Conference

I cleaned and rearranged and got the house pretty goo'-lookin' (as Abby would say) for General Conference.

But then it got a little crazy...

When we first moved to Elko, we couldn't get a consistent enough connection online to watch GC from home so we went to the Stake Center.  That was nice!  But now that we can watch online, we do.  We LOVE General conference weekend.

Landrie...double digits!

Happy Birthday, Landrie!  We love our chipper, beautiful, always-positive little Landrie.

She looked absolutely FAB at school in her new outfit.

When we take Scarlett to afternoon Kindergarten, we always see Landrie playing tetherball.  She is the school champ!  There is always a line of kids, mostly boys, waiting their turn to play her.  She wins and wins and wins.  She has to keep playing as the winner, so by the time recess is over she's quite sweaty, and I'm sure exhausted!  She has many, many friends and admirers, including a boy who made her a necklace that was a dime with a hole drilled in it for a string to thread through.  I think Scarlett has worn it... 

Landrie is still in the GT program (gifted and talented) and her teacher loves her.  She is the first to raise her hand when a volunteer is asked for in Primary or at home for prayer.  She's a great reader, and the favorite to play with Scarlett and Hartman as she can keep them entertained for hours.  She really is the most pleasant person to have around!  We love Landrie.

Landrie is one of those people who always looks beautiful and fresh-faced, even when she's just woken up or sweaty playing tetherball.  Check it out.

I know.  Presh.

Homecoming 2013

Homecoming again!

Raegan was asked by this really cute boy in the stake named Landon.  He did a magic trick at school and held up a card at the end that said, "Raegan, will you go to Homecoming with me?"  Cute.  This is a boy from a family of 10 kids, who LOVE chips.  They came over all last winter to carry them a mile home in a duffle bag to their family.  Since we knew they liked chips, Raegan answered like this:

He liked.

We don't have any footage of Romney's "ask", but it was filmed.  We cannot post it here because the policeman involved told us we'd be arrested and sent to prison, but it was good.  Romney was pulled over, told her license was suspended, was tested for sobriety, and told she would have to appear in court.  The policeman who pulled her over gave her a paper to read before signing her consent to appear before the judge:

You can imagine she was RELIEVED.  And excited.  Alex, or "AJ" as most people call him, has been named "the hottest guy in school", so that was a bonus.  

Homecoming week was full of fun, and the dance team had worked for MONTHS on a performance to go with the "midieval" theme of the week.  They did great!

The week of the dance was jam-packed.  Dress up days every day at school, dance practices, events every single night at the school, bonfires, our three girls were at ALL of it.  And any spare second at home was spent SEWING.  Brent was so sick of the sewing machine on the kitchen table and ironing board by the front door!  Romney needed to finish a 10-hour project to display at the YW Evening in Excellence, so she decided to tackle the skirt sewing, tie-making, and corsage decorating.  Raegan made her circle skirt too.  They both ended up in gold circle skirts (Romney was thrilled that she and Raegan would match), but they both looked beautiful.  We took lots of pictures:

AJ picked Romney up an hour after Raegan and Landon left. AJ was nominated as one of five guys to be elected Homecoming King.  He and Romney were announced at the dance and walked and waved for everyone to see.

They even got together after church the next day to take a couple more...

And now Homecoming is over.

School begins!

I can't believe how fast time flies.  We're back in school!  We now have THREE girls at Elko High School who all leave at the crack- O, 6 am, for Seminary every day.  Romney and Raegan were performing for the assembly the first day of school, and Sophie can't miss wearing her heels.

Then it's Alivia and Landrie out the door.  They leave at 8 am, except on Wednesdays and Fridays when Alivia has Strings and I take her at 7:30.

Scarlett began Kindergarten!  She looked so cute the first day.  I've never been one to cry as I drop my girls off on the first day of Kindy, but this year was different.  Scarlett had been SO excited to start school and even more so after meeting Mrs. Nutting and seeing her classroom at back-to-school night.  But that all changed as she stood in line that first day.  She got scared!  She was trying not to cry, and it made me cry!  I did the old "sunglasses" trick, and tried to keep my voice steady as I walked her to her seat and kept telling her, "You'll do great!  This will be SO FUN!"  I kept waving and praying her teacher would be extra sweet.  She was.  Scarlett loves Kindergarten!

When we went to meet Alivia's two teachers (she has each half day), we noticed that the new planners that all the students in the entire school recieve had Alivia's artwork on the cover!  The same picture she drew last spring that made it on the cover of her yearbook as well.  Her teacher was impressed.  So are we! 

Romney and Raegan are back to a dance-packed year.  

Dance team Seniors

They're having a great time with friends already.

I like this pic!

Sophie has really gotten excited about Forensics this year.  She takes the advanced Speech class at school, and competes out of town one weekend a month.  She is doing amazingly well!  Her first piece that she memorized was a Humorous Interpretation (HI) and last month she did a Dramatic Interpretation (DI).  It was TEN full minutes of memorization.  Her DI was so intense...she practiced for weeks!  It was about a woman giving the eulogy of her husband who was killed in 9/11.  She did such a great job, I cried when she performed it for us.  She's good.  She's really good.

She came home from her last even to tell us she won FIRST PLACE in her DI event.  It's huge, and apparently impossible for a novice, freshman debater to do so well.  Yay Sophie!

We're off to a good start.

More summer...

Romney, Raegan, and Sophie had some great adventures this summer with Girl's Camp, Youth Conference, Sophie going to Oakcrest, and Romney going to EFY.  Plus, they were busy with friends just about every single day.

EFY colored pants, a must.

Romney's company

Romney met some great friends up in Rexburg at EFY.

EFY girls

Paint fights:  BIG in Elko, Nevada

Romney's buddy Griffeth has som mad photography skilzzzz

We really like Tyler

The dance team performs in the parades, we love to watch!

Sophie and one of her great friends Hanna Albrecht from Provo were able to buddy-up for Oakcrest in August

Sophie became great friends with her Oakcrest girls

We were lucky to have Rachel and Eric Schmidt's girls with us for a week this summer while they were in some exotic place on a trip.  Taylor was able to go to Girl's camp with our ward, she loved it!

Princess theme for camp, our ward was Rapunzel.

Romney was asked to go to the front of the room with a boy from a Utah stake for a Lion House cooking demo at Youth Conference.  They had to cook like this.  

Red lipstick phase

Youth Conference baptisms