My baby girl is 12, gulp........

I remember when I was expecting Sadie and I thought she was my last baby. I thought about the future and what I'd do with my time when she was in school and I'd have days to myself and when she'd be a young woman and how all my children would be almost grown up....

Well, she has gone and turned 12 and while she is almost grown up, I'm sure glad I still have three little boys at home to keep me company and keep me busy. 

I think Sadie has been waiting for this day for a long time, watching both of her sisters enter YW and go to Mutual while she stayed home with the boys, watching them get to go to High School activities while she stayed home with the boys. It's got to be hard to be the youngest sister....

Nice bowling technique!

Not all her waiting days are over, but she has finally hit the milestone of 12 years. A few weeks before her actual birthday she had her ears pierce by Aunt Wendy before the Crane's moved to St. George. That was also a milestone in Sadie's life.

Annsheri, Journey, and Sadie

To celebrate with friends this year Sadie decided she'd like to go bowling at the new bowling alley in Blanding. She took her good friends, Journey and Annsheri with her and they sure had a good time. Sadie was the only one who chose not to use the bumpers and needless to say, her score was not as high as theirs. That didn't bother her, she was just happy to share this day with her buddies.

Bowling Beauties!

Annsheri, Journey and Sadie

Someone always has to photobomb!

On her birthday, she helped make her own cake and we invited Grandma over to help celebrate.

Sadie and her yummy Cinnamon Swirl cake!

The celebrating crew-Dad, Grandma, Soren, James, Sadie(hiding of course!), Hannah, Cambria and Charles.

We feel so blessed to have Sadie in our family. She is a diligent student, good helper in the kitchen, a tease of a big sister, and tries very hard to do the right thing. We look forward to the milestones she will hit in the future, to see who she becomes. So fun to watch my girls become capable women who strive to be the best they can be.

Newest and last Beehive in the house!

In our ward it is traditional to welcome each girl turning 12 into the Young Women's program by decorating their room on their birthday. We always try to make it a surprise. Sadie's room was decorated on July 24, which was a few days before her birthday so she was completely surprised when she came home and found it. I guess this makes her officially a Beehive with all the necessary books and goodies.

I have been the Beehive Advisor for 3 years and have decorated quite a few bedrooms in that time. I have had the fun of being in on Hannah's and now Sadie's. I think it's safe to say that all the girls love it, that it makes them feel welcomed and wanted in Young Women's. Some traditions are keepers.

Good Things:
I get to work with Beehives!
They are excited to be in YW...
Sadie's room was actually mostly clean!

The decorations in Sadie's room

The usual Candy-gram welcoming her to Young Women's

Her Personal Progress book and journal and a For the Strength of Youth booklet. 

Cool in the pool...

We are not great swimmers in our family. Meaning we just don't love to swim. When we moved here they had torn down the old pool and were in the process of building a new one. It has some cool features, but we don't love it and it's sort of expensive, so we don't go swimming very often. (Besides the fact that I hate putting on a swimsuit.)

But today we were looking for something to do and I decided that I needed to let my little boys go experience the swimming pool. I needed to stop being selfish and let them have fun. Soren and James took right to it. Charles, of course, took quite a while to warm up to the idea. And it didn't help that the pipe shot water at his face! I did like that it wasn't very crowded and that they let me just be on the deck in my street clothes watching them. I also really appreciated how my girls help out with the boys. They are awesome big sisters. We may have to go again.....

Soren(running in back), Charles, James, Cambria, Hannah

Charles and James

My Blue-eyed boy, Soren!

WooHoo!

Charles, Marci(friend), James, Soren, Hannah, Sadie and Cambria

Hannah and Said trying to coax Charles into the deeper water.

Hannah on Marci's shoulders

Off she goes!

Not again....

Looked out our upstairs window today and saw this sight. Three police vehicles in our driveway. Apparently they were looking for a man who walked through our driveway and off the hill who had a gun and is known to be suicidal. Jim, Chief Adair, and Bryan Adams of UHP did some tracking and found where he went. Jim actually tracked him quite a ways down into the creek bottom and up the hill to the south of us. He then decided he didn't need to die in a gun fight 2 months before he retires.....so he dropped back to his house and his car. I haven't heard any more about it at this point.

As all of this was unfolding my mind was flashing back to several other times we've had police 'in our driveway' so to speak.

The first one I remember is when we were first married and living in the old house on Main in Pleasant Grove. It had snowed and we were outside playing in it in our front yard. Curtis tackled me and was trying to whitewash my face when a cop car pulled up and the officer asked me if I was ok? I laughingly told him I was fine but he looked a little skeptical....

Next one was when we were living in our first condo in Mesa. Some guys a couple of doors down were drinking and playing cards and Russian roulette along with it. Unfortunately, someone's luck had run out that night. There were a lot of sirens and lights and tears on shocked faces that night.

Next, in our second condo in Mesa. Our front door looked out onto a wall that ran between the complex and a canal that ran through town. We were lying in bed when we started to hear a helicopter and its searchlight kept shining in our bedroom window. Then we began to hear shouts and commotion. Turns out some fugitive they were looking for had been running down along the canal and decided to jump the wall into the complex and got himself arrested on our doorstep. I hid.

The last one I remember was when we lived in Provo. It was almost lunch time and some cops pulled a car over right in front of our house and they came at the car from all directions with guns drawn because a couple of the people in the car had bolted through my neighbors yard. Anyway, right as the cops were yelling at the people left in the car to get out and had guns pointing west, who should come traipsing home from school for lunch, right around the corner and into the line of fire???? Jordan and Montana. I had been watching from my window and when I saw my boys I panicked. I ran right out there and grabbed them and pulled them into the house! Actually I probably opened the door and yelled for them to hurry home. ;)

I'm thankful none of the police 'in our driveway' incidents have been related to us. I'm thankful for the risks they take to keep the peace. Grateful for their efforts and the sacrifices they and their families make!

Good things:

Mothers Who Know class I'm taking...

Garden really booming thanks to all the rain...

Hannah excited about cheer camp and her new uniforms...

This is why.....

When we lived in Provo, we longed to be able to have a few animals for our kids to care for. Our lot there was only 1/5 of an acre so besides our dog we weren't allowed to have animals. Eventually an ordinance was passed that allowed for hens. I think we would have been allowed four based on the size of our lot. It just never happened. We did do a co-op effort with the Lefebvres. The chickens lived at their house but we helped with costs and got eggs in return.

Still we wanted to have the experience of caring for them ourselves.

Finally after four years here in Monticello with lots of land around us we finally have chickens......and this is why we are so happy to be living in the country! (One of the reasons!) 

Today I watched as Sadie and Charles sat patiently feeding greens to the chickens. I love that they are willing to help care for them and that they can just go out there whenever they feel the urge. I have been especially surprised at how much the little boys like feeding and watching them. And this is why I wanted to move to the country!

Good things; (stole this idea from a blog I've been reading. Love this idea!)

Jenny Phillips playing the piano for us in YW yesterday. (Her brother is in our ward)

Making a birthday book for Montana(Elder Welch) during FHE... 

Getting my weekly email from Elder Welch! 

Only 3 1/2 months til he comes home!

Hannah is 14!!

Hannah has been waiting a looonnng time to turn 14 like the rest of her friends and the day finally arrived. We are not big on fancy birthdays, just cake, ice cream and presents with family. This year she got a certificate for $ to use when we go school shopping.

A few days after the actual day, she and McKenzie went to Blanding to bowl in the new bowling alley. We had lunch provided by A&W while we bowled and it was a really fun time. Funny too. Remember McKenzie's ball slipping off her fingers and rolling backwards through the seating area almost to the wheelchair ramp? Haha. And the craziness of pinball bowling, strategizing how to ricochet the ball off the bumpers at the right place to get it to knock down the pins left standing? Good times.

So many supervisors to light a few candles!

James helping blow them out!

Someone is excited about fire!

Don't burn your fingers lighting all those candles

Nice! Hannah and McKenzie

Bowling buds1

You're supposed to throw it the other way! 

looking for a strike!

after one game, Hannah is in the lead...

someone got a strike!

final score-McKenzie 181, Hannah 176. :)

Skating the day away..

One hot windy summer day we decided to get out of the house and put our street gliderz back to use. We bought them a few years ago at the UT State Fair and they were fun on our hilly road in Provo.

However they've been gathering cobwebs since we moved here. Having a gravel driveway just doesn't encourage skating.

So we dug them out, took ourselves down to the snow shack for a shaved ice, and hit the pavilion at the ballpark for some skating.

Scooters were put to use as well. It was fun to have such a large flat surface to ride on.

Cambria

Hannah

Nice red slushie tongue!

Hannah-L, Soren-R

July 4TH!!

We took a different approach to Independence Day this year. Rather than join all the crowds at the parade in Blanding we decided to head up the mountain. We took a picnic lunch and drove up to the saddle. We hiked up the trail (Cooley Pass Trailhead) a ways til it got really steep and the boys declared they were hungry. After lunch we played a bit of football, looked at wild flowers, and just enjoyed the peace and quiet. I thought we might have to search to find  a place where no one else was, but we didn't see anyone else. We are very blessed to live in such a beautiful place where God's handiwork is so evident and we can easily get away from 'civilization' to enjoy nature. Happy Birthday, America!

(Edited to add some shots of fireworks from Blanding's show)

Heading south on the Cooley Pass Trailhead

It was so nice to get up in the cool pines...TALL pines.

Trail got really steep so we turned around and went back.

James posing for pictures...

Having a cool drink in the shade. James stole my chair.

Cambria and James enjoying the peace and quiet and Shasta and CapriSun.

A drink is much needed after hiking.

Playing a little football on the top of the mountain. Careful not to let it go over the hill!
You'll have to chase it a long ways.

North Creek Pass, aka 'the Saddle' (what Grandpa B called it)

BOOM!!

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!