Ember's First Daddy-Daughter Date

Per Angelique's request here is a retelling of the Daddy-Daughter Date:

     Upon arrival we were greeted by Sister Nielsen who was sporting some kind of cheesy French-isque accent. I think she knew it was a bit over the top but that didn't stop her from using it all evening.  Ember and I were invited to take a picture together there under an arch of flowers.  Surely a more lovely picture was never taken.


Next, we were off to the dining room.  Here we were given a "map" of sorts that showed the layout of a proper fancy pants dinner.  With me holding the map and giving occasional advice, Ember soon had both of our places set and ready for a meal.

While we waited for dinner to be finished we headed to another room where we got to play habla-daughter. At least that is what I called it. One father was blindfolded and placed in a ring of daughters. Then he was given a pillow to smack them with until he found his own daughter.  Since my ears are so well tuned to the giggles of a certain girl she was quickly located.

Now it was time for dinner!  We sat at our professionally laid out dinner arrangement and waited for the food.  We got a salad and a roll to start us off.  Ember, in her normal fashion, was uninterested in the salad but was happy to try the roll  This was the first time that she had butter served with her bread, and she went ahead and tried spreading some on and discovered that she liked butter on her roll.  She then quickly proceeded to consume the rest of her roll as well as mine.  Spaghetti and meatball followed, which was quite tasty, and we finished of the meal with some sort of many layered creamy cake thing.

And so ended our date....or not! Now it was announced that it was time for the Daddy-Daughter Dance.  I expected that we would have some nice music and shuffle around with our daughters, perhaps them even standing on our feet.  Nope.  Time for classical music and a long choreographed dance which included spinning, waltz steps, and a number of lifts!  I'm sure that if Angelique gets busy she will find a copy of the video and you will see it below.


And thus ended our date.  We ended by walking out to the car and Ember commented that we should do this again.

I'd have to agree. :)

Our First Disneyland Adventure...Day 1+The Beach

Time Flew By...

Well, it has been a year and a half since I have opened this blog up and written something. I know, right! How could I have just let it go and not written anything that has happened to my little family? To tell you the truth, Life got in the way.
It is now March 2014! I am still working two jobs. Only now I actually work 4 or more days a month at the hospital instead of 2. The reason for that came last January in 2013. Branden got a supervisor position, which meant that we needed daycare for the first time. Aaahhh! I can't tell you how scared and nervous I was. I remember crying that our children (Nikh and Linc specifically) wouldn't be raised by their parents. But what a blessing it has become to have Branden home in the evenings. I honestly haven't had that whole experience since we were married 10 years ago.
April 2013 finally came and with it a brand new experience for everyone but me, Disneyland! We had saved long and hard and finally made it there. It was so much fun to see the kids' faces as they went in for the first time. Ama came with us and Aunt Rachelle and Uncle Justin met us there. So much fun! We can't wait to go again...well, Branden can.
May/June/July 2013 was a whirlwind of change. On a whim, Branden and I went into a realtor's office to ask a few questions about what amount of loan we would qualify for. We weren't ready to move, but wanted to know beforehand since we were planning on moving within the next two years. Having all three kids in one room was getting hard. The whole story short, within the next week and a half our town home was on the market and we'd had our offer on a house nearby accepted. Just over two weeks after that we had a buyer and 30 days later we had sold our townhome and bought our cute little house. Amazingly enough we had found our home within the same school boundaries within our price range. So the kids would still be in the same school. This was very important since Ember was in the French Immersion program and we wanted Lincoln and Nikh to be in it too.
We were definitely being taken care of when we found this house. To get Linc to and from school was going to require a complicated mess. Now we live three houses down from the bus stop and our neighbor does daycare out of her house. Ember has many friends around and is always in and out when she can be. What a blessing it all was that we went into that office.
August/September 2013 had Lincoln starting Kindergarten and Nikh without her brother for the first time. Even when we had started daycare at Herriman High they both went together. But now he would be getting on that school bus with Ember and she would have to stay behind. Thankfully we had Grandma Boyles here to help her during that first week. Everytime she would see the bus she would ask me when it was "her turn" to go to school. Such a sweet girl!
October 2013 we went trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood for the first time! We even met up with some of Ember's friends along the way. So much fun!
Holidays 2013 came and went very quickly. I feel like the moment I got all the decorations up it was time to take them all back down. The biggest surprise was when Branden suggested we get another dog to keep Tink company. So two days before Christmas we made the drive to Spanish Fork to pick up our new puppy Skyla. Though if we could potty train her I think we would all be much happier. :(