Happy Birthday, Vienna!

 

 

 Happy 4th Birthday Vienna, September 14th! You were so excited about this #4! You are so observant of details. You frequently have an air of mischievousness about you, that only is enhanced by your crooked side smile. You are so happy and make life a fun adventure. You live in your own world constantly playing imaginary games. You love people- the more friends the better in your book. You make friends very easily and you always seem to wiggle your way right into people's hearts. At family gatherings, you are frequently found happily snuggled up on one of the adults laps, or right in the center of the kids' activities. You are great at making people laugh and you already have charisma where people want to be where you are. You don't like anything that resembles work. You love pizza and cookies and chocolate. You hate wearing shoes or socks. Your favorite colors are darkest purple, darkest blue, black and brown. You are a ham and love to have your picture taken. You love Cambry so much. You tolerate Myla as she loves to take your toys and disrupt your games. You love swimming, wearing skirts, dancing, playing princesses, swinging on swings, sucking your index finger and riding your bike. You are a bright sunshine in our family and we love you much little lady.

Just showing off your sweet skills.

You just needed to be crafting at the table. Sometimes clothes are optional.

Celebrating you at Grandma Beck's with the other September birthdays.

And here we are celebrating home

You are so excited about your loot you got this year

You wanted brownies and ice cream for your dessert, but you don't like when they touch. Here they are on 2 separate plates, just the way you like it.

Bear Lake Brawl

{This is Devin typing}

Over the summer, I trained for my first triathlon which took place at the beginning of September. My sister decided to join me on this crazy endeavor and I'm so glad that she did. We arrived before the crack of dawn and suited up. It was beautiful watching the sun rise over Bear Lake. It was also freezing! It actually felt warm in the water when I went out to swim.

We were both nervous and excited. I had no clue what swimming in open water would be like. To be honest, before I started training, I couldn't even swim a lap in a pool without resorting to the elementary backstroke. I loved learning how to actually swim and picking little nuances to make my stroke better and becoming more relaxed and comfortable in the water.

Joslyn got up early after a rough night of trying to get our girls to sleep who were so excited about their sleepover with cousins. She packed them up and came to cheer me. The girls loved their breakfast of Chocolate Milk.

Coming down the home stretch.

I wanted to put this picture so that I could remember how completely exhausted I felt at the end. This picture captures it well.

 

It really was so great having my sister with me. She did a lot to help calm my nerves.

Even my mom, dad and sister, Sara, drove all the way up from SoJo to cheer me and Noelle on.

 Joslyn made this all possible by allowing me to do runs, bike rides and swims. She encouraged me to try it when I was hesistant about trying something. I'm so grateful for her support in everything I do.

These girls are the top 3 in my book. 

Can you believe? I actually took 2nd place in my age group in my first triathlon

 

Is this what triathletes should look like?

We hung around after the race and let the kids play in the water and on the beach. By this time, it was quite warm outside.

The drive back home was gorgeous as we passed through canyons filled with changing leaves. 

Happy Birthday Myla!

Oh Myla! Happy #2 September 11. You have so much personality in such a little body! You are so independent and you are certain you'd make it just fine on your own as you are constantly running away from those that love you. You assume the world is yours for the taking and don't seek permission if you think you can do something yourself. You give top notch hugs wrapping both arms and both feet tightly around the beneficiary.  You can be our most enthusiastic cheer leader when you're feeling up to it. You love figuring out puzzles, and sliding down slides. You are just starting to allow your fear factor to sprout inside of you, thankfully. You are a great climber, hiker, and runner/sprinter. You have a fear of heights that slows you down occasionally. You love your "booboo" blanket, and want to take it everywhere with you. You like to play rough, empty out all drawers, mischievously or blatantly create chaos by disrupting your sisters' play. You love to sing I am a child of God and love to wave to anyone who will look at you. You say please and thank you without prompts. You don't like to hold hands with anyone. You love to swim and play at parks. Your reset button is being in your crib with a basket full of books. You can hold your own with your sisters and friends- you don't let anyone take your toys from you. We all love you Myla and are happy you are 2

Myla got this fantastic slide and was so excited when she came down the stairs in the morning and saw it. She didn't waste any time and spent the next hour climbing and sliding without interruption. Every time we walk to church, there is a house that has a couple of these slides in the front yard, and Myla always sprints right to them and would slide all afternoon if we'd let her. Now she can get her fill at home.. hopefully. 

What big helpers her sisters are!

That Friday afternoon we drove up to Logan to spend the weekend with the Rowe family so Devin and Noelle could do their triathalon the next day.

We all love cousin time.

Cambry, Lily and Ava helped decorate Myla's cake with a few of Myla's favorite things- Gummy Bears and skittles.

Myla was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of singers but loved getting that goodness in her belly.


After cake and ice cream, all the cousins had a pajama dance off playing just dance. We love any reason to party, but we're especially happy we got to celebrate our little Myla.

August Happenings

Each Sunday morning we got for a walk around the block. We always stop at "the sword tree" that has pods that look like 1 foot swords. We pick one for each girl and they fight imaginary bad guys and crazy cars to keep mom and dad safe the rest of the way home.

A house a street over from us burned down and this rose was growing out of the rubble. Seems poetic. I'm sure there is some great lesson or analogy for this

All ready to sleep in the bottom of the doll house. "Nite Nite"

Slip n' slid with neighbors across the street

Devin's last first day of school and Cambry's first first day of school

17 weeks pregnant, and Cambry wanted a pic of the 2 of us in our matchy matchy clothes

And all the other kids wanted to get in on the picture taking too.

I'm so grateful we all love the outdoors and love being with each other. It's so nice they have build in friends with each other. It makes my life easier.

At the end of our Sunday morning walks, we started impaling the speed limit sign with our swords. We had quite the collection.

C helping to clean up dinner

When I asked Veena why her pretty face had a big black stripe down it, she was elusive at first but finally told me she wanted to taste the tire real quick... what?!

Veena loves to pose, especially when she has a natural platform

"The duck park by our house has this incredible little jungle that is a little scary to me, but the girls were in heaven, so I tried not to think about bugs and snakes and we ended up having a great adventure.

We started the water and got busy. By the time the kids got in, it was practically a swimming pool! They had mixed feelings about it.

Cambry's ingenuity is so fun to see what she's going to come up with next.

Our best attempt at trying to document our trip to 7 peaks with lots of the Rappleye clan. Clearly, we were having too good of a time to stop and take photos. Our girls loved the lazy river. They even rode the tube on a couple big slides. It helped having older cousins around to give them courage.

After swimming, we stopped at burger supreme for dinner. Near the end, we just hear Cambry whining and look over to see this. Completely stuck!

C playing a word/picture matching domino game. She is such a sponge and loves to learn. It's exciting to be apart of it.

Just another one of Vienna's games.