Surprise Visitors

The last couple of weekends we have had the opportunity to enjoy some wild animals in our yard.
The first weekend Delwyn was out changing the oil in the cars and the kids were out running around. I looked down the road and saw 2 moose. I went to get the camera but I couldn't get a picture because they were in the neighbors hay stack. A little while later the kids come running around the house all scared. The baby moose was walking down the road and a pickup chased him off. I had wondered where the Mother moose had gone and found her eating from the trees and bushes in Peggy's yard. The kids had fun just watching them.  They stuck around in the neighborhood until the cops came and chased them off.
Well last Sunday we had left to go eat lunch at my Mom's house but Delwyn had stayed home because he wasn't feeling well and he saw something walk past the window. He went to investigate and he found the same 2 moose walking through our yard. They stopped and ate off our straw stack for a little bit before moving on.
It doesn't happen very often that we get wild animals in our yard but when it does it is great to see. This is one of the reason's we enjoy living in the country.

Mother Moose in Peggy's yard

Moose in our back yard

The young moose, it just sat there for ever waiting for its Mom.

Family History

For activity day's this week we were focusing on our family history. We had the girls come prepared to fill out a family tree and bring a story about an ancestor. I needed to be prepared with a story for me plus one for Jessica and Kylynn. I went to my Mom to get some histories to read, she has a lot. It was so fun to read about my relatives and find out new information about them.
The story that Jessica told was about her Great grandpa  George Junior Messick and how he hated the Mormon's because a Bishop had helped place him and his siblings in an orphanage when he was young. He went on to marry a mormon girl but didn't want anything to do with the church. Finally some missionaries came and were able to teach him and he was baptized. He had said he would never join the church and after he did, he recorded in his history that he had to eat those words and they didn't taste to bad.
Kylynn told the story of her Great Grandma  Elma McEntire Erikson when she was 8-9 years old and her brother placed a little kitten down her back while she was doing the dishes. She  was scared to death of cats the rest of her life, expecially if they we inside.
My favorite story was of my 5th great grandparents Frederick G Williams and his wife Rebecca Swain Williams. I learned that they we friends with the prophet Joseph Smith and that they cared for him after he was tared and featured. They took him to their home and spent the night helping remove the tar, Frederick was a Doctor and also in the first presidency.
I am glad that  many of my family did write there histories so that I can learn about them and pass on their legacy. I hope someday write my own history for my children.

Sewing

For Christmas Delwyn got me a sewing machine. I think he got tired of me always having to go to Mom's house to mend things, which sat around for a while before I would get it done. I love the gift. I don't know how to sew very well, but occasionally I do enjoy try to make things.

The first project I did was to sew curtains for the windows downstairs. We had mismatching make due curtains before just to cover the windows. I found an idea where you used a shower curtain and sewed ribbon on the top to make the loops. It took me a few days and but finally I had made 6 new curtains for the windows. By the time I had gotten to the 6th one I had mastered the procedure of making these curtains.

The next thing I decided to try and sew were skirts for the girls. I had heard about pillowcase skirts from my Mom and thought that would be fun and easy.  So last week while the girls were at school I made these two skirts, they loved them, and it was so easy I am going to try and make one for all the Girls for easter.

Jessica and Kylynn's skirts

Aleeya in her skirt

Thanks for the sewing machine, Delwyn I love it.

School Projects

We spent a great amount of time in February working on 2 different school projects, one each for Jessica and Kylynn.
The first was a Presidential research project for Kylynn. We had to research all about "Millard Fillmore". I was really excited about this since I had no idea who Millard Fillmore was. He turned out to be the 13th President and only became President with the sudden death of Zachary Taylor. Kylynn was not into doing much of the project. I had her read over some of the information and find answers to the questions we were to answer, but when it came to writing out the information she didn't want to help. She did enjoy helping put all the pictures and information on the tri-fold poster. We then had to make President Fillmore's favorite cookie for the Presidential cookie Fair that was held on Feb. 21st. Our cookie were called "Charlotte's",they are like a sugar cookie with dates and nuts in them. They were not to bad but Ky wouldn't even try them.  It was a lot of work and I was glad to have it done.

Once Kylynn project was done we turned our attention to Jessica's science project. We originally wanted to have several people of different ages measure their heart rate at rest, walking, and then running. But it was not working getting enough people so we changed the project 1 week before it was due to, just  measuring Jessica heart rate doing 6 different activities over a 3 day period to see when her heart was beating the fastest and when it was beating the slowest. Jessica had fun learning to count her radial pulse and she found out that her heart beats the fastest while running or jumping rope and is the slowest when she is reading. She had to prepare a 1-2 minute presentation on her project and was so nervous about it. She ended up doing great and got an A on the project.

Christmas surprise Quilts

The kids had all wanted a quilt for Christmas, they didn't think it was fair that Aunt Vicki and Aunt Cristy's kids all had gotten a blanket and I hadn't made them any. I decided in October that I would make them all a guilt out of bandana's. Cristy said she would help me while Tom was out of town.  So for several weeks, as soon as the kids would leave for school, I would get ready and head into my Mom's house to work on the quilts until Matt got out of school around 11:00, then I would head back home. We were not making much progress so Cristy came up with a plan that we would say the quilts were for her and that I was just helping her. Matt would come to Grandma's after school and see us working on the quilts but never any questioned that they we not for Cristy.
I had to hear about it from Jessica and Kylynn how all I ever do is help Cristy and that I never make them anything over and over. I was excited to see there faces Christmas morning when they realized that I had actually made them quilts. They were all excited each love them.
Thanks to Mom and Cristy for all there help and for doing the pillows for me because I ran out of time. I love you guys.

Aleeya's Quilt, this was my favorite. We sewed a bright pink ribbon in the center of the black strip around the edge.

Matthew's, He had wondered where his spider-man bandana's had gone.

Kylynn's Quilt, her favorite color is rainbow so we did it multi-colored.

Jessica's, she is into peace signs and lime green so this was perfect for her.

4th of July camping

We decided to go camping the afternoon of the 4th up to Delwyns family farm, just above Newdale.  We planned of leaving after lunch but things didn't work out. When  we came home to pack and load up Delwyn found that the sub hole in the basement had about 6-8 inch of water. We were afraid that we may get flooded again so spent 1 1/2 hours cleaning the basement and getting everything that would get damage if wet off the floor. It was great fun.

Finally we were able to start packing the camper, we didn't end up leaving until after 7 pm. We made it up to the farm about 8pm. We got camp set up and decided that we would roast some s'mores. Delwyn got the fire  started and I went to get the Marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.  That's when I realized I forgot to pack the Marshmallows. The kids were pretty upset.

Finally it was time for bed. I took Aleeya to bed first but she wanted nothing to do with going to sleep. We managed to get all the other to sleep and finally Delwyn got Aleeya to sleep about 11 pm. That sleep only lasted until 2:30 when she woke up crying. We tried everything we could think of to get her to go back to sleep. Finally I took her outside all bundled up and sat in a chair rocking her. I got her to sleep but as soon as I opened the camper door she woke back up. Delwyn tried next without any luck. To make this long story short. It was after 6 am before she finally went to sleep. She was a really grumpy girl all morning needless to say.

Delwyn decided to have me drive back down to Rexburg with Aleeya so she could have a nap. I went home and found the basement dry, picked up the marshmallows and the portable crib. We decided that we would sleep in the trailor at the farm the second night so that Aleeya could have her own room and sleep, that's why the portal crib. It worked out well. I put her to bed at 8:30 and she didn't wake up until Ky woke her up about 8:30 am. Mom and Dad were glad to have gotten some good sleep even if it was on a hard floor.

While at the farm the kids had fun riding there bikes, and going for ride on the 4 wheeler, thanks to Grandpa Erikson for letting up take his, playing with rocks, or running around the farm yard as fast as they could. We spent a little time each day reading and I brought my keyboard so that Jessie and Ky could practice the piano.

My favorite part of camping is trying new dutch oven recipes, so most meal were cooked in the dutch ovens. My favorites this trip were Breakfast Pizza, and Mountain Dew Chicken. We even baked some chocolate chip cookies.

It was a couple of day of camping fun, even though Delwyn says it not real camping because it only at the farm.

Family Vacation

We were able to go on a family vacation for 4 day June 19-22 in Salt Lake area. We had a great time. The kids were so excited to go they thought they should pack several days in advanced. I left it to them to get there own clothes packed. I gave them instruction on how many day were would be gone and to pack accordingly. They all managed to have enough clothes for the trip.

The first thing we did was take the kids to "Build A Bear Workshop" for them each to make a new friend. They had so much fun trying to pick out animal and then dress them. Aleeya wanted all of the bears and had a hard time just taking one.  Jessica made a second bear to give her friend McKinley for her birthday, she dressed them a like and gave them  the same name "Roxie".

Watching the bears get sewn up

Wednesday we took them to the Hogle Zoo where we were to meet the Lefler family for a day of fun. It ended up being only Megan and McKinley but it was still great to see them and spend some time with them.  The Leflers were late getting to the zoo so we got to walk around and see most things twice. The kids favorite spots were the Giraffes and the new "Rocky Shores" exhibit were they got to see the bears. Since Jessica had a gift for McKinley, McKinley bought Jessica a gift, matching neckless' , one said Best, and the other Friends. Jessica loved it.

4 monkeys and 1 large gorilla

The Klingler children and McKinley at the "Rocky
Shores" Polar Bear statue

Thursday we drove up to Heber City and took the Heber Valley Railroad train down through Provo canyon. The kids loved it. They did a train robbery skit and my kids were place in charge of gaurding the prisoner, they thought it was the best, and have told everyone all about it. On the way back to Salt Lake we drove up to the "Olympic Village" in  Park City and took pictures of the ski jumping hills.

Klingler Family in front of one of the Heber Valley Trains

Was the train robber, no just the Prisoner

Friday before heading for home we walked around Temple Square. The kids loved the south visitor center and the Salt Lake Temple model. Ky loved the spiral stair cases. 

Salt Lake Temple Model

Before leaving were walked around the "City Creek" Mall. The kids loved all the water fountains. It was so hot that they wanted to try and get wet. They did have one that was a spray park fountain and they were sad I wouldn't let them play and get wet.

The kids favorite part of the trip was getting to play in the hotel swimming pool each night after the day's advantures. They all are over coming there fears of  the water. Aleeya on the other hand just loves the water and doesn't care if it gets in her face, head goes under or anything else. She loves the water.

Loving the Water

Matthew loved the little 1-1.5 ft pool

It was a great trip, but we were all glad to get back home to sleep in our own beds.