Another Birthday!

Brian celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago -- our last birthday until summer! His birthday certainly doesn't get all the attention and hoopla that the kid's birthdays get, but I had to wish him a (belated) Happy Birthday!

Brian requested a pineapple upside-down cake again this year - yummy!

Brian is so great at so many things, but best of all he is an awesome husband and dad! One of my very favorite things is watching him with our kids. They love him to pieces -- and so do I! (If I can figure it out later, I want to post a little video I did for him for Father's Day in 2007 -- but it's too late tonight to work on that.)

Measuring Up

Last night as part of FHE, we got out our trusty measuring stick and had our annual see-how-much-you've-grown measuring. We try once a year (usually in late December or January) to measure the kids and mark it on our stick. A lot of people do this against a wall or something, but we decided if we had a stick it could follow us wherever we moved...


Brian asked each of the kids who they thought had grown the most in the past year. Everyone voted for themselves! Let the measuring begin.



The end results: Hayley grew the most: 3.75"!

Here's how they stand:

McKay: 4' 11.5" (he was quite disappointed that he hadn't made 5 feet yet)

Hannah: 4' 2.5"

Courtney: 3' 11"

Hayley: 3' 5"


I made them do some "line-up" pictures at the end (of course):


All a head taller from each other except for Hannah & Courtney!


They're growing, that's for sure. And always too quickly...

Pinewood Derby

Last weekend was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby -- the last one for McKay! Here, they hold a combined derby with all four wards from Amarillo, plus the ward from Canyon, so it is a big group!

They have a group come in to run the track (they do derby races all over the area). The track is a little different than the one we had in The Woodlands. Instead of having a steep drop followed by a long straightway stretch, it is pretty much an even slope all the way down.

My dad was here last weekend (for Hannah'a baptism), so he came with us to the big event. That was fun to have Grandpa with us.

They opened for weigh-ins starting at noon and the races were supposed to start promptly at 1pm. We got there about 12:30 or so so Brian and McKay could get the car all ready and checked in.

Here are some of the waiting cars -- McKay's is the blue BYU car.

Confession time: Yes, this is the same car McKay raced last year in The Woodlands. We missed the December Pack Meeting where they handed out kits (McKay was sick) and didn't know about the derby until a week or so before it was scheduled. I didn't pick up a car kit until Tuesday of that week and it turned out to be one of the busiest work weeks for Brian, plus we had company coming and Hannah's baptism. So, there just wasn't enough time to really build a new car. We weren't aware of a rule here that said you couldn't race a car that had already been raced before (it didn't win last year), so we decided that since McKay built this car and it had been less than a year, we would use it again (and McKay was okay with that). So if we broke any rules, we're sorry! :-)

Hannah got a seat front and center on the floor by the finish line...

... and ended up sitting and sitting and waiting and waiting (along with the rest of us). Somewhere about 30-45 minutes after it was supposed to start, they made an announcement that they computer running the track had gone down, the back-up computer also wasn't working and they were making one last attempt with a third one (that someone had gone home to get). Turns out that one didn't work either, so they ended up doing head-to-head races in some kind of a double elimination tournament with call-it-as-you-see-it judges sitting at the finish line. Needless to say, it made the whole event last a REALLY long time, especially added to the late starting time.

McKay's car did do really well and I think he had fun!

The girls, not surprisingly, got very restless and bored and hungry having been there so long. So I ended up leaving early to take them home (plus, Courtney had wet pants by then... sigh...) So I missed the end, but got the report from Brian and McKay later.

McKay made it to the final race and ended up taking 2nd place overall! Here is a picture of one of the earlier races:

Brian said the last race (best 2 out of 3) was really close and really came down to how the judges called it since the computer wasn't working at the finish line. Even though it wasn't scientific and therefore prone to error, McKay was a really good sport about coming in 2nd. And, that's a great accomplishment in a field of so many cars to start out with.

Way to go, McKay!

Hannah's Baptism

Last Friday was Hannah's big day. She has been so excited for her baptism. We had the baptism on Friday evening at our church.

At first, we weren't sure we would have many people there, but it turned out to be a great attendance. My dad was able to come for the weekend from CA, so it made it extra-special that Hannah had one of her grandpas there.

Brian's sister Julie and her family were also able to come from Ft. Worth. Plus, the entire bishopric was there, along with several families from our ward. Hannah's piano teacher (a member of one of the other wards) also came.

I thought the whole evening went very nice. I gave one of the talks (and felt like I stumbled my way through it at times) and our good friend Emily gave the other talk. McKay played a piano piece ("When I Am Baptized") and Courtney & Hayley did great job singing both verses of "When Jesus Christ Was Baptized."

Hannah was just glowing and so beautiful in her new dress!

I am so proud of my little girl!

Sunrise, Sunset

I glanced up out the kitchen window while unloading the dishwasher this morning and literally had to catch my breath. And then run to grab the camera.


Another spectacular sunrise. Pictures don't quite do it justice, but I had to try to capture it. (That's the Amarillo city skyline you can see.) Wow. I love my kitchen windows!

And yesterday, I even managed to catch the sunset. Not quite as breathtaking, but very nice just the same.


I don't get to see the sunsets nearly as often as the sunrises because of the location (not as many windows on that side of the house and I'm usually not over there), plus I'm usually immersed in other things like dinner and homework. But still - wow.

It's a beautiful world!

It's Great to Be Eight!

We celebrated Hannah's 8th birthday yesterday. Wow -- how did my little girl get to be 8 years old already? She is definitely growing up!

Since her birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year, and it was also her "year" for a party with friends (we do every-other-year for friend parties), she got to have two celebrations on the same day!

She invited a few friends over in the afternoon. First, they all got to make their own little homemade mini pizzas for lunch.

Then we tried making bracelets from beads. I think they had fun stringing the beads, but unfortunately, I could not get the knots to stay put on the slippery "string" the kits came with (my first experience with jewelry making). So none of the girls got to take their bracelets home (by the end I think most of the beads had fallen back off anyway). It didn't seem like any of them minded too terribly (hopefully!).

We did a little treasure hunt activity with stuffed animals (the girls each brought one of their favorites). The "treasure" at the end were some simple little skirts I had sewn for their stuffed animals to wear.

Then we all had cupcakes! I'm including this picture to show how McKay couldn't stay away from the party even though he was the only boy in sight. He was the typical big brother always looking for an opportunity to show off (and I think he also secretly enjoyed making the girls giggle by his silly antics).

Hannah had requested a unicorn cake this year, so I copied this one I found on-line:

She requested homemade macaroni and cheese for her birthday dinner (as usual!) and then we had our little family party and present time.

I have to put a shout-out to my little brother Tyler. He is always so generous in sending the kids birthday gifts. He told me that for Hannah's birthday this year, he wanted to write a story about her (as "Princess Hannah"). He only had a chance to write the first couple of chapters before her birthday, but she was so excited when she started reading it.

And if you know my brother, you know that for him, writing is a more difficult process than it is for the rest of us. Because of his muscular dystrophy, he has to use specialized computer equipment to type at all. He is awesome -- we love you, Uncle Tyler! (And we'll be waiting for the rest of the story!)

Then it was time for more cake and sugar and singing Happy Birthday.

Hannah managed to get all of her candles out with a single blow this year! (McKay informed me that I put them too close together.)

The other great part about being 8 is Hannah gets to be baptized. She is so excited! We've scheduled her baptism for this coming Friday evening.

Hannah was our "binary baby," joining our family on 1-10-01 at 11:11am. She was definitely a more active, independent baby and toddler than we were used to with McKay! She was blessed with the biggest blue eyes and longest eyelashes -- she's going to break a lot of hearts (but not for a loooong time...) She loves to sing and is learning to play the piano. She also loves to write and illustrate stories. She can be quite the drama queen and can be so intense about things at times (should I be nervous about those teenager years?). We love her enthusiasm and her smile and the joy she brings to us.

As I've done with some of the other kids, here is Hannah's "birthday review" - Happy Birthday, sweet Hannah!

1st birthday...

2nd birthday...

3rd birthday...

4th birthday...

5th birthday...

6th birthday...

7th birthday...

8th birthday!

Hmmm...

I keep thinking I need to update my blog, but I can't think of anything newsworthy to write about. So I've been racking my brain and checking to see if I've even taken any pictures since Christmas. So, uh, yeah, here you go:

This would be an old steel flagpole (in three pieces) that is anxiously awaiting its transformation into an awesome windmill tower. It's been sitting out in front of the shop for a while now, and I happened to take this picture when I was out snapping a few more of the never-ending trench project.

Back to the windmill project. We've known since we moved here that we need to do something with all this wind we get at our house. Besides having it blow doors shut and whip our hair around and stuff like that. Brian's been researching windmills and we were able to get one through a friend-of-a-friend sort of thing (actually it was more of a relative-of-a-relative). Brian's parents stopped in Utah to pick up the pieces in their truck when they drove down here in November. Brian and his dad have been planning and engineering pretty much non-stop since then on how to build a tower for it and how to engineer the tower so it can be raised and then also lowered (for maintenance). Not an easy engineering job when you're looking at 50-60 feet.

While Brian's dad was here, they visited a steel place and found this old flagpole that they thought would be suitable for a tower. They'll have to do some welding and some modifications and I certainly don't claim to follow all of their plans. I'm not even sure how soon it will get up. But it will be an exciting day!

So you can see from these pictures that life has been quite exciting around here the past couple of weeks. We had a very quiet and relaxing Christmas break. I quite enjoyed it. We didn't go anywhere and no one came to visit this year -- we didn't even really get out of the house much. We did take the kids to the Discovery Center one morning, but that was about the extent of our outings. Lots of sleeping in (which I'm having major withdrawals over!), lots of reading and playing and just spending time together. It was great.

On New Year's Eve, McKay begged to stay up until midnight this year, so we let him. The girls went to bed and then the three of us played a game of Settlers of Catan. Another nice, quiet evening.

I became hooked on the Twilight series of books over the break and read all four of them as fast as I could get my hands on them. Yeah, I know, it took me long enough (but this way, I didn't have to wait for any of them!). I've also enjoyed a few other books and am rediscovering reading "for pleasure" -- something I haven't done in a long time. And it's mainly because I tend to get so caught up in books that it's hard to pay attention to other things in my life, like dirty floors and laundry. But I'm working on some balance there.

The kids are back in school now and we're trying to get back into the routine of things. Hannah's 8th birthday is coming up on Saturday. She's having a party, which I still haven't planned, so I'm getting a little stressed about that. She's also so excited to start attending Activity Days at church and get baptized (not exactly sure of the date yet -- probably within the next couple of weeks). So there will definitely be many picture-worthy events happening soon! Stay tuned!