Some Dreams Do Come True . . .

After taking many gymnastics, dance, soccer, and cheer classes, Gracie decided none of them were for her. She's been telling me for years that all she wants to do is ride horses. Now, I think most little girls have this dream, so I just kept shuffling it aside with the "when are we going to Disneyland again" and "how come other families get to that" (whatever "that" may be at the moment!) After debating all summer what lessons she wanted to take in the Fall , she still just kept saying she didn't want to do anything but ride horses. So, I decided to actually find out how expensive riding lessons are. Everyone within 15 miles of us were very pricey - one place even being $85 for 1/2 hour group lesson! We just don't have that kind of money so I thought her dream was not going to happen. Then I found a girl in Provo who was offering private lessons for an hour for a much more reasonable cost. I decided to check it out. Provo is 1/2 hour drive from us, so I wasn't too thrilled about that - but we all do things for our children that we may not want to!

I didn't tell Gracie where we were going, so for days she'd been trying to guess. When we pulled up to the pasture with horses, she was so excited. She thought it was only going to be for one day though! So when she found out that she was going to get to ride horses once a week, she was ecstatic!

Her teacher's name is Breanna. She's this adorable 16 year old girl that rides in rodeos and has 2 horses and the cutest little pony named Ziggy. She loves Gracie and is so good with her. She's teaching her all about how to take care of a horse along with how to ride. She told me Gracie is her only student who really knows how to clean out the horses hooves! Gracie just beams every Friday when she goes to her lesson.

Of course now she's asking for her own pony!
These pictures are of Gracie riding Ziggy. Some weeks she rides the other horse, Comanche. She's doing really well learning how to handle a horse on her own. This week she's going for her first trail ride! She hasn't stopped talking about that all week!

Itty Bitty Football

Eli just finished a month of playing Itty Bitty Football. It's all 3 and 4 year olds learning the rules and having fun playing flag football. He finally wasn't the shortest kid there! He was very aggressive and made a few "touchdowns" and captured some flags. Some of the boys would cry if their flags were pulled off, but thankfully my son understood it was part of the game. He'd just shake his head and say "Oh darn!" I think his favorite part of playing was the pretzel that I would buy him from the cafeteria when his games were over!! Here are a few photos from one of his "games"!

This next picture is so funny. When told he was on defense, this is how he would stand! Nobody's getting past this bulldog!

Maternity Clothes . . .Please!

So, I totally thought we were done having kids after Eli, so I gave all my maternity clothes away the week after I had him. I also gave all our baby stuff to my neighbor who had twins a year after I had Eli. So we have nothing - no crib, no onesies, no changing table, etc. etc. etc.

So this is a plea for help. If any of you out there that read my blog (and are about the same size as me!) have maternity clothes that you are done with and trying to find a home for, please send them my way! Same with baby items!!!

(FYI: Yes this was a planned pregnancy. The planning part was the surprise!)

***BIG NEWS ALERT***

I think most of you already know, but I need to make the official announcement . . .

We're going to have another baby!!!!

I'm due April 15th, so I'm about 11 weeks right now. Unfortunately, I have really hard pregnancies and this one has been the worst so far. Thankfully I have a full support system with my Mom and Sisters close by. Paul is amazing and never complains that he has to do all the cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc. Our other children are trying so hard to be helpful, but kids are kids and they fight more than they actually help! Hopefully none of them will remember this difficult time!

I'm always so amazed of the love that Heavenly Father has for his children. To be able to assist him in this miracle is indescribable as most mothers know. It is a very spiritual time for me to have such a new spirit to carry and care for. I'm thankful that we have been blessed with being able to get pregnant so easily and so far, all of our children have been perfectly healthy.

Emma is 10 Years Old!

On August 26, Emma turned 10. I cannot believe that she is already 10. She thinks she's pretty old now that she's in the "two digits"! The only thing she wanted for her birthday was a guitar and guitar lessons. So we found a great teacher close by and she picked out a very pretty guitar. Her dream is to be Taylor Swift (that is totally going to embarrass her that I wrote that but I want her to always remember her goals!) She's been taking lessons for 3 weeks now and I have to say that I'm very impressed. She definitely has a musical talent and wished we could have started her sooner. I tried teaching her piano when she was 4 or 5, but she didn't like it then. I had to wait until she wanted it. So now I'm teaching her piano again and she's learning very quickly. I'm so proud of her to be able to set these goals and follow through.

She invited four of her girlfriends to her birthday party. We went to a Skating Rink/Arcade/Bouncing toy place! The girls had a lot of fun - so much fun that we were almost 2 hours late bringing them home!!! My sister Sydnee came to help Paul with the kids since I've been so sick. It was nice to be able to sit and observe and not worry where all the kids were all the time! Thanks Syd!!

We love you, Emma! Stop growing up so fast please . . .

Lagoon!!!

In July, we went to Lagoon. I think we picked the hottest day of the year! We all had a lot of fun though. Emma was old enough to ride all the rides, and Gracie could ride most of them. This was the first year they both rode the Colossus! Is it bad that I forced them to ride it? They were both so scared that I threatened that we would go home right then if they didn't at least try it! Like I always say -- Mom is always right! because they both loved the ride and rode it two more times before we left! Eli loved all the kiddie rides. I think we all agreed that our favorite ride was the Tidal Wave. It was such a nice time to just be together enjoying the summer!

Random Summertime Fun!

Throughout this summer, we didn't go on any amazing trips or doing anything out of the ordinary. We had a nice summer, going to the library, swimming almost daily, going on picnics to the park, riding bikes, hiking, and just hanging out with friends and family. My brother, Shawn, was able to have his kids here this summer, so we went and picked them up a few times a week so they weren't home alone too much. My kids loved having cousins with us all the time! We really enjoyed getting to know Kylie and Caleb and they quickly became part of our family. Most of the photos I took this summer are on my phone instead of my nice, expensive dSLR camera (go figure!) but here are a few photos I managed to take on my camera from our summer:

Erin and I took the kids hiking . . .

All the kids love playing down by the lake in the sand or on the docks.

Gracie, Caleb, Mitchell, Eli, Emma and Kylie (above).

The Cambells came and stayed with us a couple times this summer. We loved having them here and miss them so much!

Addisen did not like me taking her picture!

The kids loving playing in the sand by the lake by our house. They spent an entire afternoon down there one day building sand castles.

Bailey, Emma and Gracie playing in the creek.

Our 4th of July

For the 4th of July this summer, we went to Idaho Falls to spend time with our family and friends. We of course had to hit up the 4th of July staples, the parade and fireworks at the river! We went to the parade with our best friends, the Campbells, and my sister-in-law, Stephanie and her daughter Joey. As always, the highlight of the parade were the "low-riders" driving their haudralic, pimped-out cars in the beginning of the parade!

Joey, Gracie, Eli, Emma and Bailey

BFFs -Jarom and Paul (why do guys always have to make faces at the camera?!!)

After the parade, we went to a picnic at Paul's Aunt and Uncle's house, the Chaffins. The kids had so much fun seeing their cousins that they hadn't seen in a long time. The picnic got a little crazy when Paul and his brothers started a water fight with all the kids! The kids loved every minute of it and were able to get the men pretty wet!

Gracie sitting in the hammock, trying not to get wet!

Diane, LaMont, Grandma Searle and Kathy -- the safe zone!

I think this picture of Eli is hilarious. I took right when he was getting hit with the wet ball. He loved the water fight and was right in the middle of it the whole time!

All the Searle cousins waiting for Aunt Peggy to fill up water balloons for them!

Scott carrying Cole over to the swimming pool to dunk him!

Eli's Summer . . .

Eli had a pretty traumatic summer, health wise! He has had eczema since birth, but because of all the swimming we did this summer, his skin got really bad. I called him my "leopard boy" because of all the itchy patches on his body. He was a pretty good sport about it and rarely complained. Towards the end of the summer, after a couple doctor appointments, we finally found a cream that is helping him immensely. This is what his skin looked like all summer:

Then in July while jumping on the trampoline at my parents' house, Eli fell right into one of the springs and cracked his head open. Paul and I weren't there at the time, but my parents and sister, Sydnee were there to help him. We met Sydnee and the kids at the Instacare and sure enough, he had to have 3 little stitches. We've been pretty lucky with our kids. This is the first child to have stitches. We've never had any broken bones or sprained wrists, etc.

This last month, Eli asked if he could go to the eye doctor like the girls get to. So I decided to "humor" him and take him to get his eyes checked. He was so cute answering the questions of "what do you see in this picture". He has this habit of shaking his head when he answers questions that he thinks are obvious. I'm sure he was thinking "why does this lady not know that's a picture of an apple?!" So every picture he was shown, he'd shake his head and give the "obvious" answer. Unfortunately, he wasn't always right, and sure enough needed glasses. His eyes aren't that bad yet, but the doctor wanted him to get used to wearing glasses before he went to school. He rarely wears his glasses because he's farsighted and doesn't feel the need to see close up yet. I'm sure next year in kindergarten he'll feel different when he's learning how to read!

Emma's Dance Recital

This post is really late, but I wanted to make sure it was included! Emma took a jazz dance class last year. She really enjoyed learning the fast moves and dancing to her favorite music. Their Spring Dance Recital was in May. They danced to a High School Musical 3 song, Now or Never. Emma did a great job and loved her costumes (she even got to be Troy's number, 14!!!!).