Braces Day

On July 21st Laiklie got her braces on! She has been looking forward to this for a long time! She wants them on at the same time as her friends so she gets them off at the same time. I totally get it! That kind of thing is important in jr high. ;) She had such straight teeth to begin with so hopefully this is a pretty quick and painless process! 

 

Night Photos

Rhett loves taking night pictures. For this photoshoot they even had our cute neighbor Emily Barrie's mom drive her over at midnight without me knowing to take some dance jump shots. These are so fun and I love the way they turned out! The 1st is Laiklie, then Emily, Rhett and then the last one is one he learned how to do to make it look like the stars are raining. So cool! 

 

Montana Roadtrip

On Sunday July 19th, after our home church we decided to load the kids up and take a drive to Montana. We actually had to load into 2 different vehicles since I sold my suburban, but it worked out fine. We loaded up some snacks and headed out. We took the kids to Quake Lake. Ryan's got a great uncle that was camping in the canyon with his family the night that the earthquake hit that caused the canyon to fill with water. His family was killed that night. We went to the visitors center and was able to see their names on the wall of those killed in the canyon. We also took the kids up over the dusty dirty hills to Cliff and Wade Lakes. The water at both was absolutely gorgeous! It had a turquoise glow to it. So pretty! It made for a fun day together exploring some gorgeous country not too far from home.  

Jemma

There was a week in July when my friend Raquelle was headed out of town and needed someone to help her husband Jordan with their little girl Jemma. We LOVE Jemma. This little girl radiates pure joy! She is so much fun to have in our home. She's a wild child...she even wears a tracking device because she is a quick, sneaky little thing. Lol! We had her overnight one of the nights and she was missing her mama a little so I got to snuggle with her. What a sweetie. We even flooded the lawn one of the days she was here and then of course had to do a photo shoot with her. :) We had a great week taking care of her! 

 

Rhett Building Bins

Rhett started building bins in April with the rest of the crew. Then broke his ankle in June. By mid-July he was going stir crazy at home! Our neighbor had a peg leg that you strap to your leg when on crutches to allow you to walk on your own, but keeping your injured leg up and out of the way. We decided to try it out one day and see if Rhett was able to be any help on this funny little peg leg. He didn't last long....it was exhausting to him and really hard to use a peg leg in unstable gravel, but it was nice to get out and feel productive for even just a few hours one day! 

If you look hard in the 2nd picture you can see Rhett's peg sticking out when they sat down for lunch. I also had to take a quick picture of these two crazy brothers working together this summer. We are grateful for Ryan's family and the opportunity he has to work with his brothers. 

Exhausted Ethan

Not going to lie, it was exhausting having another teenager in the house this summer! Ethan was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. It looks like we were pretty exhausting to him too! ;) We worked him long hard hours. This picture of him dead asleep in his filthy dirty clothes, sunburned skin, sunglasses on and earplugs in cracks me up! 

 

Dallin Got a Lift

Dallin was super insistent that he got a lift on his truck this summer. Teenage boys crack me up! Not only did he lift it he also got lights up under his seats that made it look like a disco up in there. Hahaha! Sure love this kid!