My baby can ride her bike...

WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!

 Laiklie has been telling us for months she was ready, and every time we tried she was super disappointed.  So today when she came skipping out of the house with the skateboard elbow/knee pads and a helmet on telling me she was ready to do no training wheels I didn't want to be the one to crush her dreams.  So...I told her we would try one time.  I was blown away at how she just got it.  It clicked! Finally! I knew it would come when she was ready....and TODAY WAS THE DAY!

 This is her letting us all know she is only 5 years old and can now ride her bike like a grown-up! My favorite part of all of this is when she told me, "I am just so proud I can do no training wheels!" I am SO PROUD TOO!
 She also has a super loose tooth.  I am hoping it will hang on for another month til her birthday.  Five year olds aren't suppose to lose their teeth! That is too tiny to lose teeth!

And this picture I had to add too just because I seriously can't get enough of her! Isn't she so much fun?!

Back to School....HERE WE COME!!

I really don't know where the summer went! I can not believe it is over already!  I seriously wasn't completely ready to send them back to school yesterday.  I think in my mind I kept thinking if I put off getting ready to send them back that maybe it wouldn't come! NOPE! Still came! 

 These are my HANDSOME boys! Rhett is in 2nd Grade this year.  He was SO NERVOUS because his best friend Raegan is in a different class.  He came home telling me that they played at every recess together though.  I am guessing that will be the pattern for the year.:)  He also came home telling me that the class birds had a baby and the teacher told him he could have it.  Ummmm......NO THANK YOU! The last thing we need around here is another pet bird!  I have NO IDEA how I am going to talk him out of this one!

 Dallin is in 4th grade.  He was nervous too.  He came home the most excited though!! His teacher had them play games all day and announced there would be NO HOMEWORK for the first 3 months of school! That is SERIOUSLY my kind of teacher!! Although....that makes me a little nervous that there won't be a lot of learning/teaching going on.  I guess we will roll with the punches on this one!

 And here is our big MIDDLE SCHOOLER!! AH!!!  She was TERRIFIED! She came home last night telling me that she didn't know why she was so scared! It went very smoothly! Well....other than the lock on her locker that she can't open! :) Thank goodness for good friends with close lockers! She had a long day though.  With volleyball practice after school she doesn't even get home until 6ish.  This will definitely take some getting use to!  Today is her first volleyball game! We are super excited!

And last, but NEVER least my KINDERGARTNER!! I can not believe my baby is old enough for kindergarten.  She was SOOOO EXCITED!! She couldn't wait to ride that bus home with her boys!  She picked out her own outfit and came home talking about all the new friends she made.  She is so in love with kindergarten already!  I have NO IDEA what I am going to do without her this year!  She is my very best helper!

I do have to say though....It was kinda nice to go grocery shopping yesterday without any kids!!  I might kind of like this new freedom 1/2 a day every day!  I sure love my kids and I hope and pray every morning that the teachers in the school will take good care of them while they are in their care! 

HERE WE GO....READY OR NOT!

Scouts

Dallin has had a big summer with scouts.  On July 26th he was awarded his Bear!  That is still MONTHS away from his birthday.  So...he has been working hard to earn some arrow points. 

 You can barely see him in this picture.  He is in the red/blue shirt standing next to his AMAZING leader, Brother Hagan.  We are so grateful for WONDERFUL scout leaders!!

 Dallin also got to do the rain gutter regatta this past week.  He made his boat, for the most part, all by himself.  He was happy with it and it turned out very nice.  He was pretty good at blowing his boat to the end of the rain gutter.  I knew he would have NO PROBLEMS with this.:)

I LOVEY, LOVE, LOVE those cheeks!!  We are so proud of all the hard work Dallin has put into his scouting.  He is such a great kid and knows how to dig in and get the job done!

Summer Days

I am not ready for them to end!

You're Looking at Her

This isn't best picture ever of my volleyball player, but here is the NEWEST MEMBER OF THE RMMS VOLLEYBALL TEAM!!  Oakley had tryouts monday and tuesday this week.  When we walked in there were 43 girls and we were told they would keep 24.  Some of the girls were SO GOOD! You could tell they had been playing for years!  Oakley only started volleyball this spring so I left thinking that we (she tried out with 3 friends too) didn't have a chance of any of them making it.  She worked her guts out and proved she wanted it though and SHE MADE THE TEAM!!  It was kind of a day of mixed emotions though.  As excited as she was for herself and her friend Lauren, her friends Katie and Alicia didn't make the team and her heart was broke for them.  We are so proud of her and can't wait to be the annoying parents in the stands yelling for our girl! :)

A Little Birthday.....A Little Camp....

Oakley turned 12 this year on August 1st.  I know 12!!! It seriously BLOWS MY MIND! Where did the last 12 years go?!  She is AMAZING! I went with her yesterday and listened to her tell her diabetic story to a company that is going to help with the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes and she had me in tears and 3 grown men all teary eyed.  She is such a special daughter of Heavenly Father and Ryan and I are SO BLESSED to be her earthly parents!

We celebrated her bday on Sunday since we left for girls camp Monday morning.  Her birthday wasn't really until Wednesday so we let her open presents early.  This iphone that she is talking on was her FAVORITE (& Rhett's favorite :) present.  We ONLY got her an iphone because we found a blood glucose meter that plugs into it....allows her to check her blood ON HER PHONE....and then she can hit a share button and it emails it right to my phone.  AMAZING!!! Technology is FABULOUS!!  She also got make-up, clothes and a new bed set.  She was excited about it all!

This is her on Wednesday blowing out candles on the cake the very sweet priesthood leaders brought up for her.  She had a good birthday. *Mostly because she didn't have to hike that day! Ha, ha! If you've ever hiked a girls camp hike you will know what I am talking about! She got to be with all her friends and I was, once again, blown away at the love of her sweet friends.  We had SO MANY of her school friends that are in our stake, but not even our ward, that remembered it was her birthday and took gifts to girls camp for her.  She is so blessed to have wonderful friends!  Happy birthday Oakley!!

Now....On to girls camp stuff...

This year we started girls camp a little differently.  I decided that my sweet little young womens group needed to walk to the temple as part of our girls camp experience.  I decided MONTHS ago and have been working with my presidency and many, many others for months planning it.  We left Saturday, July 28 at 5 am from our stake center and walked the 10 miles to the temple.  I had 4 young women out of my 17 that couldn't be there that day. Otherwise they were all there and we had an AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!  We had pit stops every 2 miles where we got something to eat, drink and motivate.  Those that helped with the stations were FABULOUS!!  We were sore and achy when we got there, but we changed into our sunday dress and headed inside to do baptisms for the dead.  What a neat experience! I struggled with only 1 thing that day......my baby girl Oakley got to walk the 10 miles with us because we did it as part of girls camp, but she didn't get to go inside the temple because she had not yet turned 12.  It was hard to leave my girl outside as I went in. :( BUT.....what a blessing it is to know that I already have her FOREVER! Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father that knows families should be together forever!

We then left for girls camp Monday, July 30 and were there until Friday, August 3.  The stake had so many fun things planned for us and our ward leaders were wonderful.  The girls had a great week.  I had a great week! We had a little girl drama and a couple bad attitudes I had to deal with, but otherwise it was GREAT!

Oakley and her hatchet throwing skills!

This is me and my archery skills. :) Notice you get the picture of me shooting....not of my target. Ha, ha!

And here is the bishopric! They deserve the GOOD TROOPERS AWARD! We always try to do something fun with them on bishops night so the girls get to see them in a little different light.  Ryan is on the left getting his shave on! :)  The girls giggled and giggled all through this.  It was fun to have Ryan there again this year and extra special for him to get to come to hear his daughter bear her testimony for the 1st time.  Girls camp does something for the insides of YW that they can't get ANYWHERE else! So grateful to be a part of it!!

Swim, Swim

Dallin, Rhett and Laiklie had swim lessons in July and LOVED them.  My kids are like fish and LOVE being in the water. 

This is Rhett coming out of the big slide on the last day of lessons.  He can slide and jump off the diving board all he wants without a life jacket now.  He has become quite the swimmer.  When I signed Dallin and Oakley up for swim team at the beginning of the summer he was mad I wouldn't sign him up.  I told him he needed to do lessons a few more years and he said, "I just....................I just.................I just feel like I am too good for lessons!"  Ummm....that is EXACTLY why I put him in lessons.  I think he is a little OVER-CONFIDENT!  He did great in lessons and loved every minute of it!

This is Laiklie, the little boy in her class and her teacher.  She LOVED jumping off the diving board the last day of lessons and even insisted on doing it once without the life jacket.  She is my favorite one to watch when she swims.  She kicks and paddles like a tornado.....but her little body doesn't actually move. :) SO CUTE!!  When she does figure out how to put that energy into motion, WATCH OUT!!

Oakley just did swim team this year.  She was in the pool every Mon - Wed all of June and July.  There were mornings in June that she was getting in the water at only 40 degrees.  SOOO COLD!!  She stuck it out though and has become a strong little swimmer.  She was good when she started and is even better now!  My sister calls their swim team goggles Magnum PI goggles. Ha, ha!  Oakley has the most gorgeous brown skin now from swim team! It scares me sending my beautiful baby off to JR. High in just a few weeks! AH!!!

And here is Dallin coming off the slide.  He LOVES the water.  He did double duty and did swim team and swim lessons.  He didn't mind!! I had him do both when I realized swim team didn't teach them their strokes real well.  I wanted him to KNOW them and decided putting him in both was the way to go.  He loved it all.....other than the 40 degree weather.  He did complain about that a few times. :) I don't blame him!