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. :)

Being a Mommy

Being a teacher definitely has it's pros and cons. One of the biggest cons for me is that I don't get to do the "mommy thing" to help out at school. I would love to volunteer on a regular basis at the school, etc. I did get the chance to do a little of that when I signed up to go with Ember on her fieldtrip. We went to This is the Place Heritage Park and to the zoo. And of course, that day just had to be the day of the first snow storm. (we have had bigger since then!)

This is the sky/mountain up there at the park!

Our first stop was to a small house where we learned about pioneer life. We even got to try out some of the chores that would have had to be done during that time.

Washing clothes 

Ironing

Cooking over a fire

Churning butter

Sweeping

Practicing how to milk on the "milking bears"

Then we were off to another house where we learned about how to make yarn from wool right off the sheep.

Waiting for lunch!

After lunch, we were off to the zoo! These cute girls were so crazy! They wanted to take a picture together at all the statues and things we came to. Here we go!

My little birds

It was so fun being Mommy. I wish I could do it more often. I think the best part of it all was the fact that Ember was really happy that I was there. It made me feel so special.

Ember's Lost

Ember has lost her first tooth! It's been loose for about two months, but it just barely came out. She said she was sitting watching TV and she started chewing on her shirt and then it just came out. What an exciting day...and night when the Tooth Fairy will finally make her first appearance at the Boyles' House.

French Immersion...here comes Ember!

She got in!! We are so excited for her and can't wait to see how she progresses!

Random Videos

So earlier this year I posted about Ember participating in Bingham High School's mini cheer clinic. I never got to posting the videos, so is one of them. She is so cute doing her little cheer moves.


On Thanksgiving we went to Mary and Dorick's. After dinner we had to burn off all the extra calories we had eaten by playing Just Dance 3. Even Branden and Cody were shakin' that thing!

Primary Program

     So, a couple weeks ago back on November 13th Ember and Lincoln participated in the Primary Program. It was the cutest thing. Both of them had their parts memorized since the beginning of October. Ember new every song and said her part well. "Because of Heavenly Father's plan, Jesus created the earth and animals for me." Linc's favorite song, and the one he sang the loudest, was "Scripture Power." He was so cute. They had all the sunbeams standing on the second pew from the front facing backward toward the audience. He kept looking for us every time we turned or looked at Ember.
     The funniest part had to be when Lincoln got up to do his part. As he was getting up on the stool you could hear him say" I can do it myself" to the Primary leader standing by the microphone. I am not sure if she was going to help him up onto the stool or with saying his part. Then he stood up to the podium, looked out with a big smile on his face and sighed right into the microphone. We are talking REALLY loud! He finished his part without any problems. "My favorite scripture hero is Jesus." I really like how the leaders try to leave blanks for the children to fill in with something that means something to them. Ember filled in animals and Linc filled in Jesus. Both Ember and Lincoln remembered to say their parts slowly and clearly so everyone could understand.

I am so proud you!

A Wonderful 2 Months

Well,  okay. Life has definitely gotten in the way of my blogging. I have been good at taking pictures, but nothing else. Please excuse the two month delay on some of these pictures! It all starts back at the beginning of September with Hunts Gymnastics' Annual Fundraising Picnic.

 Then we move on to the end of September when I got a surprise and Ember was able to participate in Bingham High School's Mini Cheer Clinic. Thanks to my cousin Abbie who texted me about it. I hope you are having so much fun cheering! Ember had so much fun being a little cheerleader. She still sings the cheers around the house!

Next came October and Fall. I don't particularly like the colder weather, but I do enjoy seeing the changing leaves. I really like seeing different colors around me. I decided after a 

VERY rainy week that I wanted to take the kids to a pumpkin patch this year. Let's just say that I think I will wait until the ground is dry to go next year! Thanks Jo and Shelbi for coming with us!

 Just days after going to the Pumpkin Patch we had an accident. Ember was injured on the playground before school. Talk about a lot of blood! My poor little girl was so brave at the hospital as they stitched her up.

October also brings in Halloween. I happen to like this weird holiday. Anyway, right after Halloween last year Ember and Lincoln decided that they were going to be Buzz and Jesse. Which means that Branden would be Woody and I would be Bo Peep. Well, all that fell through when Linc found a SWAT team outfit! It was all good though. Branden ended up having to work that day anyway. 

On Halloween, I took the kids to Jackie and Dennis' house to go trick-or-treating with Isabella and her sisters. So much fun! Let's do it again next year!

All in all, September and October have been pretty good! I hope that as the holiday season rolls in that the fun will continue. I love my little family!

First Day of Kindergarten

Ember has been ready for almost two years, and now the time is finally here! Kindergarten, here she comes!

A LONG TIME!!!

I have officially missed the ENTIRE month on June! But in my defense I was in the middle of an intense history class. In class from 8:30-3:30 every day for three weeks! I do not remember college classes being as hard as that. We had about 2-3 hours of homework every night, quizzes every hour in the morning, projects, etc.
So, I think I will post pictures & a short description of the things that did happen during the last month to catch up. In chronological order:

This was a tulip that we planted last fall and had been patiently waiting to come up. However, about a month before the gardeners were edging and decided to edge our flower! We were so upset. But the flower regrew...like this!

Nikh is now able to stand up in her crib all by herself AND crawl. Watch out, she is pretty mobile now. It is kind of funny to watch her crawl. Her poor little legs get tired of holding herself up and she slides to her tummy to commando crawl the rest of the way.

One day as we were barbecuing the sprinklers came on! So the kids decided to get on their swimming suits and run through them. Of course when they turned off they were sad so we turned on the hose with the sprinkler. It was fun!

Branden's Birthday came next. We were treated to Tucano's by Josh and MaKayla. It was so yummy. I had stopped feeding Nikh so I was able to eat anything I wanted! They even sang to Branden. Though Nikh was not excited about that part. He was a really good sport about it too! After that, we went shopping at the Gateway. Branden got many items of clothing. Happy 30th my Sweetheart!

Father's Day was next, and to be completely honest we did not really do anything.

Sweetheart, I know we did not do much, but I do want to say what a wonderful daddy you are to our children. I know that staying at home with them during the day is not all peaches 'n cream, but you are good to them and they are lucky to have you there instead of going to day care. Thank you so much for giving me three absolutely beautiful children! We love you.

Last but not least, Ember went to a pediatric eye specialist. We had a feeling that she would need glasses after we went to her 5 year Dr. appointment and she did poorly on the eye exam part. They told us to wait 6 months, but I refuse to let her start school not being able to see. So, after going up to Primary Children's Opthamology Department we found out that, yes, Ember needs glasses. She is 20/50 in one eye and 20/60 in the other. 

After my long day at class, I took Ember to find some glasses. The short story: we went to 3 stores before finding the right pair. Lenscrafters' kids glasses are always 50% off and they can have them done in an hour! The result:

Well, that is pretty much it. After all of that, I passed my class and got 6 college credit hours for it (yeah in 3 weeks!). On the pretest I got 38%! And I improved up to a 72%! Woo Hoo!

Preschool Graduation

Am I really old enough to have a little girl graduating from preschool and on her way to kindergarten this August? No, I don't think so, but I do!

Ember's preschool graduation was this past Thursday. She has been going to the West Jordan High School Preschool this past year. She has LOVED it! I love how because it is a class for the high school students, the preschool students actually get a one-on-one experience with learning. One of the only times they will ever get that in their lives.
She had two teachers. Miss Rachel

Thank you Miss Rachel for everything you did for my little girl. 

and Miss McKenzie (spelling?)

Miss McKenzie, thanks for teaching Ember so much!

She made so many friends there, but the one that she apparently played with the most was Jaime. It took her until April to remember her name long enough to tell me! Jaime's teacher was Zack. And it was pretty funny because Ember seemed to attach herself to him too! It was nice since Ember has had this fear of teenage boys. Ever since she was smaller she would not talk to or even really go near teenage boys.

Man, they really went all out on this graduation! You would have thought that they were graduating college or something! It was a lot of fun though. Theme for the year was Hollywood and the Red Carpet. So when they opened the curtain all the kids and teachers were sitting on the stage.

The little graduation caps were so cute!

Miss Kris went through some introductions and they all sang for us a couple of their favorite songs from preschool. She even introduced a few of us parents that were preschool teachers way back when...this included me...at first I wasn't sure why she was calling us up to the front.
Then came the announcing of names. Ember was the first one called. After getting her diploma and trophy, she walked down the stairs on the red "carpet" where I met her with a rose that her Fletcher grandparents bought her.

I did it!

Look at the stage behind me and ignore that I look awful!

Finally, they ended with a slideshow of some pictures that had been taken throughout the year. I was even on one picture from when I was in high school. I was so glad when they gave us a copy of it in our gift bag.

To celebrate they had a big party in the commons complete with popcorn, drinks, nachos, gift bags, a band, and poke-your-head-through cardboard cutouts. Like I said, all out!

Kindergarten, here she comes!