Concert

The kids had their first concert this year.  Rhett Man was able to play.  He was really happy because he is 1st chair violin, Bridget 1st chair cello.  Dustin decided this year to switch from the Viola to the cello.  He has had tons of fun learning the cello and is doing a really good job at it.

 

Canyon Creek

Last Monday (the last day of Fall Break) we were able to get away for the afternoon and headed down to Canyon Creek by Young.  The colors there were SO pretty! This first picture is taken on the side of the road on the way down.




We finally made it to the creek and played for a while.  I thought it was WAY too cold to play in the water but it didn't stop Tylinn and Kaylee.
 

 

 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon with snacks and nature.


 

14

Happy Birthday dear Bridget!

Yesterday our little Bridget turned 14.  I can't believe it!

Friday her and I took off to Showlow for a day of lunch and shopping.  I loved it.  Bridget made all the calls as to where we went and what we ate.  She has turned into quite the little shopper.  It was a very enjoyable day with just us 2. It helped having Fall Break this weekend too!

Yesterday she wanted her "soggy graham crackers" (as Bruce named them) for her cake.

 

 There were candles that wouldn't go out and kept lighting back up....hmmm wonder why?! She finally had to have help getting them out!

 She was so excited for her new boots, undershirts, skirt, shorts and necklace.

 Here she is showing all of them off.

Bridget is such a fun girl.  When we were each taking our turn telling her the thing we loved the most about her all the kids were she is nice, or she plays with me.  She is such a good big sister.  The thing I love the most about Bridget is her strong testimony.  I never have to worry about Bridget doing what is right.  She keeps the whole rest of the family in line.  I am so thankful to be her mom and have her in our home.  We love you Widget!

Eagle Project

Saturday Dustin with lots of help finished his eagle project.  We have an amazing 11 year old scout leader (Doran) that has pushed and with every waiting period been down to the exact day.  With that and taking him to the merit badge clinic in Taylor for the past year and a half he was ready for his project. He does have to finish up his swimming merit badge but after that he is finished! We just need to wait for him to turn 13 in January.  He does have to finish ALL the paperwork that is involved with it.

Anyway for his project they built benches to put out at the new girls camp at Artist Draw here in town.  We got  the troops together Saturday morning at 8:00 and started.  They had a really good assembly line going and the 7 benches went quite quickly.  Bruce and Dustin did a practice one last Saturday and it took them a good part of the day to do 1 bench. 

 These girls were the kitty babysitters.  They had so much fun playing with them.  The kittens were so cute to follow them where ever these girls went.

 About noon they finished up all the benches and got them loaded to take out to the camp.

 Here is the crew.  Some were good help and some were more just donut eaters!!!

 Kind of blurry but The Home Center was really good to us to donate all the wood and give us everything else at their cost.

 

The boys unloading the benches.

It was a good eagle project.  Dustin did a great job calling, organizing, getting materials and everything else that was involved in it.  The best part is IT IS DONE!!!

Thursday

Thursday for Spirit week was "I can't believe you wore that to school day".

 

Bridgvet had to keep her eye covered for the day.

Friday blackout/spirit day.  Our Mustangs!!

Stitches

Yesterday I got a call from the school that Bridget got hit by a bat at PE and didn't look very good - she would probably need stitches.  I hurried down to the school and she was in the nurses office.  Mr. Honsinger prepared me before I went into the nurses office of how bad it was.  She didn't look very good.  With it being a head wound it was bleeding like crazy.  She had blood all down her elbows, shirt, shorts and shoes.  In PE they were playing baseball with a soccer ball and she swung hard and the bat hit the ball and bounced back and hit her head.  One kind of funny thing is Jordan her cousin did this exact same thing the end of last year.  His cut just wasn't quite as bad.

 

 Here she is at the Dr. getting stitched up.

 It was a VERY emotional afternoon for her.  This happened then she just kept thinking of all the nice comments people said, phone calls, ice cream, brownies and visits from everybody and she cried off and on all afternoon/evening. Bridget isn't too much of an emotional girl.  She is just happy 99% of the time.  She had some pretty rotten things said about her at school last week and it made for a pretty rough few days for her.  Well that got over with and this week it has been just the opposite - with everybody going the extra mile to let her know they care.
These girls brought Bridget a blizzard and while they were here Reed brought brownies for her.  Food makes everything better.  She also had many phone calls and texts about people concerned.

 This morning we took the gauze off to change it and this was her before she headed to school.  Kind of a funny note - the Dr. That stitched her up has a gash on the outside by his eye and a black eye and so does one of the nurses at the dr.'s office.  They just called me and said the Dr. wants a picture of all 3 of them together.

Bridget was a trooper.  She hasn't had anything like this happen to her before so she was really scared.  I told her 14 years and this is the first major accident isn't too bad.  The nurse and dr were telling her she would have a little scar but not too bad.  Bridget said she didn't care about the scar, it just means she has a story to go with it!

This picture was added later.  The Dr. wanted a picture of both of their black/swollen eyes so we took Bridget back to get that done.

Wednesday was hat day at the Jr. High and High School.  Bridget (borrowed hat from Cy) and Dustin.

 

Rhett at Capps was crazy hair day.  We spiked his hair as much as we could and sprayed it black.

Tylinn and Kaylee had a "dress your best day".  They had school pictures that day.  I forgot to get a pic of them beore they left and wasn't home when they got home.  They just looked extra cute for a school day :)

Dig Pink

Dig pink day........

Spirit Week

Spirit week in full force!  This week is a love/hate week.  It is fun for the kids but when it comes time to get all the kids ready with what they need for the day it is a pain sometimes.  Today for the little guys it was hat day.  Tylinn is sporting her cute cowboy hat.  Rhett his new Mustang had and Kaylee her cute had we got with our new trampoline mat!

 

 At the Jr. High and High School it was Geezer day, dress like an old gramps.  This is what Dustin came up with.  Bridget didn't do anything because she couldn't think of anything.  On to the next days!!

Fav Sunday of the year

Yesterday was one of my 2 favorite Sundays of the year.  We LOVE General Conference at the McLaws home.  We love it for many reasons:

Dad - Get to listen to the prophet

Mom - Get to stay home ALL day and don't have to get everybody ready (and I love the talks)

Bridget - Our cream filled crapes for breakfast

Dustin - because of the good stuff he learns

Rhett -

Tylinn - to do the fun stuff that goes with General Conference

Kaylee - because of the yummy breakfast

We loved the exciting news of the temple in Tucson!  Six in AZ - that is awesome.  We also loved the news of boys able to leave on missions after they graduate from High School and 18.  This won't affect Rhett Man much with him turning 18 the August after he graduates.  Dustin it will get him out of here a little quicker.  As for the girls going at age 19 all I can say about this is WOW!  It was just ok then I started thinking about Bridget that will be 18 when she graduates and turn 19 in Oct.  just a few months after she graduates.  You raise boys to go on missions and you raise girls to if they aren't married by 21 but this just kind of struck us by shock with Bridget.  We don't know if we will be ready for her to leave on a mission a few months after she graduates!  I guess we have 5 more years to worry about that so for now we won't worry (too much anyway =)

One thing I love about the talks are how all of them are so calm