Branding Day

That time of year again! Last week was branding day!

 He doesn't like when I take his picture so I always have to sneak them in! :)

 You can't tell very well in this picture, but if you look close you can see they are having a rodeo with this stupid calf.  It just came out over the top of the loading shute and they were trying to get it put back down in where it was suppose to be. You can always expect atleast one rodeo when it comes to branding!

 This big guy - Dallin - was not about to go to school knowing that branding was happening that day! He's missed 11 days (because of all his stomach problems...that's another story)......what's one more day?!

I love this picture of Ryan and Dale.  Chase is at the back pushing cows into the shute so he didn't get in on the picture.  I love Ryan's little brothers! What a blessing it is that they are such a huge part of our lives.  They are some of my kids favorite people and I can't imagine Ryan working side-by-side with anyone else!

ALL-AMERICAN

 Saturday night at the National Dance Competition at Lagoon they have an awards ceremony.  We have never stayed for it before.  We always just let our dance teacher gather any trophies the groups earn.  These past 2 years though we have paid for Oakley to "dance off" on Friday after her regular events.  That just means that if she got a 1st place on any individual event she can re-dance them to try and get a place on the ALL-AMERICAN CLOGGING TEAM! It is a HUGE title and a HUGE accomplishment and something EVERY CLOGGER wants! Last year we didn't have any luck and we had tears on the way home so this year we decided we would dance off again but we were doing it "just for the experience of it" and not hoping for the all-American prize.  So we went into it with that attitude and because of that we once again didn't stay for the awards ceremony we were just happy for the experience. 

About 10:30 Saturday night, just after I tucked kids into their beds at the hotel room I got a call on my cell phone.  It was one of the other dance moms and there was some MAJOR SCREAMING, CELEBRATING going on.  She yells, "Where is Oakley? She needs to be on stage RIGHT NOW!! She just got an ALL-AMERICAN AWARD!!" Oakley had just gone into the bathroom AT THE HOTEL to get into the shower! I stuck my head in the bathroom and told her the good news and she did the cutest little cheerleader fist-pump and yahoo yell you've ever seen! We were bummed we hadn't stayed for the ceremony but SO EXCITED!! We went down to the lobby at the hotel and bought snickers ice cream bars and hid out in the bathroom to celebrate! :)

With the All-American title comes a jacket! Oakley's cute little clogging teacher and one of her teammates met us at the dance studio just a couple days later and did their own little celebration!! You don't even know how much I love Oakley's teacher!! She is SOOO MUCH more than just a dance teacher!! She loves these girls and they know it and that goes A LONG WAYS!!  

Look at those smiles!!!

She has worked so hard this year and deserves this title/jacket!! Her teacher and 3 of her teammates also got All-American titles but all in different events.  We are so proud of all of them!! The way it works is in each individual event they pick the top 5 or 6 dancers in their division (which Oakley is in the Champ division) and give those top dancers this All-American title.  So Oakley got it in her Line and Show solo.  So out of the 10 spots available for those 2 solos Oakley took 2 of them out of 100+ girls! Incredible!! Soooo proud of her!!

Lagoon 2014

Both Oakley and Laiklie, plus 3 of their cousins (Ciara, Sage and Violet) got to dance at Clogging Nationals this year! We LOVE our Lagoon weekend.  This year started different than most in that it started with RAIN! Not just a little bit.....like torrential down pour!! It was crazy! We had to be there early Friday morning so Oakley, Macady (because everything is better with cousins!) and I went down Thursday night.  It was SO SCARY driving through the crazy Utah traffic in the pouring rain that morning.  We were even just a few cars behind a hydroplane accident.  So scary!!  We grabbed the only umbrella in the car (the BEACH umbrella ha, ha!) and ran across lagoon to our stage.  It of course was getting poured on so they moved us to another stage. We froze that morning watching Oakley dance.   

I wish you could see this picture better.  People pay to have the eyelashes Oakley was born with! She is such a beautiful girl!

 Ready to dance!! 

 Oakley did SO WELL on all her individual stuff.  She came home with 10  1st places and 4 of those being High Golds! (Meaning top score)  Oakley did have some crazy blood that day.  She had her pump off most of the morning and so when we had an hour to kill we put it on and checked her blood and it was over 600.  We went and walked around a store for awhile to get warm and on the way back to Lagoon to dance again I had her check her blood again and it was 102.  So in just over an hour it dropped like crazy.  Her first dance when we got back was a little rough.  I am sure she felt super crappy.....but the judges must not have noticed because she got a 1st on it too! :)

 Brooklyn, Oakley, Hope, Lara and Whitney

 Whitney, Hope, Oakley, Brooklyn, Kasandra, Lara and Stephanie

These girls were AMAZING!!! Both team dances took 1st places!

 Here is Oakley with the little team she teaches.  She has LOVED teaching!

Elise, Kazia, Blyss, Laiklie and Megan (Sadie missing)

Oakley also taught a duet to her cousin Ciara and her teammate Cheyenne.  They did SO GOOD and got 1st as well.  It was such a cute duet.  Oakley did a great job making it up!

 This is some of Laiklie's little group.  She really liked clogging this year and had a blast with these cute girls! and....I am not gonna lie....I liked their sweet moms as well!

 Laiklie doing her solos! She got 1st on 3 of them and a 2nd on the one she just barely learned.  So good!

She is sooo fun to watch with those skinny little Jacobson legs. My favorite!!

I am SO PROUD of both my girls and the hard work they have put in this year!

We also rode a million rides at Lagoon and had a great time with all our Hawkins cousins.  (No pictures, darn it!) This is also the FIRST TIME IN ALL THE YEARS WE'VE GONE TO LAGOON that RYAN CAME! He drove down Friday night as a surprise to me for mothers day (you don't even know how much I love this guy!!) and was there early enough to watch Oakley dance. He stayed and rode rides on Saturday and was able to watch Laiklie dance as well! It was SO MUCH BETTER having him there.  It was my favorite year by far! And a shout out to The Greats (Max and Ramona) for taking the time to come watch all the little great-granddaughter dancers. They are an incredible support to our little family and we love them like crazy!

Laiklie Volleyball Camp

Laiklie got to be a part of the mini volleyball camp this year.  I wish we would have know about this when Oakley was young.  Laiklie did GREAT at it.  It will sure give her a head start in volleyball!

Kaiya, Emily, Ava and Laiklie because EVERYTHING is better with besties!!:)

Dance Recital

Saturday night was our dance recital.  I had to be their early to French braid Oakley's groups hair and forgot my camera.  So I called Ryan and asked him to bring it and he forgot it too! I promise to get pictures at Nationals next weekend!

I did take this super dark picture though.  If you look hard you will see the back of Oakley's head in the directors seat.  What an incredible blessing it has been for her to be able to teach dance this year.  She is such a shy, quiet little thing and this has really made her have to step out of her comfort zone.  One of the sweet girls she teaches handed her a rose after the recital.  Made her day! :) So proud of what an incredible 13 year old she is. 

Cousin's Weekend

My sister Arnica's son Kaden had a 2 day track meet here this past weekend and so we were the lucky ones who got to have a cousin slumber party! It was such a rainy weekend (Poor Kaden had to run in it!) that we decided to take the kids to open gym Saturday morning to burn some energy.  They LOVED it!!

 Dallin, Paige, Danica, Laiklie, Rhett and Tyce

 and when Dallin and Danica move just a little you can see Oakley and Ali lounged out on the mats behind them.  Silly teenage girls!

And here are Oakley and Ali again. You almost cant tell them apart from behind. These two are BEST FRIENDS! They are attached at the hip when they are together! I love that they have each other.  I had cousins like this and am still grateful for my friendship with them!

Sage's Birthday Party

Laiklie got invited to her cousin Sage's birthday party this past weekend and what a fun party! They went rock climbing and I got to be the lucky mom that got to go help!

 Yvonne and the birthday girl Sage!

Laiklie wasn't brave enough to go all the way to the top...but if you can see it is WAY UP THERE! I am proud of her for how high she did go! It was a blast!