Bailey's Graduation!

Graduation Step One: 

Decorate cap!

Bailey had a million things to do, so she told us what she wanted on her cap, and Mark and I went to town. It turned out great! 

 Graduation Step Two:

Celebration dinner at Texas Roadhouse!

 Graduation Step Three:

Enjoy the moment!

Bailey leading a line of graduates into the gym.

On stage and ready to go!

Giving her speech! She did a great job!

Getting her diploma!

Whahoooo!

Hahaha, can you tell she's excited!

She did it! She's a graduate!

Sierra-Bailey

Breanna-Bailey
Bailey is sure gonna miss her!

Bailey-Jakob

Bailey-Hannah

Love them!

Andrew-Bailey

Hannah-Marcie-Bailey
The top 3 students, and speakers at graduation.

Hannah-Sierra-Bailey-Kayla

The girls with 'their freshman.' They all love cute Breanna so much! They are gonna miss her a ton!

Bailey-Sawyer

Grammy and Papa drove from Arizona to watch Bailey graduate! They are the best! We're grateful for two grandparents that actually know my kids and are actively involved in their lives.

We're all proud of our cute graduate!

She's raised us well!

Coach Piper-Bailey

Bailey-Dylan

Sawyer-Bailey

Bailey always makes friends with the foreign exchange students. This year she got to run with Aylie. 

Bailey-Madi
I't's crazy to think that I have preschool pictures of them together, and now they're all grown up!

Stephen-Bailey
From elementary school to high school graduation together!

Bailey-Mason

Bailey-Kayla
Love these beauties!

James-Bailey

We love sweet Elle!

Emily-Bailey-Madi

Jakob-Andrew-Bailey-Madi

Marlee-Bailey-Emily-Madi
These four have grown up together. So many great memories with each of them!

jakob-Marlee-Bailey-Madi-Emily-Andrew

Bailey-Peter
Bailey loves Peter, and has had a great time tormenting him all year! :)

Dallas-Bailey

Bailey-Logan

Bailey-Tyson

Love my tall friend!

Andrew-Bailey
Andrew had the best cap of the night!

Braden-Bailey
They couldn't find each other after graduation, so he came over to our house for some pictures afterwards. They tried to see how dorky they could be in the pictures. 

Oh my!

They are dorks! I'm not sure how she managed to get so many tall friends!

Congratulations Bailey! We couldn't be more proud of you!

I thought I would be sad at graduation, but I wasn't. She is so done with high school and ready to move on to bigger and better things. She is prepared beyond anything I could hope for. So all I feel is excitement for the next step. I'm sure when she actually leaves it'll be a different story, but for now I'm just going to enjoy the moment!

Copy of her graduation speech:

Bradley Whitford said, “Take action. Every story you’ve ever connected with, every leader you’ve ever admired, every puny little thing that you’ve ever accomplished is the result of taking action. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance, or you can be the active hero of your own life.” 

I am all about taking action. So that is what I would like to talk to you about today. 

If you live your whole life just going with the flow and letting life happen to you, you’re going to wake up one day and realize that you didn’t accomplish any of the things that you wanted to. 

You have to have a passion. It is impossible to be successful if you don’t give yourself anything to succeed at. Have a goal. The great thing about goals, is that they are very different for every person. So, my version of success will most likely be different from yours. But we can all still be successful by taking the actions necessary to achieve our goals.

When we decided what we want to get  out of life we cannot expect that if we want and wish for it hard enough that it will happen. We shouldn’t expect to ask our parents and friends to give it to us, and for them deliver in full. But we can expect that if we work hard and take the steps to achieve what we want, that it will likely happen. 

Sometimes the things we want will not come right away. We will put forth the efforts, and find that it still takes more. That’s life. One action is not going to get us where we want. It’s a continued pattern of meaningful actions that help us become successful. 

Sometimes the things we want will not come at all. That is also life. Failure is a big and important part of life. This doesn’t mean our actions aren’t worth it. Let failure teach you how to adapt. Don’t let it force you to bury your head in the sand and never try again! 

To me, the purpose of life has three parts. 1. Experience all that you can. When you have the opportunity to try something new, DO IT! Live your life!

2.Achieve everything possible. Work hard and believe that your goals can and will be reached! 

3.Help everyone that you can possibly reach. None of us would be where we are today without the help of the influential people in our lives. Now it is our turn to help others!

For me, I know that if I do these three things I will be living the very best life I possibly can. But guess what... it is NO ONE ELSES responsibility to make me live this way! If I want to live my best life I have to choose to act on what I believe my best life is. I have to live MY life to the fullest! 

That being said, there will always be people along the way who will help us. Like I mentioned before, we would not be sitting here today without the help of people around us. I would like to thank the people who got me here. Thank you to my family for always supporting me in everything I do. Thank you to my teachers and coaches for helping me to gain the knowledge I have today. And thank you, class of 2018, for teaching me countless life lessons. 

I want to wrap this up with one more quote. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

So, class of 2018, I am not going to do the usual and wish you luck in your future. I wish you all the success that you deserve from the actions you take to earn it. Thank You.