Reading

We do a lot of reading at our house these days. Josh is always reading some sort of chapter book to the girls, Kali does a lot of reading on her own, and I try to read to the girls most days too. As you can see Ashlyn even likes to be in on the fun. We have also filled the chair pockets in the van with the dollar books for the girls to read while in the car and the girls seem to love it. Ashlyn's favorite book in the car is called Louder Lilly. She has practically torn it to shreds and even eaten a few chunks out of it. Thank goodness it didn't cost a lot.

Pictures

My talented sister-in-law took pictures of my girls for me and I was so impressed with how they turned out. Here are a few of my favorites.

Kali

Sadie

Ashlyn

The Girls

Sadie's Birthday

Our little Sadie is now four years old. She was so excited to turn four and is already counting down the days until she turns five. We had to laugh on her birthday because we told her that she got to choose what we ate and did that day and she took that advice very seriously. When Kali told us that she wanted to play in the sandbox that morning, Sadie said, "No, remember, I get to choose what we do today." We then had to explain that she could choose the activities that we did as a family when there was a choice to be made. But she still didn't quite understand, and all day long we were reminded that everything was her choice.

Family came over to celebrate with cake and ice cream. She chose a castle cake but didn't eat hardly any of it. She preferred the candy.

Favorites

Food.........................Pizza

Toy.........................anything little

Game.........................Freeze Tag, Colored Eggs, Candy Land

Movie.........................any Barbie movie

Float Preview

All of the floats that were going to be in the parade on the 24th were on display at the South Towne Expo Center for a couple of days this week. I guess they do it every year but I never knew it because my stake hasn't ever had a float in the parade until now. It was so much fun. We got to go and see all the floats up close, learn why they chose their specific theme and even see the progression of the float-making process through pictures and posters. It was even fun for the kids because some of the floats had activities such as face painting, free candy, balloon making, etc. to participate in.

We also got to vote for our favorite float and my stake won the people's choice award. I think we're going to have to make a tradition out of going to the float preview.

Monroe Mountain

This weekend was our annual Bohman family camping trip down on Monroe Mountain. The girls have been looking forward to it for weeks. The only downer was that it did a lot of raining the first afternoon into the evening. But we weathered the storm and had a ton of fun anyway.

Some of the girls favorite activities while there included swinging in the hammock, playing with my cousin Marisa, and picking flowers. I wish I had taken a picture of all the bouquets I was given. I don't think I've ever been given that many flowers in my entire life. Ashlyn enjoyed picking the dandelion seed heads more than the flowers. She ended up with buckets full.

The big wiffle ball game the first evening was a big hit too. Everyone that wasn't holding a baby or watching a toddler seemed to be participating and that's quite the group when talking about my family.

And of course there were the ATVs. Ashlyn even got to take part in that fun with her cousin Blake and his battery powered toddler one. It quickly became her favorite activity. Kali and Sadie talked Josh into given them a couple of rides on Brett's ATV and I took it for a spin too. I don't think I've been on an ATV or motorcycle for years. It took me killing it a few times to remember what I was doing and even then I refused to give the girls a ride for lack of trust in my own abilities.

We had a great time as always and can't wait to stay a little longer next year when Josh will no longer have school to work around.

Swim Lessons

Swim lessons have begun and the girls were so excited they could hardly stand it. This is Sadie's first time. I was a little nervous for her because she won't put her head under the water or jump in from the side of the pool with us, and I knew she'd be required to do that in her class. But she did everything her teacher asked her to and was smiling the entire time. She even complained that the lesson was too short even though it was 40 minutes long.

Kali is in Level 2 now and still swims like a fish. Thankfully, I feel like this class will finally teach her something. Her teacher seems awesome.

Stake Float

I mentioned before that our stake was going to have a float in the Days of '47 parade. Our float is entitled Pressing Forward: Still Singing as we Go. It's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the organ. But the choir is made up of animals. It's such a cute idea. Well our stake decided to enter it into the West Jordan and Murray 4th of July parades. That meant it was crunch time and they were begging for help. I managed to spend a few days working on it and had so much fun. I got to glitter a zebra, parts of the organ and this beautiful hippo. She's a soloist on the front of the float (you can't see her in the picture below because she's on the other side).

For those of you that are planning on attending or watching the parade on the 24th, make sure you watch for this float. We're the Park Stake.

4th of July Celebrations

We had such an enjoyable Independence Day this year. We started off bright and early enjoying a dutch oven breakfast at our church pavilion. Our ward does this every year, but this year was extra nice. They always recognize those that are veterans and actively serving our country as well as those in the police force and firefighters. This year they had a special brass ensemble that played some beautiful patriotic music. I think it was my favorite part.

Then we went to the West Jordan parade. This was our first time attending and I rather enjoyed myself. The girls loved that people were throwing taffy out to the crowds and that someone even handed them little flags to wave. I thought the parade was the perfect length. The girls would have been fine if it had about ten entries shorter. After the parade was over and we were waiting to get our car out of the parking lot we parked in, we pulled out a blanket, ate lunch, and Josh read the girls a couple chapters of Treasure Island.

To finish off the day we had Grandma and Grandpa Parry and Chris and Katie's family over for a barbecue and fireworks. Our fireworks didn't turn out to be that amazing but so many of our neighbors had the newly "legalized" fireworks that we had quite a good show just from our front yard. Ashlyn learned the word "Wow" and repeated it all during the fireworks. All in all, the food was yummy, we had great conversation, and we were just able to relax. It was nice.