First Week Over....

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. - Catherine Aird

I saw that and thought it was funny. I also find it to be very true or helpful.

We survived the first week of school. The girls love their classes and teachers. Kaijsa has one that is or will be annoying and we'll see if she passes that class but otherwise they should both do very well. Kaitlyn had tryouts for the volleyball team but unfortunately she didn't make it. She is thinking of being a manager on the team though and that way she can keep trying out with them. That way she'll be more ready for tryouts next year. She's off to practice for basketball season now...let's hope she makes the team. She is a great athlete and tries hard. Keep trying Kait! We love you!

Kaijsa if finding that balancing school, life, and work isn't all that easy. She is doing well so far though. Keep up the good work Kaij! You'll find time for those things that are most important. Seminary starts in a week and that will be one more thing to fit in your day. She has a new teacher this year so we'll see if she likes her and the class. Here's hoping...

It's been a good week and has gone by fast. Tonight is the first football game. We can't make it, plus it's down in San Antonio but we wish our team the best of luck! Goooo Panthers!!!!

P.S. babies survived the week and mommy too. We too are finding a new routine and so far so good. Daddy is doing well and has been helping the Missionaries quite a bit. We love our Missionaries. They are such good examples to Kamden and the girls. Let's hope the next week is as good as this one and that the weekend goes by slowly and peacefully.

First Day of School

Kaijsa is a Junior in High School this year. I can't believe it. I remember my Junior year and loved it. I think that was my favorite year in High School. She is taking some tough classes but I'm sure she'll do well. I'm excited for her spanish class. I wonder how much I remember and I want to learn along with her. It's such a useful language, in TX especially. Good luck Kaijsa. We know you will do well. She also gets to drive to school this year which is a big help to her and me. Go Panthers!


Kaitlyn is in 7th grade. Now I don't remember this year as much as I do my 6th and 8th grade years. Not sure why except maybe because it's stuck in between the 2. In 6th it's your first year of Jr. High and 8th is your last year of Jr High...7th is just 7th. Kait is taking several Pre-AP classes and will also do some sports. She's a good athlete and I hope she has fun playing and being involved. Good luck in school Kaitlyn, we know you'll do well.


Our girls are growing up so fast! I can't believe one is almost done with High School, one is halfway through Middle School and Kira is almost done with elementary school. Just as they are finishing up we'll start all over again with the babies. What were we thinking? Y'all are probably asking yourselves the same thing. Oh well. We love our kids and are happy for their successes. We know they were excited for school to start and that they will do great!


You're beautiful Kaijsa and Kaitlyn. You looked great on your first day of school. Hope your day was great and I can't wait to hear all about it. Good luck and Yeah for Back to School! Good luck Kira! Wish we were there to see you off but glad we had the summer with you.

Last Moments with Kira

These are the last moments with Kira. The pictures were taken late at night and very early this morning. Rachel came over to say good-bye and all the sisters and brother had their moments with her too. We love having Kira in our home and with us. She is such a special daughter and she is missed when she isn't here. Kamden and Kinsee are always on their play cell phones calling her to tell her about their day or what's going on. They love having her here to play with them. They were so sad to see her go. The rest of us were also very sad to see Kira leave. A member of our family is missing when she is gone. We will get to see her soon but once or twice a year just isn't the same. We know she has friends and school in UT but she is part of our Family and loved. Good luck in School Kira! We are so glad we were able to have you with us this summer. We had some good times and will have good times again in the future. We will see you soon.

We are planning on going to UT for Halloween and staying for a week. We hope to see some of y'all but know that might not happen. We are planning on having a great Halloween though with all the cousins going Trick-or-Treating together. It will be the first time that all our kids got to go Trick-or-Treating together and to be able to do it with their cousins is even more special. We are super excited for this time. Plus we'll get to see Kira and have her spend more time with us!

It's tax free weekend so we've done a bit of back-to-school shopping with the help and love of Papa and Jen. Thank you! The girls were able to get several very cute outfits. School starts Monday so I'll take pictures of them then with their new outfits on. I can't believe Kaijsa is going to be a Junior and Kaitlyn will be in 7th grade. I remember both years very well. They were good years with good memories attached. Good luck girls! Kira will be in 4th grade and will have Janet as her teacher. We are sure she'll do well. Enjoy your year Kira! Let us know how it goes. Kamden, Kinsee, and Kaileigh will be home with me. I'm thinking of looking into a pre-school for Kamden but haven't decided yet. Not sure where to send him or if I should send him this year or wait one more. I'll most likely wait one more year with him and look around. I'll have a little school time each day maybe and do something fun.

Summer has come to an end and I'm glad and sad at the same time. It means another year is coming to a close and will be over before I know it. Time is a crazy thing.

Love you girls! Enjoy your school year and have fun!

Love you babies and can't wait to see how you handle a day, week and month(s) without your sisters around.

Larry I love you too. You are a good dad and a wonderful husband.

Au Revoir Summer... Bonjour School or for Kaijsa...Hasta La Vista Summer (can't remember that word in either language despite my years taking both)...Hola Ano Escuela!

School Starting Soon

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I just wanted to post that school starts soon. For my nieces McKenna and Miranda school starts tomorrow. Some of the schools in TX have started already but ours starts next Monday. Crazy how fast the summer went by. Kira leaves on Saturday and we are sad to see her go. We so wish she could stay with us but we know Kira has friends and family in UT that are excited for her to return. I'll post when the kids go back to school. Maybe I can get them to let me take first day back to school pics. :) Anyways...to all the kids out there...Have a great school year!

Last Weekend of Summer with Family and Friends

I'm going to break up my pictures this time. The group below are just some of us swimming. My sister's friend Darlene came out to visit before she starts teaching later this wek. We love Darlene! She is so much fun and we always enjoy the time we can spend with her. We swam and shopped at the funnest store, Sam Moon. That is the greatest store for girls and since I have so many girls this has become my new favorite place. There are hair bows, bands, clips, you name it they got it. There are purses, we all know how much I love purses, it's really an addiction. And they have jewelry! The best part is it's super cheap and comes in bulk. So... I started my Christmas shopping and got a few things for me and my girls. I will definitely have to go back before Christmas arrives but it was a good start to the madness/joy of Christmas shopping. After the shopping we ate at the cutest McDonalds, it's in the shape of a Happy Meal. The kids played and ate and we enjoyed eachother's company over some good ole fat, greasy food. After all that we then put on our suits and swam the afternoon away. I love that my kids love swimming and the water. They can swim for quite a while and are getting quite good at it. Even Kai is starting to enjoy her pool time with Mommy and siblings.

Our next adventure was going to the Mesquite Texas Rodeo. Every weekend every summer they have a Rodeo. It is actually a pretty big and pretty good Rodeo. It was fun to go after thinking of going for so long. The goup of us went and had a great time. There were fireworks and gunshots. They had cowboys roping and riding. They had fun things for the kids to do, face painting and pony rides and then a cowboy monkey to entertain. It was fun to take the kids, especially the littlest ones as it was their first Rodeo. They loved it. It was good to go out and spend time as a family. I would definitely go again.

On Sunday we went to our ward and then to my Dad's ward. Jennie and Darlene sang a beautiful hymn in Sacrament meeting and it was fun to go and support them. After church we went to my dad's and swam some more while waiting for dinner to be ready. My dad fixed a fantastic German meal. After swimming and eating with Papa, Jen and Darlene I felt it was time to go home. We had a long weekend and the kids (i.e. the babies) were tired. So we went home and put them to bed. Afterwards we sat with Larry and played a big game of Sorry and then Disney Trivial Pursuit. As far as family game night went it was fun and very little if any bickering. It's always nice to play games with no fighting. Yesterday we took the girls to the Galleria Mall to walk around the American Girl Doll store. I love that store and I think they enjoyed it too. We played at the mall playland for a bit and I got a couple more Christmas presents. We of course ate at the Happy Meal McDonalds again since it's right by there and then we came on home. We took it easy and life went back to "normal".

That's our fun filled weekend. The last weekend we'll have with Kira. It was fun and sad at the same time. We always love having her with us and miss her when she's gone. Now that Kamden and Kinsee are getting older they are understanding more. They are sad that she'll be leaving soon and I know it will be tough on us all. I know Kira is ready to return to her mom and friends but sad to leave all of us as well. How hard that is on children, parents and families. It's too bad we aren't closer so the time between visits isn't so long. Maybe someday but right now we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. The girls have had their orientations for school and have received their classes for the new school year. Kaijsa's was messed up so she'll get her official schedule on the first day of school but Kaitlyn has hers and is super excited. She got the classes she wanted in the order she wanted them. Crazy. They are so ready to go back and have structure, friends, and time for themselves. We'll see how the babies do without their sisters around all day. Hmmmmm. I'm ready for school too. It will be nice to have some sort of structure to our days again. I love summertime and everything about summer but there is something about the school year that is fun and exciting too. We've had a great summer and look forward to the rest of the year ahead. We are trying to make plans to go to UT in between or before the Holidays since I have to work over the holidays but nothing set in stone yet. I'll let y'all know if we decide anything.

We miss you Darlene and you need to come back and visit us soon!

We are going to miss you Kira! You are forever a part of our family. We love you!

Good luck in school Kaijsa, Kaitlyn, and Kira. I'm sure y'all will do great!

Good-bye Summer....we will miss you but not the heat.

Life is good and always getting better.

Busy Summer

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It's hard to believe but Kira is only with us for one more week. The time sure has gone by fast. She may think differently but I think it's gone by fast. This whole summer has flown by. I remember being a kid and thinking the summer was so long and now, where is the summer? The girls got out of school, went to YW Girls Camp, came home and we had Kaileigh, Kaijsa left for EFY, then the 4th of July, we then had a couple of weeks to get ready for Kira and of course adjusting to Kai. Kira then got here and we had Kaileigh's blessing. We've gone swimming and shopping, we've watched movies and slept some. I've worked and cleaned and cleaned some more. The house has been wrecked and cleaned and wrecked again. We've cooked good meals and eaten out. The girls have been working and the little ones have been playing (i.e. making messes). Kira's baked with her Easy Bake Oven and she has stayed up late and slept in late. We went to Joe Pool Lake and to the Dallas Zoo. We'd still like to get to the zoo one more time with Kira and swim some more as well. We didn't have a big trip this year but we've had fun being together. We've had to fix the van and got some things to organize the house (i.e. girls bathroom). There is still quite a bit I'd love to organize (the garage especially). We need to have a yard sale to clean garage out and get rid of the baby boy stuff. I'd love to get some painting done. I have done a little Christmas shopping. I've started clipping coupons and trying to save money. I haven't taken as many pictures as I wanted to so I'll have to take quite a few this week. We've gone to the Dr for shots for school and we've gotten a few of the school supplies. We still need to get a couple of outfits. So...it's been a busy summer full of fun and not so fun. We're now getting over the flu and starting to feel better (most of us anyways). Now if only to have a couple of days of peace and quiet before school starts. Hmmm. And to get the girls to go to bed early and up early in prep for seminary and school...we'll see how that goes.

Hope everyone has had a great summer. Like my mother before me...I'm ready for school to start (I think).

Addendum

Ok, so I was looking at the pictures this morning showing them to Kamden and Kinsee when I discovered something. I put Kinsee's name to one of the pictures of Kaileigh. We are at the bowling alley and Kai is in her seat sleeping. I'm getting my kid's names all messed up. Sorry Kaileigh.

On another side note...Kai rolled over today! Ok she was laying on the bed and I'm sure that helped her out some but still. She rolled over and then smiled. She is sleeping more at night too. She went to bed around 9:30/10:00 last night and didn't get up till 6 this morning. So nice to be able to sleep. Now to just get Kamden to sleep in and to not wake up Kinsee as soon as he's awake. I know she'd sleep in some. Oh well...one thing at a time.

Also, if you'd like to see our family pictures you can go to...https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0804115445JCP
you then type in my name Rachel Saling. We think they turned out cute.

Family Time

We've had a busy week with work, cleaning, having fun, and more work. The summer is going by so fast. I can't believe that in just a few weeks the girls will be back in school. Where does the time go? After looking at our schedules we decided that this weekend would be the only time to spend it all together as a family. Any other time at least one of us is going to be gone with work. Between Kaijsa's schedule, my schedule and Kaitlyn's schedule life is crazy. Plus Larry's been going out with the Missionaries quite a bit so he's gone too or they are here. So for the weekend of family time we went swimming, bowling and out to dinner. We also got our annual family photos taken and had a few of us sick as well! Whew, just thinking about it all makes me tired.

We started the weekend Friday by taking the kids, minus Kaitlyn, to the Lake in town. Ok, Joe Pool is not a great Lake but it was still fun to go. The kids swam and had a good time looking for seashells, yes there are little ones. The water was warm the sand non-existant (they replaced it with rocks and dirt not sure why). It was fun to go though and do something different.

Bowling was fun after our morning of cleaning and swimming at Papa's house. The little ones killed us all. Actually I'm not sure who ended up winning but I think it was Larry for our group and Kinsee had the high score for the kids group. It was funny to see the family bowling and the tiniest kids doing the best. Oh well. It was fun. I think I had the lowest score. So much for that bowling class I took in college.

We went to Applebees for dinner and it was good. The sign on the door is funny though. Let's see if y'all can catch it...


Several us have come down with the flu this summer. It doesn't last long but it sure is junky while we have it.

Kai is now 6 weeks old. She is getting so big! She is still a very peaceful child and a wonderful addition to our family. We will be getting her picture taken at the end of the week and I'm excited for them. I hope they turn out and that she is good during them. Watch that be the ONE time she's not good but knock on wood that isn't the case. I will think positive thoughts...

We get Kira's pictures back this week and I can't wait. They turned out so cute. Our family pictures were taken today and they too turned out wonderfully. I love them! I love getting family pictures taken and watch how our family changes each year. The kids are growing up and new ones have come into our lives. I love my family so much and am thankful for each one of them.

So another week has gone by and another one is beginning. Jen's friend Darlene is coming into town this week and we are looking forward to that. We all love Darlene. We'll take her and Kira to Babes for dinner as it's a favorite spot to eat. No other plans except more working and swimming and cleaning. Tax Free weekend is coming up and we're looking forward to that. Love to do our back 2 school shopping on that weekend. 2 weeks and counting. Then school starts. Wow, time goes by faster the older we get.

It's been a great summer and a fun one too I think. Never a dull moment that's for sure. I'll try to write more often but not promising anything. I will share our pictures with y'all when we get them.

Have a great week everyone!

Kaileigh Jeanette Saling's Blessing Day

Today was Kaileigh's Blessing day. We were blessed with her in our lives and family and were able to spend the day with family to celebrate her. Larry gave a beautiful blessing to Kaileigh from her Heavenly Father. It was truly beautiful and I was able to write most of it down. We had many people stand with him in the circle and love all of those who participated in the blessing. Thank you to each and every one of you who helped make this day special. My dad and sister came and I love that they were here with us. I love that we were surrounded by friends as well. I'm so grateful that Larry holds the Priesthood and is able to bless his daughter on this day. I'm grateful that he can bless each of us so that we can hear from our Father in Heaven. We missed those family members who couldn't be with us but please know y'all are in our thoughts and prayers. We love and miss you. Kamden's picture with Kaileigh is separate because I took it too close. But all the kids looked lovely today and were so cute with eachother. There is lots of love felt in our family and home especially since we're all together. Kai has a sweet peaceful spirit that blesses our home greatly.

Kaileigh looked lovely in her blessing gown. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Saling for sending the gown to us. It is a beautiful gown. Kai is truly our angel baby.

Enjoy the pictures we took today, there aren't many but they are special to us. I know my mom was with us today and that she sent us this special spirit to be a part of our family. She truly is a strong and special daughter of God. There is much in store for her and we are blessed to have her.

We love you Kaileigh Jeanette!

P.S. I need to say she doesn't always look this red. I admit we were out in the pool too long the other day and she got sunburned. I feel so horrible! Her poor nose is red and I think may have even had a couple of blisters on it. She is healing nicely though and hopefully won't hold it against me. I still think she's a very beautiful baby.

Kira has arrived!

There have been so many moments with Kira here and I've taken quite a few pics but can't put them all together. So here are a few of the highlights. She came home to us last Sunday night and stayed up late with her brother and sisters. Yes, I let the little ones stay up so that they could see her. They had fun and it was so great to see them all together. She has been great with Kai, come to think of it I need a picture with her and Kai together, tomorrow. Anyways...there has been lots of singing and laughing with her here. Kamden and Kinsee Belle love playing with her. Kai loves to be held by her. And Kaijsa and Kaitlyn have had fun singing and staying up late with her. It's so much fun to have her here and to know our family is finally complete. We got her pictures taken today and I can't wait for them to come in. They turned out so cute. We'll be getting our family pictures taken next weekend and I can't wait for those either. I don't have any outfit ideas so if someone has an idea please let me know. I'm excited for new family pictures, I love getting them done. Then in a few weeks we'll take Kaileigh's pictures. I'm a little behind on getting hers done. We will take some tomorrow for her baby blessing though. So we've gone to the Zoo, played in the rain, worked out with the Wii Fit and sang alot of Sing Star. She even put together a puppet show with our new puppet stage. I can't believe a week has already gone by. I'm putting together plans for the next few weeks with her here but nothing huge. We are planning on doing Stay-cations this year. Kira we love you and are loving having you here with us!

P.S. Kaijsa got a new job so she'll be working a bunch now. We'll see how she likes working all the time. :) We're proud of you Kaij for getting the job and for all you do to help out.

Love my family!

Gift from Family

Larry's Aunt Nannette and Uncle Cliff sent us a lovely gift this week. Nannette knitted us a beautiful Afghan. I am so glad that she made this for us. I love family heirlooms that we can keep and pass on to our kids. Thank you Cliff and Nannette! We love it! It's beautiful.