First Day

Good-bye summer...and this mama is not sad to see it go.

We have had plenty of lovingly sisterly bonding time...

which in our home can look and sound more like a tornado, hurricane and earthquake all at the same time, if ya know what I mean.

Aspen joined in the sibling rivalry this summer which brought the volume of 

incidents up ten-fold.

Brinley pranced outside proud to show off this  

silly summer hair-do the night before school began.

Getting all scrubbed up for the first day!

Heading out for a wonderful first day of school!

The girls are thrilled with their teachers and delighted to be back in school.

Avery is in half-day kindergarten,

Brinley is in 3rd grade

and Aspen will start preschool in 10 days and boy has the countdown 

for that been on her mind rather constantly!

Irish Festival

Here are those clips I took of the girls dance academy preforming at the

Dublin Irish Festival.

Although the girls have several teachers, their main teacher is the gentleman above in the front right. 

He is well into his 40's and still dancing daily.

Throughout the years many of the dancers from this academy have gone on to preform in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance.

 The graduated male dance student above and below is currently touring with Lord of the Dance and stopped by the festival to participate in this performance.

The girls below are dancing in traditional competition solo dresses and wigs with
"soft shoes,"
which look like THIS. 

Avery is only in soft shoes, whereas Brinley has moved up
and practices jigs in both "hard" and "soft" shoes.

It's fun to see the girls eyes light up as the watch these older students and their teachers preform.

Aunt Heather

 We had a fantastic time with Cody's sister Aunt Heather this past week!

 

Not only is she quite the hair stylist...

 

but she is also a very brilliant and creative storyteller. 

She began telling the girls make-believe stories about a character named "Sam Anderson" and his side kick "Gobe-Gobe." Each time the storytelling began the girls were mesmerized.

Brinley and Avery came to love these animated story times during Heather's visit and were still pleading for one last story on the way to drop Heather off at the airport!

One night we went to an outdoor concert featuring a Beetles cover band.

We also introduced Heather to COSI, our wonderful children's science museum.

Other activities included:

Jungle Jacks Landing

The swimming pool x2

Panera Bread and Northstar Cafe

Shopping at MJR

AND....

the most darling and simultaneously hilarious dog play produced and narrated by Brinley.

Heather was a great sport to be one of the full fledged puppy actors!


She went above and beyond to participate with the girls in many activities including a sleepover party while mom and dad took a night off!

Our girls fell in love with their Aunt Heather during her week with us and tears of longing indicate that they have formed a special bond with her.

Thank you Heather for coming to visit us.
We sure love and appreciate you!

Weekend Update

Brinley's baptism was wonderful. 

A big thanks to all of those who participated and helped make this 

special day one full of love, support and precious memories.

As a little girl I had so wished that my father could have been the one 

to baptize and confirm me,

so it was even more heart-warming to see Cody be able to do this for Brinley

with the proper Priesthood authority.

Afterwards we invited everyone to a luncheon at our home.

Above is the cake we served for dessert. 

Two layers of chocolate cake with a dense fudge filling in between made for a very yummy treat.

The kids ate outside in the muggy heat, adults were inside!

Grandma and Grandpa Young flew in from Utah 

for the weekend and Kelty came from Chicago.

It was fun to have Grandma Young in our home for the first time and show 

both she and Grandpa around Columbus a bit.

On the afternoon of the baptism we headed to Dublin for the 2nd largest Irish Festival in the entire WORLD! I wish we could have stayed for much longer, but the events we were able to watch were simply top notch!

During this presentation the girls were mesmerized learning about how straw is turned into thread and then woven into cloth. 

The gentleman demonstrating was quite the character with a delightful accent.

Of course the highlight of the festival for the girls was watching their 

Irish Dance Academy preform. 

I will upload video I took of that on the next post.

 We also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the zoo...

and what would a trip to Ohio be without experiencing Graeter's Ice cream!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Young and Kelty for traveling here

to be with us and support Brinley!

Beautiful Brinley

This Saturday Brinley is being baptized!

The closer we get to this special day the closer this pregnant mother gets to tears just 

thinking about her first baby reaching the age of accountability. 

Not tears of sadness, quite the opposite in fact...

although the idea of her growing up and learning more about the world we live in certainly 

does drive home the desire we have to teach her all we can while she is still in her youth.

Auntie Yvette bought Brinley the baptism dress of her choice and this is it!

It seems like just yesterday when I was with Yvette waddling down the mall hallway in Utah as we searched for the perfect baby blessing dress for Brinley, 

who was just about to make her way into the world.

My very talented friend Charlotte also gave us a 

wonderful gift by taking these pictures of Brinley for her baptism invitations. 

Thank you, thank you Charlotte!

Avery and Brinley will be preforming THIS song during the baptismal service.

They are going to sing it once in English and once in Spanish.

The fact that they know this song in Spanish is a testament to the number of bed time songs 

Daddy has sung to them, sometimes in Spanish.

Avery and Aspen certainly look up to their big sister with admiration (although sometimes it comes across in screams and scratches) we feel grateful for the example 

Brinley is striving to set for them.

Cross your fingers that my water-proof mascara works wonders on Saturday!