Borrowman Reunion

So in my efforts to catch up here is a post about one of the reunions we went to this summer.

Every year for the 4th of July weekend the Borrowman clan gets together for a reunion. We have gone to the lake, and stayed locally, however this year was especially fun. As a family we have/are purchasing a piece of property up in the mountains near Zions National Park.
It really is beautiful up there and we had a blast. You can see both the girls around the campfire, which by the way we finished while we were up there. You can see the thin path of rocks around the campfire, well while we were there we went out and collected enough rocks to finish the paving. It looks fabulous!!!

This is Janae who is afraid of heights while the rest of us looked over the edge of a beautiful canyon. I admit the drop would kill you but how do you not CAREFULLY look at it. Janae we love you for worrying so much about us :)

Here is one of the reasons she was having a heart attack. Yep people were getting right up to the edge for this spectacular view. (the children were not allowed this close, so don't worry too much!)

Another on of our favorite pastimes was riding the 4 wheeler and the range rover. The rover was great for getting lots of the kids going at once, and they really never wanted to get off.

We also loved the food, the movie on the side of the trailer as well as the time together it really was beautiful!

Well it has been a while since I posted so look for several in the days to come. One of the more exciting things that happened at the beginning of our summer was that Katrina decided to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. She was quite nervouse to say the least but you could hear her whispering under her breath. "I can do it, I am not going to quit, and if I just keep practacing".

It took her 2 days of 20 minute practices (that is all dads back could handle) and she was riding on her own. It was funny to watch her as she realized she was doing it by herself she would hit the brakes. I mean really hit the brakes leaving little white skid marks all over the street. She finally found her stride and she is a great rider. She now go on family bike rides and she leads the way:)

Amanda had her semi graduation ceremony from pre school yesterday. She will be going back for one more year before kindergarten but they have the graduation for all regardless. Here she is pleased as punch after receiving her certificate.


These other pictures are of her doing some fun dances. They dressed them up in poodle skirts and taught them a few moves.

Twisting

Look at me. It was funny how many of the pictures I caught her checking out the boys on the guitars. She is growing up so fast.... anyone know how to slow down the process and keep them cute and little forever :) ?

Make sure you check out Allison's Promotion in the post before this one!

5th Grade Promotion

Its that time of year when all the kids start getting out of school for the summer. This year Allison finished elementary school and had her 5th grade promotion. Next year she will start middle school, I cant believe how fast she is growing up.

Steve flew to Oklahoma to celebrate with Allison. It was really sweet for them to get to spend some time together. Steve showed up at Allison's front door about 7:30 am on the day of her promotion and took her out to breakfast before heading over to the promotion ceremony.

After the ceremony he was able to volunteer at the local YMCA as Ali and the rest of her class were able to play. Later that night they went to dinner with her mom and step dad and did a movie at her house. The next morning they spent playing before Dad had to go. They had a ball, congratulations Ali we love you and are so proud of you.

Disney Land

Last week Steve's parents came to town so Steve took the day off, and we pulled Katrina out of school for the day and went to Disneyland. We haven't been for about a year and a half so it was fun to watch the girls relive the magic. It was especially fun to see Elizabeth react to it for the first time.

She was so cute on Dumbo as she figured out that she could move us up and down all by herself. After every ride she would put her hands over her face and cry because she didn't want to leave. It was cute to see and even cuter to see her light back up when we found something new. I can just imagine how much fun she will have when we go in the off season and don't have to wait in long lines at every ride.

We don't usually spend a lot of time in toon town, but this time we did and the girls had a blast with all the pretend play that didn't require waiting in a line :) Here they are as they try to get out of toon jail.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Lang for such a fun day!!!

Free swimsuit giveaway!!!

I don't know how many of you love MODBE swimsuits but they are doing a giveaway for a free on on the meanest mom blog. I have posted the link above. Just go to the site and scroll down until you come to the post about the free give away. It ends tonight at midnight so good luck.

Having Fun and Being Silly :)

Last Thursday Dad took the 3 oldest girls to see Suessacle. This was a play put on by the drama students at Steve's school. They had a lot of fun and went up to meet some of the actors after the play ended.

These pictures were taken right before they left, as you can see they were all in good spirits and excited to spend some time together. They all look forward to dates with dad.

This is them the next day. I am walking by there room and I hear all this giggling. So I peak my head in unnoticed, and see them making faces at themselves in the mirror. I grabbed the camera and clicked the bottom picture and then they sat up and made faces at me.

Look at all that hair :)

The Three Piggy Opera

Amanda is growing up so fast. Today she was in a play at her preschool called the Three Piggy Opera. She did a wonderful job by singing and dancing and doing all the

the actions to all the songs. Now maybe for those of you who have very outgoing children this may not seem like that big of an accomplishment. But last year when they did their Christmas play she stood there and didn't move the entire time, in fact she looked like she was going to cry.

My little girl is growing up. I love her dearly and love to watch her as she loves and takes care of others. She is very nurturing and will make a great woman someday. Until that day however I just want to cherish every minute I get to be with her and help her grow up knowing that she is loved by both me and her father as well as her Heavenly Father.

Lizzy let me get her all dressed up for the play and so I couldn't help posting this picture of another of my beautiful little girls.

Valentines Day

I cant believe that I forgot to take any pictures, but wanted to post about our great day anyway :) Steve and I started celebrating Valentines day Friday night by going out to dinner with a bunch of our friends. It was nice to go out with everyone and even nicer to not have to worry about the kids. After dinner we went to the stake center where there was a dance going on. I enjoyed the chocolate fountain a little too much and ate lots of chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite). We danced for a couple hours and then headed home and realized just how old we were getting because it was only 10:30 and we were exhausted.

Saturday morning was typical and Steve went to a ham radio class and then we went to the gym. We lounged around the house for a good part of the day. The highlight of the day was dinner. I made lasagna and salad, we set the table with glass dishes for everyone (big deal at our house) I put the girls valentines from us and their grandparents next to there plates and then we got out the sparkling cider and candles. Until the lights went out the girls were not very excited about dinner, but after their comments were something like this..... "mom you made a super special dinner, thanks" and " this is a very special day" "can we do this everyday" "what if the candle fall will it start a fire", you get the idea. :) After the girls went to bed Steve and I played a couple of games together. Over all it was a GREAT Valentines day and we hope you all had great days as well.

being silly and photographer's in training.

These are just some fun pictures of us being silly after we cleaned the girls room. We were taking a picture for the house fairy so she would come and check their room and leave a surprise. First Katrina wanted to take a few pictures. Except for the top of my head being cut off she did a pretty good job.

She also took this one of Lizzy I think she looks so cute.

Amanda wanted a turn as well and told us to make faces for her so here we are in all our refined glory :)

Of course after us being silly Katrina had to take one more of Amanda. The beauty of digital cameras is you can see how silly you look immediately and they love it!!!

Christmas Eve

This was Christmas morning before the kids opened their gifts. We had a lot of fun opening and made a huge mess as usual. We spent the afternoon with some friends and we all had a great day.
Ali's Christmas

American girl doll bed/with Hannah Montana bedspread and a Nintendo DS were her main gifts










Trinas Christmas her big gift was her bike but she was also really excited about her wedding Ariel barbie.












Amandas Christmas she got a dollhouse and because it said Emma on the box it is always referred to as the Emma dollhouse

Lizzy's Christmas consisted of a baby, bed stroller and bottles.

We had a great Christmas this year!

Catching up. 1

Here we are on Christmas Eve making our gingerbread men and decorating our cookies for Santa.

Lizzy is at the stage where she squints her eyes whenever she sees the camera. So cute!







Katrina and Amanda had lots of fun and their philosophy was the more candy and frosting the better. Katrina tried to make clothes for her gingerbread man. (the influence of her big sister helped) :)









I get the feeling that Ali has seen and done some real decorating with her mom, because she was using the tips, outlining, and filling in. It was fun to see her work so hard.

The Break

Wow what an eventful couple of weeks. I'll start by saying we had a GREAT Christmas this year. Santa found our home and with a few minor setbacks left a bunch of happy girls in his wake. Ali got a Nintendo DS, Katrina got a bike, Amanda got a dollhouse, and Elizabeth got a baby complete with stroller and bottles. They were all very happy (until later that day when the adrenaline wore off from waking up so early). We spent the day with friends and enjoyed watching the Lakers play and win :)
After Christmas was over we set off to see family for a couple of days before Ali went home. We enjoyed the time we had with family. Steve ran a 5 k on new years eve and so Ali, Katrina Megan and Ashley stood and froze while we waited for him to finish and then we celebrated the new year. OK so we shouted Happy New Year to each other as we hurried back to the warm comforts of the van. We met together as a family to make plans for our up and coming business and I tried (and succeeded) to get some last minute authorizations for banners and permission to represent our business at a soccer tournament. After the family meeting I was flying high. We are doing better then I expected to be at this point and I am optimistic that this is a winning opportunity.
The kids went back to school today and I tried to catch up on all the laundry that a vacation brings and cleaned out the girls drawers to make room for the new clothes they got for Christmas.
All in all it was a great holiday, but I am glad to be getting back to a normal routine!!!