4th of July Festivities

One of our Day family traditions is going to the parade in Provo for the 4th. Kenny LOVES parades and especially the flyover at the beginning of the parade. My girls love the marching bands (to dance to, of course) and the waving girls (Royalty floats). I just love having my family together. This year Grandma and Grandpa came down with our niece, Jessi, to watch the parade and that was a nice addition. It was a great parade and we found a fabulous spot and stayed pretty cool. We were even interviewed this year by Channel 4 and made it onto their news story about the 4th so that was an extra treat.

After the parade we went to see "How to Train your Dragon"--cute movie. Then that night we let off fireworks. It was a great day with our family.

The family picture at the parade

Emily, Ashley, and cousin, Jessi

Ashley with Grandma

Emily enjoying our fireworks

I love this picture, because we told Ashley to smile and this is her typical self, not wanting to do what she's told. At least Daddy looks happy! :)

Stadium of Fire

When it was announced that Carrie Underwood was going to be at the Stadium of Fire I made Kenny let me buy tickets. I really like her. I was also excited for a night out, just the two of us. We arrived and were a little disappointed to see so many acts on the list before Carrie came out, but each act only did 2 numbers so it went by fast. Kenny's favorite part of the night was the flyover of all the F-16s at the beginning. Right before the flyover everyone started cheering so we looked up, but the F-16s weren't there so we looked at the big screen and Carrie Underwood had come out to sing the national anthem; that was a nice surprise. When she came out to perform her songs she did an excellent job and performed for over an hour. It was over too soon though! Then the fireworks started and everything was going great until a firework went off into a crowd of people and a man started on fire. It was a sobering way to end the night, but overall it was a great concert and a great night!

Excited for the event to start!

Beautiful sunset view from the stadium

Carrie performing

Carrie performing her hit, "Undo it"

My Little Entrepreneur

Last week Emily came up to me and asked if she could do a lemonade stand. Being the protective mother that I am, I said no. So Emily went to her dad and asked. :) He said yes. He then proceeds to not only make lemonade, but put candy and otter pops available to sell too. Confession time: I kinda hoped that Emily wouldn't sell much so she wouldn't want to do it again. (Awful, I know!!) But, she did awesome! It was slow for the first few minutes and she made a jingle to say to get people there. (That's the video below) Then the neighborhood kids starting showing up and bought a whole bunch. We ran out of lemonade, candy, and we only had 1 otter pop left. She was very excited and made $3.57. Not bad for being out there only a 1/2 hour.

This also let us teach her again about tithing and she paid her 10% of her tooth fairy money and her lemonade stand money for tithing the next day at church. She was very excited to pay tithing for the first time and fill out the slip. Overall it was a very fun experience and protective mom or not, I'd let her do it again.

My Cutie Pie posing at her lemonade table

Lemonade, Lemonade!

Ashley's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Ashley's Birthday the next Sunday, June 27th because everyone was in town. We had our family over for dinner and then sang to her, had cake and ice cream and opened up presents. It's always wonderful to have the family over for dinner and a celebration. Love you, Ashley!!

Smiling by her cake

All her cousins that were there

Lovin' the purse that her cousin, Hailey, gave her

Showing off her new movie

Singing happy birthday to Ash and having her blow out the candles

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

On June 20th our little Ashley turned 3. She is such a joy to have in our house and is also a huge trial. She is so attached to me and loves to snuggle and just be close--which I love! But she is also an antagonizer; loves to disobey, push, hit, sass, tease, etc. She is definitely keeping me busy this summer! I love her so much! She has grown so much this past year. She just got potty trained and is doing well (on most days, anyway). She knows A for Ashley, E for Emily, and W for some odd reason and is learning more. She loves to sing and dance and LOVES all things princess just like her sister.

On her birthday, we had a small celebration with just our family. We made a cake for Father's Day/her birthday and sang to her. We held her birthday party for her the next week. That'll be my next post. I love you, Ash!! Happy Birthday!

How could you not love that smile! :-)

Opening one of her presents

Children's Parade and Carnival

Every year during Strawberry Days in PG they have a children's parade. This year it happened to be on one of the many June days that were cold, rainy and windy. Emily's friend and her family wanted to go and so I relunctantly went with them. Boy, was it cold!! We then had to wait and wait and wait for our turn to start the parade. By then the other family gave up and went home; only Emily's friend stayed and walked it with us. The reason why I stuck it out is at the end of the parade they give each child a ticket to the carnival. Emily and Ashley LOVE the carnival (what kid doesn't) and had a blast like always. Emily even wanted to go on one of the big kid rides and Kenny was brave enough to go with her and managed not to get sick, which was a big plus! Gotta love Strawberry Days!

Waiting for the parade to start--I love this picture because if you look at Ashley you'll see how mad at me she was for moving the shade visor to take a picture. I was letting in the wind!! :) Emily was at least having a good attitude and posing.

Emily and her friend Naomi; Naomi has her mom's coat on and Em has Ashley's coat on (with flood sleeves and all). It kept them warm though.

Riding the 4x4 trucks at the carnival

The little kid train

The big kid ride--she loved it by the way!!

Emily and Kenny on the ride; it's not the greatest recording because I was holding Ashley and she wanted to see the video too but there are a few seconds here and there that are good.

Swimming Lessons

We put Em in swimming lessons again this summer. Her teacher last year said she did great, but not great enough for the next level (it's in deeper water), so we put her in level 1 again. This time she soared!! She did so great. Sometimes the teacher even let go as she was floating and swimming. She had a fantastic time and, of course, a highlight of her lessons is going down the water slide on the last day. She now gets to move on to level 2. Way to go, Emily!

Waiting with her class to go down the water slide--isn't she beautiful! :)

LOVIN' the waterslide!!

Playing the alligator game with her class