Monday Night = Family Night

It's FHE night!

For all you non-mormon bloggers out there this is our Family Home Evening night. One day a week (usually monday) set aside for families to be at home spending time together without interruption from phones, computers, sports, etc. This is what we did for our family night:

We sang "I am a child of God", talked about how we are all His children, and then had a s'more party! If you can't have a s'more party in your backyard around a campfire, why live in the country? Right?
Ava loves the marshmallows and the roasting part, but never really eats more than a bite or two of the actual s'more.

Sadie was more than happy to eat Ava's leftovers. And they were both happy to give their s'mores to the dog.

Happy Family Night!

Giveaway

One of my favorite Seamstresses is having a giveaway on her blog. Check it out and leave a comment to enter here: modernmyrtle.blogspot.com

Girls & Dolls

It never ceases to amaze me how naturally girls come by the "mothering instinct." Ava is no expection to that rule. From the first doll she ever got (thanks Sally) she has loved and nurtured her dolls just like a mom would. We have TONS!
Anyway, we've also had a lot of pregnancies and babies in our family and among our friends. There have been a lot of times where I've said to Ava "Remember how "such and such" had a baby in her tummy? Well now the baby is out."
So the other day Ava hikes up her stretch pants and says to me "Mom, I have a baby in my tummy!" Of course I respond with the appropriate "you do!" And then she reaches in her pants, pulls her hand out and says "Here's my baby!" Oh, if only it were that easy! She then preceeded to hand me her the baby ever so carefully telling me "she's so tiny". I of course had to ask if the baby had a name. And she did. "Charlie" she says to me. (The name of her second newest cousin.) I love how these kids think and play and use their imaginations. Someday when Ava is old enough to understand the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I hope she responds exactly like I always did: "A mommy."

PJ's and Hair

I gave Sadie a haircut yesterday. She was getting to an awkward length and I thought a little bob might be cute. Turns out I was right.

With the guidance of my sister Sally I was even able to fix her horrible bang problem.....at least I kind of fixed it. They are better than they were. Before they were straight across and now they kind of angle down to blend in with her hair.

And just for fun here's a picture of Ava's crazy long hair. And she's had a few cuts along the way.

And this is how much shorter it looks dry because of the natural curl. So cute! I wish it was my hair.

This is before the bang fix so you can kind of see how her bangs cut straight across her head. And just as a side note, because I think their jammies are so cute, I just want to say that The Children's Place has the cutest one piece PJ's for kids. My girls have several pairs each and I highly recommend them.

Baby Ezra & More

For those of you who know my brother Keith, he and his wife Natalie just had their baby a few days ago. To see pictures of baby Ezra (named after my dad) click on KEITH'S BLOG. He's had a few health issues but he's recovering well and should be going home at the end of the week.

And just for fun here are som cute pictures of the girls playing on the trampoline. Sadie can't jump yet but she is finally good enough at walking to run around on it with Ava and they have a blast.

Island Park, ID

A few weeks ago we took a Shideler Family Vacation in Island Park. Several of Chris's brothers and his sister were there along with his parents. It was a week long vacation and I'm happy to say that as fas as I know, no one wanted to kill anyone by the end! We stayed in a a really great place right on a reservoir with our own private boat dock. Here's a few pictures from the vacation. The boat was borrowed and not fully functioning but we still got in a few fun rides for some of the kids.

There were a few rafts there as well. I took Ava out with me in one and was lucky to make it back to the dock. I am NOT good at rowing!

Chris behind the boat. Unfortunately it didn't go fast enough to be too crazy, but the few who rode on the tube still had fun.

Because the boat wouldn't go fast, Chris tried standing up to make it more exciting.

Ava and I after I finally made it back to shore. Funny story: about two minutes after this picture was taken as I was getting out of the raft, it started drifting away without me knowing and when I stepped out I stepped into the lake instead of the dock.....that was fun. :)

Sadie playing on the shore. She didn't have a life jacket so I didn't ever take her on the lake. She had plenty of fun playing in the dirt and rocks.

We went on a four wheeler ride one day with a big group of us. We drove to the top of a mtn called Sawtelle (something like that).

This is most of the group.

Halfway up the mountain it stated to get cold and windy. Ava got so cold that Chris took his shirt off and gave it to Ava so she wouldn't freeze. Also, check out my hair! That's how windy it was.

We took one day to go to Yellowstone and of course the main event was Old Faithful.

I just like this picture of me and my sweetie. We were waiting for the geyser to go off.

And there it is. Lasted about a minute (more or less) and was done.

The day before we left we got a chance to visit with our friends the Roberts. We see them about once a year but it's always fun.

And this is how the trip ended. Pooped girls and a LONG ride home!

The End.

Camping 2010

I've always liked camping and wish we went more but for some reason the only time we ever actually make it out is for our annual camping trip with my brother Keith and his wife Natalie. So here it is, a mess of pictures from our 5th annual Morgan/Shideler camping trip.

It started out like this: Happy kids on the drive to the camp site.....for the most part. Very little crying. Thank you portable DVD players and Dora!

We got there on Friday and after discovering that all 4 campgrounds in the area were full we ended up camping in the forest. Very peaceful and secluded, but on the downside there's no water or bathrooms. :(

On Saturday we started the day with a Hike up to see a nearby waterfall. It was named for a lady who hiked up the area , fell, survived the fall but froze to death before help came. Depressing! Ava was very enthusiastic about the "stairs" and surprisingly walked almost the entire way herself....VERY unusual for her.

There was a creek on the way up so we let the girls play a bit. The water was too cold to play for more than a minute though.

Just a cute picture of Sadie on the trail.

And of course, a picture of the waterfall.

Next we went to a nearby ghost town called St. Elmo. There wasn't a whole lot to look at but they are still kind of fun to see.

The best part for Ava was the bridge in town. We spent most of our time here.

Ava and Mom posing by the creek.

Chris helping Sadie play in the creek below the bridge.

Ava's new favorite past time.....throwing rocks off the bridge into the creek.

Later in the afternoon we hit up the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Pool. It was fun, until I slid down the stairs, dropped Sadie completely into the water, bruised up my forearm, tailbone and toes!

Ava was a little cold after she got out of the water so we put her in a cocoon to warm her up!

Okay, I take it back. THIS is Ava's new favorite past time! She found a dirt pile near our campsite and it occupied her for hours! She got so dirty. But hey, what is camping for if not to get dirty!

I have no idea what she was trying to do here but it sort of reminds me of an animal digging them self a hole, if you know what I mean.

Sunday morning when we were getting ready to go, Ava still wanted to play in the dirt so we put her dirty clothes back on and let her have a go of it again.

It's a good thing we were headed home because a bath was definitely needed!!

Saturday night roasting marshmallows.

It's a good thing I put this picture in or you might not have believed that this was a camping trip with anyone else.

I think she likes it.

We ended the camping trip by stopping on our way home at a River right by the road so that Chris could do some fly fishing. I think he was down there for less than a minute before he came up to the truck to show off his catch. He made several more after so I guess it was a good place to stop.

Good times! Looking forward to next years trip!