Oakley is Keeping Us on our Toes!

This is what 2 days and 15 hours of volleyball looks like!

 We got to go to Oakley's first travel volleyball tournament.  It was in Utah.  They started at 4 on friday and played until about 10 that night and finally got to the hotel and in bed just before midnight.  They were up at 6:30 am the next morning and playing by 9.  We finally finished just after 6:30pm last night.  She was EXHAUSTED and her body hurt everywhere.  She didn't sit at all during any of the games.  She played her GUTS OUT!  Her team did great both days.

 This is Oakley's team (in pink) and the other 14's team from Oakley's school (in yellow) they were all on the same school team together and are great friends.  At our last tournament it ended up that we had to play against each other.  It was a GREAT game and we came out the winners.  We once again had to play each other yesterday and after another great game the other team beat us.  I guess we owed them one.:) So that's okay.  The girls high-five and hug afterwards and just regroup and cheer each other on at the next game.

Oakley has also been busy with clogging.  This weekend was volleyball.....last weekend was clogging competition.  She did 5 solos, a duet, an A Capella and 2 team dances.

 All the pictures are fuzzy - SORRY CAMERA PHONE - but atleast you get a little peek at the night. The first picture Oakley is on the far left and it is the MC Hammer dance.  Super cute and got really high scores from the judges including a perfect 10 from one judge. Yay!

 Oakley is on the far right this time and this is their raining men dance.  They also got high scores from the judges on this one.  Both team dances got 1st places.  These girls are AMAZING cloggers and headed to NATIONALS once again!

 The best part of the night was that Oakley got 1st places on all her solos, A Capella and her duet as well. 
Every dance she did that night she got a 1st place on.  So she got a silver star award for the 1st's on her solos....

 And a SUPER STAR medal for the 1st all around that night.  Only one other girl on her team got that same award.  We are SOOOO PROUD of her.  She has worked so hard at clogging this year and deserves these awards.  Because they did so well the teacher has decided to throw in a freestyle dance and a short duet before nationals.  So we have some more learning to do!  NO BIGGIE!! She's got this!

 I sure love this little beauty!

Rhett's New Smile

The dentist and orthodontist told us that Rhett needed an expander in his mouth about a year ago.  They decided to do it this Fall and I just kept putting it off until about a month ago.  He needed it because his top back teeth when he bites down go on the inside of his bottom back teeth.  That isn't the way it is suppose to work.  We asked SEVERAL people if this was really necessary and finally decided for ourselves that it was when we saw that the number one issue when you do not correct this is sinus problems.  Ryan has had 5 sinus surgeries and he says his teeth do the same thing.  So it really was a no brainer for us.

 Before

 New Expander.  The first few days with this was a nightmare.  Not only did it make it extremely hard for Rhett to swallow, but everyday we had to stick a little key into the expander and turn it.  It hurt his nose and cheek bones as we cranked the key.  I HATED that it hurt him.  After about 5 days though it stopped hurting to turn.  We are all finished turning it now, but the expander stays in another 3 months while the new bone fills in.

 I know this is upside down.  Sorry! I can't get it to rotate.  You can see the nice BIG gap that the expander left between his two front teeth.  He hated it and on picture day at school was worried about smiling.  Poor little dude! So the orthodontist told us he could fix that.

And here is the new smile! Six brace brackets on just the top teeth.  The ortho said we have to s.l.o.w.l.y close the gap so that it doesn't cause damage to the expanding we just did in the back.  We will be in braces for a few months but then his smile should be back to normal.  Yay!!  What a trooper.

In related news.....Oakley is just weeks away from getting her braces off and her new smile as well.  Pictures to follow.

Calling Change

In December the bishop let me know that they were going to be releasing me from my calling as Young Womens President soon.  I cried.  But then he kept dragging it out.  He eventually told me that after New Beginnings on Feb. 19th (my anniversary) that they would release me.  The drag out all made sense when I found out who was replacing me.  This sweet lady just lost her mom to cancer and needed time to get through that before jumping into this new calling.  I am not going to lie though......IT WAS SOOOO HARD knowing I was getting released and having to keep it a secret and still go forward doing what I was suppose to do.  This change has been a big one for me.  I really felt like I wasn't suppose to be done yet.  The thought of handing it over to someone else literally broke my heart.  The thought of sending my diabetic daughter to girls camp for a week without me terrified me!  It still terrifies me!!  I cried all week last week.  Anytime I thought of being released or talked about it I cried.  I had to purposely plan a "FUN" New Beginnings so I didn't bawl all the way through it.  Sunday as they announced my name it seriously felt like I couldn't breath.  As they said it was time to make a change in the young womens program I saw so many of my young women look at me like WHAT???  They didn't know it was coming.  I cried as I had to tell them good-bye.  I cried when I got a text from one of them on Tuesday asking what we were doing for mutual.  This is a hard thing.  It will be a good change in our life...but a big adjustment for a while.  I will get use to it and the YW will be fine with their new leaders.  I cried when I got put into this calling and cry now as I am leaving it. 

I got a new calling too......and believe it or not....I CRIED! :)  I actually told Ryan NO when he issued me the calling.  I thought it was a made-up calling and I didn't want a made-up calling.  I thought maybe the bishopric had gone crazy and that maybe there was a shortage of old people in the ward!  I am the new Family History Consultant/Indexing Specialist.  SERIOUSLY!!!  I cried about it for 2 days! THIS IS WHY RYAN AND I NEEDED A ROAD TRIP FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY! I had to get out of here!!!  I have talked to the bishop and his other counselor more about my new calling and have found out a little more of what is expected from me.  I am not going to lie....IT SCARES ME TO DEATH to have to tell others how to do something I don't even know how to do, but I am committed to and willing to learn and my attitude has gone from crappy to much better within just a couple days.  I had a neat experience in the temple just a week before I was released that helps all of this to make sense to me so I know this is the right direction and I am putting my trust in my Heavenly Father to help me close the last chapter and open the next chapter.  I am grateful that His plan is always better than my plan! Ready or not.....HERE WE GO!

Jazz Game Surprise

Ryan's niece Kiana is in a cheerleading group that was performing at the Jazz Game Wednesday night.  We hadn't bought tickets because we watched her perform here at home and also because we know we are going to have to pull the kids out of school on several Fridays coming up with Oakley's club volleyball tournaments and so we didn't dare pull them all out for two days right now.

Wednesday morning though I got a text from Ryan's mom that said that Ryan's dad Stan couldn't go to the game anymore so she had an extra ticket and did I want to send Dallin? Wednesday as soon as we pulled in from our Nevada trip I ran to the school and grabbed Dallin who had NO IDEA what was going on.  When I got there he looked confused by me picking him up and as we headed to the car he kept saying what is going on.  As we got to the car I said, "Do you wanna go to a Jazz Game?"  You should have saw how big his eyes got!!

 I was bummed I didn't get to see them light up again as he entered the arena and as the blimp came out, etc.  He LOVED it all.  I know because I heard about it all!  It was such a neat thing for his grandma to take him with her!  He got to spend the night in the hotel with her and a couple cousins and swim and have a good time! 

What a blessing family is in our lives.  Dallin will never forget his first Jazz Game with grandma!

Nevada or Bust!

ROAD TRIPS ROCK!! Even if you end up in sucky Reno!

 Ryan and I had our 14th Anniversary last week and decided to celebrate with a road trip.  We really didn't even know where we were going Sunday when we loaded in the car.....and to tell you the truth I needed out of here SO BAD that I really didn't care where we went! So as we approached Pocatello and had to decide if we were headed to Utah or Nevada we chose Nevada.  Neither of us had ever been to Reno before so we decided Reno it was.  This is the Reno temple.  It is SERIOUSLY the one and only thing worth while in Reno.  Not even joking!!

 (This is NOT a good picture of us!....but atleast you can see we were actually there!) We thought Reno was a pretty big name...there had to be something fun to do there.  Oh  my word were we wrong!  After we found the temple we headed into town.  All that is there is run down casino's.  We stopped at Circus Circus because we know they have more than just gambling.  At least the Circus Circus in Vegas did.  WRONG!! There whole section that isn't gambling was shut down.  It was soooo smokey in the casinos we could hardly breath.  So we were in and out!  We ate at Wendys in Reno and headed back towards Idaho!

 We spent one night in Elko.  My friend once referred to Elko as the armpit of the earth.  She obviously has never been to Reno! :) Elko was great compared to Reno.  We found this super cool museum that we wished we had the kids with us for.  It was FULL of every animal mount you can imagine.  It had everything from an elephant, to a rhino, to elk, deer, cheetahs and polar bears.  It was amazing! We took a million pictures so the kids could see it atleast.  We also did some shopping.  We tried to do that in Reno, but the shopping mall we found on our phones GPS had actually been torn down when we got there.  Of course!

 We went through Twin Falls on our way home and got to see the temple there.  Beautiful.  We did a little more shopping in Twin as well.  And then we went to Shoshone Falls.  Neither of us had been to the falls.  They were cool.  I really want to take the kids back during the summer when all the water is going.  Parts of it were froze up.

The canyon the falls is in is gorgeous as well.  It was worth stopping at.  Ryan and I had a great time just getting out of here.  We made alot of memories.....like just after getting in the car Monday morning as we passed a bus full of teenagers I seriously got MOONED!!!......We remembered that there is a reason we fell in love and got married and we were gone long enough that we missed the kids and were excited to be home!  Happy 14th Anniversary Ryan!

End of the Season

Last saturday was Dallin's last basketball game for this season.  It was a great game.  We were to play the Titans.  We are the top two teams in this group of boys.  They would score, we would score.  That is the way the game went the entire game.  As the clock wound down with just seconds to spare we were down 2 points.  We have NOT lost a game yet and  you could tell the boys were fighting.  The other team was just passing the ball to run down the clock and one of the boys on Dallin's team, Jay, got a steal.  He ran down for a lay-up with just 2 seconds on the clock and MISSED!! BUT...he was fouled! Yay! So Jay got to shoot his foul shots for a chance to tie the game.  HE MADE THEM!! This league doesn't go into overtime, so the game ended with the two best teams in a tie.  A PERFECT ENDING TO THE SEASON for both teams!! The boys were so excited to have an undefeated season and I am so proud of how far they have come!

More Skiing

On Dallin's last ski trip with the school we decided to buy the tickets and rentals for Rhett and Laiklie to try to ski.  They both LOVED it!!

 They have NO FEAR at this age so they just jumped in and learned so quickly!  Laiklie went down the bunny hill a million times I swear.  I hiked up and down, up and down over and over again following her to make sure to catch her when she fell.  She figured it out so quickly though that pretty soon I realized I could just stand at the bottom of the hill and watch her come down.  Nice!!

Rhett was a natural at it.  He loved the bunny hill, but also convinced his big brother Dallin to take him down skiers lane a couple times.  He even got brave enough he got on the lift and went down it all alone at the end of the night.  He had a blast and I am worried he is going to want to ski again next year.  Not a cheap hobby! :)

 Oakley decided once we got up there and she saw that there was hardly anybody there and one of her besties Katie was there to help that she wanted to ski too.  So we got her a pair of ski's and a ticket and away she went.  She liked it....not loved it.  She was going backwards down the bunny hill at one point - NOT on purpose.  Ha, ha!!  She tried to do skiers lane a little too early and fell ALOT (as she put it!).  After that she was done for the night.  I am hoping I can get her back on ski's next year to try again.  I only skied once in my life and it was a little like Oakley's experience and I wish I wouldn't have given up so easily.  Hopefully she will try again.

We had a great night other than when the tow rope decided to kick Laiklie off and flip up and take a chunk out of her little nose. It is hard to see in the picture, but she still has a scab and a bruise a week later.  Poor baby!  It didn't slow her down at all though.  Such a fun night! My kids never cease to amaze me!