Anarya's 1st watermelon slice

Anayra has four teeth up front but she hasn't had much experience with biting food off to eat it. She really wasn't sure what to do.

At first Joel helped her hold it.

That wasn't effective enough evidently.

It was easier to pull pieces off.

Until there wasn't much left on the rind.

This girl loves watermelon!

Bowling

Joel took the day off yesterday and wanted to take the family out to do something. But, Mardi wasn't feeling well and the baby was still out of sorts from having gotten her vaccinations. So we went today instead. And we got them up at 8:00 am to go.

Joce had spent the night so we took her with us.

For the first game, Anarya watched intently, clapped and cheered when we did and was a very good baby. (Not so much for the second game.)


In her second game, Shinara got a strike. And Keddi got close at least twice!

Anarya's First Birthday

Joel is out of town today, so we celebrated Anarya's 1st birthday a day early. Before cleaning her up from dinner, we started the evening with cake. The cake wasn't a cake but little bundt cakes instead. So, the writing was a little difficult to do. Joel stuck one candle in the cake with the first part of her name on it. She was very excited by the light of the candle!

Now, this baby hasn't had any sweets. (Unless people, her father, has sneeked it to her.) So, I thought her reaction to having her first taste of cake would be... bigger. Her reaction just seemed to be to eat it as quickly as possible, before it was taken from her.

Veggie Tales movie, balls, a stuffed dog and cars. What more could a 1yr. old want? More cake!

Pioneer Day Celebration

This year Joel was asked to be in charge of the float entry. The Bishop saw this idea online and has been wanting to do it for a couple of years now. So, Joel was asked to come up with the choreography for the Silverado Elders Quorum/ High Priest Group Drill Team. He chose "Eye of the Tiger" for their routine.

Charlie's Angels got nothin on these guys! (Except maybe Bill Spelts. Looks like he's done.)

Silverado Ward Rockettes

All along the parade route we heard cheers after the men had performed. I am grateful for the support they gave Joel by agreeing to do this. It was very difficult on some of them.

Harry Potter 7 part 2

I am so grateful to Jenny who introduced me to Harry Potter and told me that she loved the books. When the 1st movie came out she was excited to see it and I had always thought it was geared toward children. I expressed this view and she told me a bit about the books. (There were 3 and the 4th was due to come out soon.) She said that if I like this genre, she was sure I would like this series. I devoured the 3 books she lent me and had a to wait until she and her husband read the 4th before I could borrow it. I started going to the movies which are done fabulously well and I started buying my own books. We read them to the older girls and are in the process of reading them to the little girls. The older girls have read them on their own, (Mardi has read them several times each.) So, since we were all out for the summer and despite the fact that I was doing Shinara's birthday party that day, the older girls and I went to the midnight showing of the last movie with some friends. Jocelyn Cole, Abbey & Renee Brewer and Melanie, Hannah & Gabby. The Spendloves had some other friends and so did Abbey. We sat for two hours together before the movie began and it was as fun to chat for a while. I am too old for midnight movies and 3:00 am bedtimes, but enjoyed it!

Shinara's 8th birthday party

Shinara wanted to watch a movie outside for her birthday. Our Bishop has a pool and a blank wall and invited her to have her party at his house. So we hosted a "Dive in Movie." Here is the cake. She got a church bag, books and a baseball mitt from Joel and me. Bakugan's from Radley Carter, $10 from Olivia & EJ Hill, a homemade cell phone and silly bands from Keddi and a Monopoly game from Abby Jackson.

The kids were most interested in playing in the pool. They kept themselves busy with two blowup chairs, torpedos and the rubber duckies we had bought.

20 minutes before parents were to arrive, I had the kids get out and watch the movies so that they could dry off a bit. (Cars)

This is Shinara's friend Radley. She met him in preschool when she was 4. She hasn't seen him in several years, but I have his mom's email and sent her an invitation. Luckily he was able to come. She was so excited and the two of them were thick as thieves immediately.

The Patio Room

Here's the finished product!

Where's the baby?

There she is!!

4th of July shirts

This is the last of Anarya's"1st" outfits. We do celebrate Pioneer day here in Vegas, but won't be making or getting a shirt for it. I suppose I could put a bonnet on her.... I think this will be it. :) Baby girl will be a year old by the end of the month.

Tersa got quite creative with her shirt and it turned out looking very good!

Those little sticks of fire at the bottom

of Shinara's shirt are sparklers and in between them it says "crack". I asked what the crack was for and she said it was the poppers we always do. So cute.

Mardi couldn't find the shirt of hers that she was going to decorate so Tersa kindly let her have one of hers.

Keddi had tons of things in her drawing that she wanted on her shirt. But I needed paint for the baby's shirt so I edited. Her drawing was great and she transferred her ideas to her shirt well. But though "fourth" was spelled right on the paper, it didn't get onto the shirt correctly.

Look who's crawling!

Today was the first time that the baby crawled up on her knees. It's slow going so she usually resorts to scooting again, but it's a start!

(Love the mohawk?)

Rain

We got a downpour today. We love it and the girls like to play in it. But today is the Sabbath so they are under the gazebo. Anarya hasn't ever been out in it. She enjoyed watching from the covered porch.