Fifteen

It's so weird for me to say I have a fifteen year old kid, but I really do. In September, Dallon turned 15. He is now taller than me and tells me how short I am every day. Does he not remember that for the last 14 years, I have not told him how short he is? I'm hoping he gets taller than Mike soon, so he can be the focus of Dal's short jokes for a while. He's such a jokester and sometimes so funny and sometimes so irritating.

He received his learner's permit a week or two after his birthday...only because Mike forced him to. He has no desire to drive and didn't study for the driver's test, but passed anyway. I guess he's fine with us just driving him around for the rest of his life. That's not going to happen.

He loves to hang out with his friends and be really loud while we try and sleep. It's great times. He loves his bird Jerry. His other bird, Zorro, hasn't grown to love Dal yet. He tries to bite his finger off if he gets too close. I'm a little scared of birds and so Dallon has a great time trying to get me to like them.

Anyway, this kid is growing up. He's as smart as a whip and amazes me with some of the stuff he can figure out. Our house would definitely not be the same without this crazy kid.

August

Where did August go? It was a busy, fun month that ended way too fast.

Here's a few things that stood out.

Michaela's soccer team took first place in the Adidas Cup

Soccer Tournament. This is a huge tournament in West Jordan.

Can you see the look of joy in their faces as they come through the tunnel?

They were beyond excited after taking 2nd place in two other tournaments this summer.

These girls rock! They played great team ball.

I worked on this little project and turned these 20 year old

end tables into something a little more stylish.

I may have gone a little overboard on the distressing, but it was my first try.
Football is in full swing along with soccer for R & M.

This poor little thing had her tonsils out. She was so brave until they had her dress into the hospital pajamas and then she realized it was really going to happen.

It's amazing how much better you feel after talking to your big sis.

Somehow she got her bravery back. She did great until a week after

surgery. For some reason she started throwing up and scared

the bejeebies out of me. By day 14 she was back to her old self.

We only made it to the reservoir once for fishing and craw-dad hunting.

No luck on either.

It looks like someone may have borrowed my camera for a self portrait.

Love the freckles and the surprised look on her face.

Seven

My cute baby girl turned seven a few weeks ago. I really shouldn't call her my baby girl, but she always will be. She's my little sweetheart and it's hard to see her grow up. She's a little social butterfly and thinks she needs to play with friends every day. She figures she should be allowed to do anything Dallon and Michaela do. She loves to draw and go to nana's house to eat ice cream. She gets away with more than she should and she's a mama's girl. She's been known to give her dad some lovin' when I'm not around, though.

She was so excited for her birthday.

She got to have a friend party at Ken's Gymnastics. They had a bounce house, obstacle course, balance beams, and lots of other fun stuff, but the big hit was the foam pit.

Yeah for birthdays!

Summer so far

Call me lame (behind my back, not to my face), but I am having a hard time blogging even once a month lately. This is my sad attempt to catch up on the summer fun we've had so far.

4th of July:

The big highlight of this day was Reagen got to ride on the gymnastic float. She was so excited to get to throw candy. She was even kind enough to share her candy with her fellow float riders. That's big because in this family, we have a hard time sharing our candy.

Soccer:

Believe it or not, Michaela is playing on a girls soccer team. She is absolutely loving it. They have played in two tournaments this summer, taking 2nd place in both.

Girls Camp and Youth Conference:

We had girls camp and youth conference back to back weeks in July. Do I get an award for that? We actually had a lot of fun playing at the lake, watching girls flip their canoes, and riding the zip line. We went to a camp in Heber and it was beautiful.


We went to Schofield Resevoir for Youth Conference. We stayed in a cabin and the kids impressed me how well they got along. We rode four wheelers and played at the lake. Note to self - don't ride the four wheeler in the dust when you are wet from the lake. It wasn't pretty.

Last, but not least, Debbie had a fun family water day at her house. All her kids and grandkids were there. She rented this big water slide and we made our own slip and slide.




Steve fractured some ribs on this attempt. I'm not kidding.

Welcome to the family

Introducing the newest members of the family.

Dallon recently became fascinated(obsessed)with birds. He spent hours on the computer looking at different birds. He asked if he could have a bird. We told him that if he could pay for it, he could get one. We didn't think he had any money so that was a good answer. Well, he had money hidden away from his birthday last year. That put us in an awkward position. We had to let him buy a dang bird. He went with a love bird. Right away this love bird seemed lonely. They are love birds so I guess they need someone to love on. I don't know what we were thinking, but we told him he could get another bird so Zorro wouldn't be lonely. I don't know how it happened, but we ended up with a total of three birds. That lasted about 48 hours and then there was the incident in the backyard with the tom cat (don't ask because I'll probably cry). Anyhoo, we now have two birds and we know that we can't let them glide around in the back yard...lesson learned. This is one of the birds and Zorro is in the nesting box and wouldn't come out for his/her picture.

The kids must be wearing us down because we also decided to get a kitty. Reagen has been asking for a kitty and so we surprised her for her birthday. This is Mr. Whiskers. He is so cute and playful.
He is a little bit crazy, too, but that helps him fit right into this family.

Run Forest, Run!

We have enjoyed some track and field this summer. The girls ran in the Hershey meet in Salt Lake. Yes, Reagen is wearing jeans and converse tennis shoes. We didn't know that she was old enough to compete, but when we got there they let us sign her up. She was looking quite hillbilly compared to everyone in their track shoes and little running shorts. Despite the great running gear she was in, she took 2nd place in the 50 and 3rd place in the 100.

Michaela placed in the 100 and 200. She took first in one and 2nd in the other, but I can't remember which was which.

At the end of June, we travelled to Cedar City for the Summer Games. Reagen had caught the "run as fast as you can" bug and was so excited to get to race again. This time we even let her wear shorts and regular tennis shoes.

Dallon ran the 200 and this is him at the starting line of the 400. He and some friends also ran the 4x100 relay. They got disqualified because they stepped out of the hand off area, but they would have smashed the current record. The four of them did set a new district record for our county at the Jr High track meet. I can't wait to see them run in high school.

Remember when I had legs like this? Oh yeah, I never did. Dang.

Michaela did great, also. She ran the 100, 200, and the 4x100 relay with some girls she met at the meet. That's what's fun about track, you make so many friends. No one's goal is to kick you in the head or tackle you.

It was a really great, relaxing trip.

Spring Stuff

I'm playing catch-up today trying to get some of our crazy life recorded before I forget it. Reagen is now missing two front teeth and two bottom teeth. I guess I need to take more pictures, too, because this one's now outdated.

School is now out, but we had lots of "fun" projects during the end of the year. Dallon had to draw up a house plan and then construct walls from cardboard. I was impressed with all the work he put into it. He spent hours measuring, cutting, and gluing.

Michaela had to get this solar system done when I was out of town. I thought for sure it wouldn't happen, but Mike helped her finish it up. Except for the Modge Podge incident (spilled all over the table chair, and floor), there were no problems and it turned out awesome. I guess everyone can survive when I'm not there. Who knew?

Soccer is now over, but we spent several nights a week watching this girl play hard.

And others just played. This is called see how long you can stand on the ball before someone kicks it out from under you.

When it was too cold for soccer, which has been most of the time, there's a lot of this going on. Reagen found Michaela's old Magic Tree House books and loves to read.

We have a lot of stuff planned this summer and hopefully I'll have it posted before Christmas!