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!!!!!!!

Diggin' Volleyball

We just can't seem to get enough volleyball around here! At the end of the school volleyball season, Nicole and Melanie tried out for club teams and are both officially Texas Titans volleyball players. Melanie plays on the 14's Elite Team, and Nicole plays up an age level on the 17's National Team. This has kept us all very busy with practices and now the tournament season has started.

A week ago Nicole's team played in the MLK Ranking Tournament. They ended up taking 13 out of 38 teams which was a pretty good start. Here's a picture of Nicole going up for a block.

And a grainy shot of her hitting in warm ups (love the facial expression on this one :)

Then this last weekend both girls played in the Winterfest tournament.

Nicole's team played in a 17/18's division.  So Nicole, a 15 year old sophomore, was playing teams with 18 year old high school seniors.  They took 3rd in the tournament, but were the top finishing 17's team!!

Melanie's 14's team played a great tournament and won the Silver Bracket Championship.  Here is a picture of the girls posing with their tiny little trophy:

Their championship game was fun to watch because they lost the first set and came back to win the last 2 sets. In the final set they were down by several points and came from behind to win it. It was so exciting to watch, and I think the girls learned a lot about themselves and volleyball in the process!

Melanie was in charge of bringing the hair ribbons for the team for the Winterfest tournament.  When I finished the ribbons I thought they would look cute attached to a water bottle or Gatorade with custom labels for the girls.  Here's how they turned out:

So if my posts these days seem a little sporadic and rare, it's because I'm probably driving the girls to practice or tournaments.

Go Titans!!

Merry Christmas Y'All

Warm Christmas wishes from our family to yours this holiday season!!!  We are excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior and what a wonderful gift that it was.  Recalling 2010 makes us thankful for the blessings of family, health, & happiness.  We have had a busy year and would like to share a  few highlights (click on pictures to see them larger or on the highlighted links to see more about that topic).

Nicole turned 15 this year and is quickly approaching that milestone 16th birthday.  We have been "enjoying" riding with her as she learns to drive.  So far she has done well if you don't count some curbs and lawns that now have tire marks on/in them :)

She also finally got that puppy she has been begging us for for years!!  I guess dreams can come true. (click here for the puppy story)

She still plays a mean game of volleyball.  She was chosen to be captain of the JV squad, and was moved up to varsity to play a few games.  Prosper volleyball made it as far as the Regional Final game, but lost to Lovejoy - the #1 volleyball team in ALL the state of Texas.  Prosper finished 5th in the state. She recently tried out for and made the 17's National team for the Texas Titans volleyball club, so she will continue to play volleyball throughout the school year.

Finally, she has served as Mia Maid class president for the last year, but that will change in January when she turns 16.

Melanie turned 13 this year (that makes 2 teenagers in the Romney house!).  She continues to be an outstanding student. She made the high jump team at school in the spring which was something she had never tried before.  She discovered that she really loves to jump and is quite good at it.  She finished the season taking 4th place at the district meet.  She also played volleyball on the 8th grade A team.  Her team won their district, and in fact did not drop a set the entire season!  She is currently playing her first club volleyball season on the 14's Elite Texas Titans Team.

This summer she and Nicole split time babysitting for their cousins and training Blossom to do tricks.

At church Melanie is serving as the Beehive class Secretary - perfect for an organized girl like her!

Harrison, or as we like to call him Big Handsome, is 10 years old and a 5th grader at Rogers Middle School this year.  He has lots of friends, and you can usually find him playing football out in front of the house with kids from the neighborhood.  This summer he and his friend Ty spent many hours fishing in the lake out front.  They even caught some decent sized fish!

He played football for the 5th grade Prosper Eagles and is currently playing basketball for Da' Heat.  His basketball coach, Coach Slim, gave him the nickname of SlowMo a few years back, because "he has so many skills, the only way you can see 'em all is in slow motion!" ;)

This summer he spent a week at Cub Scout Twilight Camp and is currently working on earning his Webelo Award.

Ryder, the Romney caboose, turned 8 this year!!!  He was baptized on November 27.  He was also excited to turn 8 because now he can go to Cub Scouts too.  He has earned his Bobcat award and is working hard on earning his Wolf award.

Ryder played his first season of tackle football this year for the Prosper Pirates.  He loves to play, did really well, and had some great coaches who taught him not only about football, but about responsibility and accountability.   A few weeks into the season Ryder broke his pinky finger when another kid was horsing around and knocked him down. This led to some x-rays, and a couple of weeks of missing practice and games.

Ryder spent his summer playing outside with friends and swimming in the pool.

Darren and I spend our time making sure everyone gets to scouts, mutual, church, school and sports on time.  We love watching the kids play in all of their many sporting events.

Darren is currently teaching Seminary to the Freshmen at 6:00 am every  morning.  I continue to be the Stake Family Search Indexing Director.

We have LOVED having family come to town.  We had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma Muffett at the Fort Worth Stockyards, and felt so lucky to have my brother Win and his family come spend some time with us early in September.  We had an awesome time together, and my brother (an Oregon State alumni) got us awesome seats in Cowboy Stadium (4th row!!!!) for the OSU vs. TCU football game!  We also had a couple of great visits from our Houston cousins, the Tonini's, and were able to enjoy Six Flags and lots of swimming.

Once again, Merry Christmas to y'all from our family to yours.  We send you our love and wish you a warm and wonderful holiday season!