Happy Go Texan Day!

The kids loved their school's "Hoe-Down" celebration today --

Some late night visitors... joining us for our nighttime scripture reading before they left ~

Kas dressed up for 100th day of school as an old lady -- fun dousing her hair with baby powder!

 

Heading out to my fun YW 70s party!

 

Here's how Kassie spends her sick day home from school with strep... love our little guitar-playing singer!

 

This week brought a very sad, life-altering discovery for little Kenny-Boo.  And unfortunately it happened quite by accident. He lost another tooth, and had all the excitement along with it -- putting the tooth in a little treasure box at school, bringing it home and putting it under the pillow, etc.  But when I went upstairs to check on him that night at about midnight and leave his 'Tooth Fairy Note', I leaned down right close to his face to make sure he was asleep, and he turned over to me at that moment and opened his eyes - oh my word, I've never heard him scream so loud or jump so high. Poor boy hollered at the top of his lungs, then ofcourse started to sob -- "what are you doing? I thought you were the tooth fairy! Why are you so close to my face??"  I was trying not to laugh as I picked him up and apologized... then we had to bring him downstairs to sleep on our floor, and he was by then wide awake, so he kept saying - "take this tooth away from me - I don't want it under my pillow - it freaks me out - how does the tooth fairy get in here anyways?" So we finally had to tell him the truth, that it's a lovely thought but WE bring the notes and money, just like my parents did for me. He drifted off to sleep finally, then the first thing the next morning, he vehemently demanded "why did you have to tell me the tooth fairy wasn't real?"  Poor boy. Difficult times.

 

Luckily sweet cousin Jessica called Kenny to explain how she got a visit once from the TF years ago, in the form of her Dad in a pink get-up.  Leave it to Uncle Gordon to save the day!

Happy 1st Birthday Geneve!

Such a beloved dog had to have a very very special 1st birthday today... with lots of attention and loves all day.  She'll probably keep us up all night vomiting from all the treats we've given her.

 

We combined Geneve's birthday celebration with a fun FHE from our good friends, the McIntosh's, who came over to teach us a lesson on getting started on family history! It was awesome!

 

 

The 3 Eagle-bound cousins, heading off to a Scout Merit Badge Clinic...

 

 

Stephanie, Christpher, and Callister's beautiful family photo... soon to be joined by a little girl!

 

A very proud moment, watching Sterling win his wrestling match at Klein HS, where the kids will all go someday...

 

We love Elder Pliego!

 

Today, Stephen got to sign up for his 7th grade elective classes for next year.  He was bummed to find out his school probably won't offer French. I visited the counselor's office today and kindly gave them my feedback that we'd love to have the opportunity for him to take it, since he learned it while we lived in Switzerland.  When Stephen said he figured it wouldn't matter much that we went in to give them our opinion, I quickly found this awesome article I remembered reading once about the power of one person's 'vote'... how we can ALWAYS make a difference! Love this!

 

In 1649, one vote caused King Charles of England to be executed
In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the Union
In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment
In 1923, one vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party
In 1942, one vote save the Selective Service - just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked

In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German (at least according to folk lore.)

Family's first Cruise... Cozumel!

From eating alligator to golfing to eating to playing to staying up late to neverending eating, this was a great first family cruise!  6 days out of Galveston on Carnival to Progresso and Cozumel. Good times... kids had a hard time going back to school, but they took their teachers souvenirs...

May I wear these to school tomorrow Mom?

Kassie's honest request about the new Goodwill boots I bought for a YW's 70's party...

Daron has joined the family as a contact-wearer.  There is no greater laughter than when Daron stands there at the mirror trying to put his contacts on... we all gather around and watch him kind of be a baby because he simply can't get his right one in by himself, so Stephen, Kassie and I all have to help him and we just laugh and laugh and laugh. Very riotous laughter, til Daron has tears rolling down his cheeks - he talks about how scared he is of my finger coming toward his eyeball... so dang funny.

I bought Mom some Haagen Das Raisin Rum ice-cream and she sat there eating it, and said "I tell you what, Rum is just magical."  What a hoot - she'd be such a funny drunk if she drank. 

Kenny was particularly bouncy at gymnastics this week - Kas takes him and Skye together to the same class, and they just 'leveled up.'  So Kas had to tell him that if he doesn't tone it down a bit, they might make him go back down to the lower level.  To which he said, "Oh about that -- I think I broke a bone in my back, and that's why I was bouncing around so much..."

Happy New Year 2013!

Such fun times doing fireworks in the rain, watching the ball drop, and having hot chocolate from our drink fountain! It's great to be alive!

Greeting the stroke of midnight!



A YW dinner party for the girls who read their scriptures...