Welcome to our World

Happy 15th birthday to the amazing Kate the Great!  Being the oldest means being Mom’s best teacher and now she’s teaching me how to be a parent in the passenger seat. Hubby took her to take her learner’s permit test with the driving school and then another day took her to the DMV. She is a natural. The first day with her permit she drove around with me for an hour and was doing so well in the high school parking lot that I encouraged her to drive around the neighborhood. We went to a couple friend’s houses nearby and then we even went through the Wendy’s drive through. That was a bit much considering there was construction going on but with how new she is at driving, Kate is doing great.  This girl is talented in so many ways! On Kate’s actual birthday Hubby brought home lots of Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and my parents joined us for Coldstone ice cream cake. Danny’s handwriting provided plenty of giggles when Kate read what he said wrong and thought he called her a fat mo...

Guess who decided she finally loves to bike?  Natalie!  It has been so much fun to watch her discover the simple joy of pedaling around with family and friends. I feel like everything is right when she and I go bike riding together. Absolutely priceless.  (I don't have any photos but Natalie also really really enjoyed going to horse camp this week.) My mom and Shelly O. helped me pull off a 9am - 3pm Activity Days activity last Friday.  We pulled weeds at Shelly's parents' house for an hour as a service project, walked back to my house (pictured here from Shelly's POV) before doing crafts my mom had prepared, acting out one Bible Story from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, made pancakes and sausage over tin can stoves for lunch (that's where the burns come in!!!), and watched Rookie of the Year in the basement with soda and popcorn to finish off the day.  It was a lot for my family to handle having 13 girls around the house but I just really wan...

The second day of the tournament was single elimination and set to start 8am.  Our boys were 3rd seed and got the best schedule there was (in my opinion).  Hubby and Danny got in the truck at 6am to make it to 7am warm ups before the game.  I stayed behind to take Kate & A to volleyball and teach Primary w/ Michelle and Natalie going to Church too. We were able to listen to the entire first game in the car to and from volleyball and to Church as we drove and got ready for the day.  They won the low scoring and well matched game 3-2 to move on to the next round at 10am.  By the time we got home from Church Danny's team had won their second game 11-6 and were in the final four out of 28 teams that showed up to play.  That alone was enough to impress me!  The original plan for us girls to make the drive in my car after we got home and had lunch but knowing how hot it it was outside Natalie asked me, "Do we HAVE to go?"  Hubby and I have never wan...

I got pictures from the Stake Young Womens camp in Wyoming!  When I asked Michelle what I should say about YW camp she said, “It was awesome and I wish I could live there forever.”  Well, that about sums it up.  I have also heard her talk about the yummy food, funny skits and testimony meeting.  I am so grateful to all those that helped her have such a wonderful time while she was away.  Kate opted not to go sleep in a tent for three nights and seemed a little surprised to hear about how much Michelle enjoyed it.  Lol.  Later (July 5-8) we convinced Danny to go to Young Mens camp at Mount Ragged High Adventure Camp and the boys got to stay in cabins.  So the girls ended up roughing it way more than the boys + Danny got to go mountain biking.  When he came home I was relieved to hear he had a good time and glad Dan had taken a day off work to help drive the boys and their bikes and a ton of food up to camp (almost as far away as Steamboat but ...