Jace on her lap, and several of her male friends. Lindsay has such a great group of friends and they are always having fun whatever they do.

What could be sweeter for a sweet 16 party than a chocolate fountain? It was a huge hit with the kids!

Here's a lot of the goods we had to dip into the chocolate. I think I had way to many choices but everything I thought of sounded like it would be yummy in chocolate (what isn't really).

Here she is posing in the new sunglasses her dad and I gave her.

She requested the cookie dough delirium ice cream cake from cold stone as her birthday cake.

We took her to lunch at Red Robin. Here she is right before they sang to her.

I can't believe it's been 16 years since she came into our family!! Time has sure gone fast. Lindsay is such a delight to have in our home. She is always working hard in school and trying to be the best she can be. She makes correct choices and knows who she is! We are grateful to Heavenly Father to have sent this sweet spirit to us to raise. She really does make being a parent easy. Happy Birthday Lindsay, we love you!

ALOHA!

Chris and I had the fantastic opportunity to spend 8 days on the beautiful island of Maui. We went with some great friends and had such a fabulous time!! After I started downloading pictures, I realized I probably should have made a couple of blog posts according to the things we did. Too late for that, so these are in total random order. Maui is such a gorgeous place and I can't wait to go back with the kids!!
Here we are after hiking down to Nakalele's blowhole. We found this heart amongst the lava rock at the bottom. One of the many eruptions from the blowhole. We would go stand near it too and would get soaked. It felt great in the heat of the sun though.

Chris and I on the boardwalk from our resort to the beach.

On the resort grounds. This resort was spectacular!!

One of the evenings we went to "the feast at Lele" luau. It was awesome!

Here's Chris hiking down to Nakalele's blowhole. (see out of order)

Just one of the many pictures of the beautiful scenery we saw while on Maui. I believe this is on the "road to Hana."

We loved, loved the color of the water! It was breathtakingly (is that a word)beautiful

Here is a reef shark that Nicole and Justin saw on their scuba dive trip! Chris and I just snorkeled above them.

This is a sea turtle, one of many seen on our snorkeling day to molokini island and turtle town! This day was so much fun!

There are tons and tons of beautiful flowers all over the island. I loved seeing them, smelling them and taking pictures of them. This is a hibiscus which is the state flower of Hawaii.

Chris, me, Justin and Nicole on the sailboat we took to Molokini Island and turtle town. We snorkeled while they did scuba. We saw tons and tons of whales. They are such spectacular creatures!

Me, putting on my fins to head into the water for some GREAT snorkeling.

We ate a lot of fantastic food. Here we are at "Cheeseburgers in Paradise." This place we loved so much, we went there twice!

Laying out at the beach behind the resort. Kaanapali beach

This arch is formed by trees grown over the walk way at Mama's Fish House. Note: if you don't like fish, don't go eat there. The grounds were awesome and the other three tell me the fish was too. I ate steak, it wasn't the best.

We took a helicopter tour of the island which was hands down one of our favorite things. The views were incredible and you get a completely different outlook of the island itself.

Two humpback whales we saw from the helicopter! Loved it, and I named these two, Bonnie and Clyde." We saw two whales jump out of the water simultaneously side by side one morning. One of the most awesome things I've ever seen! I didn't have my camera on however.

Climbing the old Banyan tree in downtown Lahaina. This tree was amazing, it's all one tree. Apparently you aren't supposed to be climbing on it as an older man came and yelled at us, telling us if we get caught it's a $1500 fine. He didn't say a word to any of the kids that were hanging and climbing all over it. We just decided he was jealous of the fun we were having. : )

A shop owner in one of the shops in Lahaina gave me this plumeria for my hair. These flowers are so pretty and they smell like heaven. I couldn't get enough of them. Every time I saw one, I had to run smell them. YUMMY!!

One of the many waterfalls we saw while we were there. This one we had to hike down into the bamboo forest on the "road to Hana" to find. There were 4, this is the second. We didn't go in further than this.

Down in the bamboo forest. This place was seriously amazing. The sad thing is, not many of the travelers on the "road to Hana" know about it.

Chris took the car keys and carved into one of the bamboo poles. Isn't he romantic? Look closely and you can see it.

I had mentioned to Kenna one of the days that our resort had a water slide at one of the pools. She asked how it was so I told her I would check it out! Result? SO FUN!! I went on it about a dozen times. Can't wait to take the kids back!

Heading to the airport. Kissing Maui goodbye : (
This is at the waterfall in front of our resort.

There are many more pictures, it was so hard to just pick a few to post. This was such a fantastic get away with great friends. I've already looked into airfare and weeks available at this resort. I so want to go back and take the kids. I've told them in 2012. That will be our 20 year anniversary and the year Lindsay will graduate from high school. Crossing my fingers : )

I now know why they say "Maui no ka oi!" We loved every second!