Boy keeping up with this blog is alot harder now that there is facebook. I feel like I'm being redundant. For those of you who don't facebook I guess the up date is... we've been busy lately!

baseball ,baseball ,baseball, for Jake and swimming, swimming, swimming , for Rylie. Jake is now in the middle of the fall ball season playing catcher and doing fantastic! Rylie went to the Junior olympics this summer and had great success she took 5th place in the 100 back stroke and ranked the top 25 in the rest of her events! Brookelynn and Shelby are two peas in a pod. Shelby follows Brookie around like a little duckling and Brookelynn is getting to the point where she doesn't love that so much anymore. =)

Rylie started 8th grade this year and is now one of the big shots at the school.

She got Braces this year and Jake will follow soon. Jake is in the 5th grade this year! Also a big shot (at the elementary school) Brookelynn started the 2nd grade. and Shelby goes to Bright beginings preschool. That's gonna have to enough for now. will try to cathc up again soon.

Merry Christmas! There are so mant different ways to keep everyone up dated these days. I forget I even have this blog anymore. Since I didn't send out Christmas cards with an update on our family I thought I'd just put it down where everyone could check it out at their leisure.
Brent has been staying busy as usual with work and his garage hobbies. We are so thankful that he has been able to keep busy at work these days. (some days are better than others)
Rylie, of course, has been swimming her heart out and even competed in the state meet this year. She did extremely well. 7th grade has kept her hoppin with homework! Piano lessons are still a part of their schedule and somehow she still finds time to be a fashion plate. It's been fun to watch her grow and blossum into such a beautiful young woman.
Jake played baseball spring and fall and turned 10 this November. He seems so much older than 10. He loves to read and also plays piano, currently he is working on the Indiana Jones Theme song. He has really become quite a handsome young man. He gets straight A's, As does Rylie, and loves to play video games in his spare time. Jake is keeping busy with Scouts and friends and whenever he gets a chance, pestering his sisters!
Brookelynn, the little singer that she is, performed in a Christmas concert this year singing Jingle bells with her friends. She is 1st grade and is reading up a storm. She keeps busy with school and playing with her little sister and has quite a social life. She is always such a little love bug! She has such a tender heart and loves to give and get hugs hugs hugs!!!
Shelby is like a little duckling, following around whomever gets in her path. Big sisters and mom mostly. She is a little sponge right now soaking in all the examples around her. Shelby started a 3 year old pre-school this year and loves it! she counts the days until it's her turn to go to school. ( two days a week.) Shelby has a lot of spunk and sass. Being the baby of the family she has a way of pulling on those heart strings! This past year we have seen a lot of growing up in all our kids and are so pleased with the happy, smart, good kids they are turning out to be.
I fill my days with the usual, dropping off and picking up, running here and there. chasing kids back and forth, keeping the house and just being plain old mom. Life is still as busy as ever and I don't see it slowing down... just changing. I Love my family and couldn't ask for better kids or husband!

The time has certainly slipped away from me. In the last couple of months we've stayed so busy I forgot I even had a blog. Jake has been keeping us busy with fall baseball and as usual Rylie has been swimming up a storm, competing in at least 1 meet a month.
Jake's birthday came and went without a fuss this year. He turned 10! what a handsom amazing young man he's turning into. He advanced from bear, in the scouting program, into the webelo class. He's working hard in school and getting straight A's. Jake is playing the theme song from Indianna Jones on the piano this fall. He still finds time for a little video game time every now and then.
Rylie started 7th grade like it was no big deal! She takes art and loves it. It's good to see her be able to start up again on something she had to put by the wayside for a while, she's so good at it! She took a babysitting class at the Red Cross to get CPR certified, so now she is a working woman.( which is good because she has expensive taste in clothes right now) Besides getting straight A's in school Rylie is playing Bella's lullabye on the piano, and sounding beautiful!
She still makes time every wednesday night for Young womens activities with the church. what a good example she is being to her younger siblings.
Brookelynn started 1st grade and is happily reading everything they put in front of her.
her teacher does say that she is a social butterfly but she tries to keep herself on task and is getting all smiley faces in all subjects. Brookelynn loves to sing and will sing along with EVERY song on the radio, (enough to drive the big sister and brother crazy) I, however love to hear her sweet voice singing softly in the background.
Shelby started pre-school for three year olds this year and she thinks she's little miss big britches. She wants to go to school EVERY day. ( her classes are only Tue. and Thur. ) During the days she doesn't have school, she is mommy's helper. She wants to run around with the big kids every chance she gets. She is all of 3 and a half and she acts like she's 5. They are all growing up so quickly!

Rylie turned 12!! poor kid had to spend her birthday driving in the car. We were on our way home from Yellowstone and Jackson Hole on the 8th. At least we were able to spend the night at Uncle Stan and Aunt Aubrey's and go to breakfast with them in the morning for birthday breakfast. That was nice. By the time we got to St. George everyone was so exhausted! Grandma and Grandpa had the house decorated with Balloons and had bought a cake for her. We stopped on our way into town for some pizza and celebrated Rylie's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Miller. She opened presents and had cake and Ice cream. No big party this year but it still turned out to be a pretty good day! Now comes young womens and 7th grade, babysitting and boys, shopping and talking on the phone... all that pre teen syndrome. wish us luck!

The 4th of July came.... and went..... we spent a little time in Idaho with the cousins and a little short trip to Cherry Hill and Lagoon. (of which I have few pictures, because it was only me and the kids, Brent had to stay home and work. I need the extra hands in order to take pictures and watch all the kids.) Anyway We also celebrated Brookelynn's 6th Birthday and Brent and Rylie's birthday's are soon upon us! We've scheduled a trip to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole this year and it feels like the summer is just flying by. I thought we were supposed to chill out during the three months of summer.. and I use the term " chill out" loosely because the temperatures have been 108 plus this summer.!! I think another trip up north is just what the doctor ordered.

May is always a good time for our mother daughter get away. This year we really went all out!! Everybody came to Vegas and we stayed at the J.W. Marriott, where we had a FANTASTIC spa day and lounged at the pool! We had dinners out and fun conversations! I can always count on my sisters for a weekend of laughs! The weather was beautiful and it was a much needed break from the stresses

of everyday life! can't wait for next year Love ya ladies!!

WOW!! What a fun baseball game we had last night. Jake was a star!! He played so well! We were so proud of him. Our team was down by two, our bases were loaded and Jake got up to bat and hit a GRAND SLAM!!! way to go Jake!!

Rylie had an orchestra performance last night also. They really sounded great! We are so proud of all her hard work. These kids are ready for summer!!

Now that the temps are rising the kids seem to be shedding their clothes faster than I can pick them up off the floor.
The minute Kindergarten lets out Brookelynn wants to take off her shoes. Shelby is no better, At first light she has stripped naked and starts searching for her swimming suit. She never takes it off. I'm lucky if I can convince her to wear clothes on top of the swimming suit while we run to the grocery store.
A fun way to cool off is jumping on the trampoline with the sprinklers on. The big kids wish they could spend their afternoons splashing around too. To bad school's not out until 2:30 and 3:30 for them, and then it's straight to homework and afterschool activities, like Baseball and swim. They are counting down the days till school lets out!
C'MON SUMMER!!!

The elementary kids had field day today. It was so windy! The kindergarten kids really liked the idea of "recess" all day long!

Well April comes and it's a new begining once again. Shelby celebrated another birthday. Number 3. We had a bunch of little ones over for an easter egg hunt in the back yard this year. ( just trying to get her all warmed up for the REAL easter egg hunt 1 day later.) Brent let the grass grow relly long and the mowed a little"BUNNY TRAIL " throughout the back yard. It looked sooo cute back there. We had A LOT of eggs to hide and find. The kids piled their baskets as high as they possibly could!

There were sack races and bean bag tosses and cake and ice cream and presents! We started year number three for Shelby off with a bang!

I see a couple of cheaters in this race!! What happened to all the sacks? This is supposed to be a SACK race!