Birthday Presents

Tonight a special someone dropped these presents for the birthday girl over at our house. She is going to be so excited when she wakes up.

I decided to put her gifts from the family out as well! I think she is going to have a great birthday!

6th Grade Graduation

Today my last child graduated from elementary school. :(

She was so excited for today!

Getting her diploma from Miss Lisonbee.

Paige

Emer and Madeline

Besties!

Miss Lisonbee and Dr. Thomas

Kelsey, Madeline, Makayla, Paige and Emerson

Add in Devri, Nicole, Reagan and Ali

Add one more....Savannah!

After the graduation ceremony, all the 6th graders and their parents had lunch in the park. Then they had a dance back in the gym. It was a very full, fun day!

State Track Meet

After all the drama of getting to State, the actual competition was much more low key! Thank goodness. It was a pretty big pack of girls for one race. There were no heats, just the final.

Montana ran really well and even got a PR though she didn't medal. I was so proud that she even had enough for a good kick at the end.

3 tired girls!

Christian and Josh were so nice to come support her!

Scene from the ranch

The little visitor who was passing through......

The Big Winner

Last night we attended the 2011 Utah's Entertainment & Choice Awards in Salt Lake. Kurt was nominated in the Choice in Film category. He was nominated along with Richard Dutcher, Ryan Little and some others I didn't happen to know. Kurt was convinced that he would not win. Wasn't he wrong!!!! He won!

On the way out we saw Tyson Apostol (from Survivor). He runs a lot with our good friend Matt Galland. He was very nice and let us take some pictures.

(sorry for the blurry photo)

Late-night Surprise!

Thursday night, after everyone was almost in bed, our doorbell rang. I was sitting at the computer and saw the person run away. I thought it was just a doorbell ditcher. But Indy looked out the window and found a little surprise for Montana.

We thought it was Summer or Candace but they got the same surprise!

Thank you whoever you are out there! What a thoughtful gift!

Varsity Letter

Orem High Soccer had their end-of-season banquet tonight. Finn got the award for having the sweetest hair so they gave him a mirror to gaze at it all day long... Perfect. But, more importantly, he earned his varsity letter in soccer---as a sophomore. Awesome. Way to go Finn!

Licensed!

Finally, weeks after his 16th birthday, Finn got his license! We were just at the DMV earlier in the week to renew his permit which had to be done in order for him to finish his roading for driver's ed. So instead of his license costing $30, it essentially cost us $45 when you add in the permit renewal. But, at this point, I so do not care about the cost. I am so glad he finally has his license. I am tired of driving to Orem High a thousand times a day for this kid!

Region

Wow------ the past two days have been quite an emotional roller coaster around here! The Region VII meet was held the past two days. Montana was scheduled to run 3 events-the 1600m, the 800 and the 3200m. She had not qualified by time in any other invitationals up to this meet. We knew that this was her last chance to be able to go to State competition.

The 1600m finals were held Wednesday. She started out strong from what I could tell. After the first lap her pace was a little slow to qualify. But, in general, if she can keep pace with Summer and Candace, then she will usually do well. And she was doing just that until her last lap. Coming around the corner her pace fell way off. She ended up finishing 9th which was so disappointing for her. I should say it was devastating! For some reason, all of our girls had a really hard time in this particular race. After a few (or maybe alot) tears, some food and a hot shower, she was feeling a little better and ready to tackle Day 2 of competition.

Yesterday, she ran the 800m. She didn't qualify in that event either. After that race she did not want to run the 3200m. She wanted to give up and go home actually. She had a good start again and stayed with Summer and Candace for a good while. Then those two broke away but Montana was still hovering in 4th and 5th place. She still had a good position until the final lap when she started wearing down. Candace (who had already qualified for State in this event) slowed way down and kept looking back. She got to Montana and was (apparently) yelling at her to pick it up and find her kick. Well, it worked! Montana sped up and ended up finishing 4th which qualified her to go to State! I couldn't believe it----her least favorite event and now she's running it at State competition. And how amazing that Candace would do that for Montana! And the Orem girls ended up winning Region. It was a very happy day!

Summer, Montana, Candace, Kate

Orem vs Mountain View-Game 2

That hair is just a thing of beauty!

It was unfortunate that we didn't come out with a win the second time we played Mountain View this season. It was a great game though. The boys played hard.

One more game left in regular season play......

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Mom and Dad with all their beautiful grandkids!

My favorite part about my mom is that she loves her grandkids! And they love her! Emerson loves to stay over at her house and my mom will even let her sleep in her bed----that is love! She is still willing to watch our kids when we go out of town and still loves to do it.

Love you Mom!

Spring Fling

Finn went to Spring Fling last night with Ellery. It's a little weird that they had a dance less than a week after the last one. Ellery asked him Thursday night about 10 p.m.! It looks like they had a pretty good time! I have always thought that these two should date even though she's a year older.

Feeling a little teary.....

Yes, so what's new? Ask my husband or children---it doesn't take much for me to cry. Today I had to put together some pictures for a senior honor night that our ward is doing in YM/YW next week. It's truly hard to believe that my oldest child is graduation from high school in one month. As I look back over so many pictures of her through the years, I am so proud of the young woman that she has become. She is smart, friendly, kind, athletic, motivated and, most of all, righteous. I don't know what I did as a mother to deserve her as a daughter.

Prom & Such

You would never have guessed that earlier that morning there was probably 3-4 inches of snow on the ground!

Saturday night was Orem's prom. Can I tell you the preparations that went in to having 2 children go to prom???!!! It seemed never-ending. And not only was it Finn's first school dance but also his first date! I was a little bit nervous for him. His day date went smoothly. But after that, his "friend" who was supposed to drive Finn and his date (he doesn't have his license quite yet) for the dance decided that he was going to bail on him. Everyone else in the group had a ride and all the cars were full. Finn refused to go if Kurt and I had to drive him. So last minute we decided to let him drive----scary! I wasn't questioning his driving skills. But I was surely hoping that he would not get pulled over! Luckily it all worked out and they got where they needed to safely and without police involvement!

Duke wanting to get in on the action.

Montana thinks she's a pro at pinning on flowers.

Sis & bro

Finn was looking pretty sharp in his skinny jeans.

Off he went.......

Finn & Sydney

Hopefully I will have more pictures to post later of these two!