Cyrena's 1st grade Program

Cyrena had her first grade program and it was all about Arizona.  They sang songs about the desert and native animals/plants.  She was in the coyote group and LOVED all the songs they sang.  Natalie was super excited the entire program because Cyrena had been singing her all the songs every night before they went to sleep.  I think we all had the songs stuck in our heads the next day!

 Cyrena with her best friend Robyn

She memorized her speaking part quickly and delivered it well!  And lucky her, Grandma and Grandpa Lemmert were in town and got to see her perform!

Day of Love 2013

The week of Valentine's Day we have a few traditions.  We make love note mailboxes, play Don't Eat Cupid, and have a fancy dinner

Our mailboxes of love.  My favorite tradition.  I put the filled out notes all around after they'd been read so we could see the love grow!

Anna hiding while we choose 'cupid'

She shoved the m&m's in as quickly as she could before we could yell "don't eat cupid!"

 Our 'fancy dinner'  We always have steak, baked potatoes, salad, etc.  And usually a nice dessert.  This year we opted for Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for David and I and cheap chocolates for the girls! hehe.

 Progression of a first time caramel eater...

 I could hardly take a picture at this point I was laughing so hard

 A satisfied valentine

Fruit of the harvest

 We had a large grapefruit harvest this year.  Too bad David's really the only one that likes grapefruit. :)  

 He made some into juice and the girls indulged him and drank some.  I did not partake.

Luckily we've got other friends that have different citrus trees that shared with us.  Tangelo juice and fresh-squeezed lemonade have been a tasty treat!

I just love this picture of our family scripture time.  Anna gets really 'involved' and hands out the books and love to open her own and pretend to follow along.  This lasts about 30 seconds and then she's a terror but it's cute for the moment.

New Year's in Utah

We headed up to Utah to celebrate New Year's.  It was a great time as always! 

Traditional animal pancakes by Uncle Lynn!

Sledding, sledding and more sledding!  We braved the FREEZING weather and went sledding.  So much fun.

The frozen tundra...she was fun to watch

A brother sandwich

And Natalie on top

2 minutes after sledding...

A visit with Grandmother Gerstner.  We love spending time with her. 

We spent a morning in Provo reminiscing our college/courtship days and took the kids bowling at BYU.  Natalie was super supportive of each of us and our greatest cheerleader. Anna didn't stop snacking the entire time and Cyrena took the game very seriously.

We also played games, watched movies, and played with cousins as much as possible!

Sister poses

One of my favorite things is watching my girls be SISTERS.  I didn't grow up with a sister close in age-only brothers.  I loved and admired my brothers but we didn't always get along and I certainly wouldn't have been allowed to just lay on them while we watched Curious George or listened to music.  I would have been thrown off/punched/kicked immediately.  There's plenty of throwing off/punching/kicking that goes on with my girls but for the most part they genuinely love spending time together and are very affectionate.  

This is a common pose I find Anna in.  She loves to just go and lay on her sisters.  She also loves to climb on all of our backs for horsey rides during family prayer. 

Watching Curious George

Listening to a Pandora Disney station

Christmas 2012

    Christmas was super fun of course.  It was just our little family and we had a lot of fun together.  Of course it was a little hard to do anything too structured with a crazy 2 year old. On Christmas Eve

  we had a yummy dinner, ice cream sundaes for dessert, piano playing and carol singing, scripture reading, dancing, and lots more! 

Here is the Santa setup Christmas morning.  Left to right: Anna, Natalie, and Cyrena

Waiting at the top of the stairs....I made them each a pair of pajama bottoms for Christmas.  They weren't perfect but they were sure cute!

Loving our new dress-ups!

They really wanted 'wedding clothes' since they are always pretending to get married.

 

This girl was content with just her stocking.  Fishies and a necklace; she was good to go!

We surprised Cyrena with an ipod touch (we found it used for really cheap).  She was so excited!

She also got her own set of golf clubs so she could take some lessons from David.  He's a good multi-tasker, eh?

Natalie's favorite gift was a hair-styling set.  We've all had our hair done several times.

It was such a fun day hanging out together, playing.  We headed over to the Blounts (our surrogate family) for dinner that night.

Cyrena is 7

Cyrena is now a 7 year old.  I've probably been treating her as such for the past year or so.  My expectations are always so high for her--I need to back off! :)  Her birthday was the last day of school before break so they had a party and a half day. She wasn't that excited about her gifts at first.  In fact when she opened up a dress and a sweater she about threw a toddler worthy FIT.  Needless to say we had a big talk about gratitude.  But the birthday was saved by the Nerf Hoop with a laser ball and headgear.  It was a hit.  Oh, that and a book of magic tricks.  

That night we surprised her with a night out with just mom and dad--going to dinner and a concert.  The concert was The Piano Guys who she LOVES listening to and watching their you tube videos!!  It was a great night and she was very happy with her birthday.

Cyrena:  
-She is such a helpful little girl.  I know that if I put her in charge of something it will get done.  That doesn't mean she always has a good attitude about it but for the most part she is a happy helper.
-Cyrena loves loves loves school. 
-Cyrena can always make us laugh with her black & white logic and big explanations about how things work or why we should do something a certain way.
-She insists on prefers wearing a ponytail, jeans and sneakers everyday.
-Cyrena sleeps with socks on and the covers up to her chin.  She refuses to wear a nightgown.
-Cyrena is the dessert queen!  It is a struggle to get her to eat fruit but she will eat veggies.  Her favorite things to eat are: pot roast, potatoes, cereal, anything chocolate, anything Mexican, broccoli, and ice cream!
-Cyrena loves trying different sports and is doing so well with her piano lessons
-Cyrena is a great big sister and is always making up games and imaginative situations for her sisters.