We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

(Early Spring 2022) Rylan was able to have one last percussion season. He got to play the timpani, which he LOVED!  They got first place many times in their competitions!                                                                                         Rylan asked Kyann to prom with a little help from his mom and her Cricut!                                                                           She said yes! Scott asked the priests in our ward especially those who had achieved an Eagle rank in scouts to teach first aid to the activity day boys. Each boy was assigned a to...

Rylan attended his first merit badge clinic, one of the badges he wanted to complete was basket weaving, which is a lot harder than it sounds! Other badges he worked on were, space exploration, art, and woodworking. One day in January, Rylan came home from school and said, "oh yeah, I'm trying out for a play tomorrow."   What? We were very surprised that he had the guts to sing a solo in front of his classmates and teachers.  The play was Shrek the Musical and he landed the part of a Duloc performer and one of Pied Piper's rats. He had practice after school 3 days a week, learned all the songs, and two dances. We were so proud of his dedication and how he wasn't nervous to perform in front of an audience. About 3 weeks before the play had its performance, I got a call from the costume chair for the play, she said, "Rylan says that you sew all the time and that you could help me with the costumes if I needed it,  . . .well ...

We have an official boy scout, Rylan earned his arrow of light before moving up to a 11 year old scouts.  He worked hard to memorize the scout oath and law as well as the other requirements.     He was presented with a really neat arrow with a real arrowhead tip. Each of the colored stickers on the arrow represent an accomplishment he has earned.  Like the rubber band around his kerchief?  Yeah, we are resourceful!  At his middle school 5th graders can participate on the cross country team. Since I forgot to sign Rylan up for community flag football (I think I kind of did it on purpose) he really wanted to do a sport this fall and so he thought he would try it out.  We took him on some practice runs at our favorite forest preserve. That red and blue blur are Scott and Rylan running up ahead while I stayed back with Maddy on her bike and Ian in the stroller. He has practice 3 times a week after school and a meet onc...

Rylan came back from Grammy's 2 days before his birthday, so we quickly made plans for a fun party. We invited our good friends the Foxes and some neighbor kids and played water games in the back yard.   This was our water gun relay    We also played water balloon volleyball, water balloon toss, and a pass the water game where the kids each had a cup and had to pass the water over their head to their teammate behind them.  I didn't get pictures of these events because I was in the thick of it playing with them, and Scott and Grammy were making the pizza inside! I have a tradition with my kids that when it is their birthday they help me make their cake, but Rylan being the super old 10 year old said he wanted an ice cream cake, and I didn't know how to make one, so we went to our favorite dairy and ice cream shop to buy one. Rylan is a sweet tender kid who loves to read comic books, do cub scouts, swim, p...