Tidbits From the Month

We kicked off October with a relaxing weekend of General Conference. We did a Saturday morning Conference breakfast with the youth, and then watched the first session together. I LOVE these kids! I get discouraged sometimes with how the world is going, but it only takes a few minutes with these awesome kids to lift my spirits. If they are our future, then we are in great hands!

Some of my favorites from Conference:
Dieter F. Uchtdorf- The Lord uses a different scale than the world to measure the worth of souls.
Elaine S. Dalton- (to fathers) How do you raise a girl? By loving her mother! Love and honor your wife, so your daughter will never settle for less.
Your EXAMPLE as her father speaks louder than your words.
Jose Alonso- You don't need a planning meeting to serve. Just look, and take action.
Carl Cook- Look up!
Most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance.


We also had our first snow of the season at the beginning of October! We were so worried that we were skipping fall all together. But, after a few days, the snow melted, the weather warmed back up, and fall returned.

Bailey kept to her tradition of making a snowman with the first snow of the season. This one was cute, but didn't last too long.

Our friends asked if Bailey would take care of their dog while they were out of town. The keypad for their garage door ended up being out of batteries. The only way Bailey could get to the dog was through the dog door! I thought it was HILARIOUS! The dog loves her, and gets excited to see her. Princess would either try to come out the door while Bailey was going in, or else would lick her face when she was half way through. I stood outside the fence laughing my head off, and taking a few pictures of course :)! I'm such a great mom!

Good thing she's a tiny thing!

I also celebrated my 38th birthday at the beginning of October. I hate getting older, but I do love my birthdays :)! Mark always sends me around the house on a scavenger hunt to find my presents. It's become such a fun tradition. This year I found lots of my favorite candy, a Temple bracelet I've been wanting, a gift card to Banes and Noble (my favorite thing EVER), and a really nice straightening iron. I get pretty spoiled every year! I also spent the day in the pouring rain at the kids cross country meet. It was great, because both kids ran their best races of the season! Happy birthday to me! I couldn't have asked for a better present!
But that's not all! Bailey's best friend Marlee is an AMAZING cake decorator. Bailey had her make me a birthday cake, and they surprised me with it. I LOVED it! Almost to pretty to eat!

So cute!

Marlee with her masterpiece!

Who Wants to go on a WALK?

My dogs makes me happy! Sometimes I wish everyone was as easy to please as them. There's a few things about Reeses and Oreo that I want to remember, so I thought I'd better get them in our blog. The first is how much they LOVE to go for walks! We try to walk them everyday, and it never gets old for them. I LOVE to take them too! They are so funny, and it makes me happy to see how excited they get. They know the word WALK, so we have to spell it, or make sure we don't say it until we are ready to go. Otherwise, we have two, very large, spazzes running laps around the house.

Watch the videos below, and you'll see how much they love their walks. And keep in mind that they aren't allowed on the carpet, or up the stairs!

Another thing they LOVE is car rides! They know that means they get to walk somewhere fun (like the sand dunes, the hills, the river, a park, etc...). Maybe it's even a trip to Pet Smart, or a cross country meet.

Sometimes I just roll my eyes and wonder what it would be like the be in their heads for a few minutes. Like the day that Reeses apparently forget how to sleep in her bed!

Our trampoline broke, so now the dogs can get up on it. They think this is the coolest new toy EVER! Bailey can't even use it now without two, hairy friends up there with her.

A lot of people don't like animals and don't understand how people can get so attached to them. I LOVE my dogs, and consider them a huge part of our family. They make me cringe, and laugh on a daily basis. Just like with kids, we take the good and the bad together, and we love it all :)!

Out with a BANG!

Since the middle school cross country season is officially over, some of the runners decided they wanted to do a half marathon. They wanted to go out with a bang! Bailey, Regan, and Courtney set out in the cold rain this morning to tackle 13 miles! These girls are AWESOME! Regan's mom had a route all mapped out for them. I drove the car and stopped every mile or so, just to keep and eye on them, and give them water. They kept their spirits up the whole time...even during the last mile, when it started snowing on them. They were soaked to the bone, and numb, but they finished! I am amazed at how strong Bailey's body has become in the past year. Two summers ago, her half marathon was a struggle for her, and today it didn't even phase her. These girls are such an inspiration, and I am so proud of all three of them!

Getting ready to start!

This was around mile 7. They were being goofy, and having a great time.

It was snowing on them at this point. They only had about 800 yards to go!

Here's the finish line we made for them. We had toilet paper all ready for them to run through, but it was WAY to wet. So Regan's little brothers and sisters tied scarves together and held them across the road.

There they come!

They did it! 13 miles! Way to go girls!

RMMS Cross Country

Even though Bailey is only in 6th grade, she was able to run cross country with the Rocky Mountain Middle School team. She had an amazing season! She made a lot of new friends, loved practicing with the team, and did awesome at the meets!

She kicked off the season with the Mud Run at Sandy Downs. It was the first meet of her life, and she won! It was so exciting!

The Mud Run

Her first 'real' meet was in Pocatello. It didn't take us long to realize that she definitely has a competitive spirit in her!
Pocatello Invite: 3rd place
Pocatello

The Digger Invite was her first experience with a really big meet. She is a great starter! She gets out hard and runs at the top of the pack, no matter how many runners are in the race.
Digger Invite: 13th place

Digger Invite

The Tiger/Grizz Invite is one of the biggest cross country meets in Idaho. Her race had 138 girls in it.
Tiger/Grizz: 19th place

Tiger/Grizz. I love this picture, because you can see Sawyer cheering for her.

The Rigby meet was one of her best races! She is Rocky Mountain's number two runner, but she had an awesome race, and ended up being their top finisher. She was also running with a leg injury from kickball at school. She was in tears at the end, but she gutted it out and did great!
Rigby: 7th place

Here's the RMMS cross country girls!

She had one of her best races again at Blackfoot.
Blackfoot: 3rd place

Blackfoot

Regan and Bailey showing off their medals.

The Madison Invite was not her favorite race. She was disappointed in how she ran. She got a side ache during the last loop, and that slowed her down a little bit. She still ran really good, but she missed a medal by 2 places, so she was a little disappointed.
Madison Invite: 12th place

Madison

Her last race of the season was in American Falls. It was cold and rainy! She did AWESOME! It was such a great end to the season. Her and her teammate, Regan, took first and second!

American Falls: 2nd place

Bailey and Emma

She did great on the big hill!

Running to the finish line at the last race of the season!

I am so proud of how she ran. She was dedicated beyond what any of us expected. She pushed hard at every practice and meet. She ate good the whole season, and she did everything her coached asked or suggested. She was listed on Athletic.net as the number one 6th grader in the upper snake river valley. She has a bright running future ahead of her. It's something she truly LOVES to do, and I'm glad, because we LOVE to watch her. I can't wait until next season, when she is an official middle school athlete :)!

Here's a video of parts of her last meet. She is in the white shirt, at the top right of the screen at the start.

And the Crowd Goes WILD.....

Falls Valley decided to hold student body elections this year. 4th, 5th, and 6th graders could participate. 4th graders could run for secretary, 5th graders could run for vice president, and 6th graders could run for president. Bailey decided to give it a try. Any students who wanted to participate had to write an essay stating why they wanted to be on the student council, and how they could help the school. The teachers from the 3rd grade and under would read the essays and pick three candidates from each grade to campaign for the 3 offices. The essays were assigned a number, so the teachers would not know who wrote them. Bailey wrote her essay with the theme, "Lead by Example." Her essay was picked!

Now the campaigning could begin! She selected Marlee to be her campaign manager, and went to work! We made posters to hang up around the school, printed between 30-50 badges per day to hand out at lunch and recess, made cute shirts for her and Marlee to wear, and worked on a speech to be given on voting day. It was a ton of work, but also a really good learning experience for her. All of her hard work paid off, because she was voted Falls Valley's Student Body President!

We placed this poster right where all the kids stand in line for lunch. That way, the whole school would see it every day.

The shirts were a big hit!

We hung this cute poster in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade big room.

We hung this poster in the lunch room right by the door all the kids go out when they go to recess. All the students saw this one every day too.
They kids could only put up three posters, which was fine by us, cause they were a lot of work!

Marlee

On Friday all the candidates gave speeches, and the voting took place right after. All the kids did a great job!
Bailey had to leave school early, because she had a race that day. She wasn't there when they announced the winners, but her teacher let Marlee call us, and give us the results. It was all pretty exciting!
I'm really proud of Bailey. Not because she won, but because she kept a positive attitude and perspective the whole time. She made sure she campaigned for herself, and not against the other girls.

Bailey's Speech!