Wow...times really does fly!

Benidedict, Kiara and Natasha...we made this awesome cake from scratch and they helped do the whole thing!






We went to the outdoor concert with Albert and Jori and then to dinner at "Top of the Hill"



Kiara and Rina at the beach having fun.


Welman, Rhett and Bolo


Ok, so it is July and we are gearing up to move back to Utah. Alex is already home and keeping very busy (thanks Cheri, Kara, & Richard) We have had a disaster with our house and I am so upset about it, that I can't even talk about it. ;( However, life could always be worse so I am TRYING to look on the bright side. I have been so stressed out (cold sore and all) but I am just going to roll with the punches!

Rhett and I went to Boston last week and had a really nice time. Boston is beautiful and the weather was a nice change. I do need to congratulate Rhett we attended our finally graduation dinner. ☺ I still can’t believe we are almost done with this chapter…it is hard to believe he will finally be done with school and training.
Thursday we spent the day down at Wrightsville and oh how I/we love the beach! We had a really good time. I was so worried Kiara would be bored without her sister, but she was such a sport and played the whole time in the ocean. She had a blast! She has also been on another marathon book reading contest. I have begged her to read this new series and she was not at all interested, but I finally just bought them and she read all five in a week. To some that is awesome, but it gets very old when all you see her doing is reading :)
For the 4th we spent the day with the Turner family and had a very good time….WE WILL MISS THEM SO MUCH!!!!
Rhett has been a huge help this week as well....he has even helped me wash the walls! 17 days and we will be back home....it is a bittersweet moment, but one we are starting to pack for!

The BEACH right before sunset...a little slice of heaven.


The girls at the beach


Cheri and Kara come to see us!


The Fam...


Alex & Kiara getting ready for Dinner at the Beach



Kiara's Championship Softball team-Blazzers


John Edwards with his team


Kiara up to bat....single :)


What a couple of weeks....

Alex and I flew home for soccer tryouts a few weeks back. Good news, she made the U17 Nike Rush Premier team and she is very excited to say the least. However, while we were home we stopped by the house to find it in less than par shape. First, our basement had flooded and we lost everything downstairs. It was a very emotional day, but THANK YOU to my awesome family who showed up at the door and helped me figure it all out. :)

Alex and Kiara are both finished with school and we are now in full summer mode. Summer bridge, soccer camps, and the daily...."I'm board" comment comes out everyday:) Alex is flying to Stanford soccer camp next week and after that she has team camp at Dixie for a week. We have not figured out what to do with her for the month of July, but we have many options :) Kiara has Cindy Parlow (USA gold medalist :)) soccer camp next week as well as a few little ones to try and keep her occupied. Kiara also had her championship softball game on Friday and won!!! Her little team is so good and she has improved so much over the past few months. The team she played was former presidential candidate John Edwards team It was pretty funny...I didn't even realize until about half way through. However, his wife Elizabeth was the parent on the other side yelling and carrying on. It was a close game the first few innings, but then we blew them out of the water so she didn't have much to say.

We are starting to wind down our time in North Carolina and it is for sure a bitter sweet moment. We are excited to get back to family and friends, but we are going to miss all of our friends we have came so close with while living here. Who would have thought that we would have like NC as much as we did. If they didn't have so many bugs and spiders it would be a little slice of heaven. :)

I also want to congratulate my niece Keeten....she is so talented and I am so proud of her! Go get them Keeter!!!

Ok...I know I have not been very good at blogging :( I will use the same excuse everyone uses, but life has been so crazy. So here it goes....Kiara just finished her soccer and they ended with a third place finish in the Seaside soccer tournament. Her little U10 team played in the U11 division and took 3rd place. She scored both the goals in the games and played awesome. We had a great time and even found a few hours to hang at the beach. What more could you ask for?


Natasha, Chole, Kiara & Benidedict (Natasha is Kiara best little friend in NC and we really have grown so close with the family!!! We will miss them for sure)


Charlotte, Natasha, Kiara, Chole, Benidedict, Kelly & Kayla


Top: John, Megan, Charlotte, Kara, Elizabeth, Noel
Front: Lee, Savannah, Kaylan, Kiara, Miah, Kelly

Kiara also got a solo in her chours concert and she did a very good job :) Her first solo part!


Alex...She is having a blast with her soccer team! They are playing in the conference championship Wednesday and if they win they move on to the state championship's. She is the second highest score leader on her team and just one goal away from being ranked in the top 20 girls for all of NC. She has 11 goals for the year and they start ranking at 12 goals. Her team also has the third best offense in all North Carolina. :) If they only had a back line they would be very stong.







Alex also preformed in her last dance concert for her school. She is such a good little dancer and always just shines on the stage. I took some video, but I can't seem to upload today :( I will try later.

Last but not least I can't believe it is almost the end of May. Time has really flown by and I can't believe we are almost ready to move back to Utah. Cheri and Kara are flying in this weekend and so excited to go hang at the beach!!!!

DC Trip

Wow....it has been a long time, I guess you could call me a blogger slacker! Sorry!! We have had so much going on and I have been sick so that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Jeff and Colleen came to North Carolina to stay with us and we went to DC for a few days. We had never been and we had a really good time.

I can't believe that it is almost May and then we are almost back to Utah. This year has flown by. Alex is right in the middle of her high school soccer season and doing AWESOME!!! She is a little rock star and it has been fun watching her play. Kiara is in the middle of her soccer and she is playing softball for the first time. (Her first game is today) To say the least we are very busy, but what is new!!!

Hope all is well and I will get some more pics on soon!

I have not even posted about our Vegas trip yet...I know I am way behind. I came back and was overwhelmed with work and then I hurt my back and now I am here :0)

We had AAOS in Vegas (Orthopeadic meeting) and Kim & Alicia and Brody & Shayln drove down to spend some time with us!!!! We had so much fun and it was so good to see them. As well as, we were able to have dinner with Tori and Zach. We had been up for 20 hours so I was pretty spent, but it was still very good to see them!

All in all it was a fun whirl wind trip. Rhett and I had so much to do and not enough time to do it in. We got one night with everyone and so that is as good as it gets I quess.

family trip to the beach

My Mom, Cheri and Heather came to NC to help with the kids while Rhett and I went to Vegas for a work conference. We had a few days to sight see and play before we left. It was so good to see them and show them around our neck of the woods. Cheri worked her tail off taking care of the kids and keeping to our crazy schedule :) Thanks Cheri, Mom and Heather!!!

Well today is a great day for Alex, she got her drivers permit!!!! Very exciting....I just can't believe I have a daughter old enough to be driving! She drove herself to school in the rain and did really good....the first few times I had to remind her that she need to slow down a little earlier when coming to a stop, but all in all not to bad! Look out North Carolina :)

What's new :)

We are getting very excited....this week my Mom, Cheri & Heather are coming out to see us :) How lucky are we!!! Rhett and I are heading to Vegas for a Ortho conference and so my family is flying out to spend a few days with us and then help take care of the kids!
This past week has been crazy. Kiara started outdoor soccer as well as she lost her first indoor game 2 to 1 with her scoring the only goal. She has such a good little team and she is such a good player!!! (I know...i am bragging) Alex finished her driving and we went to get her license last week, but the first and second times were both a bust. You think the DMV is bad in Utah, you should try North Carolina. They are very nice and on a good note you get the actual license day of. We are going to go first thing tomorrow morning so they will have plenty of time to get us done before they close. (Alex will just have to miss some school :)) Alex also got 100% on her first geometry test, which is awesome especially because she has not had math for 7 months. (block schedule in NC) Alex has high school soccer tryouts this week and we went to the last 3o minutes last night and she looked really good. They conditioned at the end and no surprise she was the fastest girl winning every wind sprint and they did 10 :) It is fun to watch her when she actually applies herself. Rhett is busy filling out paper work for his job back in Utah and I am trying to make sure I am all caught up with work as next week I am on Vacation!!!!!!

Where to start ☺
For those of who are close to us know, we have always wanted to back in Salt Lake practicing so we are close to family and friends. We all flew out last week for Rhett to do his second interview with IHC and have been waiting to hear back from them. On Friday 1.30.09 at 4:50 Utah time (yes I am type A) we got the call that caused much celebration. Rhett was offered the Job that he has been eyeing for a few years. He has been communicating and talking back and forth with this group for two years so I guess my Granny was right...the squeaking wheel does get the grease. We received the official word and I am sure you can imagine how excited we all are. He will likely be working at LDS hospital, but may do some work at IMC as well until her gets busy.

What a week ☺
First off, it snowed on Monday in NC...not common and the whole place shut down. It was so funny to us, but nice to see the white stuff. Next it is true...we went to Utah and yes we all got back on the plane to head home to NC. It was hard and Kiara cried for at least 20 min because she was going to miss her cousins, friends and family but happy she got to see them all. The reason we flew to Utah was so Rhett could interview with a local group. It is the J.O.B. that he was wanted for a few years and things went really well so now we get to wait and see what happens.

Kiara and Alex had a very busy couple of days….Kiara spent a day with her best friend Sloane (thanks guys) Alex had a non-stop agenda and I think she did everything she wanted. I was able to go in to work and work in the office ….YES ☺ Rhett was able to get a day of skiing in and we all got to see our family and close friends. What more can you ask for???

It was so good to so good see everyone, very hard to fit everything in and of course we wanted to spend more time with everyone, but all in all a success. We had a surprise party for Kara’s 30th birthday and even Grandma Buddy, Papa Dean and Heather got to come. It was awesome. I love my sisters and it is so good to be best friends with them. (Thanks mom) As for our friends…it was so good to see everyone! We really miss you all! We are very lucky to have such amazing people in our lives!!!!!

Oh my…..I have been the world’s worst blogger ever. ☹ Sorry I have taken a little sabbatical for blogging, I don’t even have a good excuse. We have had a very good month and the top comment I can make is “WE ARE HALF WAY DONE.” Oh yea baby 6 months down and 6 to go. This week we are heading to Utah….oh yes it is true and what can I say except we are all very excited. My sisters and family are all coming up and I cannot wait to see my family and Rhett’s parents. We are very blessed. To top it off I think we get to see all of our friends as well. For only being able to spend 4 days it worked out very well. We fly in Wednesday night and leave on Sunday, but who is counting the days….I get to go home ☺

Rhett is doing a second interview with a group he really wants to join, I get to work…..IN THE OFFICE, (a plus), the girls get to have a night with there friends, it just all worked out. Speaking of friends…my girls are very lucky. They both have the best little group of friends. We feel like they are part of our extended family. Sloane, Kiara best little friend and her family are awesome…they still talk every week and send letters/packages back and forth with each other and it just makes Kiara’s day. Alex has so many…Gabby, Kelsey, Ellen & many others. It is amazing what Alex comes home and tells us about what girls her age are doing here in NC and I am sure there are girls in Utah that do the same thing, but we don’t have to worry about it with who she hangs out with and I can’t even express how great that is for parents of a teenager.

My girls started back in full swing with soccer. They both have been doing this program called Hat Trick Futbol and the coach is awesome. He is from England and the girls have both learned a ton. It has been fun to watch them develop and get confidence with the ball. Alex started indoor last night and her team won. It was so exciting. Her coach (whom I think is way to young to have this team…and I disagree with him on so many levels) but he split the teams up…um NOT FAIR!!! He put Alex on the not so strong team. He then asked me to coach her team which I was super excited about. Long story short….we played the other half of the team and kicked butt. Alex had I think 5 goals and the score was 9 to 6. Oh yea…I have really missed coaching! (her High school team tryouts are Feb 16th) As for Kiara’s soccer…her team is very good and they got moved up to the top division. So she is already playing up a year and now she is in the top division. ☺ She has had a very positive experience with soccer in NC.

I will leave you with this information…..in North Carolina if the temp drops below 30 School is delayed 2 hours because it is to cold and if there is a possibility of snow….the whole town runs to the grocery store and bunkers down. It has been so funny….can you imagine cold weather and possibly snow, that is just the worst thing ever.