Saya says

This morning Saya came up to her dad holding a candy fruit wedge and it was apparent that one was in her mouth. She sad to Clint, "I was going to ask you if I could have some of these, but....then....I.... Ah.....I didn't listen to myself."

Saya turns three!

Saya turned three last week!  She had an awesome day and was so happy to celebrate.  She asked for purple pancakes for breakfast (which she was thrilled with--it's amazing what happiness a little food coloring can produce), and nachos for dinner.  She didn't want dinner, she only wanted cake!

Her last night as a 2 year old!

Everyone loved watching her open presents and wanted to be right in the middle of the action.  She loved the helmet that came from Grammy and Papa, so much that I couldn't even get a picture of her holding still.  She also got some dress-ups from Grandma, and an Elsa cape and an Anna cape.  

Clint made her a swing for her big gift.  She was thrilled with it.  

Purple cake

Chadron Fur Trade Days 2014

I have to start with a little newsflash.  Clint has "retired" from running, which has been such a change from all the miles and training that he's been doing for forever the past 15+ years.  It's kind of weird for all of us.

Last weekend was our annual trip to Chadron.  We left Friday morning, and we stopped in Scottsbluff at the Riverside Discovery Center (or Scottsbluff Zoo).  It's teeny tiny, and not very expensive, but it's also not very well maintained and sort of run down.  But, it was a good way to enjoy the morning and luckily for us, it was very cool and cloudy, so it was the perfect weather for seeing the animals.

"Chani, why the long face?"

Clint and I have decided we really, really like going back to Chadron to visit.  We loved living there, it was a great place for us to live as newlyweds, and grow up a little, and grow our little family.  We really enjoyed seeing Clint's grandma.  She's a gem and my kids adore her.  She is such a good sport to let us stay with her (even though we're loud and CRAZY).

 It's fun to see everyone, but we really go back for the Colter Run.  Clint has run the Colter Run 14 times now.  It's a tradition that I don't know that he'll ever give it up.  That said, he was really on the fence about running all last week.  Without any substantial training, he was afraid that he wouldn't do well.  He'd only been beat on the course one time before (the 10K) and never lost the 5K.  It's a really hilly course, but after a lot of consideration, he decided to run the 10K.  It was his first ever "fun run" and he did great.  He took 4th over all and 1st in his age group.

 Before

After

After the 10K, we wandered downtown for the parade.  It's fun to sit at our friends car lot  and visit with people we miss from Nebraska. It's the perfect small town parade.  It never lasts more than an hour, the same Shriner Car guys come every year, they throw tons of candy, a couple of floats spray water at the crowd (mostly reunion floats), and one group hands out Otter Pops.

 Asher fell asleep on the way downtown, and slept through the fire trucks, the shriners cars.  But not through the lawnmowers (suped--Clint assures me this is the correct spelling--up for the lawn mower races earlier in the day) after being drenched by a float of reunion people.

 Chani and Saya waiting for CANDY!

Clint, Emery, and Asher, also waiting for CANDY!  Doesn't my husband pose so nicely for the camera?!

I can't resist this one last picture.  Clint and I test drove a few cars while we were at the car lot.  Emery sat the entire time in this chair reading Calvin and Hobbes.  He loved it!  We're going to have to pick up some comic books for him.

Trip to Idaho

Our good friends moved to Green Liver last summer.  We were so lucky on our way to Idaho to be able to stop and spend the night at their house.  These are the sweetest boys!  Hunter came to my preschool and Caleb was in Emery's primary class.  We miss them a lot!  I hope we get to do it again soon.  I'm bummed that Vicki and I didn't take a picture together.  I didn't think about it Thursday night, and we left pretty early Friday morning.  Next time!

We drove from Green River to Salt Lake City and took the kids to Temple Square.  They'd never been there before and it was a great experience for us all.

Clint and I had never been on top of the Conference Center before.  It was amazing.  You really couldn't tell that you were on top of a huge building.

Chani was fascinated when Clint told her that this was where he and I got engaged.  She asked all sorts of questions about it all afternoon.  So cute.

"Mom, take my picture."

Before and after our trip to the Stewart Family reunion, we got to spend some time with Clint's mom.  The kids love Grandma's toy/game closet.  They always get out fun things to play with.  Thanks Grandma!

We also did a bit of geocaching.  This one was a little tricky.  You can't tell from the picture, but Clint had to stand on the hood of our expedition to get the cache out of this tank.

On this trip we learned that Asher is an ice cream and cupcake fiend.  We loved our visit to Paisley Cakes!

A couple of videos

My kids are hams.

Emery:




Saya:

Asher turns 1!

Asher is one!  This year has gone so fast, and I'm a little heart-broken that my baby is moving into toddler-hood so quickly.  But, he's a funny little guy that makes us laugh and brings us joy every day!

Prepare for picture overload!
This pair of overalls is the same pair that Emery wore on his first birthday.  It's a different shirt (since it was November and Emery wore long sleeves with it then) but I'm loving the overalls just as much the second time around,.


Emery really wanted Asher to open this present first (Emery decorated the wrapping paper).  Asher started to, but after one rip, he took a side glance....

We had been shopping the day before, and in the pile of presents, he saw the one he wanted the most.

Any guesses?

How did you know it was a green Yoda ball?  It seriously was his favorite gift.  He didn't even want to open all the books he got (lots of board books, most of ours are trashed, and I'm a sucker for kid books).

The second most favorite gift? The green sippy cup.  Clint says green is his favorite color.
On to cake!

Since this one year old can't blow, we went with a sparkler (or sparker as my kids call them).  It was well received.
Asher knew just what to do, and dived right into that cake.  He even tried to share with mom, such a nice little guy.

One year ago

Stewart Family Reunion

We had a super fun time at the Stewart Family Reunion this year.  Cathrynn was in charge and a couple of years ago she and my parents booked the coolest place.  We went to the Albion Campus Retreat.  It was a state teaching college in the first part of the 20th century.  They closed it down in the 40's and the buildings have been sitting empty most of the years since then.  It was purchased by a family in 2007 and one building has been renovated into a great space for our big family.  We had so much space.  The building had a big kitchen with a great common room, 15 bedrooms, and a fun game room on the third floor.  Outside there were basketball courts, volleyball, horseshoe pits, a large above ground pool, and a hot tub.

If you've spent any time with the Stewart Family, you know we're all about the food, so to say we ate really well is an understatement.  My sister and I were in charge of the first meal, and we did chicken salad croissants and fruit salad. After lunch we spent most of the first day at a really fun park and swimming in the pool. My brother and sister made an amazing dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and cesaer salad.  For dessert we had root beer floats with a keg of rootbeer.  Yum!  The next morning after a delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt parfaits and this amazing cinnamon toast, and then we went to The City of Rocks.  Several people did some climbing at Bath Rock (it was scary for me to watch).  We had a fun picnic of hoagie sandwiches, chips, and s'more mix.  That afternoon we rented a water bouncy house slide thing.  Everyone loved it and had a blast (except Saya, who I forced to do it once, she hated it)!  We ate ice cream that afternoon and then sausages and burgers for dinner.  Tours of the grounds and buildings were taken that night.  They went in two groups and the first group made plans to scare the second group (in the fall the buildings that haven't been renovated are used as haunted houses).  The screams coming from the final building could be heard across the lawn. The final morning we ate waffles for breakfast and checked out of the resort.  The we drove up Pomerelle canyon and ate pulled pork and chicken sandwiches for lunch.  None of the kids wanted to leave when it was time to go.  We really loved every second of it.

We had so much fun I only took one picture (when we were leaving) of Saya crying because she was so exhausted.  I asked her to calm down and she said, "No, I want to stay crying."

Hopefully my sister will blog about it soon with pictures, then I'll plug a link in here.

Why?

Clint and Saya were driving in the car today.  From the backseat, Saya said, "Why does Elsa tend to freeze her castle?"

Chani's Ballet Recital

Chani took ballet lessons from a girl from church.  It was pretty low key, which is just what we were looking for.  She had a great time, and I learned a lot about what I want/expect from kid lessons.

Thanks, Chelsea for getting the great video!  You're the best!


I traded tuition for spring classes for the skirts.  The younger class wore white traditional tutus (they danced to Snowman in Summer) and the older class danced to Let it Go, so they needed to be Elsa looking.  It took me a while to decide what I was doing, and I struggled matching the fabric to the leotards.  It was a much bigger project than I anticipated, and in true Jill form, I was working right up until that last minute.  I was really happy with how they turned out, though.  Super cute!

I'm not very good at buns in general, but with a lot of help from my sister (thanks, Shelly) I was able to pull off a cute bun.  It only had 20 bobby pins in it.

Saya says (church edition)...

On the way to church Saya said, "I don't want to go to *snackerment meeting."

During the Sacrament, when the bread came by, Saya whispered, "I took a naked one." I assume she meant without crust.

At one point I was telling her that we were in Jesus' house. She said, "Are we watching it for him?"

*we call our main worship meeting Sacrament Meeting

An update

It seems like I do more of these updates then other posts.  However, time goes so quickly and while I keep up on Instagram almost daily, the blog just takes time I'm not giving it.  So, here's the latest.

Asher is nearly 10 months old.  I can't believe he'll be one soon.  He is a delightful baby, and everyone always comments on how much he smiles.  He has his mad moments (usually when he's tired or tired of being "loved" by his siblings) but he really is a happy guy.  He still loves the dog and his dad most (and in that order).  He likes being outside, and he's just started to crawl (like a lizard on his belly) so it's going to be a filthy summer.

Saya is in the thick of being two.  She gets into everything.  She thinks she's big enough to help herself, which causes a lot of messes and mischief.  The other day while I was making dinner and Chani was doing her homework at the kitchen table, Saya used a pair of scissors to trim her hair and also the hair on Chani's American Girl Doll horse.  It was sad for all of us.  She loves to use big words like "actually".  The other day after we had picked up the kids she was turned around in her car seat.  I asked her to buckle and she told me she was busy.  I asked what she was doing and she said, "I'm annoying Emery."

Chani is so excited for her ballet performance coming up later this month.  She's also reading everything she can get her hands on, which warms my reading heart.  She also just finished her last research project for this school year.  She had to make a map of a fairy tale story.  We went to the library together and picked out a few storybooks.  After looking through them all, she picked Little Red Riding Hood (I did dissuade her from doing Frozen because I wanted her to pick something she had to read, not watch).  It turned out really cute.  She did all the drawing herself, I only supervised.

Emery is also reading every book he can get his hands on.  If there's a book that happens to be in his path (no matter where the path leads) it's in his hands and has distracted him.  A few nights he's come up for a drink after 9 PM, because he's been up late reading.  All the second graders were given a tree to plant for Arbor Day.  He took his charge very seriously.  It's been planted in the yard, and he's checked on it about 12 times in the past 24 hours.  I doubt it will make it, but he's going to do his best at tending it.

I'm doing all the same things around here (laundry, feeding people, doing the dishes).  I'm making the tutus for Chani's ballet performance, so that's my big project this week.  I will be glad when they are finished.  Then it's on to garden season and before I know it we'll be canning.  Life doesn't slow down.

Clint is finally done with the class he was developing.  We're all so glad.  We didn't see him a lot this semester.  It looks like he'll be teaching at least one (maybe two) sections of this class online this summer.  He was also just promoted to department chair.  He'll teach one less class per semester, but it's more work for the same pay.  It's a good resume builder and the experience will be an advantage as well.

Easter 2014

We had a pretty nice Easter this year.  On Saturday morning the kids woke to their baskets and hidden eggs.  They were thrilled.  We did some morning jobs, and then our friend Blake came and dyed eggs with the kids and hung out for the afternoon.  It was a good day.  On Sunday we had church and then some friends came for dinner.  Here are the few pictures I took.

 Asher loved his bucket

 Blake and the kids dying eggs

 Saya reading Blake a story

 I made a couple of last minute bow ties.  Asher loved it!

 I made Emery's a bit too big.  I had to unpick it and make it smaller.  I guess that's what I get for 1-waiting until the last second, and 2-not using a real pattern.

 I do love the way the ruffle dresses turned out.  The girls looked super cute.

Despite the sad look, Emery didn't mind the bow tie.  He was just mad I was taking his picture.