Cowgirl in training

For Christmas my parents gave Kalyana some horse riding lessons (she was totally into this cowgirl thing and also got the boots, shirt and hat she's wearing too).My cousin Kylee rides horses (and mules) so my mom got her to teach a few lessons to Kaly. Monday was her first lesson and she was SOOOO excited for it!


We took all the kids out to the house so they could see the animals (mules, horses, dogs, chickens) and play on the trampoline and run around. My mom, my sister Heidi and her kids were also there along with my aunt Lisa and cousin Kylee who's house we were at. Kylee said she had really good control and was able to steer very well especially for her first time.

Kalyana had a blast and talked about it the whole way home. Then when we got home she jumped out of the car and ran to tell all her friends who were outside playing. And then recounted the story for her dad over dinner. She is really gonna love taking these lessons!

(There are two pictures I wanted to explain. One is of Makayla and Austin playing on the trailer. They got a huge kick out of this pretending to drive everywhere. The other one is that huge field right after. If you look closely in the top left of the grass-or click on it -you can see Tyce's red shirt. He had a good time running all over the field.)

Cowgirl

For some reason this picture wouldn't post in my last post so here are the cowgirl pictures!

Kaly's Bowling Party (Hooray for 6!)

Kaly invited six friends to her sixth birthday party.

Friday after school we had a birthday party for Kaly and her friends. I think the kids all had a good time, although I think by frame 6 they were done and would have been fine going home at that point. They started screaming and playing tag and being super silly. Luckily we went at a less busy time so there were only 2 other groups there. After bowling we went back to our house for presents and cupcakes. I think Kalyana loved her party.

Freshman For President

(Ally's the one holding her book in the middle.)

This month for book club Rachel and I were in charge. Can you get a bit of our theme from the great decorations? We read a cute story called Freshman for President by Ally Condie. It's a fun YA book about a kid in high school wanting to make a name for himself and with the help of his friends decides to run for President of the United States. Ally's also written a few other books called Yearbook, First Day and Reunion.

Now not only was it fun to read a great book with the girls but we got to have Ally come and visit with us. We got to ask her questions about her books we've read, her writing style, and the life an author (the inner workings of publicists, editors, other authors, etc). She was so adorable and fun and just plain likeable. So far I've only read Freshman and Yearbook but I'm waiting to get First Day from the library so I can finish the set.

Edited to add: By the way I was just reading Allys blog and it looks like she'd be willing to go to other book club parties. If any one reading this is interested I'd be willing to host another party and get more folks out to chat with her.

In honor of my MOM

(My first 5K for a GREAT cause!)

Dear Friends and Family,

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support the Komen Salt Lake City Race for the Cure® on May 09, 2009 in the fight against breast cancer. One in eight women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime and the more we raise, the more the Salt Lake City Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure can give back to fund vital breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs in our own community and support the national search for a cure.

Click here to visit my personal page and pledge your support.

Please join me in the fight by pledging in support of my participation in the Race or contributing generously to the Komen Salt Lake City Race for the Cure®. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities in the Salt Lake area and national breast cancer research. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below. Whatever you can give will help! I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Thank you so much for your time and support in the fight against breast cancer! Every step counts!

Sincerely,

Debbie

To sponsor my participation online, click here.

Bug Trap

This evening after dinner the kids found a new game. I guess this is their version of legos. They made bridges, a playground, and even a zapper. I'll let the pictures and movie tell the story.

The Masterpiece

Late Coloring

You can see why Kaly lost both her teeth so quickly. Her little mouth just doesn't have room for her teeth. It's been a couple of weeks and she loves showing off the progress her new tooth is already making.

This other picture cracks me up because Kaly hates getting her hair done while Makayla will bring me the brush and hair bands to fix hers up pretty. It took a bit of convincing though for Makayla to let Kaly do her hair and I'm hoping to use this next time I need to do Kaly's. "Remember that time you did your sisters hair and how much fun that was?" I hope it works.


So we dyed eggs this afternoon. I had all the stuff ready to go before Easter but life got a little busy trying to pack for our trip and clean for our landlords yearly maintenance check. Then I told them we'd do it on our trip and I just never got out to get eggs so instead we did it today! And they thought that was perfectly fine by the way.

The girls favorite part was the magic crayon (I think thats my favorite part too) so we all had a good time drawing secret messages and pictures on the eggs. Tyce's favorite part was dropping the eggs. Which got us all laughing like crazy so by the time it was over we had a dozen very colorful squashed eggs. I'm just glad I thought to put paper down. When it was all finished I literally just rolled it up and threw all of that away.

Birthday Girls!

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Last year a few of my friends and I went out to celebrate our birthdays (since we're all April babys). For our second annual Birthday Girl party we (Christie, Sue, Jenni, Kayla (and her sister Shauna) and I met up at Iggys Sports Grill (and forgot to take a picture!). Our sweet friend Rachael couldn't join us since she's working in Cali but maybe she'll get to come out next year.

I've never been to Iggys but I must say I enjoyed it a lot. I hope we didnt bother the waitress too much since we stayed for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a blast and I really enjoy the company of these fabulous women!!

Visiting the LamFam

We finally made it to Idaho. We've been trying to go for the last 3 or so months and each time we planned on it something came up and we had to cancel our trip.

We had a great time getting to visit and play with everyone. It's nice to make one trip and get to see so many people! (Tarls parents, his three brothers and two -of four- sisters all live nearby.)

We went to the petty zoo, had a bbq, played with cousins, had a sisters lunch (with no kiddos to watch), Tarl and I got to go on a double date with Flin and Jessica (thanks Shantae for watching our kids!!!), helped grandma make bread, cookies and scones, watched movies, read, fixed computers, and lots more.

One of my favorite stories from the trip was this. Grandpa Hayden told the girls he had a special job for them and if they did it well he'd pay them for their trouble. So the girls went outside under the huge pine tree and picked up all the pinecones so grandpa could mow the lawn. Afterwards he offered them a Cadbury egg or $1 bill. Both the girls chose the $1. A few hours later we took the kids to the petting zoo and Kalyana asked if she found a kitty for $1 if I'd let her buy it. I said sure. When we got there she went straight for the cats and found out they were $15. She was so disappointed we couldn't take a cat home and begged me for the rest of the trip to please let her get one.