River's House and Latest Project

Our wonderful neighbor kids made this cardboard-box house for River and Sariah to play in. They are out on the porch playing in it non-stop. They absolutely love it, can't get enough of it, want to eat in it and sleep in it. Complete with a little door and window.
Ain't it cute?

Their faces say it all!!!

Latest Project:

Turning this yucky old chair Into this colorful number.

Re-upholstering is harder than I thought it would be, but it turned out okay, eh?

The First Day of Preschool

Yes, my daughter is old enough to go to preschool! What is going on???

School started in September and River is absolutely loving it. She is Cameron's daughter....not shy one bit. The first day of school River ran into her class room ahead of me and immediately sat down in a chair with big excited eyes, and practically bOuNcInG in her seat. She barely even batted an eye when I said goodbye, while other kids where hanging on their parent's legs in tears. I felt a little sad she was so happy....that sounded weird...but you moms know what I mean.... it is my first child going to school! It was bittersweet for me, pure excitement for her.

Here she is just before leaving the house and showing off her backpack. I'm just glad I remembered to grab the camera.

And because I was taking pictures of her, River took these pictures of Cam. Not related to preschool, sure, but I thought they where funny.

Anyway, when I went to pick up River after her first day, the kids all came out with cowboy hats on and riding stick horses. It was so cute, River made lots of friends and couldn't wait to go back. I wish I had had my camera for the stick horse part. Dang.

Thunderbirds Ho!

We went down to Cedar City this weekend to watch Blake play his first homegame of the year. SUU won! Blake played really great, and we found out after the game that he had the most tackles! The only sad part that was Cameron had drill that weekend and couldn't come with us. Oh, and the girls ate more candy and watched more cartoons on the long drive than they have in a whole month. Really though, what else can you do on a 5 hour drive?
The whole gang. River was being a silly-billy and not smiling or holding still. See my sublte restraining hand on her hip? Yeah, we are lucky she was in the picture at all! Riah and Grammy cuddling up together....


River and Papa. So cute!

Blake is number 34. Or did you guess that already? #1 Fan. For reals.

AFTER THE GAME:

We ran down to the field to congratulate Blake. River had to try on his gloves and helmet. As soon as she put the helmet on she started zigging and zagging around the field until she tipped over head first, giggling. The helmet was WAY to heavy for her, but she thought it was the best. Look at those handsome faces!

Glitter and Kites and Papa Brent's Tights

River and Sariah miss Cameron everyday when he is at work. Today we decied to make him cards and stick them in his car for a nice surprise when he got off work. River wanted hers to say, "We all miss you Daddy!" And Sariah wanted hers to say "Dada, dada, dada." But I embellished a bit and wrote "I love you, Dada!" instead. On the inside of her card, River drew her and Dad flying kites. Sariah's card had tons of glitter which she smeared everywhere with a paint brush. Sariah had fun for sure. River even wrote her own name at the bottom. My favorite part is the 'e' for some reason. Looks like it's doing a front flip over the 'r'. Hiii Yah! Karate chop!When the cards were done, the glitter was too fun, so River made a picture of Papa Brent. According to her, it's a picture of when Papa Brent was a silly baby and he had one red shoe and one blue shoe. But he was just a baby, so he didn't know. I was going to mail this picture to him, but that red hair above the head is a pile of glitter at least an inch high.

Sariah also continued to glitter everything in site. She's starting to love to draw and paint. The other day she pointed at scribbles she had drawn and signed the word for flower. I said, "is that a flower?" and she nodded, "yes!". So cute. Mind you, the picture didn't actually look like a flower, but that is what she thought she drew.

Pickles and Grandma's Fried Chicken

Cameron went on a business trip to Sacramento, California. He always forgets the camera. His hotel was directly across from the capital building. He didn't see Arnold Swartzenager....he did learn that it's illegal to pick the oranges from the trees surrounding the capital building.





Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I took the girls to Roosevelt for a nice long visit. We CANNED HOMEMADE PICKLES WITH GRANDMA HICKEN. I am addicted to her pickles. Now I have seven of my own pretty green bottles of them in my pantry. :)We DINED UPON GRANDMA GILES FRIED CHICKEN AND GRAVY. There is nothing more sinfuly delicious than Grandma's fried chicken and gravy. Just look at River lickin' her lips in anticipation.And we HAD A TEA PARTY WITH OUR FRIENDS. Complete with plastic pizza. All in all, the week was nice and Cameron was home before we knew it!

Things Are Going Swimmingly

River had her VERY first swimming lessons EVER. She loved them. She did great. She will do everything for her teachers that she won't do for me! She jumped off of the side, dunked her head under the water, floated on her back, etc etc etc...

Sariah loved swimming too....I wish I had a picture of her in her swimsuit. We stayed after swimming lessons and swam for a couple of hours everyday. (goodbye sickly white legs!) It was all I could do to keep Sariah from running pell-mell into the water. She fell in over her head about four times before she finally decided it was a good idea to hold my hand.

River had three teacher for her class, which made it really fun. We already can't wait until next year!

I'm Never Going there Again!

That's what River said when we left the zoo. I swear she was having fun while we where there. We got the girls ice cream cones, petted the mama giraffe, saw a baby elephant and even rode the zoo train. What's not to like? River is just melodramatic. When I asked her what her favorite animal was she said, in a very grown up voice, "None of them!"

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I love this picture of River and Cameron. You can see how much River adores her daddy.

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And sweet Sariah. Over the last few months she has really lightened up, (though in this picture you can't really tell, lol!) she laughs and talks and sings. She says GaMa, Mama, Dada, Biber (which is River), more, boo, hot, and moo. And she loves to do the hand actions to "one little monkey, swinging in a tree..." Perfect at the zoo!

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This is a table I picked up at the thrift store and painted. I wish I had the before picture, but it was brown with a big coffee-mug stain on it. Now it's wonderfully turquoise. Or to me it's wonderful. I have an obsession with turquoise lately. What can you do? Cameron is worried everything in our house will end up lime green or turquoise. I think he might be right to worry! ;)

What the Fish?!

We went fishing with my family at Six Lakes over the 4th of July weekend. With the help of Papa Brent, River caught 3 fish. She was so excited when she reeled them out of the water. She kept marching around saying "What the fish?!"
Her pants got soaked, so my mom fashioned some overalls for her by turning a hoodie upside down and using the arms for legs. I thought River look like an adorable version of Huck Finn. We did have to tighten the strings every once-in-a-while....Cameron snagged a crawdad for Sariah and River to look at. Pretty cool.

It rained on us a bit, but Sariah was prepared with her camo jacket Papa bought for her. She had a great time hanging out with grandma next to the lake, eating strawberries and throwing rocks.

Thanks for the great time everyone!