Girls in our Sunday best...

(Sorry, the "photographer" was impatient to eat lunch, so I was lucky to have one picture actually turn out. I did ask him to take lots since I know, someone always has there eyes shut. This time it was me!! I'll only give one hint as to his identity: he's really tall:)

Earl family is getting active!

Olivia at Park City

Grace practicing with her ballroom class

It has been fun to try some new things lately, like skiing for Olivia and snowboarding for Zach. Olivia LOVED it and still wants to be Lindsey Vahn. Zach says he would rather stick with skiing than snowboarding, but he did pretty good.

I 've started pushing our family to get more active. I noticed that we were getting a little out of shape and I pointed out to everyone how much walking we'll be doing soon on our trip to Disneyland. This has given us a good reason to start getting more fit.

We've started playing racquetball, swimming and Zumba (me), at the local rec center for family night. It's a fun activity and it gives us a chance to do something fun the whole family enjoys. We've been meeting the Earl cousins there and the kids have fun playing racquetball and swimming. Mike and Doug used to play racquetball, so they have been helping the kids learn. Cheryl likes Zumba, so I've gone a couple times to that class. It is pretty tough after my winter of hibernating, but I try to keep up and not emberass myself too much!

Other things we are doing are the Irish/tap dance class that Olivia, Eliza and I are taking. Yes, I'm in the class with them! It's been very fun and with 3 girls, two of them mine, it feels like a mother/daughter class. It is a great workout and if I can get back in shape, it won't kill me like it is right now!

The weather is finally getting warmer, so we've also started biking part of the time to school (especially Olivia). Grace is still learning, so she's not quite ready to ride without training wheels. Eliza loves to ride in the bike trailer part of the time and then I put her scooter in the back for some of the spots that I don't want to pull her on.

AND, I've invited some of my neighbor friends to start walking the track that encircles a park by the girl's elementary school. This morning we did a brisk walk for about 40 minutes, but with lively conversation, it only felt like half that time!

This sounds like a lot, but really I'm hoping to do something every day and some of our activities are only once a week, so the walking and biking are more of our daily exercise.

If we can find the time, anyone can! It's just deciding to do something and then making it happen!

Happy 16th Birthday Kirk!

Thursday, March 11th

Kirk asked me to make a Tres Leche cake. It was good, but the chocolate cake I made when the family came over last Sunday was REALLY good. (Adding extra melted dark chocolate to our favorite birthday cake recipe was a great idea!)

We went out for dinner at one of the best Italian places around. The kids all love the pasta bar and the salad bar is awesome! Zach even had a little pizza to take home with his. Pasta is one of Kirk's favorite foods and it actually fills him up, so that's good too!

Kirk is a "bright" light in our home. I'm so proud of him and the good choices he's made in his life and I know he'll continue to do his best. It's so nice to see him being kind and patient to his little sisters and being a good example to us all. Sunday at church, he was made a Priest and will be helping to bless the sacrament next week.

I love how he continues to learn about different countries and cultures. After he won for state 2 years ago, I didn't know if he'd lose interest in geography, but he's always bringing home books from the library on every country you can imagine. He loves to learn and he remembers what he learns! I wish I had his memory!

Kirk is finishing up his Eagle for Boy Scouts and is in drivers ed class at school. After that, he'll take his drivers test and we'll have another person in the house to help with the running. That will be so nice!

We love you Kirk!!