Happy #11 Dakota

Dakota turned 11 this year.  I can't believe he is so big.  I love his kind, sweet personality so much.  He decided to have an air soft war for his party.  They set up the barricades out in my dads back field and had a blast.  Unfortunately on the day the party was scheduled it rained a good one and we had to postpone for the next week.  He was bummed, but it was worth not being soaked.  Everyone geared up good and they stayed out there all night long.  They only came in for about 15 minutes to eat pizza and then they stayed out until dark.  Such good boys he has for friends.

11 things I love about Dakota J. Weston:
1-He got braces recently and I love the way he looks so grown up and I love the way he takes care of them.  He even brushes during lunch break at school.
2-He is so kind.  I had a friend call and ask me to have Dakota look for her son on the playground because he was having a hard time.  Dakota does look for him everyday and it has made a great impact on both boys lives.
3-He is very obedient.  He loves to Choose the Right.
4-His bed is a mess!  He keeps his bedroom pretty clean, but his bed---WOW--its is on the top bunk and the kid keeps everything up there where it is out of Moms radar.  He laughs and laughs about it when I tease him.
5-He takes Karate and loves it.  He has great balance and determination. He is about to test for his yellow belt this next month and he is very excited and practices everyday so he can be ready.
6-He is very good at math.  Somehow the numbers just all make so much sense to him and he excels.
7-He has his very best friend Gavin Hill next door, and I don't think they could live without each other.  They are very different little boys who just get each other.  They create and laugh and sit and tell silly stories and just enjoy being together.  Sometimes I tease Dakota that I wait all day to see him and he is home 5 minutes and then its "Can I play with Gavin?"
8-We are playing a duet on the piano together for his recital next week and I love playing the piano with him.  He is patient and tries really hard and it sounds great.
9-He doesn't like to be in trouble and does whatever he needs to so he doesn't make the same mistake twice.  This is why the watch stays on his wrist night and day, he continually was coming in late to dinner and got grounded, so now he asks what time, and he comes home (most of the time).
10-He is a great brother.  Braxton and him are best friends.  He will build anything with Braxton and whenever I tell him to look out for Cam he just says OK and takes him along.
11-He loves his Dad.  He loves to work alongside Shane and is a great worker.  Especially if he is learning something new.  When we were doing the sprinklers he was Brent's right hand man, and he stuck with him for hours doing whatever he asked him. He also believes wholeheartedly in fairness, and when he feels like he has done his fair share of the work he is OUT!  He never complains when I ask him to work, just doesn't want to have to do more than anyone else.
I love you so much Dakota.  You bring so much light and life into our home.  Thanks for all the smiles and kindness you share with me and Dad and the boys  I hope you had a great #11!!!

April Fun/mostly Work

On March 31, 2016 my sweet new niece, Dresden Alice Crittenden was born.  She is such a joy to have around.  I love to hold her every chance I get.  I forced the boys to hold her for about 2 minutes each.  They did not want to but liked it when they finally gave in.

We began what I will call The Great Sprinkler Project.  Wow it has been a pain, but good for us. We had a mix up on the irrigation when the new subdivision went in above us on the irrigation line, and all last year we could hardly water.  Long story short, the developer paid for us to hook up to secondary water system and put in sprinklers.  This was for our property and my dads and the one my dad owns next door to him.  It has been quite a huge undertaking to say the least, and its still not done.  Almost there.

 Our boys have worked so hard and I believe that is exactly what a boy needs in his life is a large amount of work to complete.  Braxton has learned all the ins and outs of how to do a sprinkler system, I even told him to use it for his Duty to God.  I have also learned a lot, mostly my job was to fill in all the holes after the work was completed and it was a hard job that got old very fast.  The actual process is not hard, just time consuming.  Shane pretty much can figure out how to do anything and this is just one more thing he knows how to do.

I have been in the Young Women's for about 8 months now and it has been a great learning experience for me.  We were doing skits one night and I got a huge kick out of Rennan McConkie's portrayal of the "Dad", where she gave herself a mustache and beard with her hair.  The girls are so amazing and creative and fun, it has been so good for me to be around them every week.

I guess one sport that has practice 3 times a week was not enough for Braxton so he decided to join the track team.  He did such an amazing job running the 800 and the 1600.  He did not make the team that competes (mostly made up of 9th graders), but he raced hard every week and beat his time every race.  I loved watching, it reminded me of my good old days watching all my friends run track.  I was a great spectator back then.

My mothers day flower from 2 years ago bloomed again and I had to have a picture.  So beautiful.

My Dakota had his 11th birthday.  I will soon put my 11 things I love about Dakota on the blog, but until then I will say that Shane and I got to take him out of school for his special Bella's birthday and it was a ton of fun grilling him on the cute girls at school.  Fun day.

Breakfast in Bed on his birthday.  We gave him a new bike for his birhday and had our Grandparents over for cake and Ice cream.  At our house it is always a birthday week, it drags out all week.

Sweet baby girl.  I love her so much.

A creation the boys made with the dominoes.

I went to Women's conference with Mom and Tara again this year.  I love this tradition it is so rejuvenating and refreshing. I feel the spirit so strong every class I am in and learn a lot of new things.  This year the theme was charity and I came home feeling like being a better, kinder person.  Cameron had his last field trip while I was gone (below) and gave me a piece of his mind about the fact that I could not go.  Direct quote "there are 28 kids in my class and there were 21 parents there--I was one of 7 without a mom or dad."  He is slightly spoiled I tell you.  He lived through such a horrible thing in his 8 year old life and also managed to have a great time with his friends mom who sent me this picture.

My mom gave us Lagoon passes this year for Christmas.  This was our first time of many to come.

We got to take a break from our labors and go to Moab from April 1-4 with our friends/cousins Jake and Alayna Weston and their kiddos.  We had the best campsite I have ever camped in.  It was back in our own little nook, down a long dirt road that people hardly traveled down, and was so amazingly beautiful it was breathtaking.The kids ran around and climbed on everything and chased hundreds of lizards and even an occasional rabbit.  It was heaven I tell you.  The weather was heavenly also not to hot and not to cold.  We took our bicycles this year and that was my favorite part as well as the boys.  They rode their bikes for most of the day everyday.  One day we took a "Jeep Safari" and did a 20 mile loop through some really cool terrain, some of it scary, some of it wet, but all of it really beautiful.

We went out to Dead Horse Point and looked over the edg.......finish here

March Happenings

Our first renters moved out so she could get married, so in between we decided to redo the bathroom.  It turned out so nice, and we worked our butts off.  In fact, we haven't stopped working on large projects since then.  It has been rough at our house with our crazy busy lives intermingled with all our projects.  This pic of Cameron is one night when he was just so tired he curled up on the floor of the rental and fell asleep just like that.  We sure love having that rental, but it is sometimes a lot of work.  We took out the tree in the front yard, redid the bathroom top to bottom, and put in a front yard sprinkling system all this spring.  Along with our own sprinkling system and my parents,  and future solar panels that we are working on now, we are about spent.  I won't even mention the pumpkin patch looming on my shoulder.

We snuck away one Friday night to watch Gunnar race BMX.  He got 1st place and did such a great job.

Dakota had his 5th grade presentation of their states.  They did 3 patriotic songs in the beginning, and I teared up thinking about how big he is and this great country we live in and how our schools teach them to love our country.  It was a great performance.  Then afterward they each presented their state posters.  Dakota got South Dakota and he did a great job stating his "perfect paragraph" to each person who came to visit his state.  He also wanted to look sharp in his suit, and did he ever.

BRACES!!!  I can't believe he has braces.  Even as I sit and type this he looks so much different because those teeth that are up high have moved down.  It is changing the whole look of his face.  His expander changed his look so much, but the braces are doing great things also.

We also snuck away on a Friday to go hiking in Willard.  We found some Indian carvings.  I really love to hike, especially with my family.

This is the tree that we took out over at the rental.  We cut and hauled off all the limbs then we were faced with the challenge of this stump.  Shane cut and pulled with the truck forever and it would barely budge.  Then Dakota suggested we call Jerry Hill the next door neighbor, who brought over his tractor and gave it a push.  It was done in seconds, and he even loaded that stump up and hauled it off for us.  It was amazingly kind and helpful.

I felt like I lived at the orthodontist in March.  One week after Dakota got his braces on it was Braxton's turn.  I also cant believe as I type this how different he looks already.  His face has changed so much and he looks so grown up.  His teeth that were up high are also brought down so much.  The next step is a nighttime headgear.  I have so many memories of wearing a headgear, man it stunk wearing that thing, but I am so grateful my parents got those braces for me.

We dyed Easter Eggs with our cousins at my mom's house.

We went Easter shopping for a dress for me and some clothes for the boys, and this is where I found them, chilling out on the couches.  I had to snap a shot because this is exactly where I remember my dad waiting many times while we shopped.

One Egg hunt I actually got a photo of.

This year we have two Lacrosse players, Braxton and Cameron.  Shane has been Cam's assistant coach and it has been quite an adventure.  They practice Monday and Wednesday evenings and I switched my schedule to Tuesday because I got called into the Young Womens, so that pretty much sums up our week of crazy.  It ends this week (May 22), so that will be nice but we sure love watching our boys play their sports.  I read a thing the other day that said "One day you will wake up and not have anyone to drive to practice.  Enjoy it while you can."  How true that is.  Our life may seem so crazy and involved in our children's crazy schedules but I would not have it any other way.  They are my world and they will only be young once.  We will have plenty of years to enjoy them as adults, we choose to live up childhood now.