Remember these rules when you are 16.

Football practice started this week and Reagen has been begging to go every night. I haven't felt like spending my whole night at practice (much more productive to spend it on the couch eating, right?) so I've avoided it so far. Last night as soon as she realized that Michaela had gone with Mike and Dal to practice, she started sobbing because she knew her little friend Ian would be there and she wanted to play with him. I stalled as long as I could and then drove her down. I thought I better talk to her before we got there because last year she loved to tease Dallon's friends after practice. I asked her if she remembered the football rules (we don't have football rules, but thought she might behave if she knew that there were rules involved). Yep, she said. Don't act silly and no messin' with the boys.

Good rules! I hope she remembers these rules when she's about 16ish.

I call shotgun.

Reagen always says the funniest things and I just wanted to get this down so I don't forget it.

We were running out the door, rushing to go somewhere and Dallon yells, "I call shotgun". Without skipping a beat, Reagen yells right back, "I call machine gun!". Made us all laugh out loud.

Summer Tennis

The kids have played summer tennis for the last few years here in town. The group that they play with puts some teams together and they play other teams from the Salt Lake area. On Wednesday and Thursday, they played in the Team Tennis District Championships at Liberty Park. It was so stinkin' hot that as my friend Keysha said, we were sweating in places we didn't even know we had. Dallon won one match and lost one match and Kayla only had to play once and won. Here are a few pics from the day.

Reagen tried to stay cool in the tree.

Some summer hair going on here. Good thing I brought my sunglasses so I could see in the sun.

Good thing Mike brought his sunglasses, too.

Do you recognize this look? It's the do you really have to take pictures look.

Birthday Banner

I made this little banner for Reagen's birthday. I think I'll hang it from the dessert table or from the tree branches on Sunday when we have family over. I haven't done anything too crafty in a long time, but this was pretty fun and quick to put together. I chose the word celebrate and tried to keep the colors gender neutral so that we can use it for any kind of celebration.

Happy Birthday Reagen

My baby girl turned five yesterday. It seems like just yesterday she was this chubby faced little cutie. 

She has been so excited that I couldn't help but get excited too. A lot more excited than I get for my birthdays. She picked out a bike at Wal Mart and she asked for a black guitar with white skulls on it (where did that come from?). The best I could do was a navy blue guitar with a little white design on it. I'll have to doctor it up with some rub-ons or something. Anyway, she was happy with it and sat it across her lap and strummed it. She's our musical girl. She is always singing little songs that she makes up or humming. As a matter of fact, there's very few moments that she's silent. 

A lot of our family was out of town this weekend so we postponed having cake and ice cream until next Sunday. As soon as I got home today, after we got the birthday spankings out of the way, guess where we went?  Here's a clue...

No, these aren't my new orthopedic shoes.

We went bowling!

Here's a fancy between the legs move.

We had so much fun making fun of each other's gutter balls and our smooth moves. I don't know when bowling became dangerous, but I got a charlie horse in my toe every time I bowled, thought I tore something in my shoulder and knee, and split my thumbnail. Like I said, it was really fun.  I'll post more pics later on of the rest of her birthday.

What boredom leads to...

It's probably a good thing that we keep Dallon busy with a lot of different activities. He seems to get bored easily and so he's always building something, taking something apart...or teasing someone if he has more than a few minutes of free time. Well, he was in nana's basement the other day with nothing to do and saw this old wheelchair and thought it would be fun to wheel himself around in it. Before long, he had it outside riding wheelies all over the place. He rides it back and fourth across the street and I'm sure the neighbors are wondering, what the heck? I normally wouldn't let him ride around the neighborhood in a wheelchair, but if it keeps him busy for a little while, I guess it's ok. Right? He spotted another one in the basement today and asked Michaela if she wants to get in it and play Nascar races with him.

For Kass...

My friend Kass asked me to post another pic of my O.P.A.Y. when we were talking about it at work the other day. Here you go, girl.

Before.

After.

Road Trippin' all the way to Michigan

I've been wanting to update for a week and just haven't had a chance because I've been sitting around eating popsicles. Like five at a time. Is that bad? I'll save my very unmotivated behavior for another post.


Mike, Dal, and Kayla headed out on the road for Michigan on July 2nd for the Jr. Olympics. It is a 24 hour drive, one way...if you don't get stuck in traffic in Chicago or get lost in Detroit. Yeah, that happened. Regardless of that, they all had a great time. They worked so hard to raise money for this trip and I am so proud of them. This is a little picture diary of their trip.


This is in Wyoming.
Entering Nebraska.

The rolling hills of NE. Mike said it was beautiful driving through this area. A little greener than our desert and sage brush. They stayed overnight in Omaha on the way there and in Lincoln on the way home.

Welcome to Indiana.

Mike showing Dallon what you shouldn't do while driving in traffic in Chicago.

Finally there! This is the tunnel that ran from the hotel to the arena where they competed.

Three Amigos. Just across the river is Canada.

This is the arena that they fought in. It is where the Detroit Lions play. That's Michaela before her fight. Mike didn't get pics of them fighting because he had to video tape them. If I ever figure out how to get video from the camera to the computer, I'll post it on here.

Both of the kids lost in the 2nd round this year. I really wish I could post the video so you could see how well they fought. This is their master, Will.

On the road home again. I told Dal to get pictures in every state and he did.

Our little dwarf, Sleepy...

...and Dopey.

Entering Iowa.

Well, that was their trip. We were glad to have them all home safe and sound. Me and Reagen were getting a little bored without them.

Happy Belated 4th of July.

Reagen and I celebrated the 4th by going to the parade in our town. It is made up of a few floats, a lot of police cars, motorcycles, and firetrucks, hometown queens and their attendants, high school marching bands, and lots of horses. I was glad to see this year that they had the horses march very last. That way the bands aren't stepping over and into manure. The highlight of the parade is all the candy that is thrown out to the kids. They come home with a sickening amount of taffy and tootsie rolls. Good thing the new dentist in town is also throwing toothbrushes to the kids!  We decided to get there a little early so we'd have a spot and I brought a big umbrella to shade myself since I got french fried at the pool the day before. As you can see below, someone stole my umbrella and so I sat in the car with the air cranked on high. She was willing to share it, but she kept poking me in the head with it so I gave up and retreated to the car until the parade started.

Reagen is waiting here for the candy throwing to start because that's what it's all about.

This is not a picture of the marching band, it's a picture of the kids she's going to have to beat to get to the candy.

Here, she's keepinga  close eye on this bigger kid whose about to cross into her territory to retrieve candy.
/

She came home with lots of goodies. Uncle Jeff was nice enough to take her to the park that afternoon because I just didn't have it in me to fight the crowds and wait in lines to ride the shark slide. At about 9:30, we went up to the elementary school and watched the fireworks. They were lighting them off at the high school, but we had a good view and we were all by outselves to enjoy the show. All in all, it was a good 4th, but I missed the other three that were still in Michigan. I'll have an update on them later.

This is a test...

Just messing around trying to see if I can get bigger pics on this blog.

Dallon's First Jr. Olympics

I just found out that Smile Box now works for Macs so I had to try it out. (Can you tell I'm not quite as busy with 2/3 of my kids gone?) These pics are from Dallon's first Jr. Olympics, five years ago in Orlando, FL. Look how cute he is with his little baby face. His buddy is Josh and they are still great friends and both still train together and will compete together on Saturday in Michigan.

In the first picture with me and Dal, I was pregnant w/Reagen. When she saw this picture I told her that she was in my belly. She asked, is Michaela in there with me?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Just you and me, babe.

Me and this little girl are on our own for the next several days. Mike, Dal, and Kayla headed out yesterday morning to drive to Detroit, MI for the Junior Olympics. They made it to Omaha, NE late last night and are on the road again today for over 10 hours. It is a 24 hour drive one way and I am so proud of them for still wanting to go even though they had to drive. They went out door to door and made over $300 by selling pizzas to help pay for the trip. Their good friends Taylor and Noah went with them on two of the days and the girls had a little competition with the boys. The girls kicked some butt...who can say no to two little blondies. I was impressed with how hard they worked at this and they still want to come home and sell more. 

I knew Reagen wouldn't be able to handle the drive (and honestly, I don't think I could have, either) so we decided to miss this tournament. So what are two girls to do when they have several days alone??? Well, first we cleaned the house big time...well one girl did that and the other one played on the computer, watched a movie, and played with the cat.

After all that boring stuff was done, we went horse back riding...
Yes, Reagen may have been bigger than this poor little horse that she picked to ride.
And then we fed the ducks...
You have to be really sneaky to get close to ducks.
If you are sneaky enough, you may get to pat one on the head.

And then the only way to finish off a big day like that is to eat ice cream.
Today we are going to go swimming and then go to the little Miss Grantsville Pageant. I'm not taking my camera to the pool so you'll just have to imagine what we look like there...wait, on second thought, just imagine what Reagen looks like at the pool.  Leave me out of that imagaination, it's not pretty!