8/24 Raine’s class doing a survey of classmates (Raine is in the background of the middle-left photo)

8/24 Raine’s class doing a scavenger hunt (Raine is in the back-left of the top photo)

Unfortunately, these were the first and only photos that Raine’s teacher posted to twitter.

8/25 Carter’s class getting out some wiggles (Carter is in the front-center in blue shorts

8/26 Carter’s class doing a watermelon science experiment (Carter is in the grey shirt in the bottom-right)

8/31 Carter’s class working with the 5th graders (Carter is standing up in the background in the green shirt)

9/8 Carter’s class learning about strong and weak beats in music

@FeastersFirstie learning about strong and weak beats with our favorite @QuaverMusic video @CEScowboys ?? pic.twitter.com/xlGLtWvqbe

— Mrs. Natalie Neugent (@CESmusicNeugent) September 8, 2016

9/27 Carter’s class

Singing our "shake it" song as we made matter change from a liquid to a solid…we turned cream into BUTTER #Science @CEScowboys #FirstIsFun pic.twitter.com/3CeBJRhUhN

— Alyson Feaster (@FeastersFirstie) September 27, 2016

9/29 Raine’s student council campaign poster. She didn’t win, but she learned a lot in the process. She had to apply and give a campaign speech.

9/29 Raine’s 3rd Grade patriotic program (Raine is on the back row toward the left side.

9/30 I was the shared reader for both Raine’s and Carter’s classes. The timing worked out so that I could eat lunch with Carter too!

Saturday, September 24 was Raine’s baptism day.

A number of our family and friends joined us for the baptism. My cousin Shannan and Alexa drove all the way up from Houston to support Raine. Grandma and Grandmpa Dewey came down from Utah for the weekend.

The Eastmans, Stahelis, and Boyers all came up from our old ward. It is always fun to reconnect with them.

Daddy performed the baptism and confirmation. Grandpa Dewey gave the talk on baptism. Grandma Dewey gave a talk on the holy ghost. Raine’s primary teachers, Sister Behymer and Sister Newland offered the opening and closing prayers. The confirmation circle included Grandpa Dewey, Bruce Crandall (bishopric member), Rob Norr (home teacher), Evan Eastman and Bryan Boyer (from the old ward). Brother Crandall conducted and welcomed Raine to the Ward. Molly Wood, the Primary President, made sure everything ran smoothly and welcomed Raine to Activity Days. My visiting teacher Carrie Moyle played the piano. She went above and beyond to practice the songs that Raine wanted so that she could play them smoothly. Raine picked two songs written by Grandma Gabbott for her big event, “Baptism” and “He Sent His Son.”

Our little friend Alice took this photo during Grandpa Dewey’s talk on baptism. Evan sent it to us afterward. I love the perspective it provides.

After the baptism we had a taco-bar luncheon at our house. Here are Raine and Alexa.

It was a great day. The support of our friends and family really meant a lot to both me and Raine. Raine really love being spoiled. Grandma gave her a special necklace and bracelet.

Her primary teacher, Sister Behymer, gave her a gift bag full of craft supplies. Several of her friends made cards for her. The Eastman’s gave her a whole bunch of bracelets. Sister Sweeney gave her some Shopkins. Sister Vanderpool embroidered this fluffy white towel with Raine’s name in her favorite color.

That evening was the General Women’s meeting at the church for all women and girls age 8 and up. I was so excited for Raine to finally be old enough to go with me. My illusions of a wonderful experience for Raine were shot down rather quickly as Raine threw her head back near the end of first speaker’s talk and declared, “This is SO BORING!” It was starting to look like Raine might die of boredom, but fortunately, the meeting ended and they opened up the gym with tables full of donuts. She recovered pretty quickly then!

On Wednesday, September 21 Raine turned 8 years old.

I joined her for lunch at school. It was Pizza Hut day — perfect for Raine.

Raine picked McDonalds for dinner (yuck!) and I picked Celebrity Bakery for cake (yum!).

After dinner, Raine opened her presents.

She received leather scriptures with her name on them — a family tradition.

Another family tradition is that Grandma Anderson makes the grandkids a quilt for their 8th birthday. Raine’s was covered in stars, she loved it!

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake.

Raine is quite an individual. She is highly academic and spends her free-time reading and researching whatever topic strikes her fancy. A September birthday is perfect for Raine because the absolute best gift for her is a bag full of office/school supplies! She is always creating something.

Raine is very tender-hearted. She loves nature, animals, and bugs — sometimes to a fault. She started an animal rescue club and a bug hospital with her friends.

Raine also loves being a spy. She created the International Spy League so that she and her friends could solve mysteries.

Some good words to describe Raine include: passionate, determined, creative, inventive, smart, and sassy. She has a big personality that sometimes gets her in trouble when Mom and Dad “just don’t get it.” Sometimes I worry about what she is going to be like as a teenager because it surely couldn’t get any more dramatic than this, but I’m sure it will!

We love Raine so much. Carter thinks the world of her and she is a great big sister. I’m excited to see what she grows into. I know she will be highly successful in life and do some great things.

June 4 – Raine got new glasses; and she is actually going to wear them now.

June 4 – swimming at LifeTime

July 1 – Carter picked a clown nose as his prize for the library reading program.

July 7 – Raine worked on her rollerskating a lot this summer.

July 24 – Carter “helped” me make bread to eat with the homemade strawberry jam that Raine made.

July 27 – Our nanny didn’t work out and the kids ended up having to come to work with me because I didn’t have a backup.

July 29 – Library reading program end of summer party

Raine in the petting zoo.

Raine riding a horse.

Carter sliding down the water slide.

Carter and Raine both picked a clown nose as one of their prizes.

August 8 – Grandma and Grandpa Anderson left to serve a mission Sao Paulo, Brazil. Their flight had a layover at DFW so we went to see them for an hour.

August 18 – We helped assemble lunches for the “Feed Our Kids” summer lunch program. Afterward, we walked across the street to Olympic swimmer Katie Meili’s house to plant some flags on which we had written words of encouragement. Katie won bronze in the 100m breast stroke and gold on the 400m medley relay at the Rio games.

August 30 – Raine begged us all summer to go climbing with her at LifeTime so she could show us how well she was doing. We finally made a family trip to the climbing wall before the kids’ and my memberships expired.

Raine climbing her favorite wall. She made it to the top in no time.

Carter reluctantly climbed the easy wall.

Raine worked at this wall for a while and made it higher than she has ever gone before.

Carter preferred to shoot hoops.

September 10 – We went to an FC Dallas professional soccer game.

Dallas lost to Colorado, but it was a really fun game to watch.