I Love these Gals...

I know this sounds cliche- but I feel so blessed to be the mom of these two sweet girls! They bring so much joy and happiness into my life! I was lucky enough to have a sister and these two are so lucky to have each other. I love how they call each other "sissy" or "sis". Last week after family night Gracie was on the couch and fell off and immediately started screaming and blood coming out of her mouth. Sean and I took her into the sink and could not see where it was coming from. She bawled and screamed for a good 20 minutes. She let out a scream and Sean and I saw a huge gaping hole in the very back of her mouth on the roof. I started looking around to see what had happened and saw a marker laying right where she had fallen. It had stabbed the top of her mouth. Poor thing! It was a MISERABLE night and following days. Thank goodness for the movie Ratatouille. For some reason she LOVES that movie and can sit and watch the whole thing. I have no idea how any times we watched it- but it was the only thing that would make her happy. Brooklyn was a little jealous that Gracie got to stay up at night and watch it- I walked into the front room and saw the two of them cuddling together. Brooklyn had her arm around Gracie and was rubbing her arm. It was one of the sweetest things I have seen in awhile. It was hard to get mad at Brooklyn when she was taking such good care of her sissy!

LOTOJA

Last weekend my brother Brian rode in is SIXTH LOTOJA- if you are unfamiliar with this race it goes from Logan to Jackson Hole almost 200 miles. Quite the feat in my opinion. Sean had to work on Saturday and the gals and I are always ready for an adventure so we went with my mom and Chels. My dad, Sher, Brett, and B and Sher's good friends Dan and Sarah did support. We had a GREAT time with a couple incidents. After Soda Springs and before you get to Star Valley, Wyoming you go through an area called Tin Cup. We were cruising along and the next thing I hear from the back of the car is the throwing up sound and Chelsea saying, "Gracie just barfed." It wasn't a little throw-up either and it was the nasty smelling kind- that we had to deal with the rest of the day. So here we are pulled off to the side of the road- my mom and I were trying to get Gracie cleaned up and in clean clothes and Chelsea pulled the true love of an aunt and cleaned up the carseat. THANK YOU CHELS!!! This has happened to Gracie a couple different times when we are driving- poor thing- I think she gets car sick. She was fine after and didn't throw-up any more the rest of the trip. Thank goodness. Back to the LOTOJA- Brian did awesome and I have got to say as cheesy as it sounds that I am so proud of him for completing this 6 times. This year he even received a "major award" (we like to tease him about it) for completing 1000 miles. Good Job, B! The night before the race as he was getting ready he kept saying he wished there was a way he could get out of it honorably- joking around and kept making jokes about his bike breaking or someone stealing it or something like that. Which brings us to incident #2. Brian's bike was in the back of my dad's truck and we were following them. In Montpelier, my dad goes to pass a truck and as he is passing we see the bike come up and then back down and then up and is flying out of the truck going right towards the truck they are passing. I don't remember doing this but Brett and Chels say that I yell out, "OH NO! Brian's bike!!" I start honking the horn- like that is going to make a difference or they can hear it. So luckily the bike misses the truck- it lands right on the handle bars- flips onto the front tire- and then the seat- and skids across the road. Apparently my dad sees the bike fly out of the truck and totally cut the truck off he was passing and slammed on his brakes causing this poor truck to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting my dad. Poor truck- we are sorry that we caused you to have not 1, but 2 heartattacks. So here sits B's poor bike in the middle of the road- I get the flashers on and jump out the Durango and grab the bike. We did make the rest of the trip home without any other incidents! The poor bike didn't fair so well and has a couple cracks in the frame- which means it is history. Good thing it happened after- I guess. All-in-all we had a great time- a fast trip but a good trip.

At Alpine Junction

Brooklyn loved looking at the Snake River

B and his "major award" and if you look closely in the back you can see the Tetons

Speaking of the Tetons- this was our view from the deck of the condo we stayed out. I think these mountains are amazing!

Labor Day

We had an awesome Labor Day this year- Labor Day weekend is also Wellsville's Founders Day. Wellsville has a tradition of firing off a cannon the morning of- starting at about 5 A.M. This year right at 5:11 I woke up startled because the cannon went off right outside of my window. Luckily- the rest of the house slept through it. A couple months ago I challenged my cousin Janalee that we should start training and run the Wellsville Fun Run 5K on Labor Day. The beginning of July we started our training. And we did it!! We ran a 5K. When I first started training, I honestly could not run a block without wanting to die. And little by little my body became used to it. We are especially proud of ourselves because we actually ran the whole thing! That was a major accomplishment for both of us. Thank you Jan for being such a great running partner and for keeping me motivated. Thank you also to our "fans" who came and cheered us on- it was so good to see your faces as we were in the final stretch! After the run we all went to my house and had a delicious breakfast and then walked down to the parade. The parade was spectacular this year- and we managed to get a ton of candy! Wellsville also has a tradtion of having a "sham battle" in this event, there are some people dressed up as Cowboys/Pioneers and then there are the loud Indians. They all are shooting off guns and are VERY loud- not a favorite part of the parade. Brooklyn decided she didn't like it at all and hid behind the stroller. I might mention that Gracie slept through the parade- she would not have enjoyed this either. But, other than that it was a fun parade. After the parade, we headed out to Sean's grandparents house in Stone, Idaho. Sean's grandma spoiled us with a fantastic lunch. They have a 4-Wheeler and a Ranger. Brooklyn LOVES both of these and spends most of her time going for rides. This year Gracie decided that she also LOVES the Ranger. We could not get her off of it. Even when we were done she would sit on it and put the seatbelt on. We had a wonderful day!

Enjoying the parade and Brooklyn hiding behind the stroller

Miss Gracie

Brooklyn and her cousin Becca

THANK YOU!!

I decided that I wanted to do a post thanking Soldier's and their families. I have a friend who is over in Germany right now and her husband is a Soldier. Thank you Heather and Andrew. I have an uncle who has been to the Middle East more than once with the National Guard- Thank you Kevin and Claudia. We have a good friend who was just deployed to the Middle East leaving home 2 adorable kids and his wife who is pregnant and will most likely have the baby without him here. Thank you Steve and Tae. As I have watched TaeLyn I am amazed at how well she is handling Steve being deployed- they are such great examples to me. I have said that I could never be a soldier, but I am so glad that there are people out there who are brave enough to risk their lives in protecting us and the freedoms that we enjoy. So I would like to give a big THANK YOU to the soldiers and their supportive families!

The Day has Come...

Five years ago today- I would have never imagined time would have flown by the way it has. Today marked a milestone in the life of Brooklyn IlaRee Maynard, today was her first day of kindergarten. She has been so excited all summer for school to start and about the last month has asked every day if it was time for school. Brooklyn is in the afternoon session of kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Allen. This morning I had to wake her up so that she could have a good breakfast- Sean made eggs and bacon. We got her dressed and she decided that she wanted to wear a headband. She gets so sick of taking pictures so we had to bribe her with a piece of gum to get her to take any. We then loaded up the car to take her- Sean, Gracie, and I all went. We got to the school and walked her in. She gave us hugs and kisses and waved and in she went. I looked in and saw her chewing on the gum we had bribed her with. So I went in and whispered to her that I needed her gum. I could tell that she was worried and she tried discreetly to hand me the gum. oops! I think that I could have sat in the doorway all day to make sure that her day went well- I don't think that would have been to popular with her though. My mom teaches at the school and I had to call and see if she had seen Brooklyn and how she was doing. I have been saying that I was excited for her to go to school- but I have got to say- today was a little harder than I thought it would be. It is crazy for me to think that my baby is growing up. We are so proud of Brooklyn and hopes she has a great year!

She wanted a Princess backpack

Of course she had to strike some kind of pose

Good job on the timer Sean

The morning and afternoon sessions overlap for about 15 minutes so when we dropped her off we didn't get the classic picture of her by her classroom door. So we had to get it after school- glad to see she is still smiling.

Brooklyn is lucky to have her classroom right across the hall from Grandma Sue

End of Summer

I am sad to say that our summer has about come to an end. On the 18th, Brooklyn had Back-to-School night. She picked out her outfit and wanted me to curl her hair and get all dolled up. She looked pretty darn cute. All summer we had told her that we would take her to the Aquarium and monday ended up being the only day that we could go. The girls loved it! Gracie is especially into fish right now so she was in Heaven! On our way there we passed a Chuck-E-Cheese and went there after. It was a great way to end our summer. I can't believe that on thursday my sweetie pie Brooklyn is going to start Kindergarten.

Back-to-school night. She looks so grown up.

Gracie Kaye

Brooklyn working her hair styling magic on Garrett

Enjoying the Aquarium

The girls and Sean enjoyed playing in the little caves


Fun at Chuck-E-Chesse

Summer Fun

I can't believe how fast this summer is coming to an end- I think it went so fast because it rained all through June and it didn't seem like summer. What is even crazier to me is that Brooklyn is going to be starting Kindergarten is a couple of weeks. WOW! We have back to school night on tuesday. It is crazy. We have had a fun couple of weeks- our good friend Monica and her daughter Addie were up from California and we got to spend some time with them. Brooklyn just loves Addie and couldn't get enough of her. It was super fun to see them!

Brooklyn's new favorite thing to do is hair. She loves it. She got Addie right up on the countertop and did her hair. Gracie's favorite thing to do brush her teeth. She will stand by the bathroom and door and say "eeth" over and over again until we get her a toothbrush with a little toothpaste on it.

The girls had a blast driving around in Brooklyn's princess car. Too bad I had left it turned on so the battery didn't last long. Sean was so good to push them around. Try getting the 3 of them to look at the same time. It wasn't happening.

We went to the pool on Thursday and had a great time. We only made it there twice this summer. Gracie has not been a fan of the water- but she actually had a good time and even got in. That was a major accomplishment!