{Kindergarten is FUN!}

Sienna had such a fun week last week
in Kindergarten.
Her teacher is just amazing
and goes all out to make things fun,
and to make her kids feel special.

First,
there was the wedding of
Mr. U and Mrs. Q.

We received a very official invitations

and the kids were told to come in their
best dress to school and to bring a wedding gift
that started with the letter Q.

When I got there they were all lined up outside
looking very dapper.
When the wedding march started they
all walked in with their cute
Q and U hats on.

Sienna was really excited because she got to carry
a basket full of rose petals right before
the bride walked down the isle.Then the school secretary married them.
Saying things like
"Do you Mrs. Q promise to always put a U
after you?" "Will you say things
like quake, question, quadrant?"
It was hilarious, and darling.Then the children all

blew bubbles as the bride and groom headed to
the reception.
Adorable I tell you.

At the reception they

opened the presents and had
wedding cake and sprite.
It was seriously the cutest thing ever.

Then on Friday it was Sienna's
Hero Day in her class.
I LOVE the concept of
the Hero day.
It teaches them that they are
very important and that they are heroes
for just being who they are.T
Mom and Dad both come and
we first show a flag that we made describing
Sienna.
And then we read her favorite book.
(Pinkalicious. She reads it like, nightly.)
And then we tell why she is a hero to us.
Sienna is a hero in our family because
she is always smiling.
She brightens up our lives a whole lot!
She is funny, smart, and always willing
to make us feel better with a snuggle.
She is good at almost everything she does,
and if she isn't, she doesn't give up.
We adore her!

Then they kids all line up and
her teacher yells...very loudly,
"This is Sienna Kidman from Smithfield, Utah.
She loves riding her bike, playing with her friends,
and recess! Let's cheer for Sienna!"
And they all cheer and give her fives as she runs up and down
row of kids.
Her smile was so big
and her squinty eyes were so small
that were not sure how she could see where she was
going! It was lovely.

I want a hero day!
Doesn't Kindergarten just look like so much fun?

{Adyson turns 8!}

How is it possible that this little
beauty is already 8??

(Photo by:Eileen Workman)

8 things you should know a few things about Adyson.
1-She is smart.
The type of kid who deserves ice-cream after parent teacher conferences.
Lots of it.
2-She is creative.
She could spend hours making stuff out of nothing.
3-She loves big.
And will hug you big to prove it.
4-She is fiercely loyal.
Don't try to change her opinion on anything.
5-She is silly.
And can make us laugh, a lot.
6-She is beautiful.
Look at her!
7-She's pretty great on the inside too.
She proves it daily.
8-She's growing up,
way too fast.
It hurts.

We were able to have a little girls night out
on Saturday night to celebrate.

We had a girls night Saturday to celebrate.
Both Grandmas, Aunt Amy, Me, Sienna, Simon & Lucy.
(Simon isn't a girl, but we love him so he had to come.)
(We missed the rest of the ladies in the family!)
Adyson pretended she hated being sung to.
(She LOVED it.)Lucy was pretty happy to be there.
And the cake was good...
Sunday was her actual Birthday,
so she got a few lovely gifts.
New Scriptures from the Kidman grandparents.
She loves them-and looks so grown up with them.
And a new bike from the Johnson grandparents.
Isn't it adorable?

We love this kid and can't wait to see whats in store for her
in the years to come.
She's a blessing to our little family.

Week 1:

IL-2 Week one. Here.

{St. Patricks Day, Thank you's, and A B-day party}

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our little ladies.
They are lovely in green, yes?
Oh the Thank you's!
I have so many to say.
So many.
For the past few weeks things have
been extremely hard in these parts.
(Do you follow our Cancer blog?)
(No?
Why not?
Go link us.
NOW. GO! There is a job for you there.)

But wow,
I cannot get over how well taken care of
we have been by our friends, neighbors
and even random strangers.
Donations have been made,
cards have been mailed,
and today some of my nearest and dearest friends
brought over a basket filled with beautiful cards,
and things to entertain me over the next week.
Oh I feel so blessed.
There are no words.

I think back to when we were first
deciding on whether or not to buy this house.

I'm so glad we did.
What would I do without these
people in my life?
Love you friends.
Thanks for all you do for me.
Seriously,
There are no words.

And last,
but certainly not least,
This little lady is turning 8 next week.
8!
Where has time gone?

When they changed our start date for IL-2
I realized we will not be home until either
the day before her b-day, or her actual b-day...
so I threw her a little party.

Now, I do Birthdays big
and had a hard time with this one.
Money is tight,
time was even tighter,
and honestly,
I'm out of energy.
So....

I had it at Firehouse.
And they ate pizza
and made a little craft.

That's it.
And guess what?

It was LOVELY.
And EASY!
And the world didn't fall apart
because it wasn't perfect.

I'm learning to let go of
a little control...
it feels good.

Onto the party!
Adyson couldn't wait!

And Sienna is always happy to tag along.The ladies painted a little pot and made a craft.
One of my bad ideas was to forget to tell them
to wear clothes they can get dirty.
RIP Lillians cute shirt.
RIP.

When I told a friend about the party
she bullied me into letting her do the cake.
(Remember how I said my friends are awesome?)
After telling her no 12 times,
I finally said yes,
and she came with this!
I will never try to turn my friends down again.
Isn't it fabulous?
I hated cutting into it.
(She got it from The Graceful Baker.)

And the gifts were a hit.

Adyson got a Justin Beiber shirt
and the girls were all squealing when she
opened it.
I love the look on her face here.

Adyson has lovely friends.
They are all such sweet girls.
And I can't say enough good things about
Adyson herself.
She is such an angel,
and such a great kid.
Can't wait for all the good things
I know are in store for her!

Skiing.

I grew up skiing.
A lot.
And spent many Saturdays with my dad, siblings, and cousins
at Beaver Mountain.
I've wanted to take the girls for...ever really,
but every winter it doesn't happen.
Tuesday night my brother invited me
and the girls to his ward ski night.
He took Simon and taught him,
and my dad and I taught the girls.

I'm not sure who's more excited...
me-or the ladies.
Probably me.

I loved watching Simon (who did awesome), Sienna and Adyson all
together. I have SO many memories of skiing with
my cousins that it just melted my heart.

Oh but it was rough at the start!
My dad and I were sweating our guts out
trying to get them to figure out how to move around
with boots and skis. It's such a hard thing to
understand when you are first learning...
and our patience was truly tested.

And some tears were shed. :)

That being said,
they caught on pretty quickly.
If I could have mushed them together
into one person they would have done great
because Adyson had NO fear.
She would fly down the hill and fall and laugh.
But Sienna really got,
right away,
how to 'make a pizza'
and snowplow.
But she was so dang nervous to go.

I finally just forced her
and said,
"Look, your skiing!"
And when she realized she could do it
she was fearless and ready to go.
She's already asked to go back twice.

I cannot wait to take her again!

It took Adyson a little longer to get
how to snowplow,
but she was having so much fun and so brave.
I was really proud of her.
And by then end she was doing awesome.

I have such great memories of skiing with my Dad.
We spent a lot of time together skiing when I was
younger, and even in my teen years-so it was
great having him there with my kids.
I cannot wait to go again!

{Day 5:Disney and Home}

Our plans for the last day were to
spend the whole day again in Disney and
drive home in the morning.

Between getting so much done the day
before and Travis feeling worse by the second,
we chose to spend a few hours at Disney
and drive half way home that day.

We went on a few favorites before
calling it a day.

Ariel.

Toy Story.Space Mountain.
The ladies favorite.

They were pretty excited to get row 1.
Funny kids.

We hit up Splash mountain,
Thunder mountain,
and then made pouty faces because
it was time to go.We drove to St. George and found these ridiculously
fantastic cookies waiting for us-left to us by
our dear friends Niki and Jason.
These cookies.
Oh these cookies!
I could possibly move to St. George just to eat them again.
Thanks for the lovely breakfast...
(yes breakfast)
Niki and Jason.
We loved them!

We've never been so grateful to be home.
Our trip was completely different then our trips
before and a slap in the face reminder of how
awful cancer is.

It was hard.

That being said,
we had some really fun moments,
and the girls had a blast, which is
all that matters.

But next year...

Oh next year I'm praying
we've kicked cancer right out of our lives.

{Day 4:Disneyland}

This is the reason we Love Disney so much.
The ladies remember how much they love
each other. They walked like this the entire
way to the park. It was heartwarming.
This day at Disneyland was nuts.
We got so much done and there were
absolutely no lines.
At one point we looked around and there
was no one else walking where we were.
It was FABULOUS!
We hit up pretty much every ride
in the park.
Multiple times.

Thunder Mountain.
In the ladies top 5.

Splash mountain.

Love them holding hands while
in line. They decided they pretty much
didn't need us at all and went on every ride
together. We felt a little neglected....

Made a wish in Snow White's well.Hit up Autotopia.
Adyson loves this ride and thinks
she is so awesome for being able to drive.

Made silly faces while waiting to meet Minnie.

Met Mickey.
And got the traditional pics in front of the castle.
I love this tradition...so fun to see how we change through the years.
3 years ago.
2 years ago.
Last year.