Clogging Competition 2011

We had our 1st clogging competition of the year this past Friday. Oakley did 2 dances and 5 solos and did a GREAT JOB!

This first dance is called Country Rock Star and she is the 2nd from the left. They have these super cute guitars that they hold for the first few minutes and then shoot them through their legs before they really start dancing. They also have the super cutest rhinestone guitar belt buckles! They got a 1st place on this dance! Yay!!
The second dance is called Trashin The Camp (from the movie Tarzan) and is a cute, cute dance. They also got a 1st place on this one too....which means NATIONALS HERE WE COME!!
In this dance they are holding hot pink wooden spoons and have these little tin backpacks on their backs and they use their spoons to hammer on their neighbors backpack. SO CUTE!!

The video below is one of the solos Oakley performed. It is of her and Lara - one of the girls that is in her group. They both got off just a little - they said the music speed wasn't the same as they had been practicing to. Oakley got 3 1st places and 2 2nds on her solos. As long as she gets atleast 1 first place she gets to perform all 5 at Nationals again. The way they judge solos is you are just judged on yourself and how well you know the dance. If you do it perfect you get a 1st, not perfect but pretty good a 2nd and not know it at all a 3rd. So....yay for her! I LOVE watching her dance and I am SOOO PROUD OF HER!

Room's Finally Finished

BEFORE: Ugly peeling paintable wall paper....
BEFORE: Old and not so super cute dresser....(This dresser actually came to me from my great-grandma Josie's home. The story I got about it was that it was given to her from a furniture store after her home was re-built because her old home went in the Teton Dam Flood. I have had it since I was a little girl and decided it was still in good enough condition to go in my little girls room....after a new paint job that is.:)

AFTER: This is her new purple wall....the words say, "Once upon a time there was a princess." She put the stars around it, and she LOVES it and that is what is important!

AFTER: This is her new pink wall. The picture that you can't see very good is her temple picture that she picked out. She also got a new bulletin board for all the "stuff" she is CONSTANTLY taping to her walls.

And these are the new striped walls. The black lines down the sides of the stripes are actually black beads and super cute up close. I LOVE the way the dresser turned out with a new piant job! Perfect for her room.

So....not worlds best room, but DEFINITELY better than it was and like I said, she LOVES it!

Hmmmm....

Laiklie: Mom der was a bumble bee in my nose.
Me: Really?
Laiklie: Ya, don't worry.....I picked it out. (PAUSE).....it was on a nuger. (aka buger)

Laiklie's Green Thumb

A few weeks ago Laiklie brought this little paper cup home from primary where her "sweetest teacher ever" helped her plant a seed. I always HATE when the little paper cups come home with seeds in them because my kids always have such HIGH expectations and to be honest with you.....I SUCK AT KEEPING PLANTS ALIVE! I mean, truthfully, I am terrible and have a black thumb for sure. I kill every plant that comes into this house and I always feel HORRIBLE when it is my sweet little childs long awaited plant from the paper cup that I kill.

This time though, Laiklie has LOVED this little plant to life. She has watched it grow and change everyday and just babies it along. I KNOW it is at that point that I HAVE to move it from the sweet little paper cup to something larger with more dirt or it will for sure die, (this is usually the part I hate and hence, the plant dies) BUT I wanted you to see how well I've done - with Laiklie's help - so far! :)

Update

This week has been a CRAZY week.....but, a normal week also - I guess what I am saying is EVERY WEEK AROUND HERE IS A CRAZY WEEK! We stated the week off with a goose egg on Laiklie's forehead. I was in the shower when she tore into the bathroom screaming that "Rhett did it!" After I got out I went and asked Rhett what happened - all the while Laiklie screaming in the background that "Rhett did it" and Rhett said, "She jumped off the couch and hit her head on that chair." As soon as he finished Laiklie stopped screaming and said, "Oh ya, dadt is what happened!" OH MY WORD!! What a funny girl. I guess her philosophy is - if you can't remember how you got hurt just blame it on big brother!!

Kinda hard to see in the pictures. And, yes, that is a swimsuit strap....we are back to living in them AGAIN!:)

So.....Monday I also decided it was time to dig in to redecorating Laiklie's room. I have been putting it off because of remodeling the basement and eventually moving her down there, but I decided that her room in the basement is still possibly a year away from being finished and so I HAD to do something about the one she is currently in. The paintable wall paper that my mom, sister and I put up when I was pregnant with Oakley has been painted over SEVERAL times and was starting to peel off. It had to go. It was actually the easiest wall paper I have EVER removed....all I had to do was pull! :) We have some kinda funny brownish bluish wall panels under it and so I decided to paint some purple and pink stripes. The painting is finished and as soon as I get pictures hung-up I will post pictures!

BEFORE: - You can see the wallpaper peeling off and the funny color underneath if you look hard.

This is Laiklie singing while the paint dries in her room. SUPER CUTE!

We had Dallin's Blue and Gold Banquet this past Thursday too! It was fun to sit and visit and watch the little cub scouts do their thing. (No pictures...sorry!)

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a Regional Relief Society Meeting at BYU-I where Sister Julie B. Beck (General R.S. president) spoke. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. and I was so grateful for the things I took home from the meeting. You could ask 5 different ladies what they got out of the meeting and I promise none of them would have the same answers. She covered SO MUCH material and information. She actually opened the meeting to questions from the audience and I was BLOWN AWAY as to how well she knew her scriptures. It amazed me that she would say...."Oh, I was just riding about this in this book, chapter___, verse ___." She did it OVER AND OVER AGAIN!! So....I just wanted to share a few of the meetings highlights (for me!).

1. She told us that the message of the gospel is only shared if WE share it. We have to be willing to OPEN OUR MOUTHS and talk about the gospel. We can't be scared of offending others.

2. She said we need to NOT spend our time and money on things of NO WORTH! She said if we are spending them on things of NO WORTH than we are NOT spending them on things of WORTH! She said we choose if we sit down and watch a TV show for an hour or if we sit and read our scriptures and once that time is gone we can't take it back so we need to be choosing wisely.

3. She talked about being very intentional about what we allow into our homes and lives. She said to not be afraid to SHUT IT DOWN or to PUT UP BOUNDARIES. We are the target of the adversary and he is IN OUR FACE everyday. She said WE WERE BORN TO BE A PART OF THE LORDS DEFENSE!

4. She told us that we HAVE to be reading our scriptures. She said, "You have to have them IN YOU before they can come OUT OF YOU!" (In sharing the gospel)

5. And in closing she said something that I LOVED....She said that we have to Choose (today, right now, this minute) to live the gospel in a day and age and world that tells us NOT TO.

This experience was DEFINITELY a wonderful one that I am grateful I chose to take part in!!

So....when I got home Saturday afternoon the kids had MAJOR cabin fever from hanging out with the babysitter all day so I bundled them up and sent them out and they had a BLAST playing in the snow and I LOVED they weren't bouncing off my walls! :)

Oakley and Dallin in the background. They LOVED playing by this strawbale....it grossed me out because I KNOW how many mice live in strawbales. I was the good mom that bit-my-tongue and didn't say a word and just let them play even though it grossed me out!:)

Laiklie - eating snow....of course.

This is Mckenzie. She stays with us sometimes when her (single) mom is having a hard time. She has been with us off and on for the past few weeks. Usually the kids do great with her. Every once in a while I have to remind them to be nice because they are feeling like their space has been invaded. It usually works out fine though!

All FIVE of the snow crew!

Laiklie, Oakley, Mckenzie, Rhett and Dallin

Montana Trip

On Thursday evening after Oakley's dance class we loaded up for the 5 1/2 hour drive to my brother Travis and wife Rebekah's house in the middle of Montana. We got there super late, but spent Friday and Saturday morning playing and visiting and touring the ranch. It was so much fun. The kids LOVED playing with their two little men cousins, Emmett and Casey. And I am thinking from the giant crocodile tears Emmett cried as we left Saturday that he had a good time too.

Dallin and Emmett - BEST BUDS!
Baby Casey! We LOVED that he was so super friendly and loved us as much as we loved him. He followed Oakley around EVERYWHERE. I seriously could have brought him home with me!

SLUMBER PARTY....I love Casey's smile!:) Oakley chose to sleep in the bed this night. Wonder why?
Saturday was Ryan and I's 12th Anniversary. It is CRAZY how fast the years come and go. About 4 hours into the 5 1/2 hour drive home we wondered WHAT WERE WE THINKING doing a family road trip for our anniversary?! We love taking time away even if it is a short break. So, in the spirit of anniversary I decided to list a few things that I have learned about Ryan over the years.....things that maybe I didn't know when I married him! (Scary!!)

1. I had NO IDEA that Ryan could win 1st place for worlds worst back and a close 2nd for worlds worst sinuses.

2. I didn't know what kind of a dad Ryan would be and.....I am not gonna lie to you....at 7 months pregnant with baby #1 I cried my eyes out when he announced to me that "he didn't like kids!" I learned that he LOVES his own kids....it is other peoples kids that drove him crazy, and actually they don't even bother him now.

3. I had NO IDEA that Ryan doesn't know how to communicate. (I am not being mean on this one....it is just the facts and you can ask ANYONE in his family -including Ry- and they would tell you this is true.) Alot of times I have to ask him, "Are you even listening to me?" Because there are times that I get nothing from him, not even a blink during the conversation.

4. I didn't know that Ryan was so committed to his farm/ranch and that he is actually VERY good at his occupation. I also didn't know that he is good at making "big" financial decisions. The first time Ryan wrote a HUGE check to buy cows THE DAY BEFORE HE WENT AND TALKED TO THE BANK it made me super nervous. Now, I just know we are going to be okay no matter what....he knows what he is doing.

5. I didn't know that it is NEVER a good idea to play any sort of "knowledge" game with Ryan because HE KNOWS EVERYTHING AND EVEN SOME SUPER WEIRD THINGS!!! He ALWAYS wins!

6. I also didn't know 12 years ago when I married Ryan that it was possible to love him more than I did that day. I had no idea that I would come to rely on him so very much. I had no idea that when the hard times came in our life that I would need him more than ever. He truly is my VERY BEST FRIEND. I can't imagine life without him and I always tease him that "he is lucky I still like him!" but, in all reality, I am definitely the lucky one!

Happy Valentines Day 2011

This is the girls in their new valentines day shirts from Grandma. The were super cute in the stripes! (Yes Laiklie is wearing jammie shorts....she went out earlier in the day and enjoyed a good "jump in the mud puddles" so this is what she changed into.) Nothing too eventful here on v-day....a heart shaped pizza dinner and a ton of yummy candy from the school parties is about the total of it! We LOVED that the weather warmed up enough to send the kids out for the afternoon - even if they found the mud puddles!:) It was worth it!!