salt lake

last weekend my baby sister got to go through the temple for her very first time!! it was seriously one of the neatest experiences.  the whole time we were in the temple i was just beaming with pride and i honestly couldn't quite looking at sacia.  she was glowing.  i was also so excited that drake and sacia had chosen the salt lake temple because i had never been to a live session before.  it did not disappoint.  i loved it.  

i feel bad because i don't have any picture at all of sacia and drake on their special day.  they are getting sealed next month so hopefully we do a better job that day of getting pictures of us all!

i did snap this before we headed into the temple.  i sure love these girls.

and i did get to take some pictures of dustin, brik, and oaks!! i was actually super nervous to take these for them, but they are seriously the cutest family ever. i don't think they know how to take a bad picture.  we had about 10 minutes to take these pictures before we needed to head into the temple for the session.  it was so busy too!  there were seriously a ton of people everywhere you looked.  i am just excited we got a few pictures without a bunch of people in the background.  it was tricky, but we did it.
and how funny is this?  random people stopping to take pictures of our kids.  haha.  i love that rhett was taking of picture of these people taking a picture of the kids i was taking a picture of.  did you get all that?

pretty sure i have the cutest niece on the planet with the most gorgeous eyes and the best expressions!! i die every time i look at these pictures of her.  

apple orchard

we had a spout of some super nice weather a few weeks ago.  i was trying to do all i could to soak it in.  i thought we had better hit the apple orchard before the weather went crummy again.  so after tavaci one evening we went and i'm so glad we did.  we spent a little time in the orchard but the majority of the time in the gardens.  even though we were all packing around quite a few apples the kids just couldn't get enough of the gardens.  i can't believe how much has changed up there, it is gorgeous!

brylee was in the tree, shaking the apples off the branches while tacey was trying to catch them. 

 my little tree climber

almost every single apple we picked had at least one bite taken out of it. 

obviously i brought my camera with us this day.  the kids were totally cheesing it up and i loved it.  they would run off and find a spot they liked and just wait for me to take their picture.  it was pretty cute.

 the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, which i love!!  this was the only tree that was completely fall like.  this one little tree helped me decide it's MAYBE okay that summer is gone now.

 one of the main reasons we didn't spend a ton of time in the orchard is because the dang sprinklers kept turning on.....one row at a time.  every time we would move over a row the sprinklers would turn on where we were at.  it was almost like someone was playing a funny joke on us.  

riggies loved it.  he was so muddy and soaking wet by the time we left the orchard.

 this has so far been one of my very favorite memories with my kiddos this fall.  not exactly sure why.  it may have been because all three of my kids were in a great mood.  and i always have fun taking my kids on campus and telling them all the fun stories from when rhett and i were dating.  it is kind of fun making sweet, new memories with my kids in the same place rhett and i met and fell in love.  

another win for the apple orchard.  the kids have already asked a million times if we can go back.  hopefully we can go one more time before it gets too cold!

riggie roo, i love you

this two year old of mine is a funny one.  the first thing i asked him after his sisters left for school is 'riggies, do you miss tacey and brylee?' he replied with 'nope!' haha.  i asked him again awhile later and he said the same thing.  but when i asked him why he said 'because i want my mama.'  that kind of melted my heart.  i think he has missed our one-on-one time together.  luckily the last two days he has asked me over and over again where his sisters are, or will remind me that sissies got on the school bus and went bye bye.  i can tell he is missing them a little.  

today after we got home from the gym i asked him if he wanted me to make him some lunch.  i thought it was so cute when he asked me if he could have a sandwich on daddy's trailer.  after i took a few cute pictures of him he kept saying 'sit by me mama!'  so just the two of us sat on the trailer together and enjoyed some lunch.  i feel like i haven't been stopping enough and just enjoying life.  today, riggins made me stop and enjoy.  it felt so good.  he told me so many cute, little stories.  i love that he is starting to talk more, i feel like i can almost see what is going on in that little 2 year old mind.  it's awesome.  i wish i could just push the pause button with him, i am loving this age.  there are a few crazy tantrums he pulls, but he has me completely wrapped around his finger with his sweetness.  

i love this boy. 

back to school we go

school started this week.  i'm not even exaggerating when i say it completely snuck up on me this year.  it might have something to do with having lot of company, lots of traveling, and sick kids that made it come quicker.  i just really need one more long day at the lake and maybe another evening of boating with our favorite neighbors(:  then MAYBE i'll  be willing to kiss summer goodbye.  

anyway, without my permission or not the first day of school happened.  i set my alarm for way too early so i could quickly make the girls a yummy first day of school breakfast before they woke up.  it was worth getting up early for because the girls were so excited to have pink pancakes for breakfast.

i've never had to get both girls ready for school this early because brylee was in afternoon kindergarten last year.  i was nervous about having them both ready in time so i had us get up extra early the last couple of days.  both days we have had a lot of extra time in the morning so maybe i can let the girls sleep a little longer.  we'll see.  

can you believe how big my girls are getting.  i can't get over the fact that tacey is in fourth grade and my baby girl brylee is actually a big girl and in first grade!! what the heck?! how did this even happen?  i know everybody says this but really, where does the time go?

after school tacey, brylee, sailor, and fin wanted to do an after school picnic.  so they packed up some snacks and made a tent to have their picnic in.  i thought it was pretty cute.

 i took this today after school.  i sure miss these girlies while their gone.  

 i'm pretty sure almost every mom takes their kids to school on the first day of school.  and i love that sweet tradition.  normally it's nuts and chaotic and feel like i've almost wrecked a billion times trying to get into the two elementary schools the past couple of years.  so this year i took the girls the long way to school on the back roads.  even though it is a longer drive i probably saved 15 minutes and when i showed up to the schools nobody was there.  it was awesome.  so the drop off was smooth sailing yesterday.  

today the girls decided they wanted to ride the bus.  i absolutely would not have minded driving them today but for some weird reason they really like that dang bus.  i really like the fact that my girls are going to be getting on off the bus together this year.  it makes me feel better about it.  

normally we've had an official back to school dinner by now and have given our kids our family theme for the year but we have just been to busy.  i think we will have to make that our family home evening for this next week.  rhett and i have had a new theme picked out for a couple weeks and i'm actually pretty excited about it!

i feel good about this year.  both of the girls seem to have some pretty awesome teachers and i think that makes all the difference in the world.  tacey's teacher is cute and quirky just like tacey and brylee's english teacher just seems plain awesome.  i don't have a good feel for her spanish teacher yet but i've heard nothing but good things about her. 

i'm just going to keep praying every night that my girls can make good choices and that they will be protected at school.  

bryrbry's faith

last weekend tacey and riggins came down with a fever right after we went swimming.  riggs slept his fever off tacey just seemed to get sicker.  she said her head and throat hurt and she had some nausea.  it was no fun and lasted about 2 days.

this weekend right when we got home from burley bry and riggs both had super high fevers and were complaining about all the same things tacey was earlier.  although i was grateful we were home while the girls were sick i was also super bummed because rhett had to leave me for a couple of days to take the scouts out on a camp trip.  it has honestly been the longest few days! a few of my friends and family had had whatever this little bug is and it lasted 2 days for all of them.  and it did only last 2 days for riggs and tacey.  but poor brylee.  anytime this little one gets sick it hits her so hard.  she was by far the sickest.  by the third day of her not eating or drinking i was starting to panic a little thinking i was going to need to take her in to the hospital to get rehydrated.  she had been so weak we would have to help her sit up or carry her. luckily, her daddy came to the rescue last night and gave her a blessing.  which is the whole reason i am writing this post.  i want bry to look back and remember what a gift her dad's blessing have been to her.  lots of neat things were promised to her that i will need to put in her personal journal later, but she was also promised she would heal and feel better.

this morning bry came bouncing up the stairs and said, 'my blessing worked!' and then she ate a nice big bowl of cereal.  

i just felt the need to write about my brybry and say how proud i am of her and her faith.  and also how tough she is.  this girl is a rockstar.

tomorrow is a school night so today kind of officially feels like our last day of summer.  the whole time the kids were sick we were cooped up in the house recovering and the weather was beautiful and amazing.  today it is super windy and kind of chilly actually.  haha, go figure.  that isn't stopping the kids right now though.  they are out on an 'adventure' in the backyard (wearing jackets) with books, blankets, and snacks.  after the week we just had i can't even tell you how happy i am to see my kids eating and full of energy!!! 

family fun

we've made two trips to burley this week!! sunday after church we headed to my dad's for our smith family reunion that we were having monday at nat-soo-pah.  my favorite part about this trip was that everyone came!! brik, sacia, renee, and i had a fun time staying up late talking the night before and the kids had a ball just playing.  it was so much fun being all together.  i really didn't get hardly any pictures, i'm so sad about that.  it's really hard to take pictures when you are busy having fun.  

riggs and oakley.  they were being so cute with each other!! 

 NAT-SOO-PAH!!!

my dad's whole family was there. all my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  we had so much fun.  i can't believe we didn't get a quick family picture while we were there.  i did get a couple of pics of riggs and bry jumping off the diving boards.  we have been swimming a ton this summer but for some reason my kiddos have been extra cautious around the water this year.  not really sure why and i know it is not really something to complain about.  the water at nat-soo-pah is seriously the PERFECT temperature.  it made it so easy to just swim the day away which i think helped a ton with making my kids more comfortable with swimming.  by the end of the day riggs was jumping off both diving boards! and we had tacey and brylee jumping off the diving boards without lifejackets and swimming like champs!  rhett and i were beaming with excitement to see the girlies swimming so well because we have been working with them all summer and it finally paid off!

after swimming we went to maxi's pizza.  i crave maxi's all the time!  best pizza you will ever eat!  riggs and smith (my cousins little boy) were having their own little conversation.  i think they both really enjoyed being around another little boy.  both of them are surrounded by girls all the time.

so only people from burley understand just how cool the fair is.  i can't even explain why the cassia fair is my favorite because if you aren't from there you would probably just think it is super ghetto.  but it has always been something i look forward to all summer! which is why rhett and i loaded the kids in the car thursday afternoon just so we could spend a few hours at the fair and head back to rigby that same night.  it was quick and fast and we were all so tired but it was worth it.

my dad got us tickets to the rodeo that night.  rhett and i did not want to let riggins off the stand with us but about half way through we gave in and let him go play with the big kids in the dirt.  as usual, riggins thinks he owns the place and can do whatever he wants.  

my dad, cooper, and riggs

i feel grateful we have been able to spend so much time with family this summer.  i am beat though.  if we don't travel again for a few months i would be completely fine with that.  on a high note we did finish the 2nd harry potter book in the car this week and get to watch the movie tonight!!  (we read the entire book cover to cover in the car with all our travels this summer)

uncle taffy

uncle taffy (kk's husband) has been on a personal mission to make it from florida to washington either by foot, raft, or bike since this spring.  he finally made it to idaho and we have been lucky enough to spend some time with him this last week! 3 separate days to be exact! it's not hard to see that taft is a family favorite.  he seriously plays with the kids for hours and they love it!  

one of the days he was here we were able to go swimming.  he and bry did tricks all day in the pool.

 we went for a bike ride one day but didn't have enough bikes for everyone.  taft decided he would just take the swivel car, haha.

he and rhett traded off a couple times.  i think they are both just kids trapped in a mans body.  haha.  we are never lacking in entertainment. 

i love it when we get to spend some time with taft.  it always makes me feel a little closer to kayla when he is around and also, he just makes everyone happy.