Swiss Days

The Stars were in the Swiss Days Parade again. The girls did a great job!

Here are the dancer waiting for our turn!

Most of the Show Team! The Mini's road in the back of the truck.

The back of our float! So cute! One of the dancers mom made it.

Candy Shoppe was our theme for our Show last year.
The trailer/float and Makinlee cheezin' it! Isn't it cute!?!

Kobe, Makinlee & Bode sitting on the float.

Kobe & Makinlee

Good start to a great dance year! :)

Labor Day Weekend

The Ray family has started camping together over Labor Day and of course we always have a good time. This year we went to Kings Creek. We reserved the group site since there were going to be 21 people and it was awesome! It is seperate from the rest of the campground so we had this huge area all to ourselves. The kids had a blast making there little huts, exploring, fishing, playing badmitten and horse shoes and it was nice for the adults (well me anyway) because we didn't have to worry about any other campers being bothered by what the kids were doing (again I am speaking for myself since Bode is a very friendly child and doesn't quite understand the personal space thing or how to be quiet). It is always nice to spend time with the family! Can't wait to do it again! Here are some of the pics from our camp out.

Summer '09

With as stressful as this summer has been we were able to do a few fun things.

The Taylor's were in Utah for most of July and we were able to spend some time with them. It was so great seeing all of them, we miss them so much already. We took a family picture since we aren't able to have all of us together very often (maybe once a year if we're lucky). It turned out pretty good for setting my camera up on the tripod and having my mom-in-law snap it for us. Thanks LaDaun!

Here is the whole family.

While the Taylor's were here Grandma & Grandpa took all of us to Lagoon for a day. The kids had so much fun (I did too). Here's some shots from our Lagoon day.
A few weeks ago we took the kids fishing. We only caught a few fish but they had tons of fun finding craw dad claws. Here's some shots from our little fishing trip.

The Fridels took us out to Sand Hollow for the day. Chris wake boarded, Mylee, Kobe and Bode tried knee boarding and all the kids got on the tube. They had the most fun climbing in the back of the boat and going to the front of the boat to jump right back in. It was a blast! Thanks to the Fridels. Here are some of the shots from boating.

The best thing about this summer was being able to do these things as a family! :)

Back to School!

Well all the kids are in school now. Here are the pics of their first days.

Makinlee on her first day back to pre school.

(I have to say that I am so grateful for trade work,

Chris laid the tile in the pre school as payment)

Bode would not let me take him to school on his first day.

Me - "Can I please take you to school for your first day?"

Bode - "MOM! I have been waiting so long to see on the bus. I want to ride the bus!"

So here he is waiting patiently at the bus stop.

This was actually Mylee and Kobe's first day of school but I had to get a pic of all of them.

Here is our little poser girl!
And the Bodster.
And here is Kobe on his first day. (and yes Mylee and Kobe let me take them to school and even walk them to their class)

And finally - Mylee

Then all of them together. (Makinlee wasn't feeling it at that moment. haha!)

It's kind of nice to have them back in school! :)

Holy Cow!

Holy Cow! I knew it had been a long time since I had posted on the blog but I didn't realize it had been this long! Time flies! Especially when you are busy, busy and completely stressed out. Life has been so crazy and stressful the last few months I don't even know where to start.
Chris had his birthday in June and is now 34 years old. (isn't he old!?! lol!) We went to Lagoon with my family while my sister and her family were visiting from Georgia and had a ton of fun. :) We came home from that and moved, yes moved, but thats another long, sad story. Luckily we didn't move to far so the kids could stay in the same school. And I have to thank my mother-in-law for all her help with packing so I could take the kids to Lagoon and spend some much needed time with my family, so thank you sooooooooo much! (yeah, trying not to get emotional right now) Then we turned around and went right back up to Nephi to spend a few more days with my sis and her fam again before they went home. (I sure miss them!) While we were there Mylee had her 10th birthday, isn't that crazy!?! Double digits! Then back home to go back to work, unpack boxes and get ready for school. :(
Mylee and Kobe started school yesterday and so far they love it! It is only the 2nd day though! lol! Bode starts kindergarten on Monday and Makinlee starts pre school on Tuesday and they are both excited. Summer went by so fast (have to admit that I would be totally fine forgetting a lot of it though). I will get some pics posted asap. haha! Hopefully before another 2-3 months goes by!

Happy Birthday Baby!

I just want to do a quick post to tell my 'baby' happy birthday! She is four years old today, I can't believe how fast time flies by. It seems like yesterday I was calling Chris to tell him he better head home because it was time. She sure didn't want to get here as quickly as Bode did though. Which was probably good since Chris had to drive from St. George to Nephi. She ended up taking long enough for the administrators at the hospital to realize I had had a c-section in the past so they made me have another. I was pretty upset since I had both my boys normal since my c-section with Mylee, but I just figured it meant my girls were supposed to come into this world the same way (cut out, not pushed out). She is quite the little princess and keeps us all in line. We all just love her to pieces and hope her birthday is as special as she is.

Mom's Day!

I just want to wish my mom a very Happy Mother's Day. I hope she has a wonderful day because she deserves it! She has done so much for me that words couldn't express how grateful I am. She's not only an amazing mom but an awesome grandma. She is always so loving, caring & supportive of all her daughter's, sons-in-law, and grandkids and I know we all appreciate her for that. I have some wonderful memories of my mom while four-wheeling, dancing in the living room (her doing the roger rabbit & running man, lol), keeping her awake on our many trips to and from Nephi & her staying right by mine and Chris' sides in everything we do. My mom has been a great example of how a person should love unconditionally. I love her so much and feel very blessed to be her daughter.

I am not only blessed to have such an amazing mom but lucky enough to have a second one. I have heard many horror stories about mothers-in-law, but I have never been able to relate to any of them. (thank goodness! lol) Like my mom, she is always so supportive and loving. I am so thankful to her for the wonderful son she raised for me to spend eternity with.

I want to thank both of them for all they do for me and my family.

I love you!

Regional Dance Competition 2009

Last weekend we went to Flagstaff Arizona for our regional dance competition. It was so much fun! JJ and Megans girls are on the Show Team this year so Mylee and I road with Megan and her girls to the competition, it was fun to have them with us this year.

All our dancers did an awesome job! (all our dances got Excellent or Superior)

I am especially proud of Mylee though. She competed in the solo competition and danced beautifully, but that is not the only reason I am so proud of her. At the solo awards the announcer mis-pronounced Mylee's name and it sounded more like 1st runner up is 'Me-lee'. Well Bailey P. thought they had called her name so she ran up, then he proceeded to call Queen is Bailey. Mylee figured it was her since they had called everyone else in her division. As they were putting the crown and sash on Mylee I had to go up and get the names straightened out. Mylee ended up with 1st runner up, which is still awesome, and as hard as it was to not get the crown that they were placing on her head, she kept that big beautiful smile on her face while her little heart was breaking inside. She loves dance and works so hard each week and I couldn't be more proud of the way she handled herself.

Here she is right after the whole mix up.

These were all the girls that danced in her division.

The girls in this next picture also dance for Southern Utah. Yes, it was one of Mylees little friends that dances with her that ended up getting the crown. They all did an amazing job!

Here are some more fun pics from the competition!

We have Nationals in June! Woo Hoo!

Baseball!

As I said in a previous post Kobe is loving baseball. He has already started asking about his next game. It is so much fun to watch him play, he seriously loves all sports (he asks for a football for every holiday even though he already has about 10). He is such an awesome little guy and we just love him to death! Here he is rounding 3rd and heading home.

Here is a couple of clips of Kobe at his game last week. This 1st clip was his 1st time up to bat (at this game), for now they get 6 pitches but I think they are going to be playing 3 outs in the next couple of games.