Ice Fishing and Sledding

We haven't had very much snow this year, it's only snowed a couple of times and only stuck twice. We did go up to the mountains to go ice fishing 1 time this year. There is a little bit more snow in the mountains but not much.

Ice fishing was a bust, it was really cold and the fish were not biting. Sydnie stuck with it the whole time though holding her pole and waiting for a bite:

The older girls gave up early and decided to go sledding with the ice fishing sled instead:

One of the two times the snow stuck this year I took Sydnie and her friend Tia up to our neighborhood hill and let them go sledding. I also took some stock photos :) They were really brave and dared to go down the hill all by themselves.

Merry Christmas 2011

Our Christmas started out with the ward Christmas party. The girls always enjoy sitting on Santas lap. Sydnie said she would not cry this year, and she didn't but she did look a bit nervous the whole time.

Sydnie:

Brianne:

Kaylee:

One Briannes Birthday we were also in Idaho for Christmas Parties. After Brianne opened her presents the rest of the cousins got to open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins. Grandpa Thornton made some really fun handmade wooden gifts again this year. Brianne got a sewing machine and Sydnie got a mixer.

Christmas eve we were back home and ready for Santa to come. We always let the girls open their p.j.'s they get from Santa the night before. We also watch the church Christmas video and read the Christmas story from the Bible.

The girls all spent the night downstairs, here they are coming up to see what Santa brought them:

Sydnie opening up her stocking, here gifts this year were a singing Rapunzel doll, a princess scooter, a walking puppy and a rapunzel dress.

We played a little trick on the girls they had only asked for one scooter to share, they were excited to get it and posed while I took their picture.

Boy were they surprised when they went into the kitchen and found another scooter waiting for them. Santa brought them each a scooter this year!

Brianne took off full speed on her scooter, without even any instuction on how to stop. We were all a bit worried as she came down the hill. But she managed to stop.

Brianne is usually quite timid with these kind of things but she just took off without even a bit of timidness. If anything I had to tell her to slow down.

Kaylee was a pro in a matter of minutes.

And Sydnie had fun riding her new princess scooter, but was begging for a ride on the moterized scooter any chance she got:

Family Photos 2011

We finally got out and did some new family photos. We waited until the last part of October so I was worried the weather was going to be bad. But we have had such a mild year the weather was perfect. I went with my friend Tineka and her family, she took photos of my family and I took photos of hers. They all turned out great.

Sydnie age 4 2011

Brianne age 7 2011

Kaylee age 10 2011

Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween my girls had a hard time deciding what to be, all except for Sydnie. She knew she wanted to be Rapunzel months in advance. She has this purple play dress she wears just about everyday anyway. So really all she needed was a wig and a crown. My girls are growing up they all wanted to go trick or treating alone with their friends this year, I barely had time to snap a few photos of them in their costumes before they rushed out the door.

Sydnie was the only one that went trick or treating with me this year. She and her little friend tia went with me to quite a few houses. It was so warm this year that they were able to go to quite a few houses. Here is Sydnie in her Rapunzel outfit.

Brianne just didn't know what to be this year. It took a little convincing but I finally talked her into being a baby like Kaylee was a few years ago. She looked super cute and I was happy because it was an easy inexpensive costume:

Kaylee's first idea was to be the Queen of Hearts from Alice and Wonderland, I just couldn't figure out how to make a costume, well I probably could have but it would have taken a lot of work and money. So I talked her into being Alice instead. She made a really cute Alice:

And we can't forget about Lu Lu. The girls made her tu tu and I made her witches hat, the shirt was furnished by Build a Bear:

The school hold an annual Halloween parade so the parents can come and see the kids costumes. Here is Brianne with an embarrassed look on her face as usual:

And Kaylee as Alice:

Sydnie wasn't in the parade but insisted on putting on her costume for it anyway:

Shaun carved a few masterpieces this year as usual. This one is Chief Butternut Squash:

And here is "The Big Meanie"

A few weeks before Halloween we went to Idaho to visit family we had a fun Halloween party at Grandma Thorntons house. Here is Hayden, Kaylee, Hannah and Sydnie showing off the cake pop eyes they made. Poor Brianne was so sick that she just laid on the couch the whole time and didn't even feel good enough to carve pumpkins.

Kaylee scooping the guts out of her pumpkin:

Sydnie getting her hands a little messy:

The whole crew and their pumpkins lined up ready for pictures:

Kaylee Joined the Swim Team

Sept 2011

Kaylee has always been a good little swimmer but we were not sure if we were ready to commit to a swim team. I signed her up for the last class they offer for swim lessons and she passed with flying colors and was recommended by her teacher to try the swim team. I talked to the coaches and had her try out and we decided that it was time to give it a try. She has loved it, she doesn't even mind having to go to practice 3 times a week and even goes before or stays after some days just for fun. Her coaches say she has excellent form and her coach even pulled me aside one day and told me that her freestyle stroke was one of the best she has seen. She still needs to work on speed, but that will come after she builds up endurance and perfects her dives and flip turns. Recently she just got made captain of her team, she gets to lead the class in warm-ups and in their cheers at swim meets.

Kaylee at practice doing warm-ups with the kick board:

Kaylee at her very first swim meet, here she is taking the platform:

Take your mark:

Go! She did pretty well for her first meet, she was so nervous that she would get disqualified but she did just fine.

Sydnies first Swim Lessons

While Kaylee is at her swim meet practice Sydnie and Brianne get to take swim lessons. This was Sydnies first ever swim lesson. We lucked out because most of her class didn't show up the whole week and so pretty much had private lessons the whole time. She did really well and wasn't afraid of anything. She even advanced to the next class on her first try. She is already able to swim quite far underwater using arm movement. I think she is going to be our next little swimmer of the family.

Here she is cheesing it up for the camera:

Working on her front float:

And her back float:

Showing me how she can dip her head underwater, she is just coming up for air. She must have showed me about 20 times hoping I would take her picture:

This little girl isn't afraid of anything, even Kaylee was afraid to stick her head all the way in the water like this at her age.

Happy Birthday Sydnie!!!

Well as usual I am behind on my posts. But this very long post will officially catch me up. Starting with most recent first. My little Sydnie turned 4! I can't believe my little baby is already 4.

Sydnie has been such a fun little girl that I get to call mine. She is so loving and full of smiles and laughter. Even when she gets in trouble, which she does her fair share of the time, she tries to soften things by laughing or smiling, truth is sometimes it works, certainly better than crying and throwing a fit would. She is so generous with her hugs and compliments. Of course I have to laugh when she tells me I look beautiful when I am dressed up in one of my crazy outfits for contest photos, but I'll take it anyway. When I brought the balloons home for her birthday party she ran up to me and said "Thanks Mom! You are the BEST" then she grabs my hand and and yanks on it and says "Mom, I need to give you a hug" It's times like that I wonder where this little girl comes from.

Some fun things about Sydnie at 4 years old is: She loves penguins, she has penguin stuffed animals penguin books, penguin figures, penguin movies and even has a special penguin walk she does. She wants to be a penguin for Halloween but I am trying to talk her out of it because I already bought a Rapunzel outfit. She also loves Rapunzel but not quite as much as penguins so we will see if I can change her mind. Sydnie also loves the color orange, she always has since the time she was little, she even had a special name for the color, wish I could remember it, I think I wrote it down somewhere but I can't find it. Anyway she loves anything orange and if she had her way she would wear the color orange everyday.

We had a family birthday party and went to Artic Circle to celebrate and play on the toys. When we got home we opened presents and she blew the candles out on her Penguin birthday cake.

Sydnie opening her presents

Yay! a Rapunzel doll

And a cute little dog from Grandma:

A few days earlier we had a friends birthday party for her. She invited 3 of her cute friends and we went to a place called Kangaroo Zoo. They have a bunch of blow up slides and bounce houses the girls had a great time running around for an hour.

When we got home we had pizza and blew out the candles on a donut cake made with Orange donuts.


Sydnie with her cute friends and two sisters


Josh and Jenny come to visit

We had a surprise visit from Shaun's brother Josh and his family. And as always we had a great time with them. We drove to Strawberry reservoir to take them cray fishing. The trout were biting that afternoon, each of the girls had a chance to reel one in.

The girls checking out their catch:

Sydnies turn to reel one in:

Thanksgiving Point

We have had some really pleasant weekend and have taken advantage of them by doing some fun things with the girls. One weekend we went to Thanksgiving points petting zoo.

Riding the horse drawn wagon:

Feeding the goats:

And of course riding the horses, here is Kaylee she chose the largest horse:

And Brianne, she might have chosen this one because his bridal matches her shirt:

And Sydnie chose the littlest horse and had a great time!

State Fair

The weekend before that we went to Utah's state fair. The girls had fun riding a ride and looking at the animals. One of the highlights was a mother pig that had just had babies. There is nothing cuter than a baby pig, and nothing uglier than a mother pig:

The girls at the fair they each got to chose one ride Sydnie chose the merry go round.