Rylie's Soccer Season

So, we wanted to sign Rylie up for soccer this spring just to get her feet wet. We missed a bunch of the sign-ups and so the Eagy family from our church decided to start a little soccer league. There are about 40 kids from our church playing between the ages of 2.5-6. Craig and I were both pretty excited to get Rylie out on the field and see if she was good at it and to see if she could even kick the ball. The first Saturday was filled with tears and requests to go play on the big playground across the park, but by the end she had joined in for a game. So last Saturday we thought, "Ok now that she knows how fun it is, she will jump right in and play in the game." We were very, very wrong. The pile of leaves over the hill looked a lot more intriguing to her than the kids running around in circles, trying to kick the ball into the net. With a little coaxing, she finally joined in and did the drills perfectly. It is great to see her some what interested and it will be fun to watch her in whatever activities she gets excited about! We were very thankful to the faithful fans that came and supported her (Mimi, Boppa, and Aunt Becca), especially Great Aunt Arni who cheered for her the whole time and played with Ella!

Spring Break

Our family was very lucky this year and we had Craig home for a two week Spring Break!!! We went to the cabin, built shelves in the garage and did some spring cleaning! Ella finally got her new carseat (our fifth since we started having children) and it is covered in pink and flowers!!! Craig scowled when he saw it, but I reminded him that the other four were navy or tan to accommodate both genders. During our fun 2 weeks, we also did a lot of cleaning around the house and one of the things that needed cleaning was our plastic bag collection. We had over 200 plastic bags under our sink, so the girls thought it would be fun to throw them up in the air and then pile them up (like leaves) and jump in them. It was pretty hilarious! Don't worry environmentally concerned friends, we recycled all of the bags after our fun! Other recent events were my 29th birthday (next year is the big 30) and getting a lot of family/friend time! For my birthday I got almost a whole new wardrobe (which I have been needing), so now I don't have to switch off between my same three shirts. My other super fun gift was from my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law and it was a Sushi Starter Kit. I love sushi and I am always wanting to make it at home, so now with all my new chopsticks, bowl, etc. and the rice cooker from the used store (for 8.50), I can make up an amazing sushi roll. I plan on watching a few tutorials on the internet before attempting my first roll. Thank you to all of my friends and family that made my birthday so special!!! Lastly, I wanted to share my new challenge that I am doing once a month. I started making a list of all the little things that we want or need. Then once a month I will get $20 and take a day to travel around to my favorite used stores and buy as many things as I can. When I went over spring break I bought a rice cooker, 3 shirts for Rylie, and 2 Melissa and Doug sets for $16. Your money goes so much further when you shop around and go for "gently used" items. I can't wait for garage sale season!!!!

Ella Bella turns 1!

Written by Rylie Dayton
We had so much fun at Ella's birthday party. You are a wonderful girl that I like. I love my mommy, my daddy, my grandmas and Ella. I liked that Jack and Sam came and I love Elizabeth at her birthday party. I love going to Ella's birthday party. Ella is 1 and I love her. I liked how we found the Easter eggs. I love you Ella and you are my best friend! jahkrjrhuruhqjfnjfffejdkjdNmzi3iiiiiiitummmmmmmmjjfjjfke

Bible Study Cabin Getaway

This is Rylie holding baby Mason. Both of my girls were infatuated with the babies, but are still learning how to be soft with them (especially Ella)!




So, we have been in Bible Study with this group for over two years now and we started a tradition of going to McCall last year. The Johnson's so generously share their cabin with us and last year we had 6 couples up there and between all of us we had 3 children. We were laughing this year when 5 couples went and and there were 8 children- that means in the last year each couple has had a child. Crazy! Anyway, we enjoyed board games, the hot tub, sledding, snow shoeing and home cooked meals by each couple! It was so much fun to relax away from busy life and spend time with friends in the snow!!!

Valentine's Day Weekend at the Cabin

So my wonderful hubby took me out to P.F. Chang for dinner on Friday night for an early Valentine's Day celebration! It was so relaxing to walk around downtown and hang out together without kiddos and then on Saturday morning we took off for the cabin. We had planned on leaving really early, but we arrived mid afternoon. Rylie was sick most of the way and the only thing that was keeping her from not throwing up was telling her stories about Cinderella and Craig's 40 minute version of Adam and Eve. Sadly, we missed the heart shaped pancakes that Aunt Lori had made for breakfast. But don't worry the mouse that decided to join us that evening really enjoyed the pancakes. Randy (my brother-in-law) killed the mouse with Rylie's shoe on the plate of pancakes. We were definitely done with them after that!!!! We decided not to tell Rylie that he used her shoe. Later, we kept the festivities going with some heart shaped rice crispy treats. Rylie adores her cousins Jack and Sam and spent most of the weekend with them out in a snow fort that they had built next to a fallen tree! My favorite thing to watch was Randy and Craig pulling each other on the sled behind the snowmobile! To end our Valentine's Day weekend on a good note, we watched Fireproof. I would recommend it to any married couple whether you are struggling or not!

Snip-its from February

Snip-its from the girls these past few weeks: My mom and dad and Craig's sister and her family went to tropical places this January, leaving us here in the cold weather. The upside is, they brought the girls back some adorable dresses from Hawaii and Mexico! Rylie learned how to do a funny face for pictures, so now we have to do a serious one and a silly one.

Rylie has come up with some pretty clever things to say lately, since we were stuck at home all week last week with colds.

She was drawing at the table and she drew a picture of a "spaceship" just like her friend Hudson at church. She told me that I wasn't little enough and it was probably to hard for me, but I could pray and ask God to help me to do it. Then she turns me and says, "You know why you can ask God to help, because God is on your side!" Amen Sister!

Also, we learned this week that Rylie is a planner. She has her next three years planned out. She explained to me that when she turns 4 she is going to be in Ballet, then when she turns 5 she is going to be in gymnastics and when she turns 6 she is going to go to kindergarten. We had been talking about practicing to get better at something. She went on to say that if she practices ballet she will be a good balleter and if she practices gymnastics, she will be a good gymnasticer. I love how kids try to figure out the English language, when we struggle with it as adults.

Ella is standing up on everything and can climb our stairs in about 3.5 seconds without falling down. Her little personality is coming out a little more in groups, but she still bears the name "Stoneface" in most social circles.

I am taking on something this month that I have never done before- writing a life plan for the next 20-30 years and learning how to live purposefully. A couple at our church is showing us how and it has been very convicting to see where I would like to be spending my time and where I really spend my time day to day.

5*5*5

Thank you for including me April in this fun little look back. I was a little bummed because our computer had crashed, so we just got a new computer this summer. So this picture of Rylie is not very old, but she is just starting to show her independence (right before her 3rd birthday)!

So I tag the following 5 people to go on there computer and look at the fifth picture of the fifth folder and tag five more people.
1. Melanie
2. Lori
3. Shaanti
4. Jenny
5. Amy Jo