Happy Birthday to Bella

Ryan and Sarah colored this poster for Bella and put it on our front door.

Last night, Jeff and I bought this swing set and had a lot of fun setting it up.  It is actually a gift for all the kids birthdays put together.  Hopefully the rest of the kids don't feel slided when their birthday comes around and they don't get much :)

Bella and Ali holding up the swings proudly.

The finished product!!!

This morning I woke up and made cupcakes for Bella's pre-school class.  Bella really enjoyed licking the bowl afterwards.  Yum-Yum-Yum!!!!!

When Bella found out she was not getting any presents, or more importantly, toys, let's just say, she was not very excited.  I felt bad, so I did decide to go shopping while she was at school.  But, shopping with a 3 year old and expecting her to keep it a secret is nearly impossible.  

Before Ryan and Sarah went to school this morning, they wanted to swing for about 5 minutes (that's all the time they had.)

Bella at pre-school eating the cupcakes.

For lunch, I took Bella and Ali downtown to the Gateway to meet up with Jeff for lunch.  Hotdog-on-a-stick!!!  Can you get better than that?  Then Bella opened the couple gifts we did get for her, Pet Shop toys.

Before leaving, we had to get some Dairy Queen ice cream.  I think we made up for her disappointment upon finding out she was not getting much more for her birthday.

Bella's Pre-school trip to the Zoo

On Friday, Bella's pre-school class took a field trip to the Zoo.  I was lucky enough to be a chaperone and I had so much fun.  This was her first trip on a school bus.  She attends the pre-school at Taylorsville High School.  In our group, there were 2 chaperones, 9 high school students and 3 pre-school kids.  Needless to say, I did not need to do much, the high school students were all so excited to keep track of the kids.  That had to have been one of the easiest times I have ever (or ever will) had at the zoo.  Her and McKenna were little buddies.  

Bella and McKenna

Bella and the elephant

Family Trip to Escalante

A couple weeks ago, we packed up Grandpa Kendall's camping trailer and truck, and headed south for spring break.  After 6 1/2 hours of driving, we finally arrived to our campsite in Escalante.  We were able to entertain the kids with a couple movies (thank goodness for portable DVD players) and some comic books.  They were all so excited to get there, I can't even count the number of times we heard "are we almost there?".  The drive was long, but we saw some beautiful country.  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state.  Anywhere you drive, you could see something very unique and breath-taking.  From the Wasatch Mountains, Mt. Timp, Mt. Nebo, Cove fort area, Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon, to the completly different layout of the plateaus and canyons in Escalante.  

That first evening, we hurried and ate hot dogs and went for a drive as far as we could on the "Hells Backbone" road.  We hit snow and didn't feel we should try to go any further.  Coming back down the mountain, 2 deer ran out into the road right in front of us.  We had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting them.    

Too much laughing and not enough sleeping!!!  

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed out for a day of hiking.  We drove down hole in the rock road (which is not paved) for a couple hours.  On the way we saw this jeep that had rolled over.  No, this was not our car!  The kids wanted a picture in front of it.  Finally made it to the slot canyons, Peek-a-boo and Spooky.  

After hiking down into the wash bottoms, we made a wrong turn and thought we were hiking Peek-a-boo.  Later we found out it was Dry Fork Canyon.  We kept going and going, and the maps we had said it was only a quarter of a mile, but we knew we had hiked a lot further than that.  Needless to say, the canyon we hiked was beautiful and all of us enjoyed it a lot.  The walls were close enough together to touch both sides at the same time for a good portion of the hike.  

After about 3 hours, we were back to where we started and someone told us where to find the right canyons.  At that point, Ali was done and wanted to go no further (and for those who know Ali very well, she is stubborn and does not give in very easyily) so I sat behind with her and Jeff took the kids up to the slot canyon, Spooky.  

These are the pictures of Spooky.  Jeff had to turn sideways to fit through some of the rocks.

Smoky Mountain Road

Devil's Garden

Devil's Garden

A very short slot canyon on the Burr Trail

Views from off of Hwy 12, in between Escalante and Boulder

We had a really fun time, and hope to have more family vacations like this one.  The only downside to all of it was that I got sick the last couple of days we were there, so I didn't feel well for some of it.  I think the kids will remember the slot canyons the most from this trip.

President Hinckleys story on kindness

Jeff had our family watch this last night. I loved it, thought I would share it. Also, I wanted to see how to do this. Hopefully it works.

Our Playlist

Last night, Jeff and I had way too much fun picking out songs for our play list.  Whoa, talk about reminiscing!!!  There are stories behind many of the songs.  Such as -- "The Streak", no, that is not the story of my life, but it was a record (yes, I really did just say that, we had records when I was young! I guess I am dating myself slightly)  my family had growing up and we would play it over and over and over and over (our poor parents.)  We thought it was the funniest song ever.  Some of the other songs were from us dating and Jeff even sang one of the songs to me at our Wedding Dinner, the night before we got married (he's going to kill me for saying that.)  Love remains will always be a special song in the Kendall Family, a lot of touching memories with that one.  Others are some of our kids favorites.  Plus, we cannot overlook the fact that Jeff had a really weird taste in music before we met.  I am glad I saved the day there.  With American Idol being our favorite show at the moment, we picked out a few of our highlights from seasons past, gotta love that show.  Anyway, we hope you enjoy some of our taste in music.  

A little about us :)

Hello to everyone, especially ourselves. We live in Taylorsville and are all healthy and happy and very busy. Jeff works for Fidelity Investments by day and Bishop by night, then whatever time he has left, he is bombarded with the family. I work full time in the home (cooking, cleaning, laundry, taxi service, PTO, oh yah, did I say cleaning.) Ryan, age 9, 4th grade math whiz, enjoys soccer, swimming, basketball,or any other sport he is playing at that time. Sarah, age 8, 2nd grade spanish student, loves to sing, dance, be a girl, and sing some more. Bella, age 4, is usually happy and will talk your ear off if you take the time to listen, she loves anything that has to do with being a girl. Ali, age 3, the boss of our home, makes us laugh just about anytime she is talking.