Faith

Nicole and Melanie have been working super hard this summer to finish up their Personal Progress.  This is a program that our church provides for young women to help them set goals that allow them to grow and develop in several areas:  Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue.

Nicole wrote this marvelous poem on faith that I wanted to share.

Cool.  This is one proud mother!

Another School Year Comes To A Close

Mother's Day Party with Ryder
Don't you love the hat he made me?!?!



It's hard to believe that the 2010-2011 school year is already over.  It flew by so quickly!!!! The kids are excited for some time off to swim and travel.  I'm excited to have them home more, and to be done having 4 kids in 4 different schools!  Next year we will be down to 3 schools, because Melanie will be in HIGH SCHOOL next year which means both she and Nicole will be at PHS!

Here is a hodgepodge of pictures from the end of the school year.

Darren's Freshman seminary class that he taught enjoying
their last early morning together for the year

Nicole's Seminary class on their last day

Ryder getting his picture taken with his 2nd grade teacher,
Mrs. Eggelston, after the awards assembly

Here is a sweet card that Ryder and I made for his teacher.  He really enjoyed being in her class!

He also gave her a "Nothing Bundt Cake"  white chocolate raspberry mmmmm. . .

Every year we go to dinner after the last day of school to celebrate.  This year we went to the Blue Goose to enjoy mesquite grilled tex mex yumminess!!  Here's Harrison enjoying the evening:

I notice the chips are already gone and dinner hadn't arrived yet :)  They make some really good salsa!

And I'll sign off with a picture of Melanie and her friend Thi modeling the masks they made as part of their last English project. 

Looking good girls.  Enjoy your summer!!!



Memories From Omaha

This past February Nicole and I did some traveling - to OMAHA.  Yeah, you heard me right, Omaha.  The word Omaha kind of looks like a cross between the words "Aloha" and "Oahu" which are wonderful travel worthy words.  But alas, Omaha in February is just, well, cold - and definitely not travel worthy.

Now, don't get me wrong, it was fun to get away for a couple of days and enjoy the. . .ummmm. . . well, we went there for a volleyball tournament, and the volleyball was good.  Nicole got to meet the Dutch National Team, a bunch of very talented 15 year olds who were playing in the 18 year old division.  She had her picture taken with them.

They didn't really speak any English, and it was fun to listen to them on the court.  Whenever they would score a great point they would shout, "Ohpah!"

We were supposed to fly out on the last day of the tournament, but as we finished packing we discovered that our flight had been cancelled, and EVERY flight out that night was booked.  So, lucky us we got to spend an extra night in Omaha!  Which was great, because then we had extra time to enjoy. . .ummmm. . . well, we watched some TLC on TV and slept in the next day.

Before we ever left for Omaha, I told Nicole how I had visited there in the winter about 12 years ago.  All I could remember were the ginormous piles of dirty snow everywhere.  Nicole just looked at me funny.

Enjoy the memories m'dear :)

Our Tax Education Dollars At Work

I love this picture of Nicole - my super intelligent honor student who takes an incredibly heavy load of classes at school.  Somehow, in the midst of all of the intensity and seriousness, she manages to have fun.  Although admittedly her "fun" looks a bit dangerous.

I'm not quite sure what you're supposed to learn from a lab where you light Cheetos on fire underneath a Coca Cola can that seems to be hovering in mid air - but I'm sure that they learned A LOT!!!

As her mother, I am ever so grateful she wore her safety goggles!

Too Many Snow Days

Watch the video, somebody had too much time on their hands. . .

6 Day Weekend

Well the kids went to school exactly 1 day this week - 1 day out of 5!!!  Now I know what you're thinking, "Those Texans just don't know how to handle snow."  Unh uh.  We handle snow just fine.  It's sleet and ice that really slow us down.  Monday night ice started falling from the sky.  Trust me it was really loud on the windows. By Tuesday morning there was a nice thick layer of ice on everything, and no one wants to drive in that.

I didn't really take any pictures of the ice, because well, it was just roads with ice.  I do have a video of Ryder doing some skating on it though.



The temperatures stayed around 0 degrees (wind chill factored in here) so the ice wasn't able to melt.  So the kids got to stay home on Wednesday and Thursday as well.  We were able to enjoy lots of family time together - board games, puzzles, TV, Wii, baking and some crafts.  Harrison, Melanie, and Ryder put together these little wooden craft kits that I had picked up for $1 each the week before.  My thought at the time was that I'd just stash them away for a rainy day or next summer when the kids are bored.  As fortune would have it, we got to use them much earlier than that.

These little kits were awesome.  As I mentioned before only $1 each, and they included all the wood, paint, glue, paintbrush, sandpaper and rubberbands needed to complete the project!  I think the boys can get some scouting achievements signed off for this too :)

Then Thursday night and Friday we got SNOW.  Probably a good 4-6 inches.  And it stuck.  In fact it's still here.  Unheard of!

Here is a picture from early Friday morning.

And snow or not, poor little Blossom still had to go outside to, well, you know. . . She got icy in the process.

Blossom's mad because her paws are cold!

The fun part is that snow is waaaaaaay more fun than ice! You can go sledding.

Or eat the snow (only pure white fresh snow please).

Or if you're me, you can slip and fall.  I know, cool huh.

The neighbor kids had been begging me to sled the ditch with them.  We all know how that would've turned out.  I kindly declined, and so today I can still say I have never broken a bone!

It's also quite beautiful to see our lake almost completely frozen over.

So as we enter our 5th day of isolation in our home, we are grateful for this little window of time where we could just relax and spend time together.  We are also grateful for food storage, and that I had just purchased milk, eggs, and fresh produce on Monday night!

Thanks for a wonderful break Mother Nature!



UPDATE:  Of course all good things must come to an end. . .

Nicole's Sweet 16 Party

Party Invitation

Nicole is turning 16 this week - yikes how did that happen?!?! I've had in my mind that she can get her driver's license soon, but until her little brothers reminded me I'd forgotten that she can also DATE now! Help us all!

Somehow she talked me into throwing a party for her. Getting me to throw a party is like pulling teeth. Actually, I know from experience that pulling teeth is easier :)

So, she and a friend came up with having an "animal print theme" and they left the rest up to me.

Here is a picture of the cake I made for the party.  Click here to read more about how I made the cake.

Then with all of those teenagers, I knew we would need some food.  So here are some pictures of the tablescape I did:

Custom Water Bottles

Veggie Tray and "Cheetah-Toes"

Eclairs

Chex Mix

Peanuts

6 pounds of gummy bears
One guest ate 3 pounds of these himself - SERIOUSLY!

Frosted Animal Cookies

And then I posted this sign - don't know if anyone but me got it.

There were games to play.  I came up with several, but was told by my soon to be 16 year old that only one was cool enough.  Here is my "cool game" called Take a WILD Guess.  It was basically a list of 10 questions about Nicole to see who knew her best.

There were prizes for the winners, and eventually everyone just passed the basket around and picked something out.

This game is one that Nicole and her friends wanted to play.  Not sure exactly what it's called or how you play it, but they seemed to have fun.

Then she blew out her candles.

Look, the inside of the cake has zebra stripes too!

And opened her gifts

It turned out to be a really fun party.  She invited the kids from her early morning seminary class - all freshmen and sophomores, so there were about 25 kids there.

I am so glad she had fun - and that she only turns sweet 16 once!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!!!!!!!