Arrow of Light

Parker has just received his Arrow of Light. He was so excited to get this award. He worked hard and he actually finished it about two months before his birthday but the scouts had a summer break so there were no pack meeting. Finally in Sept. he was able to get the award. Bill and I sent for a real arrow with a real arrow head, it looks awesome.



He is so excited to be in the 11 year old scout group. He has already been going to their meetings for a couple of months and has had a blast.




Way to go Parker we are so proud of you!!! Now the big push begins for the Eagle!

Who Is This Girl?

Today we went to the mountains to take pictures of the kids. The mountains were beautiful and the leaves were changing into beautiful colors. The kids were actually cooperative while taking pictures, first time ever. I got home and I was looking at the pictures and look who I saw.

Seriously, when did this child become so old and so beautiful?

Here she is last year at the same time of year, and the other picture was two years ago. It is so amazing to me how you can live with your children and you see them everyday but you don't notice the changes in them as drastic as you can with a photo. Megan is turning into a beautiful girl inside and out.

But really where did my little girl go?

GONE...

Gone, is my ATV. My cute little yellow ATV!!! That yellow ATV got me through some hard times when I felt that my life was out of control. When Rylee was born I felt like everything was spinning out of control and the hard part was I couldn't stop the madness. We had some friends that had ATV's and asked us to go riding with them. That was the first time that I felt like I had some kind of control in my life. After that first ride I was hooked!! We saved our money and got us our very own ATV's and a cute yellow one for me. I was so freeing to ride those babies in the beautiful mountains and just for awhile I was in control of my life. After Rylee died they were still a source of freedom from the pain of what we had experienced for years.

Fast forward to six months ago. I realized that I was having an identity crisis. I had worked and worked so hard for ten years. I built a successful business and finally Bill was able to take over and I could stay home with the kids. After Rylee died I just couldn't mentally handle working, so I didn't. Still I never really felt like I was completely done with work, I always felt like something would happen and I would have to go back to working at the title company. I didn't call myself a stay at home mom. I always considered myself to work part time, which is funny because I never worked. I thought maybe I should look for some new kind of work to do, but nothing ever seemed right. A few weeks ago I started taking a class called Financial Peace University. The class really pushed me to look at our finances and challenged me to sell some of our items to help our financial situation. As I started finding things that we didn't use anymore and the kids got into it and then we started to sell things, the thought of selling the ATV's started entering into my mind. Bill wasn't ready to give them up yet and he know how much they helped my cope and how emotionally attached I was to them. About a week ago Bill and I were talking about our financial situation and how we were going to handle things. Bill said something to me that was like a light bulb going off in my head. He said, " I will handle earning the money, you handle taking care of the kids and the house." Now for the past three and a half years that is what I had been doing, however, to have him finally say that it was so freeing to me. I burst into tears and cried for hours, which I must say surprised me. During this time I also realized that I was ready to part with my little yellow ATV. All of the feelings and emotions that I had placed on my ATV, my freedom, were gone. I felt so free emotionally, I couldn't believe what I had suppress for all of those years.

Today we cleaned up our ATV's, they looked amazing, we took pictures and placed an ad on KSL.com. Fifteen minutes after we posted the ad we got a call from a couple wanting to buy the ATV's. They came down from Ogden and bought my cute little yellow ATV. It was very emotional and I just let Bill deal with the whole situation. I took pictures of all of us on them and each kid expressed their sadness for selling them, but we are looking forward to a trip to Disneyland with the money that we made selling the ATV's. Gone is my cute little yellow friend, but the memories will last forever.

Today...

What would life be like without good friends? I love to sit with friends at the park ,when our kids are playing on the slides, and talk about life, books to read, and solve the worlds problems. I love going to lunch with good friends who love and except me for who I am. I love that I can just be me and it doesn't matter what I say they will still be my friend. Friends that watch my children during the middle of the day, early morning or late at night without complaining are a true friends. I love talking to a friend who I haven't seen for years and it seems like it has just been days since we last talked. I love to listening to my friends and I am grateful they listen to me. What would my life be like without friends? I hope I never have to find out.

Today...

Today, my favorite memory is with Jake. We walked down to the mail box to get the mail. He brought his cute little Lego wagon with us. He looked so cute walking with his little wagon; he put the mail in his wagon. At the mail box he found some red ants that he liked smashing. Then he decided that he wanted to sit down to get a better look at the ants, he was having a great time until one ant decided to bite his leg.

Falcon Award

In sixth grade the students are encouraged to earn the Freedom Falcon Award. This is an award that is worked on all during the school year. Megan had such a great experience earning the award in 5th grade so she was excited for this years award. She worked hard and did almost all of it on her own. We are very proud of her. Good job Megan!!!

Here are the requirements for the Falcon Award:

Freedom Falcon Award requirement. Complete each of the following:

1. Earn a physical fitness award.

2. Enter the Reflections Contest.

3. Participate in the Science Fair.

4. Memorize all the European countries and capitals.

5. Master Multiplication Facts.

6. Have no more than 10 absences and no more than 10 tardies.

7. Type 27 words per minute with 2 errors or less.

8. Read 130 words per minute fluently.

9. Read at least 10 books over 150 pages.

10. Publish a collection of at least 8 personal writings.

11. Attend at least 6 out of the 8 preparedness parties.

12. Get 100% on at least 10 of your handwriting sheets.

Dance Festivial 2010

I love the dance festival!!! It is my favorite thing about the end of the year. Each grade learns and performs a dance. The kids did a great job. Parker was cracking me up, he was very into his dance, The Virginia Reel. Hailey danced to a song from High School Musical. Megan danced to We Go Together, from Grease. Megan is a little sad that next year she won't be in the dance festival.