First Day of School

The first day of 4th and 1st grade. So far they seem to really like school and their teachers. Of course it's only been 2 days so we'll see how it's going in a couple weeks.

Gracie had a little lamb

Over the weekend Gracie showed her lambs in the Summit County Fair. We borrowed my parents trailer and spent the weekend and had a really good time! This was our first year raising lambs and it turned out to be quite a family project. We started around the first of June and built a small pen behind our house. Everyone was really excited to pitch in. Then we brought the sheep home and the real work started. The girls had to help feed and water them everyday and they had to be walked every night when Greg got home from work.
Saying hello to Daisy and Daffodil.



Some times the whole family walked with them and the neighbors even joined in.
It was a lot of work getting the lambs ready to show. They had to be washed, then sheared, then washed again. It's a good thing we have good friends and family who were so willing to help us out when we had to move them and shear them or just share good advice. I don't think we could have done it on our own.


I think it turned out to be a really good experience for the whole family. Gracie did a really good job for her first year too. She got 3rd place in showmanship and I wasn't really even sure she knew what she was doing out there. I guess I was wrong. Her cousins were a really big help. She had 5 cousins showing lambs and one show a pig at the fair this year. It was great to have them tell her what she needed to do. It made it extra fun to camp at the fair grounds too. We all had a really good time and the kids played together so good. It was nice not to have to entertain them or worry about them the whole time.
This was her during the sale. We told her before she went out that the prettier she smiled the more money she would get and boy did she have a big cheesy smile the whole time. I'm so proud of Gracie. She did a really great job and I think she enjoyed doing it. She was pretty broken hearted at the end and it was really hard for her to let her lambs go but she knows that the money she earned will go toward paying for college someday.
Although it was a lot of work, especially for daddy, I think it was a really good experience for the whole family. We're definitely going to do it again next year and hopefully get all the girls to do it in the future. I just wish I liked lamb chops!

Flash 2008-2010

Flash Augustus Averett, of Francis, Utah passed away on Friday August 13th 2010 in a tragic accident. He was a beloved son, brother and best buddy. He was playful, loyal, friendly to everyone he saw, and although he had a sad face he was a happy boy especially when he was playing with his family. He liked lounging in the sun, playing fetch and tug of war, playing with the goats and he loved walking the lambs with the girls. He was only with us for a short time but he was a big part of our family and will be in our hearts forever. He was a good dog and a good friend and we will miss him very much.

We love you Flashy!

4 years old!

I can't believe what a lazy blogger I have turned into. I almost forgot to post about my sweet Chandler turning 4 years old! I started asking her a couple months ago if she would just stay 3 and not turn 4 because her mom just didn't want her growing up but she just rolled her eyes and said " but mom I want to be a big girl!" so I guess for now I will let her turn one year older but 4 is the limit! I don't want her turning 5!

Chandler is such a sweetheart! She always has a smile on her cute face. She is pretty quiet and shy around most people but when she gets comfortable around you she has the funniest personality. She loves her sisters especially the baby. She always talks to her in a funny voice and asks her "where's my cute baby?" Since she was a baby my nickname for her was Angel. It totally fits too. She's always been such a good kid. Especially when her sisters are getting yelled at for doing something they're not suppose to. I guess you can say she's a brown noser. She'll stand by me while I'm yelling and say "I'm not being naughty". She has always been a mamas girl and still is. Even when Greg takes the big girls somewhere, before he can even ask her if she wants to go she says she's staying home with mom. I have always sort of secretly liked it though. I know not too long from now her mom is going to be the last person on earth she is going to want to hang out with. So until then, I'll enjoy the extra time I get to spend with her and when she grows into an obnoxious teenager I'll look back and remember that cute little face and remember when her mother was her favorite person in the whole wide world!Happy Birthday to my Sweet Chandler D. Thank you for being in our family and being such a good girl. We love you!

More Catch-up

Well May was very eventful also. It usually always is with the end of school and all that comes with that but add a couple family weddings to the mix and it makes for a busy schedule. First Greg's nephew Wyatt got married. It didn't take very long after he got home from his mission to find a girl but we all sure like her. Her name is Heidi and she's sweet. Hope it's okay that I stole this picture from Neina :)
Well Heidi and Wyatt got married on Monday and had a luncheon afterward in Salt Lake. Then Tuesday was their wedding reception, also in Salt Lake. Then Thursday my sister Jamie got married in Salem. It was super nice. Salem is famous for it's pond and they had the ceremony and reception at a city building right across from the pond. I didn't get very many pictures in Salem. I tried to turn it on right as they were walking down the aisle and the batteries were dead. I was so bummed and I kept thinking I need to get a picture of that! Then I kept remembering that was why there were photographers there. On Saturday they had a reception in Cokeville, Wyoming. That is where Justin is from and where they are living now. Our whole family went up and stayed the night there in a motel and I think we doubled the population of the town for the night! I thought Kamas was small but Cokeville is tiny! I think it's going to be quite an adjustment for Jamie to move there but I'm sure she will love it.

This is our family at the Cokeville reception.
Jamie didn't have bridesmaids or a maid of honor. She had men of honor instead. This is her with our nephews Cooper and Jordan . Here are my girls. They all looked so cute in their matching flower girl dresses. I need to steal some more pictures because I didn't get that many.

May was also the end of school. Hayden "graduated" from kindergarten. We've been really lucky that our girls like to go to school and do really well. Hayden liked school a lot She was quite the social butterfly and had a lot of cute friends in her class.

This is her with her teacher Mrs. Ure. Gracie had her in Kindergarten too and we really liked her.

This is Hayden and her "best friend" Kamryn

We also had the spring dance show. As usual it was awesome and the girls did really well. I'm not sure what it's going to be like to get 4 girls ready for the dance performances but I think I'm going to have to send Greg to hair school so he can help me out a little.

Gracie did something really exciting this year. She is a pretty good speller. She hardly ever missed a spelling word on her class spelling tests but she hasn't done that well in the school spelling bee's mostly because her mom is a slacker and we don't study as much as we should. She decided, I think with a little prompting from her teacher, that she wanted to try for the Park Record Spelling Bee. It is a county wide spelling bee separate from the schools bee and the students had to go before school and take a test to qualify to participate. Well Gracie was one of around 200 kids who took the test and the only one from her school in the 2nd and 3rd grade category to make it. She was one of 20 kids who qualified and only 18 showed up to participate in the spelling bee at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City. She was so nervous and so was I but she did awesome. She finished 8th place. I was so proud of her for even trying something like that. I know I wouldn't have had the guts to do that in 3rd grade let alone the brains! I think it was such a good experience for her and I hope she'll do it again next year. If we weren't traveling all over for wedding stuff we definitely could have studied a little more and I think she could have won it!This is the whole group. One little girl even came down and told her mom she changed her mind and she wanted to go home. They all looked pretty nervous to me.

At the end of the school year they have an awards assembly where they give certificates for different awards and accomplishments. Gracie got a few awards. One for citizenship, one for reading, and one i didn't even know about. She won 3rd place for story she wrote about where bread and butter come from. It was sponsored by Farm Bureau and she even won $10. The one I was most proud of was one for the Iowa test of basic skills. It's a nationwide test and she got 90 percent in 6 areas.That means she did better than 90% of the nation! But the one she was most proud of was a medal for playing the recorder in music class and passing off a certain number of songs. I guess a medal is a lot better than a certificate!

This is her teacher Mrs. Tuttle

I guess that does it for May. It took me long enough to finish this post and now I'm going to have to catch up for June. A blogger's work is never done right?