Good Friends

I have been so blessed with such great friends that I hesitate to single them out because I don't someone to feel slighted. So I hope that all of my friends know that I honestly & truly love you all. But today I need to do this...I need to single out someone and give them a very BIG thank you!

This morning started out with a vengence. Head pounding....stomach churning & choking for clean air. Needless to say, we didn't make it to church. But as I tried to drift off to sleep, the wind howled and barn creaked outside. But a new sound slammed some reality home as I realized the old tin roof was being lifted off by the wind.

Darren went out in the FREEZING wind and attempted to nail down the old tin, but everytime he did, the side would curl back over and nearly smack him upside the head. The ladder wasn't tall enough to reach & without getting to the top, there was no way to prevent it from flying into the house risking further damage to house, or person.



So, to quote Pooh Bear, "I thunk and I thunk and I thunk!" and then knew what to do! I called Kelly & she sent Jerid! To hear his old chev truck roar to life and then turn the corner was such a comforting sound. Together they STETCHED and pounded nails, drilled and cut and all the stuff hardworking great men do.





And then to end the day on a perfect note, Miss Kelly went and did THIS!

These were taken at a performance last night. It wasn't their best, and Karlee came home pretty upset. It helps to have friends who lift and strengthen your kids too.



So our day started with Jerid strengthening the roof and protecting us there, and ended with Kelly lifting and strengthing a beautiful young lady in need of a little love. Kelly & Jerid were our heros today! Thanks guys! Love ya!




*NOTE: ALL PHOTOS PROPERTY OF KELLY BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHY! USED WITH PERMISSION ONLY!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Did ya'll have a Happy Thanksgiving? We sure did. It was so nice to spend time in Idaho with my family. The kids loved being with their cousins & played so nice. We stayed with my brother Kelly & his family that was THE BEST! Such a warm and welcoming home. Wonderful hospitality & we were so grateful to them. Carson & Marquessa just hung out all day & played games & sang along to their music. Not a single argument in 5 days! VERY NICE!

Black Friday started at 3:30AM for Celeste, Natalie, Annie & I! My dad was gracious enough to clean out his "Biggs Rig" for us so we had a big ol' truck with a locked shell on it so all of our goodies were safely tucked away as we went from store to store! I saw 2 fist fights over toys & gadgets which just left me shaking my head. Maybe those people should sleep in next year!

Arriving back to Kelly & Celeste's after shopping I was greeted with some of the scariest bit of news a mother will ever hear. "Karlee is on a run-away horse!" Apparently she was going to go for a ride with Kelly & she must've spurred the horse a little hard or something. Anyway, the horse saw an open gate and made a run for it. She jumped a fence which launched Karlee forward causing her to lose the reins. She grabbed ahold of the horses neck and held on for dear life. I don't know if it was after the first fence-jump or not, but at some point she slid UNDERNEATH the horses neck and held on with her arms and legs wrapped TIGHTLY around the neck. The horse jumped a total of THREE fences, ran through fields, up and down a gully & hills and down a dirt road! A LONG WAYS!!! All with Karlee holding on for dear life!!! When she reached the top of a hill she noticed that she was closer to the ground so she decided to let go and drop to the ground. I guess you could say that she "stopped, dropped and rolled" into a ball, covered her head and held her breath. She ended up with a horseshoe shaped scrape on the lower right side of her back but she said that didn't hurt.

What WAS painful was her leg and arm muscles as well as her stomach and back. She wasn't bruised and there wasn't anything more serious than the scrape on her back. No blood (other than from a cut on her finger that reopened.), No Broken Bones, just sore muscles and there was plenty of that. She had a hard time moving until Monday night after dancing. I think the stretching and movement from dance loosened up those tight muscles because she was feeling TONZ better after that.

So, while I didn't quite meet my goal for posting my gratitude entry every day, I will end with this note of how very, very, grateful I am that #1 My daughter is still alive. I shudder at the possibilities that could've resulted in an entirely different ending. #2 That she is strong and in shape and has an iron will. I honestly believe that it was through sheer will and by the grace of God that she held on for so long. She was so stubborn about the whole thing that when someone asked her about getting BUCKED OFF the horse she quickly corrected them saying "I LET GO! and I Didn't Cry!" Well, she is braver than most people I know, cause I would've been bawling from the get go!

Oh, in the spirit of finding joy in the midst of a bad situation, here's Carson's take on this whole thing.
Darren: Carson, did you see Karlee on that horse?
(after receiving an affirmative answer)
Darren: What was Karlee doing?
Carson does a loud impression of a screaming girl!
Darren: What were YOU doing?
Carson: I was thinking "WOW! IMPRESSIVE!!!"

Yup, impressive is right, but what impresses me the most, is the protection that was clearly in play here. I'm so grateful to our Father in Heaven for protecting my daughter on her wild ride. Someday I'd really like to know how many angels were on that ride with her.

Takin' a BREAK to XPRESS my Gratitude!

I'm so grateful for these 2 beautiful dancers & COOL CHICKAROOS!!!! I'm so grateful for all of the time & effort they put into teaching my sweet girl & lots of other sweet girls how to dance!
















But mostly I'm grateful for WHO they are! I watch them teach our daughters grace and tolerance & kindness at the same time instilling in them the spirit of teamwork, hardwork and integrity. They truly are some of the greatest....Coaches & Friends!
Thanks Shayla & Brenda for just being AWESOME! You're THE BEST!!!

Brothers and Sisters

They scream, they fight, they tattle, they rush to be the first one to do this, the last one to do that, to get the biggest bowl of cookie dough ice cream, the smallest portion of the chore list, the longest hug, the shortest lecture and best of everything. Bottom line, they are 2 happy, healthy, normal kids!

At the end of the day, despite everything, they love each other in a way that only they can understand. She turns to him for a sense of security and protection, He turns to her for a sense of fun and adventure. They teach each other things that a parent could go blue in the face trying to get through to them. There are days when I want to pull my hair out and scream loud enough that they could hear me if they were half way around the world "STOP FIGHTING, SETTLE DOWN, BE QUIET!!!" (I know, the irony isn't lost on me) but then they do....at the end of the day, they are still clinging on to those last few moments together. As a mother, I can't even begin to describe the emotions that this invokes in me. I know that someday I will be gone, their father will be gone and they will only have each other. Only THEY will understand what it's like to grow up in this family, only they will be able to support each as brother and sister & if we're lucky,friends.

Tonight I went in to tuck them in, say my final goodnight and noticed that Carson was not in his bed. I looked in to see if they were hiding out, up to a few final moments of night-time mischief, instead I found them all hunkered down in Karlee's room. I couldn't help take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing of all the other times I have found them asleep together, from cribs and toddler beds, floors, couches and even closets and sleeping bags. I wonder what their last words were to each other were as they drifted off to sleep. They'll hate this picture for now, but someday, I know they'll secretly hope that their own kids will want to happily spend every last moment together.

This is one of my favorite videos. It's one of those songs that really puts things in perspective. But be warned it's a *TEAR JERKER*

Who Do They Look Like?

This is so funny and so interesting to me on so many levels! If you want to do your own "Look Alike Contest" click here.





So try it out, let me know who your kids look like!

My Daughter, the Athlete

So my daughter, age 12 found out I had a blog and of course, the first thing she asked was..."Mom, are you going to write about me?" I told her "Oh probably! I'll sneak in and take a picture of you sleeping tonight & write about how loud you snore!" She told me I shouldn't lie on my blog! So, I guess that's out!

So I'll tell you what she's really like. She's an athlete. From the minute she was first placed in a blanket the first thing she did was wiggle her toes free. The girl needs to be able to move her feet. It should've been a clue to her future. She wanted to dance at age 4, I made her wait until she was 5. She wasn't happy with JUST that, because that only occupied her 1 day a week. She needed more, so we added soccer, that took up 2 days a week for 2 months out of the year. (Don't worry, I'm not one of "THOSE MOMS"!). She still wasn't happy, so I got her a bike so she could use those feet to pedal about. That seemed to do it. The girls a worker, she stays in shape, she motivates herself and she isn't intimidated by taller kids, complicated dance moves, taller players, BOYS or even a lot of hard work. I'm quite proud of her.

Last year she decided that she wanted to perform a solo at a few dance competitions. That would've been meant private 1 on 1 lessons, costumes, entrance fees, extra props here and there. The dollar wheels were spinning in my mind and I was getting nauseous about it. Luckily she had an AWESOME dance teacher that provided a means for her to do this. FUNDRAISERS! UGH! I about died when she told me "Mom, I get 1/2 amount of the money from what I sell! I only have to sell X amount to get enough to pay for it." Her figures were off, WAAAAAAY off, but I didn't have the heart to tell her. I hate fundraisers, I hate taking my kid around guilting people into buying things they really don't want. But she was determined. Now mind you, this was NOVEMBER in UTAH! It's COLD! She grabbed her salesheet, clipped it to a clipboard, shoved her pencil between her teeth and hopped on that trusty pedal-bike! By the time she was done, she had readjusted her goal several times and had earned enough to pay for her entire year of dancing!!!!!!!! I was FLOOORED! But I was most proud of her when people would call me telling me how polite and informed she was! Little did I know that would end up being her last year of dancing. (at least for awhile) Her beloved teacher retired to have a family and so the dancing shoes were hung up for awhile.

This was the result: 1st Attendant!!!



This year she is concentrating on soccer and a new sport: Gymnastics! She's been to 3 lessons. She's taken gymnastics in the past, when she was 4 and a few months when she was in 3rd or 4th grade. But it's been awhile. Tonight she performed with some other gymnasts at half-time at the football game! Imagine my shock to watch her do back-flips and back hand-springs!!!! THREE LESSONS I tell you, THREE! I was so proud of her willingness to work hard to get herself where she thought she should be. The girl's gonna go far. I'm proud of her! I love her, she keeps me on my toes!!!


Check out that concentration! Eye's always on the ball but keenly aware of where that ball needs to go, who she needs to get it to and who she needs to get away from.