ThANksGiViNG.... mom & dad visit! :)

The last couple of weeks have FLOWN by! I had some major surgery on the 17 of Nov (no, not a boobjob, tummy-tuck or lipo...hahaha, I wish)!, was 'out of commission' for that whole week, then my parents flew in for the Thanksgiving vacation! And NOW it's Dec 5th....crazy! Good thing I have a lot of my shopping done! :) .....anyway, things are great now, I have all my essential bodily functions back to normal and I am feeling like I could run a marathon! ;)

The Fam is doing fantastic! McKall is loving school, soccer, friends AND Texas! Alec is a great student and loving playing basketball for the Middle School and for a competitive league. Ryann is happy in school, sassy, and plays soccer like a little rock-star! Kaden is still a little devil, but, is doing great in school, playing on a basketball team, & making a ton of friends! Dan is busy with running the West and traveling, but always finding time to build a shed, throw the ball & help with homework...& these days....... cook & clean! hahaha!

Here is just a few pics of the last couple of crazy weeks!

checkin out the pool...brrrrrr! definitely TOO cold to swim!

atop the slide....cheesy!

Grandma's FAMOUS SUGAR COOKIES!! FUN TIMES!

Pics at the LONGHORN park....Pic after Thanksgiving dinner....we ate OUT...at Texas Land And Cattle! Nothin better than making a new tradition...eating Steak for Turkey Day!

I think I got my obsessive cleaning habits from my father!!! He went on a 'cleaning' frenzy with my husband making us find the extension ladder and dust-rod!!! Thanx Dad!!! After eating out...we did put a turkey in & made rolls....Alec thought the Turkey "parts" were pretty gross!! FUNNY!!! Really????

One of our favorite events!! Seeing the place where JFK was assassinated...the little square window in the building on the left, one down from the top...where Lee Harvey Oswald was. The X on the street....by mom & dads feet is where JFK was fatally shot from the FRONT....Pics of the assassination and 'theory' behind the 4 shooters....really GROSS pics from the day of the shooting! A visit to Southern Methodist University Campus....One of our favorite places!!

The GREAT & SPACIOUS BUILDING! Dallas Cowboys Stadium! WOW!

A LITTLE CATCH-UP!

I am loving my crazy-busy life! The kids are keeping us running constantly and we love it! I don't think there is anything Dan and I would rather be doing right now than spending every second helping and supporting them! We go to practices and games 6 days a week...sometimes even 7! We spend hours figuring out homework and doing projects for school, we take lunch to them at school and vistit with their friends, we get up with McKall at 6:15a.m. & head to seminary, Alec too is up and we are off to the locker room at 6:45. Ryann's soccer is amazing and hard and intense.....she is so fiesty and stubborn....it shows on the field! Kaden is finally getting involved in sports and being 'pushed' by his brother to be a 'beast' on the field! .....hahahaha! Dan and I even find a spare moment or two to go to a party or to dinner! Life is short, so fill it with all the things you love to do .... and 'just do it'.......'be happy'.....and take A LOT of pics along the way!

Halloween fun...Alec (not in costume anymore)...with Christian....his "girlfriend" :) ....All the cheerleaders made Football Jerseys with their 'boys' on it! funny!

My two 'babies' :) ...Dead SWAT Officer & our ROCK STAR! Kaden, #25, WARRIORS! Kaden getting in on a tackle! Ryann up against one of the toughest forwards in North Texas...'yayua' ...Ry beats her! Another tough match up against a TOP team ...Solar...Ry gets the ball, but gets pummelled to the ground after! Alec, showin some GUNS with teammates from the Griffin Gators! Alec is on the ground with the ball....fumble recovery! Alec with his two GIANT friends from Pioneer Middle School....they also play on Alec's basketball team....Alec has some GROWIN to do! hahaha! These boys are 6foot & 6'2"...crazy! My cute McKall......:)Soccer with the Dynamos......they are 7 and 0 ! Family night....preseason Mavs vs. Cavs...nothin better than seeing SHAQ & LEBRON! Ya, and Luke Nevil, on the left of SHAQ...from Utah Utes! Another fun Family night....MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL at the new Cowboys Stadium! ...or what I like to refer to as 'the great and spacious building' ! Seriously!!!
Getting a 'first-class' ride from the parking lot to the Stadium.....(in the background)! We actually look like Cowboys Fans in this pic! hahahaha! GOOD TIMES!

HE JUMPED!!!

Most of you know that Dan is traveling quite a bit with his job. He is over ALL the Argosy campuses in the West; Seattle, Washington St, California, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Hawaii..... to name a few. He gets to travel to all these locations and "work" :) Well, his last "work" trip to Hawaii, he decided to have a little more fun than usual! He didn't let me know till AFTER his little 'adventure' bec he did not want me to worry! ANyhoo.....I won't expound too much, just to say that he got really nervous on their way UP...but, was told it was too late! hahahahaa! SO ENJOY some of these amazing pics of my crazy 'workaholic' hubby, jumping out of a PLANE at 15,000 feet!!!

Where Does the time GO?

SHEEEESE! It's only been a little over 2 months since I have been on my BLOG! I feel bad I have not kept up with my posts...but, you know how time seems to just FLY by and all the sudden your kids are back in school and you don't know where ALL your summer went!!!! :)

Anyhoo...I guess that is what happened to me!
Summer was fantastic, full of fun, sun, travel, friends and family!
August was a complete blurrrr!!! McKall turned 15 (yes, I'm that old)!.. & the kids all got back into sports and practices and crazy schedules!

It is now Sept 3, we are 1 week into school and going full throttle! :)
I have to say that I have never been really SAD when I put my kiddos on the bus for their first day of Kindergarten or Middle School....I was just excited for them....and ME!..... BUT, this year, when I took McKall to High School....I was kind of teary! ...She was a little nervous,( but who isn't their 1st day of High School)!?? AND there are 1,300+ freshman in her class!!! WOW!!! It's not like Logan High where she knows everyone and has Tosh to look up to and take care of her! But, McKall is amazing, tough, funny and crazy! She had a great first week and is now just trying to adjust to her schedule!

OK, enough babble....I will just put some pics of summer and the start of school and sports and fun here in Texas! Love Y'all!

McKall is 15!!!

Fun at Bear Lake

Cutlar with the BUTTARS! I think our favorite thing EVER!

RyRy...3V3 Tourney in Austin! 2nd Place!

Ry played with the Samba Zehnos while we were in Utah! Fun to play with all her old friends!

First Day of School! Ry 4th, Kaden 2nd, Alec 7th, & McKall 9th!!

Fun in the Pool....my RyRy posing like a movie star! hahahaa!

Girls CAMP!

I was lucky enough to be called as the camp director for our ward this year! The theme for camp was B.O.O.T. Camp....(Building Our Own Testimonies)! We went to a ranch this year out in East Texas. We stayed in cabins, which were primitive! They were little wood shacks with about 8 bunk beds along the outside walls, with mattresses that were so old they were falling apart and our neighbors even had bugs inside one of theirs!!! GROSS! We tried to put on our smiley faces, make our beds and get ready for a week of FUN! hahahaha!

There were MANY activities everyday that kept our girls busy and entertained! We had a little schedule book with times and events and duties! We had about 200 girls and about 50 leaders including our whole stake presidency. We did archery, went on hikes, played in the lake, canoed, sang & danced, ate, chanted, had R&R (reading & reflection), served a meal, prepared food, had a shaving cream fight and laughed and laughed! We also had many testimony building experiences that will never be forgotten by any of us! I will just tell you about 1 very powerful night!....... The night of the tornado, where we all ran to the 'shelter' ....(a huge steel framed cabin on the lake...with JUST steel frames...not sturdy walls)......all the girls huddled together in 2 big rooms crying, hugging close together and singing. At one point when the Sheriff told us that this was very serious and that the tornado warning was coming right for us......ALL the girls started singing "I know that my Redeemer Lives' very quietly, but very powerful! The stake President just stood, along with the leaders and sang quietly, we then sang "I am a child of God".....Then Pres Dotter offered a prayer and the storm HIT....for about 20 min the walls shook, the lights swung, the thunder and lightening crashed so loud and it rained in sheets!.....then, it was gone! We were all OK! Later that night we learned that the storm that had us in it's direct path had parted and gone all around us, but not through us. We were safe due to the power of the amazing priesthood, the power of prayer, and righteous young women who were were they were supposed to be serving their Heavenly Father!

So, despite the stifling heat and bugs and cabins and toilets(where we could not even flush our own toilet paper), we had amazing food, fun and crazy leaders that made camp awesome!

Enjoy some of the 400 + pics I took!

The leaders, on our cabin's front porch....

Our amazing shaving cream fight...me and JenThe crazy rope swing! I didn't make it out too far! The yellow slide next to the swing was so fast that it launched you off the end into the lake at like I swear 20 miles per hour! hahaha!Doin the cupid shuffle on skit night!

Fun at the archery range! The inside of our sweet cabin! One plus, it did have 2 plugs for FANS!!! Even though we were still wet from the humidity....the fans helped a TON! Our girls were in this cabin and the one behind it....we set up tents in between the two cabins for the girls due to the 'bug' and 'bed' problem! hahahaha! Moustache night! 'did oo say ambooger'?????

The Storm....Kind of hard to see but this is the start of the sever weather night from the 'shelter' or cabin where we were all together.Inside one of the rooms, singing while the storm blew outside. You can see the steel beams, but the walls were just heavy vinyl.The barn where we had to move our vehicles. It was across a field, so it ended up being too far to run with all the girls in the storm.

Serving breakfast to the troops! They were up at 6:30 to help prepare and they even had smiles on their faces!The pavilion where we had our programs each night.This is the front of the big cabin on the lake where we went during the storm....we came here during the days to sit in the shade and feel the hot breeze! hahaha!

The lake front. the girls cabins were on the left side of the lake. The big white building on the right was the storm shelter....not very much of a shelter! ...but a great view of the lake!

CaTCh Up!

So much has happened in the last few weeks! Soccer, baseball, basketball ...end of year tourneys, School achievement awards, last day of school parties, memorial weekend trip to Possum Kingdom Lake! ........since I am a photography maniac....I have taken a TON of pics of all of these happenings and cannot fit them ALL in one post...so, for now here is our Memorial Weekend Trip to Possum Kingdom Lake!

The Road Trip 2 hours South West to the Lake! Our first trip to a lake in 10 years WITHOUT a boat! WEIRD!
Matthew and Alec, two peas in a pod!
Nick, Matthew's brother, Kaden and our 'movie-star' Ryann!
Our Lake house! It was not the 'plushest of accomidations' but it worked! It was right on the lake and you can see the CLIFFS in the background....with lake homes all around. Our sleeping arrangements, NICE...6 bunks down and 6 bunks Up in the loft! hahaha!
There were about 12 families, 2 families to a lake-house. It was really fun to hang around the fire at night and chat and smore! What do you do if you're at the lake and you don't have a boat? You FISH of course!
The Cliffs reminded us a little of Lake Powell....except these cliffs had homes all over them! And NOT small homes either! Homes with Heli-pads and BIG boats!
One of those NOT so small homes on the Lake! equipted with it's heli-pad and house boats! There was also a huge pool on the side of the home. Another neat Lake-home....this one with 2 sweet boats!
We went on a plontoon-boat ride to Hell's Gate (the opening in the cliffs) we hiked about 1/2 a mile up to the top and looked over the lake! It was awesome!
Alec and Matthew, doing what they did ALL day for the 2 days we were there! Football, Football, Football!


Fun times! New friends! .....but, now we just need the boat and a Lake house! Maybe next year!

FuN StUFf!

Last week was a great week! Our awesome Alec turned 12! He had a fantastic B-day party with a bunch of friends and then his grandpa Leish and his grandparents Peterson came in on the weekend !! Grandpa Steve has the same B-day as Alec so we had to do a little celebrating together! Alec was also ordained and set-apart on Sunday! What a neat day for him! Having two priesthood holders in our family now is pretty cool! Alec is getting so big....well, to me anyway... compared to some of his friends that you will see in the pics he is still a 'little' boy! hahaha! We are proud of Alec's accomplishments academically, spiritually and physically this year! He is really an AMAZING KID!

Enjoy some of the pics of our awesome weekend!

Birthday morning...before school!

Alec and a couple of friends, Matthew & Stone....jumping in!The B-Day Crew!

On Saturday, our friend Russell Robertson, gave my dad the 'exclusive' DALLAS tour....We saw Dirk Nowitzki's house, THE Jerry Jones Mansion!, All of down's finest, the new Cowboys Stadium, Texas Rangers Stadium and everything in between! Then he took us to his FAVORITE mexican/elsalvadorian restraunt (Glorias)....it was AMAZING!

Dad being crazy & braving the slide with the boys!Hot-tubin with the Petersons!

Birthday cheesecake from Alec's favorite....THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!

The LONGHORN Park....Scary! Holy WHite Boy!The NEW COWBOYS STADIUM! Pictures do NOT do this structure justice! It is seriously MASSIVE!