Hanging Lake Family Day Trip

Friday, August 28th we hiked to Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon. One of the most beautiful places on earth! The hike was tough (1000 ft in elevation in 1.5 miles!), but the children were troopers. Even Bridgette walked more than half of the way! Bryce made the comment that the view was worth the hike. Many people called us brave for taking 6 children, including a baby and 3-year-old, up to the top. We're not sure if it was bravery or stupidity, but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

The children behind the waterfall coming from Spouting Rock. The water is literally coming out of a hole in the side of the mountain.

We made it back down with only a few minor injuries--a bee sting, a scraped knee, and a twisted ankle! We were all tired and sore but happy. One day later, and we're no worse for the wear. Yea!!

Karina & Bryce 4-H

Karina's first cake she's ever decorated! Turned out great, and you almost can't tell Bridgette ate one of the ears off of it! She had to decorate 4 practice cakes and then her exhibit cake before Fair.

Bryce with his finished knife sheath. He loved working with Golden Boyce learning leathercraft and wants to continue with it.

Karina also did a garden project. Here are her basil and tomato plants she started from seed clear back in winter.

Karina's final exhibit cake--Holly Hobbie. If she looks a bit tired it's because she was up at 6 a.m. to finish it! It was a rough morning!

Bryce with his finished exhibit. He did such a nice job on his knife sheath and wallet! He's excited to give the wallet to his dad.

Bryce with his ribbons from his leathercraft project. He was soooo excited (even though he was the only one in his class)! We're anxiously awaiting the return of his exhibit from State Fair. He received Grand Champion, Champion, First Place, and Blue Award group for the county fair.

Karina with the ribbons from both of her projects--3rd place and Blue Award Group on her cake; Champion, Reserve Grand Champion, First Place, Blue Award Group on her gardening project; and a First Premium for her tomatoes. Karina's garden project also went to state fair.

Now Mariah wants to be in 4-H too, so we'll have all 3 in it this year. As long as we don't wait until the month before fair to start the projects this year!

Kassie's Blessing Day--July 5, 2009

The whole Pyle Family! Can you believe we actually got them all together for a picture!
Well, we were missing Karina, but we didn't realize it until it was all over and done with.
Thank you, John, for adding her in as a part of our family!

Grandma & Grandpa Simler with Kassie

Grammy & Papa Pyle with Kassie

Kassie in her beautiful blessing dress made by Grammy Pyle. It was a special day!

Special Occasions

Karina turned 12 on June 21. She had a few friends over for a sleepover. It was quite the house full of girls! She is so excited to be in Young Women's in our church. She took a babysitting class through Red Cross last month and has already been a huge help to us!

On July 12 we had our first incubated eggs hatch. It was such a special experience to watch them hatch! We just had our second bunch hatch this last weekend (August 14).

On July 17 we went to the Manti Temple in Utah. It was special for the children to see where Mom and Dad began our eternal family.
Our van broke down on the way from Manti to Provo than night. That made the rest of the trip stressful to say the least. We owe a big "thank you" to John and Chelsea, Don and Dea (Mom and Dad), Melvin (Dad), and Eileen. We couldn't have survived without you!

The next day we were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House in South Jordan, Utah. The children loved seeing the inside of a house of God.

Kassie

Our precious angel 16 days old.

Daddy's little girl--28 days old.

Two sleeping beauties

Our chubby cutie pie at 7 weeks old.

Kassie with her only brother, Bryce.

Our happy little girl--this is how she is most of the time!
2 months old

Cousins

We are so blessed to live close to most of our family.
Andraya and Bridgette are only a couple months apart in age and really enjoy being together.

Becca and Tate are also 2 months apart in age. Becca really misses living close to Tate,
but they are able to spend time at each others' houses a couple times a year.

Introducing...

Kassie Hope Simler
born Sunday, May 3, 2009, 1:34 p.m.
6 lbs, 7 oz; 19 inches long

Our precious girl at 4-days old.
We are so thankful to have her join our eternal family (even if she isn't the boy we were expecting!). She has been such a sweet baby so far in her one week on this earth.

Kassie with her only living great-grandparent (Grandad Schneider) on Mother's Day.

Bridgette and Becca both adore their baby sister.
Bridgette keeps saying, "This is my baby sister?"

Grammy holding Kassie shortly after she was born.

The Simler Siblings
Just one hour after the arrival of their sister.

KWAKers

The four oldest children, along with their cousins Hannah, Sabrina, and Elizabeth (Bridgette just hopped in for the picture.) participated in a Kids with a King production on May 9th and 10th.
KWAK is a Christian musical production that Delta Christian Church sponsors twice a year. This semester's production was called Camp Koinonia and was a wonderful story about kids going to summer camp and getting stuck inside because of bad weather. They whine and complain but then learn great lessons of people from the Bible who made the best of their difficult situations. Karina had the main part of Crystal, and all the other children (except Elizabeth and Becca who didn't want parts) had short solos in some of the songs. The children loved participating and we loved watching them! This was Karina's last one, so they awarded her with a nice bouquet of flowers. She is so sad to be too old to be in any more! The children put in about 24-hours of practice time for these performances. It has been such a good experience for them!

Karate

On May 2, Bryce tested for his next belt level. He's really coming along with his karate!

Bryce's BD

Bryce turned the big 10 on April 19th.
We celebrated with chocolate cheesecake and by having some friends of his spend the night.

Gymnastics

These pictures aren't great because they are taken in a gym with bad lighting, but the top one on the right is Rebecca, and the bottom on on the right is Mariah. They did a quick gymnastics performance between basketball games at the high school in March.

Awanas Game Day

Rebecca and Mariah had both been involved in Awanas this year. Each year they have a regional game day that they practice really hard for. Mariah ended up being really sick and wasn't able to participate this year, but Rebecca went and had so much fun. Their team even took 1st place for the 2nd year in a row!

March Birthdays

Mariah turned 8 on March 16th.

Bridgette turned 3 on March 29th.

Scout Adventures

Bryce had fun as usual making his pinewood derby car for Scouts. He won 2nd place in his Den and was able to race at districts. He didn't do as well there, but it was a good experience for him.
He also earned his Webelos badge and was awarded that in February.

Each year the Scout Pack here has a cake auction. The boys have to make and decorate the cake without the help of any female. Since Dad was gone working in Denver, Papa graciously volunteered to help Bryce with his cake. That Easter egg looks good enough to eat!

Animals & Babies

Bryce and Bridgette with one of our new goats (Grace and Isabella). They are Nigerian Dwarf goats, so they are small and easy for all of us to manage. Isabella had a breach baby a few weeks ago, and we lost that one. We are milking her now, so that is an adventure!

Bridgette with one of our new chicks.

Grace had her baby a week ago. It was a horribly, difficult birth; but both mom and baby made it okay. This is our new addition to the family--Lucky. We are loving him already! He is bounding around all over the place and will come and sit on the children's laps.

One of Kenny's snakes had 23 babies a couple of days ago too. He has two more snakes ready to deliver soon also. We won't post pictures due to the sensitive nature of some of our readers :)

The newest addition to our family is set to join us in the next 3 weeks. We are anxious to meet this new spirit Heavenly Father had allowed to come to our family! We'll keep you updated on that.

Karina asked if we could get a couple of puppies now and mom had to say, "We're about babied out here. Let's wait a while!"

Mariah's Baptism

On April 11, 2009, Mariah was baptized by her father in Cedaredge. It was a special day, even if the mirror was fogged up so no one could see! We are thankful she made the choice to follow her Savior and know it will be a blessing in her life.

Here is a picture of Mariah in her beautiful baptism dress that Sister Rodriguez made for her.

Celebrating Easter

We were so excited to have Vernice and Nathan come visit from Texas for a couple of weeks! We really enjoyed meeting this new cousin--Becca (our baby lover) especially enjoyed spending time with him.

Look at this crew of cousins ready to go on an egg hunt!

Karina's Green Thumb

Karina loves plants and animals. This year for 4-H she decided to do a gardening project, so she started tomato and basil seeds a couple of months ago. They are doing wonderful--some over a foot tall and needing to be in the garden! She also takes a large chunk of the responsibility for all of our animals (more on this later!). We really appreciate all she does!