Layla's in Kindergarten!

I can't believe Layla's so big!!!! Layla started Kindergarten on September 1. CRAZY! She's loving school! She loves that she's big like Lylli. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Ellis and she is in the morning class. I take her to school with Lylli and then she rides the bus home, which she LOVES! I met her bus the first two days and the bus was really late. So the third day, Seryn and I were running a few minutes behind, and Layla was getting home as we were leaving the house. She was so proud of herself for being so big and doing it on her own. In fact, she asked me not to pick her up anymore because she can do it all by herself! I think I'm having a harder time letting Layla go to school than I did letting Lylli.

SO Far Behind

I realize I haven't blogged for a while. During July, I went to Girl's Camp and my girls went to Casper. They had a great time and got to do all sorts of things. Including riding horses. After we all got home, Shane went to the Tetons for a week with work and came home hating to be in the office! We didn't do much this summer, but we made the most of it!

Here is one of the creations the girls made in the playroom. This is a temple. Can't you tell. Angel Moroni is even on top! LOL! I think they said this was the Bountiful Temple. (They made it for Dean and Leah when they came.)


And now is school season!! YAY!!

Lylli is in 3rd grade this year and is already learning cursive! (She says she already knows how to do most of it. She doesn't say so, but I know she loves it anyway!) She loves her teacher, Mrs. Clifford, and has some friends from last year in her class again, though not all of them. And she's making new friends. According to her, she's 'getting braver and standing up' for herself. :) She's currently reading, "The Enchantress of Crumbledown" at home and "Ella Enchanted" for free-time at school. I can't believe she's getting so big!

Layla will be in Kindergarten this year. They had testing this week, so she hasn't been in school yet. But she'll start next Wednesday. She is SO excited and can't wait! Poor Seryn. She wears her backpack every day to take Lylli to school. She wants to go so badly. We'll have to come up with special stuff for her to do at home!

If you didn't know, I've started school again too. I'm taking a math course to catch me up. (I haven't taken math in 13 years so I'm VERY rusty.) And I'm taking an English Creative and Imaginative Writing class. I think it will be fun, but a lot of work. Lots of reading. Lots of writing. Both things I enjoy. If only I was reading and writing what I wanted! :) I'm excited, though. I'm hoping to learn lots! And Shane's taking a Creative Writing class he's excited about.

I'll make sure and post next week. I'll have Layla's first day of school pictures. We can't miss that!

Hollywood Birthday Party

Lylli went to a birthday party the other night. It had a Hollywood theme. She had a GREAT time! But the best part, they picked her up in a stretch limo!

Life at the Rager's

Yes, we are all still alive. My internet has been down and getting pictures on the computer and being at the library with enough time to blog has been a challenge. But I thought I'd take a couple minutes to post a few pictures.

The girls got water squirters for their birthdays. (They are all broken now, I think.) When they figured out how well they worked, well, I think poor Seryn got the wettest!

And Shane's playing church softball. He's pretty good. He talked me into playing one week. It was a disaster! But the team could always count on me to get that 3rd out!

Still Recovering from May!

May was a CRAZY month! The girls are all a year older, school's out, Lylli is baptised, Dean is married, and I'm ready for school to start again! I won't post pictures of everything because you would be reading this post until next week. So, I've changed some of the pictures on my side bar.
Okay. Let's see if I can remember everything.

Somewhere in the middle of May, I hiked up to the 'Y' on the mountain with my Young Women.

Lylli had a field day at school on her birthday! Grandma and Grandpa were in town and surprised her!

While Lylli was doing relays, we went over to an old man's house to look at all his whirly-gigs that he makes! He's a genius! And he has a lot of neat stuff! He even came out and gave us a tour of his sheds where he has antique tools and and all sorts of other things. The man was amazing! And so nice!

He made this flower pot and the girls are being sassy!

He also made this! It's hilarious. In case you can't read it, it says, "Self Powered Riding Lawn Mower."

Layla had her birthday on May 22nd. She's 5 and ready to start Kindergarten in the fall. She is doing well with her letters and numbers and LOVES dress up and pretend and riding her new scooter!

Seryn's birthday was May 23rd. She's 3 and loves to be with her sisters. (I don't know how it will go over when both of them are at school.) She loves to play the piano, be with mom, and ride her new scooter.

Lylli's birthday was May 27th. She's 8 and had her baptism last weekend. She loves to be outside and whenever she's inside, you can find her reading (usually her new scriptures) or coloring.

We attended Dean and Leah's wedding in Bountiful on May 28th. We are so excited to have Leah in the family. The girls love anyone who belongs to their favorite uncle! But she is wonderful! It was great to be in the temple with my family!

Lylli's baptism was June 5th here in Provo. It was nice that our families could be here and the Blevins too. It was nice to be surrounded by family on Lylli's special day. When I was in the dressing room with her, she was all smiles and told me, "I've always wondered what it was like to be baptised." Now she knows and I can see how her choice affects her daily decisions! She is a wonderful example to all of us!

I'm sure I missed something. But it was crazy! Oh, and if you want to read what I've been writing, I've been posting a book, as I write it, on my writing blog on Wednesdays as part of my Wednesday Romance series. It's been kind of fun!

I'll try to do better with my posts!

Prom Dress

Remember how I was working on a prom dress several months ago? Well, I don't remember if I posted pictures of it or not. If I didn't it was because I couldn't get a very good picture of it. I tried it on, and, quite simply, I couldn't fill it out. But Joanna sent me a picture of her at prom and I thought I'd post it so you could see the camo dress. BTW - she LOVED it!!!

Monster Causes Damage to Mother!

I didn't realize I had such strong and abusive children!
Before I start the story, keep in mind that Lylli will be 8 in three weeks.
On Monday, I took Lylli to the doctor for a booster shot for her Hep A. When we got there, the doctor made a reasonable argument and I decided to give her the second Chicken Pox vaccination too. Lylli was upset because I told her she'd only be getting one shot and she didn't want two. I had her calmed down by the time the two nurses came in. However, she wasn't as consoled as I'd thought. She ran from the nurses, screaming at the top of her lungs. We tried to reson with her but she wouldn't listen. We encouraged her to sit, and she thrashed. We seriously ended up having to hog-tie her to give her the shots! Ugh! One nurse grabbed her around the waist, pinning her arms to her side, while I grabbed her legs, and the other nurse administered the shots. Not fun! We finally got the first shot in her and then she didn't make a peep for the second one. I wanted to strangle Lylli!!!! In the end, she walked away with two shots, I walked away with a torn fingernail and a bruise on my leg, six inches long and two inches wide. Needless to say, she didn't get the chocolate chip cookies promised to her for being brave.
(Keep in mind, my legs are getting thinner! :) And the bruise is actually worse than the picture shows. Who knew that my camera is so terrible.)
This was my bruise Tuesday morning.
This is my bruise this morning.