A1C

Every 3 months we take Oakley into the diabetic doctor to get a check-up and get her A1C.  An A1C is a 3 month average of her blood sugar numbers.  We have been around 8.5-9.0 for the past 2 years.  The letter that we get tells us that if you have "Good Blood Sugar Control" that the perfect number is 6.5.  So we have run HIGH for 2 years now and we have known that Oakley's blood sugar control has been crappy.  We have tried and tried and tried to get her pump settings right and we had got to a point that we were praying for extra help because we no longer knew what to even try.  That help came this summer in the form of an educator at the diabetic center who took just 10 minutes one day when we were filling out paper work for a trial study to stop when the numbers didn't sound right and adjust Oakley's pump.  There was one setting on Oakley's pump that we didn't even know about!!  She showed it to us....made some adjustments and OH MY WORD all of the sudden after 2 years of crappy blood we finally had great blood numbers.  And they were consistent!! So I was really looking forward to this A1C and was bouncing off the walls when it came back at a 6.6.  SIX POINT SIX!!!  That is GREAT BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL!! Yay!  The past 3 months have been so much better than the past 2 years.  We do have more lows (we are seriously in the 50's at 1:30 a.m. EVERYNIGHT and I am still trying to figure that out!) but otherwise it is so much better!  Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers!

Rhett is 9!

Oh, my kids are all growing-up on me! My little guy isn't so little anymore.  He turned 9 on Saturday.

 He begged for a party and so we had his two best friends Raegan and Kylie and his friend Jackson over for cupcakes after school Friday before we headed into Blastoff.

 I love the look on Kylie's face as she watches him blow out the candle!

 I love in this picture that he put his arm around Raegan.  He is so blessed to have these two girls as his best friends and we are so thankful that we have found Jackson to be a new bestie too.

And this is typical Rhett.  Such a monkey! Look at him scale that wall!  He made it to the top SEVERAL times! They also played in the play land, mini golf and laser tag, plus the arcade.  Rhett is such a special boy and we are so grateful Heavenly Father knew we needed him in our family!  Happy birthday buddy!

Walk 2 Cure 2013

This year we put together TEAM OAKLEY again for the Walk to Cure Diabetes.  We are SO BLESSED to be surrounded by such incredible people.  We were able to raise just over $1300!! It is such a humbling thing as we watch the emails come in stating that we have a new donation.  We also had great support from friends and family again on walk day!

 What would we do without her best friends? Lauren and Katie were both able to be there this year.

 We also had Grandma Hawkins, Yvonne and her girls, Grandpa and Grandma Romrell (who walked the ENTIRE 3 miles after walking 2 that morning as part of a walk to the temple! What GREAT great grandparents!), Grandpa and Grandma Jacobson, Jessica and girls, Hollie and girls (plus she brought her sister-in-law and her girls) and the Barrie bunch. 

I cry at the walk every year.  Diabetes is so very real to us because we live with it every second of every day and to see so many other precious children that live with it just like we do is very heartbreaking.  We are blessed to have so much love and support and we know we are not in this fight alone.  And we will continue to fight UNTIL WE FIND A CURE!! 

Volleyball

We are right in the thick of it!  We have one month down and one to go! We are LOVING watching Oakley and her team.  They are a good little team.  Oakley has come SO FAR this summer/school year.  She has INCREDIBLE coaches that have taught her so much.  Her strong point right now is her serve.  She served 25 points one game.  That is an ENTIRE GAME! She served 14 in a row the first match (she was on FIRE!!) and then four at one time and 7 at one time of the next match...including game point!  After the game her coaches said they were worried we might lose and then they saw Oakley was up to serve so they were no longer worried. :) She is even learning to place her serve.  She truly is a super talented girl.  We are so proud of her hard work!

FINALLY!

After 14 1/2 years of marriage and four kids later Ryan and I FINALLY have 2 bathrooms!! It's about time!!

We had a storage closet next to Oakley's room in the basement that was just under the other bathroom so it was easy to get to the plumbing.  The plumbing was a NIGHTMARE though! It was all old cast iron that had to be replaced.  I swear we made 100 trips to Home Depot and Scotty's True Value.  Can I just say that Home Depot with your husband is like gouging your eyes out!! ;) 

 

 

And here is the after! Yay! It even works and we have been using it!!! SOOOO NICE! Ryan still needs to hook-up the sink and hang the towel racks and the trim, but I don't even care.  The fact that we have a second toilet is like heaven!!

First Day of School 2013

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

I can't believe the summer went by so quickly!! We even had a longer summer this time around because we didn't start school until after Labor Day and it still felt too short!

Rhett is going into 3rd grade and his teacher is incharge of the NEO's (similar to an ipad) and so she will be using them alot in her class and he is SO EXCITED for that! If that is what keeps my little boy excited for school than bring on the NEO's!! :) 

Dallin is headed to 5th grade and has one of the new teachers at our school.  This is her first year actually teaching and we are excited about that.  So far he has nothing but good to say about her and her class!

Oakley is in 8th grade and growing-up so fast! She is gorgeous and that scares us a little! :/  She LOVES middle school and is in mostly honor classes this year.  It will keep her working for sure!

And last, but never least, Laiklie is in 1st grade, FIRST GRADE!! My baby goes to school ALL. DAY. LONG!  It has been a little hard on her momma, but she is loving  having 2 recesses! :) She is a little bummed that they don't get any homework until next week.  I love this stage when they are so eager to learn!

Ryan and I have been adding a 2nd bathroom to the house.  WAY OVER DUE!! And so that has kept me busy and my mind off my babies all being gone this week.  They sure thought it was funny that Ryan and I were going to have to fight over who says the prayer at lunch time everyday with only the two of us. Little stinkers! I sure can't get enough of them!

A Trip to the Humanitarian Center

One of the things on my list of things I wanted to do this summer was to take my kids to the Humanitarian Center.  I told my friend Hollie about it and she wanted to come too.  Yay! Friends make everything better!

What a fun day! It is SO GOOD for the kids to go serve others.  The two big girls, Oakley and Lauren, sat next to two sweet little old ladies that taught them how to tie a quilt.  SO FUN!! Oakley said, "Mom....they talked about their husbands! (giggle, giggle)" :)

The little kids, Laiklie, Ava, Rhett and Preslie wanted to paint, so Hollie took them on the stage to paint toy blocks for other kids who need them.  They loved it and all looked like little smurfs when they were finished.  And Savanna wanted to color, so her and I went and colored learning folders.  What a great experience.  We will DEFINITELY be going back!

I Spy

Can you see the little boy among the stuffed animals?

This is seriously how Rhett's bed looks EVERY NIGHT!

I sure love that he has such a big heart!

Looky, Looky

at the newest members of the Rocky Mountain Middle School Volleyball Team!

Yay!! These girls showed up to volleyball tryouts with 40 other girls knowing they would only keep 20ish and they worked their guts out and proved to the coaches that they deserve a spot on the team.  I am SO PROUD of Oakley, Lauren and Katie for all the work they put in this summer to help them make the team.  They LOVE sharing this experience TOGETHER! What a blessing good friends are!  They have already played 2 games and so far are undefeated!! Hope they keep it up!

Laiklie's New Room

In the spring I got a burst of energy and decided to paint and re-do all of the kids bedrooms.  I ran out of gusto though when it got around to Laiklie's turn.  So a few weeks ago I decided it was time.  I will NEVER paint during the summer again when kids are home to help! :)  It takes SO MUCH LONGER!

Before -

She is sure she has out grown the princesses and the black beads that use to run along the strips have all been torn down by my big helper kids at some point or another and the brown wood paneling was beyond ready to go so it was definitely time!

 

She loves it, but still wants to sleep with her sister every night! Funny little girl reminds me of her mommy at that age. :)

Me and My Boys

In August we had to bring our calves home from Bone and Kilgore because it is SO DRY this year and we are running out of feed.  So me and these two big guys got to be the drivers of the flat bed truck hauling the hay bale to go help haul them home.  We had fun together! The way up to Kilgore was much more fun than on the way home when we were tired and NO AIR CONDITIONER in the flat bed! We did get a treat at the Kilgore Store though so they were all smiles! :) I sure love these two!

Little Fishy, Big Fishy

Our little fishy caught this big fishy the one night we finally got to go fishing this summer! Laiklie was the only one who caught one and she caught it on her first cast! Thanks for big sis who helped her reel it in and for cousin Jake who got a little wet getting it out of the water!