Happy Birthday Austin!!!

Dear Austin,

You are 7 years old and I can't believe it. According to the doctor you have grown 3 inches this year and are going through shoes like I go through Diet Pepsi's. There is so much I love about you and I hope you know how special you are. Here are some of the things that I think are unique about you:

-you have been hitting a baseball since you were 2 years old and this year has been no different. Your coach is continually amazed at how calm you are up at the plate. You are a consistent hitter and were always the 4th to bat because you would hit everyone else in that were on the bases. I loved being your team mom and watch you progress in the game.

- You have finally begun piano lessons after a year of begging me. I am so pleased at your progress. Your teacher cannot believe how fast you are going through the book and I watch you practice and see that you are a natural.

-You are not afraid of anything. Give you a challenge and you will work at it until you have mastered it. For example, Ice Skating with you last week was so fun. You were scared and didn't know if you could do it. Not only did you stay out there longer than any of us, but you wanted to go back and did so with Dad later that night. You were determined to master it and would pick yourself right back up after falling. What a great example of determination.

-You have a strong will and when you believe in something, no one can make you change your mind. Sometimes this is a problem, but when I think about the kind of missionary you will be, I know that this talent just needs to be channelled in the right direction.

-You are hilarious and tell great jokes. I love to see you with your Tiger scout troop. You go and hug them all and they love to be around you.

-You are a great big brother to Rachael. She loves her "Austie" and you interact in a way with her that is special. You both have a unique bond.

Austin, we love you and are so proud of you. I know this move to Texas has been difficult for you and you have grown not only physically, but spiritually as well. Thank you for all you do and we are proud to call you our brother, son and friend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy 10th Birthday Spencer!!!!

Dear Spencer,

I can't believe you are 10 years old today! (double digits!) You are such a unique addition to our family and feel so blessed to call you my son. Here are some things that I really love about you:

1. Your sense of humor is well beyond your age. Some of the things that come out of your mouth!!

2. You have a strong moral compass. There is usually no gray with you...you are always so black and white. And the thing is..you ALWAYS choose the right.

3. You are easy to love. Since you were born, all you had to do is look at me with those big, blue eyes and those long eye lashes and we would give you whatever you wanted. Ok, so you would probably argue that, but you have always been a very sweet, sensitive boy.

4. You have always been able to find joy and beauty in the most random moments. I remember asking you to weed a section of the lawn in Utah, and after 20 minutes you had only pulled ONE weed because you were fascinated by the fact that this one weed had 1 pair of roots, yet 2 different plants growing from it. You also have the most interesting rock collection I have ever seen.

5. You have always had many friends. You are kind, sensitive and FUNNY! And the thing is about you, that you don't even realize how everyone wants to be around you. Did you notice that all 16 boys at your birthday party were sort of fighting to see who got to sit by you at the table?

6. You LOVE mashed potatoes and gravy. I think if I fixed this for you everyday you would be in Heaven. You are also obsessed with chocolate anything.

7. You are very kind to your brothers and sister. I know how much your baby sister, Rachael means to you. And watching you play with your brothers is priceless.

8. You are extremely intelligent. Your understanding of certain concepts, especially spiritual ones, is quite profound.

9. You are FUN to go shopping with. I love how you never ask for anything, but instead are simply enjoying being together and admiring all the "things" you see.

10. You love to talk about anything and everything. You are never boring to be around and I love to hear all your stories.

I am so grateful that you are a part of this family. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. Happy Birthday Spencer. You are loved!

The "I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH CANDY" Halloween

This picture does absolutely no justice to the real amount of candy that came into our home for Halloween. We participated in 2 church trunk-or-treats, and then the kids did the neighborhood(s). It was totally out of control. So much so, that I made them give me their candy from one church activity so I could use it to distribute at my door. See the orange bucket in the background of this picture. It was FULL of candy.





We decided to have some fun, so we outlined the kids with their candy. I think we only used 1/8th of the candy for this. Mark decided to weigh their candy bags, and on average, they weighed about 9 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here is a great picture of my brother. Cute little Jane is looking guilty in the background. You can see the wet spot on his pants and can easily guess what happened.

Austin is Darth Vadar.

Spencer is a Man Eating Shark.

Jonathan is a BYU fan. (we are true-blue even though the Cougs have disappointed us this year)

And of course we all know who this is. I had to take a picture of her hair accessory that I made to go with her Aerial costume.



It was a great Halloween! After all the festivities it was fun to go out to eat with Audralyn and Mark (yummy mexican food!!) Ok dentist....here we come!!!

Rachael's Halloween costumes throughout the years

Cuddly little lamb (4 months in Utah)

BYU Cheerleader (16 months and JUST BARELY WALKING). We had just flown down to Houston to look for a house.

Aerial, 2009. What a cutie.

Rachael at the Ward trunk-r-treat

Rachael dressed up at Aerial this Halloween. She LOVES The Little Mermaid and is borderline obsessed with anything that has to do with it. You can tell by her happy face in these pictures that she was perfectly content in her role as the princess of the sea.

Our ward trunkertreat was AWESOME and the weather was absolutely perfect!! Rachael found some of her friends and immediately started dancing to the music.

There was a stray pumpkin lantern hanging down from one of the poles in the pavillion. This eventually became part of her costume.

Naturally when it "came off" the pole, she wore it on her head and danced around.

Hilarious Rachael. You are once again the star of the show.

As a side note, I was so impressed by all the costumes of the adults!!! Next year I am SOOOOO dressing up!

Pumpkin carving

One of our family traditions is that the Monday night before Halloween, we always carve pumpkins. Some years are more creative than the others, and this year we didn't have a lot of time (Hello 9:00 fhe- We don't seem to have enough TIME here in Texas!!). But, Mark took his usual role of getting this pumpkin party started, so we did it despite the late night (thanks daddy for being so awesome!)

We did discover a couple of things during this "activity": In our move we have misplaced our really cool pumkin carving tool set and so we had to settle for my dull kitchen knives and permanent markers. We also discovered that the inside of pumpkins totally gross out Jonathan and he didn't want to touch it (ew!!! was over-heard several times- Mom to the rescue) And last but not least, Austin LOVES anything dirty, gross and challenging. Just look at his huge smile on his face in this picture and then look at the other boys. They are SOOOO over it.


















Look at that cutie. I can't believe he will turn 7 this year. He has been begging us to carve these pumpkins since I bought them last week. (note to self: do not buy pumpkins until the Day of the carving)


















Here is Austin trying to look like his pumpkin. Good job!



















And here is Rachael making a face without realizing that it looks EXACTLY like the pumpkin we made for her. Happy pumpkin carving everyone!!!

An Austin-ism

The prayer that Austin said right before we left for church on Sunday,

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Please bless that church today will only be 1 hour instead of 3.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I sometimes feel that same way, Austin. I love you!

BYU vs. TULANE

Well, last weekend we were still sulking for not making it to the Oklahoma vs. BYU game up in Dallas and decided that we were not going to pass up another opportunity to see our Alma Mater play. SO...we packed up the kids (except for Rachael...Thanks Matt and Catherine!) and headed out to New Orleans with our constant partners in crime: our friends the Allens. We stayed in Baton Rouge on Friday night. When we woke up the next morning and headed down for breakfast, we saw the Johnson's in our ward. So Random! We also saw other BYU dressed fans there, but they were in another stake from Houston. Such a small world!

We drove a little around New Orleans and could still tell that it was recovering from Katrina. The devastation must have been unimaginable compared to what it is now. We then headed to the tailgate party which was held on St. Charles street in downtown New Orleans. This also happens to be in a part of Mark's mission when he served there waiting for his Visa.

It started to REALLY rain at the tailgate and everyone crowded under the tent. They served red beans and rice (YUMMY).

Here I am with the Cheerleaders. I have two questions: Can you tell which one is the Cougarette and which one is the Cougar?? :) I didn't think so! And then who is that Ya-whoo in the background with the cheesy grin and the pom poms on his head?

The Boys with Cosmo. Notice how DRENCHED with rain they are. Spencer was literally jumping and singing in the rain. They were nice and COLD during the game where it was approx. 65 degrees in the Superdome. Did anyone notice that Bronco was wearing a turtle neck and a jacket during the game? Yea, it was that cold.

My kids (boys) mesmerized with the cheerleaders.

We were this close to the action. Thanks Nick for the free tickets! You ROCK. Here you are carefully studying the Tulane team as they warm up.
(I'm wondering what is going through your head right now...like...uh oh...are they better than we thought...oh wait..nahhhhh)

Spencer attacking Mason with the pom poms. I do have to say that the BYU crowd to START OUT WITH had 6 times more people in the stadium. Tulane did have 2 loyalists left at the end of the game in the student section. (it was kind of sad)

All the players high 5ing the fans at the end of the game. My kids FREAKED when Max came by. "I'll never wash my hand again!" I heard a few times.

Can't get enough of cosmo. He was AWESOME!

We had a GREAT time!! I was excited to get back to Rachael, although she wasn't excited for me to get back to her. She cried for about an hour after I brought her home from "Mimball's" (Kimball) house. I even had to put her in the "naughty chair" in time out. She LOVES it there. Thanks again everyone. We loved it and GO COUGS!!!!

A Spencer-ism

Well, I know I am not caught up with my blogging, but there are some things that I need to write about before I forget about them. I cannot tell you how many times Spencer opens up his mouth and I NEVER know what will come out of it. He has had so many one liners over the years, that I am frustrated with myself that I haven't written them down. Well, tonight is when I have to write about what Spencer said. He has been home from school quite ill with probably the Swine Flu (I don't know for sure...but probably). Anyway, he has been coughing a lot and tonight we were at the dinner table talking. I thought that it was the perfect time to make the announcement that all of the boys will now have a night where they are in charge of cleaning the kitchen. Immediately after my announcement, Spencer started one of his coughing fits. I waited for him to finish and when he did he took a big drink of water. "Sorry mom," he said after his big gulp, "I guess I am just allergic to Bull Crap." Complete Silence. Then I started to laugh. And I mean laugh...that is all I could do. Pretty soon we were all laughing... It really was funny. What he doesn't realize though, is that when I make the schedule for cleaning the kitchen, he will be FIRST..and SECOND. Who's laughing now????

2 more birthdays in June to blog about.....

I turned 39 (YIKES) in June and I had a great birthday. Mark and I went to the Museum of Natural Science and went to the Chinese Warriors exhibit which was fascinating. I always like to do something artsy and different for my birthday and I am so glad we went! Then we joined our friends Steffan, Emily, (whose birthday was that day too), Audralyn and Mark, as well as Kathy and Curtis for dinner at Perry's. Um...can we say yummy, but way too expensive? The steak was TO DIE FOR but I would take Taste of Texas anyday. It was also very fancy and I do think sometimes less is more! It was a great day, though. Thanks Mark!

So, I am super frustrated because I cannot find any pictures of Rachael's birthday. We had a pretty lo-key party for her (which was okay by me since I went a little out of control for her first birthday party which was a Luau!). I went to Ooh La La bakery and got her a strawberry cupcake which she didn't even eat. She was scared of the fire from the candle and didn't want anything to do with it. Anyway, she did love her presents though because she got dress up shoes, a new baby with a pacifier and bottle, and a Little Pony. I love buying girl toys! It is so much fun!

These pictures make me laugh. I took her to JC penneys to get her pictures taken. The girl taking the pictures was probably brand new and she seriously could not get the camera to work. Then Rachael FREAKED out when she had to sit on the white sheet exactly where this laser like light was. She was scared of it and would not sit down. After 20 minutes and not ONE SINGLE picture, I left. So...I brought her home, put a white sheet down and took a couple of pictures. She would not smile, but she looks cute! I will get her picture taken for real when I go to Idaho in a couple of weeks. love her....

Jonathan's 12th Birthday

I cannot believe my baby is now 12 years old. The time has gone by so fast and I look at my little boy that is becoming a young man. Turning 12 is special for our family as that is when a boy can receive the priesthood. Because it is a big deal, my parents and Mark's parents flew in for the ordination. (I am sorry Penny and Greg...I don't think I got a picture of you 2 with J before you had to leave!) What a special time it was. I think my favorite part about the entire experience was watching Jonathan sit down in the chair in the Bishop's office anticipating the event. I remember he looked up at his dad who was getting ready to do the blessing. What a wonderful experience to have your dad, and both grandfathers there. I am so proud of you Jonathan and love you so much!

Here is Spencer, Austin and Rachael on the special day. We brought the boys in to watch Jonathan. They thought it was pretty cool.

We did Jonathan's party at Times Square, which is a local bowling alley. Jonathan invited 11 friends and had a BLAST. We splurged on his party this year because it was a special one. So...I let him order all the food he wanted for he and his friends (um... 6 plates of fries, 3 pizzas, and all you can eat soda.)

Here they are having a great time.

They got to do bowling and laser tag. You can't get any better than that for a bunch of 11-12 year old boys.

For Jonathan's "cake" he asked for strawberry cheesecake. The boys ate all of that too. Here Jonathan is showing off some BYU wristbands he got from one of his friends. He loves BYU and talks about going there all of the time. The other day, he asked me, "Mom, what happens if I don't get into BYU? Then what will I do?" We talked about BYU Idaho and also other good schools in Texas. It made me laugh a little, but it was cute.

Blowing out his candles. Happy Birthday son. I know you had a great time and it was fun being there and watching you enjoy yourself so much. We love you!!!!!