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.

6th Grade Graduation

It is official, Megan has graduated from 6th grade. My baby will be going to Junior High next year. When did she get so grown up? At the graduation they had one student from each class speak and another student present a musical number. Then they showed a baby picture of each student and their 6th grade picture as they walked up to get their diplomas. Megan has been an excellent student this year. She worked hard and was very dedicated to getting good grades. She even remembered to turn in every assignment, a new event in her life. We are so proud of Megan and her dedication to her school work. We love you!!!!

Good Bye my Friend!!

Today my dear friend Carrie finished her journey her on earth. I am going to miss my neighbor and friend. I want to write some of my thoughts about her so I can always have those memories with me.

When we were building our home we would always chat with the neighbors when we stopped by to check on the progress of our home. We didn’t realize what a wonderful friend we would have in Carrie. Carrie worked at Primary Children’s Hospital and the day after Rylee was born we ran into her in the halls of the hospital. It was so nice to see a friendly face during such a hard time. She would check up on us many times while Rylee was in the hospital. When we were able to move into our home it was such a comfort to know that if we needed help with Rylee she was close by and she would always be willing to help us. There were many times that she came over to our home at crazy hours to look at Rylee and give us some advice or to tell us not to worry. She would always be so cute to Rylee and she loved her for who she was. The week before Rylee died a few of our friends from the neighborhood went scrap booking and I asked Carrie if she would let me pay her to make a scrap book for Rylee for me. She was so excited to do this for me and she got started right away, we had no idea that just a week later Rylee would be gone. The scrap books were incredible, they had the Carrie touch to them and they are something that I will cherish for the rest of my life because they will not only remind me of Rylee but they will remind of Carrie as well.

Carrie and I both had a miscarriage a few months apart. We would both be very blunt about our lives and what was going on so we decided that we would start of club and it would be the “dead baby club.” (Sorry Robyn I know that freaked you out.) I know that sounds horrible, but that is how we would say things. We had some pretty hard things happen with our children and we were there for each other. We would worry about each other’s children and we would do all we could for them.

Carrie was the most amazing mom. I was always amazed by her patience. She would calmly talk to her children; I was very impressed by that. She loved to hold the babies and she would always call all of the girls “Dolly.” She was blessed to have two children; Kaden who is 10 and Kenadee who is 19 months. She went through a lot to get Kenadee here and she loved that little baby so much. Kenadee was dressed to the nines all the time. Carrie made a ton of bows to put in her hair. She had the cutest clothes with matching shoes and head bands. I am so sad for her children, they won’t grow up with their mom. I told Carrie that I would talk to them about her and tell them stories about her, especially Kenadee.

Carrie died from leukemia. She was in the hospital for several months. It was touch and go with her for a long time; there were times when the doctors didn’t expect her to live. She was a miracle. Every prayer that I have heard offered since she went to the hospital in December, Carrie was always mentioned. Our children prayed for her everyday. The ward showed so much love and service for her and her family. I am so touched to think of all that was done to help her. I was lucky to have the opportunity to take her to a doctor visit after she came home from the hospital. It was so fun to be with her and talk and laugh. Carrie had the best sense of humor, that girl made me laugh. It took about 5 hours to drive her to her appointment and for her to get the treatments she needed. We talked the whole time. It was so fun to hear her thoughts and to talk about anything and everything. I will always be so grateful that I had the chance to take her to the doctors. I also went to visit her when she went back to the hospital and she was feeling hopeful that maybe the treatment she was getting was working. We didn’t talk of death this time we just talked about life. Bill asked me if I had any regrets with Carrie and I told him no, I feel like I did all I could for her. I hope she knew how much I loved her and appreciated her friendship. I am going to save the emails we would send to each other while she was in the hospital. I am going to miss her. When she first went to the hospital I would have something happen and I would think, I need to call Carrie and tell her, but then I would remember that she was in the hospital and I couldn’t call her. When she was stable and could use email that was great because I could talk to her. I am sure I will have those days when I go to get the phone to call her or I will come across her email and I will want to talk to her. Carrie I love you and I will miss you so much!!! Thank you for being such a great example to me. You will always be with me like a handprint on my heart!

Megan's New Passion

Megan has finally found her passion "dancing". She had her first dance recital since she was four, last week. She has wanted to take dance in the past but because of our crazy life it hasn't worked out. I had no idea where to have her take lessons when she is so much older than most of the kids dancing. I was fortunate that Megan had a friend Erin, that wanted a friend to take a dance class with. We found a class that worked for them, at first they were a little self conscience because they were older and bigger than the other girls, however they stuck with it and their perseverance paid off. Megan, is a beautiful dancer. After the recital was over a lady came up to Megan and told her that she is such a graceful dancer and that she had noticed her during the practice and during the performance, she said she was a joy to watch. That was a big confidence booster to Megan. She is pretty happy dancing and it is fun for me to watch her blossom. I am looking forward to many more dance recitals, way to go Meg!!!!

Kicked Out of Nursery

My sweet little Jake has turned into a bruiser. Today I was summoned from Sunday School by the nursery leader. I was a little nervous that Jake may have gotten a little grabby but I was hoping for the best, the messy diaper. Well, I took the diaper bad with me hoping that I would be able to use the contents inside. However, I should have left the bag, it was the worst case scenario. The two year old was whacking kids in the head and pulling hair. AAAAHHHH!!! What has happened to my perfect child???? This crazy new behavior has manifested itself in the last month. I always thought that children learn how to hit and pull hair from other children. Jake being the youngest and with the other children being so much older I didn't think this would be an issue because the older kids are nothing but sweet and kind to him. Never have they whacked each other in the head or pulled hair because they wanted an item that Jake had. Where does this behavior come from? I guess I am going to have to some reading about this situation and see what the experts say. (Maybe Stephanie you are having second thoughts about getting the boys together when the kids go back to school.) I will see what next week brings, I may be called to be a nursery leader to take care of the bruiser.

Jakey Boy

My cute little Jakey was very busy getting into things today. This morning I was exercising upstairs and I could hear Jake downstairs getting into something. I called down to him asking him what he was doing, in his little Jakey way he told me he had a treat, which he calls a "geega". (I have no clue where he come up with that word.) I went down to check on him and he was sitting at the counter with a fork in his hand ,eating frosting out of a frosting container. He was as happy as a clam. I thought is was so cute that he know what he was talking about when I was asking him what he was doing. He was so proud of himself being so big to get a treat all by himself.

A few hours later I was in the den sending an email and he didn't know where I was so he was calling for me, saying, "Mom where are you?" I told him I was in the den, he came in and this cute little hairdo is what I saw. He had found some lotion in my purse, put it on his hands and then put it in his hair. He has always loved putting things in his hair even when he was a baby. Once again he was so proud of himself with his new hairdo. He is such a fun little boy and he keeps us laughing. I am glad that I can remember these cute moments.

One happy boy with his container of frosting.

Parker's Win

This year was Parker's last year to do the Pinewood Derby. He was very excited about his car this year. He and Bill worked hard figuring out just the right shape of the car and how to make it fast. Parker ended up coming in 3rd place. He was so happy to win a prize. He won a cute little plaque to mount his car. We are happy for you Park and we loved the car, way to go!!

Fall Fun 2009

I definitely am a big fan of fall. It is so fun to do all of the fun activities with the kids and to watch them get so excited. Of course we couldn't have fall without a family pumpkin carving night. This year was awesome, the kids did all of the carving and cleaning out all by themselves. I have never seen them so focused and quiet when carving pumpkins. They did a cute job and of course they were all proud of their creations.

We had the annual Holt Family Halloween party. We all got dressed up and went to Grams for the party. We played games, ate and the kids had a cake walk. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and playing Halloween games. Thanks Grams for the fun time!!

One of our very favorite activities to do in the fall is go to Cornbellys. Bill and I love to do the corn maze, the kids don't love it as much as we do, but they do along with us anyway. Jake had a blast running up and down the corn stalk aisles. We were lucky to have Michelle and her kids with us this year. It is always more fun to have the cousins with us. The kids had a blast, they loved playing in the corn kernel house. It was messy but they thought it was a riot. They also had fun shooting corn cobs and riding the tractor hay ride. Luckily we went at the first of the month when the weather was perfect.

It has been a great fall and I am sad to see it end. Of course there is nothing better in fall than Halloween, I can't wait for Saturday.

Happy Birthday Rylee!!

Here it is, the year Rylee would have turned five years old. I can't believe it has been that long since she was born. Those were some dark hard days when she was born. When the season changed to fall I started to feel like I did before she was born. I always remember things by the smell and feel. I was feeling a little sad this fall and I couldn't figure out why and thing I realized it was because it was fall and I remember so vividly the season and how I felt after Rylee was born. In a few more days it will be official, she will have been gone longer than she was with us. I knew this day would come, but I just didn't think it would come so soon. It is definitely a milestone to have her gone longer than she was living. As hard as her birth and life were to us I will never regret anything that happened to us. I am the person I am now(for better or worse) because of what I learned from that little dolly. I just seems so weird that we are going to visit her grave and then come home and celebrate with a cake and talk about our favorite memories. I think of how she would look if she were still alive. She would be going to school and be in a big wheel chair. I can't even begin to imagine how big her body would be. She would have still been very small but she would have been a little bit bigger than when she was 2. We continue to miss her everyday but we are so grateful that families are eternal. Thanks for all of the love and support we have received from all of our family and friends over the past 5 years. Rylee, Happy Birthday little dolly, WE LOVE YOU!!!!

I AM BACK

I can't believe what a blog slacker I have been these past few months. My computer was wacky for a while and I couldn't type without it taking hours, but now I got that all under control. We have done so many fun things as a family this past summer and I will never be able to blog about everything with the detail I would like. So I guess I am just going to have to give a re cap with a few pictures. I need to do a little catch up because when it comes time for me to make my blog book for this year I will have a huge gap during the summer. I am sorry that this is going to be long and boring but at least I will have it documented for my book.


We had so much fun playing with our cousins. Spencer and Andrea came and stayed the whole month of July. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins everyday. Michelle and Travis moved back from Australia and they were here with us for a few weeks before they moved to Arizona. It was so great to be together again.

We went fishing. We didn't catch anything but that was OK, because we had a fun time.

We rented a trailer and went camping for a week. We had such a great time. We rode our ATV's, fished, hiked,laughed, played and we even had our neighbors the Johns come and ride ATV's with us. It was awesome. I would love to do that every year.

We went down to the gully by our home and played in the water and on a rope swing that was there.

We went to the Highland Fling. It is the best parade ever because we always know a lot of people in the parade. The kids always get a ton of candy every year. It was fun to have cousins with us this year.

Bill had to go to St. George to do a closing so the rest of us went with him. It was a fast trip but very fun.

We hiked to Stewart Falls with the cousins. It was so fun and the kids did a great job hiking.

We had tons of fun sleep overs with the cousins. Megan and Amanda made up some very fun pioneer games for the 24th of July. Brady and Hailey had to be together as much as possible. Parker got to play his Nintendo a lot with his cousins and helped them get to new levels in their games.

Megan was in a cute play with the city arts council. They sang a bunch of Broadway songs. Megan did a great job.

The kids played with their friends and ran through the sprinklers.

We had Sofiya come and spend some time with us. She is such a cute girl. She came to play with Megan but all of the kids had a blast with her. We also went to Liberty Land a lot. We all loved to play laser tag, it was a great family activity.

Back To School

Here we are again, time to start another year of school. We had such a great summer, there was never a dull moment. This year will be Megan's last year in elementary school,that is crazy to me. The kids are all excited about their teachers this year. It always helps when the kids are excited about the new year. I have to say that I was sad to see them go back to school this year. As Jake and I were walking home from dropping the kids off at school I was getting a little emotional thinking about how old they are getting. I as alSo thinking that I Still have 4 more years before Jake goes to School. I don't know if I should be happy or sad. Here We go again With another School year, I hope it's a good one!

My Two Little Athletes

It is crazy how long it has been since I have been able to get to my blog. I have a lot of things to blog about, I just didn't have time. I am going to get all caught up, but it is going to take awhile.


Here are my two little athletes Parker and Hailey. This past week Hailey had her summer gymnastics recital. She has been in level 3 this past year. She has had fun and she did a great job. This next year she will be on a team. The gym where she is going is starting a new type of team called Team Gym. She will be competing with other teams that have this new program. She will be competing around the state with one meet being at Disneyland. I am excited for her to have this opportunity this year. It is going to be a good experience for her and I think she will learn a lot. I love that she will be training and competing as a team. The only down side is that there is no car pool, oh well the sacrifices we make for our kids.



Parker has started playing football this year. His coach from basketball is also the coach of the football team. Last year at the end of basketball he asked Parker to be on his football team. Parker was very nervous because he didn't really understand how to play the game. He started practices a few weeks ago and has loved every minute of it. I think that the boys look so cute in their team uniforms. Parker is trying to decide if he loves football as much as basket ball. Parker had his first game today. I was amazed at how people get into football, it is pretty crazy. The little 4Th and 5Th grade cheer leaders were there, I always wonder Where the little girls cheered now I know. I guess I have a lot to learn about being a football mom. It is going to be an exciting year with my little athletes.

Cherry Picking

When Bill and I were dating one of his professors that he worked with told him that we could pick cherries off the trees that he had at his house. We had a blast picking cherries and we always remember that date with fond memories. For years we have talked about taking our kids to pick cherries and finally this summer we did it!! It was so fun to pick a cherry then eat a cherry then pick a cherry. Even Jake loved the cherries, of course he would find some great ones on the ground and he would want to eat them. We all had a really great time and I think that the cherries taste the best when you pick them yourself. I think that we need to make this activity a family tradition.

My New Hobby

I have been wanting to get a SLR for about a year and in March I finally was able to get one. I had taken a photography workshops last month, but tonight my SIL and I went to a workshop in Draper. It was a lot of fun and I was able to bring some of my kids to practice on. The kids did great and I learned a lot about my camera, amongst other things. I am going to share some of my favs because I think they look really cute. I was worried about Jake because he is at that crazy age, but Emilie, the teacher, did a great job of getting him to smile and look cute. Check out my side bar for a couple more cute pics.

This one of Parks cracks me up, I have never seen him look so serious in his whole life.

There were way too many cute Jake pics, but I liked this one because he is looking right into the camera.

The cute photogenic cousins had a bunch of cute ones. I love their pout looks. Abbie is such a ham she cracked me up.