Mornings With Rhett

My little Rhett is funny about his mornings.  EVERY morning after I wake him up he comes out and crashes somewhere all wrapped up in his fishy blanket.  I find this little ball of fishy blanket all of the house morning after morning.

 Here he is crashed on the couch.  He's in there....I promise!

 And here he used the step as a pillow. Ha, Ha! Super comfy I am sure!

He doesn't even do breakfast with out this blanket to prop up on anytime he needs a little rest!  He cracks me up!

My Cup Runneth O'er

This past Sunday I sat in church with my handsome husband on the stand and  surrounded by more four beautiful kids I couldn't help but feel that MY CUP RUNNETH O'ER!  I really feel like my life is SO FULL of so many good things that it doesn't leave room for any of the evil of the world to get in!

 My first good thing is Ryan.  Ryan had his birthday this past week.  It wasn't much of a birthday.  He worked all day and had stake bishopric meetings all night.  We finally got to spend some time together at about 10:30 that night.  We ran to dinner in town and that was that.  Ryan doesn't require alot.  He is so easy to be married to.  He loves me so much more than I even love myself I have discovered.  Not that I have self-esteem issues....I don't.....Ryan just loves me enough for both of us!  He is the best thing Heavenly Father ever gave me. (This picture is from the minute-to-win-it that we had for mutual a few weeks ago.  He was in the rubberband competition.  You can tell by the look on his face and the rubberband in his hand that he wasn't happy about me and my camera.  Yes....he shot me! :)  That's why I love him.  You never know what you are going to get! You can see my beautiful baby girls cheek in this picture too.  Love her also!)

 The next good thing in my life is being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I LOVE being a part of something that is bigger than me....bigger than just here and now.  I am so grateful to have a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel on the earth.  I am grateful to have answers to questions that other religions don't have.  What a blessing the gospel is in my life.

 Another good thing that fills my life is my family!  I was sent to incredible parents and have 2 sisters and 3 brothers that are some of my very best friends.  This past week my mom, my sister Arnica and I jumped in my car and zipped down to Utah to my oldest sister Jenny's house.  Jenny turned 40 on Thursday.....40!! We were not going to let an opportunity like that pass us by! We showed up knocking on her door Thursday about noon and swept her away!  We played all afternoon.  We shopped til we dropped, we ate and ate and we went and saw the Christmas lights at Temple Square.  It was JUST WHAT WE ALL NEEDED!!  Jenny kept saying, "I just can't believe you are all here!"  What a fun surprise!

These two are NERDS! But they are my NERDS and I sure love them!!  We got to sit in the hot tub at the hotel without watching any children or without any children splashing us and begging for our attention.  It was like a little piece of heaven!  I am grateful to have spent that time with them and my sweet mommy!

 And the last good thing...which is actual and will always actually be the first good thing in my life is my kids!!  What would life be without my kids??!!  Dallin has been playing basketball this Fall with his cousin JD and they love being together. 

 Here is my big guy D jumping the ball.  What a great kid Dallin is.  I was blessed with great kids all the way around!

And here are atleast 2 of the other kids.  Oakley with her normal 12 year old grumpy face on.  It is something we see quite often around here lately.  We will be glad when she out grows that stage. Ha, ha!! :) And Rhett peaking around the tree.  And then me.  Not my best picture.  I had to have Ryan's shirt on to put up the tree so it didn't tear my arms up and it makes it look like I have a rather big bum.  I don't! Just sayin'.  Laiklie is behind the camera taking the picture.  They all mean the world to me! 

Like I said, my cup runneth o'er!

I love this guy!

Ryan is seriously WORLDS BEST DAD!!  We sure love him!

Can't you tell?!:)

The kids going in for the attack!

 It kinda looks like they might have a chance!! 

Ummmm......NOPE! They NEVER had a chance! :)

LOVE IT!!

1/2 a Man

Ten years ago today I delivered fat little 9lb. 2oz. "man child" Dallin!!  Now, he is as skinny as ever, but he is still a "man child" (that is what my brother always called him!) in a way.  His feet are now, at 10 years old, as big as his moms.  He stands only a head shorter than I do and is still growing like a weed.

 Dallin is an incredible kid.  I love him to death!  He is such a great kid and my VERY BEST helper!  Anytime I need a job done he is seriously the one I ask because he just digs in and does it.  (He sometimes whines along the way.....not gonna lie. ;) But he works hard and that says alot about him!)

This year for his birthday he wanted a .22 gun.  Oakley got her's for Christmas when she was 10 yrs old, so he thought this was the age to get one.  Ryan bought a .22 years ago hoping to one day give it to his boy so it worked out great.  Ryan was happy.....Dallin was happy......so I am happy!

 Dallin also wanted a remote control car.  He just so happened to get two remote control cars.  He went birthday shopping with his grandma Hawkins last night and came home with one remote control car and I had already bought him one for this morning.  Usually grandma and I talk before, but this time we didn't even think about it.  Oh well!! Two cars is better than one!:)

And the last present Dallin got was an electric blanket.  He sleeps upstairs and it gets fairly chilly at nights already and it isn't even dead of winter yet.  He thought an electric blanket sounded nice and cozy and has been asking for one.  We teased him that he can come home from school today and take a nap to try it out!

What a blessing Dallin is to our family.  I had a miscarriage after I had Oakley and was DEVASTATED! It was a horrible time in my life and I really struggled with it.  It wasn't too many months after my miscarriage that I found out I was pregnant with this big guy.  I sure don't understand why we have to go through all the trials we do in this life, but as terrible as my miscarriage was I can't imagine having had that baby at that time and maybe missed out on having Dallin when I had him.  He was like a ray of sunshine in my dark world.  I appreciate a loving Heavenly Father who knew I needed Dallin when I needed him.  What a blessing he is to our lives...then, now and forever!

Happy Halloween 2012

I SERIOUSLY can not believe October is over!!! Where has it gone?

 We celebrated Halloween this year with the ward trunk-or-treat! Same as usual!!!  Oakley was Iron Man (more on that in a minute) Laiklie was the cutest little pink skeleton, Dallin a rodeo clown and Rhett a white lego.

Oakley and 5 of her friends all decided to be the avengers this year for halloween.  We seriously have never seen the movie and have no clue who the avengers were until this past week.  Oakley either chose or was given Iron Man.  They all made these tutu skirts to match whomever they were suppose to be.  This is her and her 3 best friends and a little cheerleader friend joined in the picture too.  They had a good time making the skirts and being together!  Oakley went to her 1st halloween party that night.  AHHH!!! Ryan and I are not ready for that kind of thing.  We were one of the party pooper parents that made her come home early.  It didn't get over til 10 on a school night.  No thank you!! She had 6 tests to take today so she had to come home just before 9:30.  She is growing up on us for sure!

Cousins

 We had the chance to have our little cousins Fallon and Aniston come spend one night and a couple days with us last weekend! SOOO FUN!! I loved getting to see their little personalities.  We don't get to see these sweet girls very often and had a BLAST playing together!!

Young Womens

I have been the young woman's president in our ward now for just over a year and we just had our big Young Women in Excellence program.  I am SO IN LOVE with the handout we gave the girls and the presentation that I had one of the speakers do that I wanted to share.

 The theme for the night was "I'm Going There Someday."  We had the girls make these temple cans (idea from my aunt's ward) a few weeks ago and inside we put a Preparing for the Temple pamphlet, a temple recommend holder, a white bracelet the girls made to hold their temple name, a white hankie with a poem and letters to them from their parents telling them how proud they are of them for choosing to go to the temple.  These cans are saved by the girls to be opened the night before they go to the temple.  I LOVE the way they turned out once I spray painted them and covered them with burlap. 

I heard of an idea from my sis-in-laws ward about a lady who told a story of a YW she knew who made wrong choices that kept her from the temple.  All simple little decisions that slowly pulled her down the wrong path.  As the lady told the story she started cutting up the wedding dress next to her.  So....I LOVED this idea.  I bought this wedding dress (pretty for $50 right?!!)  and we used it and another gorgeous dress from a lady in our ward as part of our decorations the night of our program.  I then asked the stake yw pres to do this same type idea.  As she started into the story and told the girls of this yw's first bad decision she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the sleeve off of this dress standing there next to her.  You should have heard the gasps from my yw....and if you could have seen the looks on their faces.  It was a perfect object lesson.  She continued to cut and cut with each bad decision and by the end of the story the dress wasn't near as beautiful.  She of course covered repentance, but also told the girls the importance of making the right decision FIRST! It was SO GOOD and SO POWERFUL!!

Then to end the night I had one of my old YW that has a very touching story about losing her baby during delivery come and speak to the girls.  She isn't much older than them and she told them the importance of a temple marriage and a priesthood holder husband and then told them briefly the story of losing her baby.  Also VERY POWERFUL!! What an amazing night!! Sure love my yw and the opportunity I have to be their leader!