Missing His Brothers

Tanner is very bored without his brothers.  We've spent a lot of time playing outside.  Tanner loves to jump on the tramp, play ball with Sophie and ride his bike and scooter.  Tanner loves to build towers to blocks.  When he builds it he'll come to me and say "I build tower!  Come and see!!!"  He's such a happy guy!

First Day of School

Chase is starting 8th grade!!  He'll attend his first year at BR middle school.  The school only has 8th and 9th graders there.  He has 6 classes and then four of the days has "den time" to help them get caught up in any classes.  They have three trimesters.  He's happier this year because he's not the new kid and he has friends!!

I love how Bridger put his arm around Chase.  What good looking boys!  I make the boys give each other hugs before they go to school.  

Bridger is starting 4th grade at G elementary.  He has Mrs. J and is super excited.  We met her at back to school and she's super young but her class room look amazing.  I think she's going to be a great teacher.  Bridger is really excited because his  best friend, Canyn is in his class again.  Bridger loves orange.  Shantelle found this shirt for him and it has orange pants to match but it was too hot for pants so Bridger wore his orange shorts.  He looks so handsome!

Tanner is a little sad that his brothers are going to school and won't be home to play with him.  Chase and Bridger are such big helpers with Tanner.  I'm going to miss them too!  Tanner kept saying "I go to school too."  During the day he'll come up to me and say "Chasee at school? Bridger at school?"  It's so cute.  He's always super excited when they come home from school!

Fair Week

Last year I really struggled during "Fair Week" because I didn't want to be up here and I felt totally out of place, and I didn't know anyone.  This year was a better experience.  We enjoyed the activities at the fair.  We went to the Rodeo one night.  It was fun running into friends from the ward and our neighborhood.  I loved seeing the boys with their friends.  Chase went over one night and rode the rides with his friends.  It made me realize how far I've come and I'm so grateful for the many friends I've been able to make!  Tanner loved the animals and couldn't get enough of them.  One of the times that we were looking at the goats, this big goat climbed up on the fence.  We couldn't believe how big he was so we wanted a picture with him.  I love picture because just as I was about to take the picture, the goat tried to bite Bridger's hat.  So the looks on their faces are priceless!!  I laugh every time I look at this picture.

Fun times at the rodeo.  At the end of the rodeo, there was a motorcycle stunt show that the boys loved!

Hometown Parade

During the week of the fair, our little town had a parade.  It was your classic home town parade with all of the cheer teams, gymnastic and dance teams, local businesses, football teams and then lots and lots of tractors!!!  Chase's football team was in the parade.  He was towards the end of the parade.  Bridger was thrown a big bag of popsicles and was told to pass them out but everyone around us already had one.  So when Chase came along, Matt threw the bag of popsicles up to him.  His friend Carson caught them and luckily he shared them with everyone.  I loved Chase's smile while he was on the float.  He looked so happy with his friends.  It actually made me really happy that he's on the football team.

Ardell and Charlene came up and watched the parade with us.  Luckily Tiff and Jen saved us a place by the city office building because it took me forever to drop Chase off by the float.  Tanner and Bridger loved all the candy that was given out during the parade.  It was raining candy.  They handed out popsicles and little cereal filled bowls.

I couldn't believe how many tractors were in the parade.  Here are a few of the pictures.  There were some fancy tractors!!! 

Bridger was so happy because he caught a "Recreation" shirt that was bright orange.  It fits him perfectly.  He's seen kids wearing them at school so he's so happy that he has one too.

Tanner's Second Haircut

Tanner's hair has grown quite a bit since his first hair cut several months ago.  The curls are looking really messy in the back.  I took the boys to get their haircut before school starts and at the last minute, I had them cut Tanner's hair.  She did a fast job of trimming up his hair and Tanner was really good.

Great Day at the Temple

Chase has been working with Chelsea, a Laurel in our ward that has been called as a family history consultant.  Once or twice a month she'll pick the youth up and take them to the family history center in town.  She's been so instrumental in teaching Chase how to find family names.  With her help, Chase found over 100 names!!  We knew there was no way that we could do all of their temple work, so we turned in 70 names to our Stake to have them help do their work.  Our Stake set a goal to have the youth find 2,000 names and they did it!!!

We were having Sunday dinner and Grandpa R mentioned that his assignment in the temple on Tuesday was at the baptismal font.  It felt like I moved Heaven and earth but we worked it out so Maddie and Chase could go to the temple together and have Grandpa baptize them during his shift.  When we walked in the temple, it was packed!!!  We waited an hour before they called us back and then another half hour before we were baptized.  We were so worried that we would miss Grandpa and Grandma but the Lord worked it out and we were Grandpa's last baptisms.  Grandma came back just before we started so she was the one to hand us our towels.  I was just going to watch, but then Maddie asked me why I wasn't going to do baptisms.  I just thought of it as a youth thing but then it really hit me of what an opportunity it was.  Luckily Maddie had brought in extra names so I quickly changed and did baptisms with them.  It was a wonderful experience to have dad baptize me and his grandkids.  I haven't done baptisms since I was in college!  I loved it!  I'm so proud of Maddie and Chase and their desire to go to the temple and live a worthy life!!  What a great way to prepare for the school year.

Who's Kid is That?

After spending the day with Shan, I ran to Costco on my way home.  It was just as they were closing so I was frantically trying to get a few things.  As I was checking out I looked over and Tanner was taking his pants off!  At first I thought "who's kid is that?"  Then I quickly realized that it was mine!  Lilly doesn't like to wear pants sometimes so when I went over to him he said "I naked like Lilly!"  I tried to pull his pants up but he kept fighting me.  So I put him in the cart while he was screaming.  It was a great moment at Costco.

In the Neighborhood

Even though we were just at Shan's on Saturday, I had to come back down to AF on Monday for a foot appointment for Bridger.  So while we were in the neighborhood we stopped by Shan's and helped her with a few things.  Chase had to stay home because of football practice but it worked out well because Bridger played with Aliyah when she came home from school and then Tanner played with Lilly.  They're are turning into best buddies.  They're so cute together.  They either love each other and play really well or it turns into cats fighting.  They'll yell "mine! mine! mine!"  We joke that it sounds like cats.

Litte Hazel looks so tiny in her bed!  She is the sweetest baby!  We love holding her!!  Unfortunately Shan has not been feeling well.  She's gone into her post-pregnancy preeclampsia.  Her blood pressure is increasing and her legs are swelling up.  She just feels lousy! Mom and I came back down on Friday (26th)  to help her around the house and let her rest.  She went back into the hospital Thursday night to get on more blood pressure medicine. Her labs look good.  She just needs to get her blood pressure down and hopefully this new medicine combination will do the trick. (Her blood pressure has been in the 160's)  Mom and I had a great time on Friday.  It worked out perfectly to have mom work with the baby so I could tackle some projects around the house.  When you feel lousy you just can't do anything, so we were happy to help Shan with laundry and some cleaning and more importantly the kids so she could rest.

Rachael's 39th Birthday

As a kid I hated Sunday birthdays.  But now I love them!  I told my family I just wanted a quiet day.  Sweet mom brought dinner up to me.  The W's and Marilyn came too.  We celebrated Caleb's birthday too.  It was Stake Conference so I only had to go to two hours of church (I didn't have to teach a lesson).  Then I took a nap after church.  Around 4:00 everyone showed up for the dinner.

Mares gave Bridger his belated birthday present which was couple of mini lego Star Wars sets.  He put them right together.  He loves them!  After everyone left, I opened my presents.  Matt's been a little busy so I helped him out and bought my presents.  The day before when we were down in AF I told him I just wanted to go shopping for my birthday.  So he took all of the kids and I went to Kohls for an hour and picked out some presents.  It was the best birthday gift!

I got a couple of exercise shorts and some exercise headbands.  Tanner helped me open my presents.  He really liked my headbands.  Chase gave me the sweetest present.  At the end he handed me a homemade card.  It was written from the heart and made me tear up!  At the end of it he said "I love you to the moon and back."  Then he gave me four coupons for a massage.  (He knows I love massages).  It was so sweet!!!

I love my boys so much!!!  When I was younger, my birthday was all about doing something fun.  But now it's about being with family!!  What a great day!!!