Where to begin...

It was brought to my attention just recently that people still check this blog to see if I have posted any recent pics. Sorry :/ I decided to get on and upload some recent pictures and only then did I realize that it has been almost 2 years since I have done anything on here. So much has happened in our family, I don't even know where to begin. So...I decided to share just a few highlights for each of my kids. I quickly realized that is going to take awhile so I will start with Taylor. My little boy is not so little anymore! In only a few short months he will be leaving home and life as we know it will never be the same. We are, however,  excited for Taylor!

 Taylor's Senior Picture. He walked into the photo shoot wearing a boot on his foot after twisting it really bad while playing basketball the day before. It didn't seem to affect his smile though. 

2013 Graduate!! If you look closely to the bottom pictures you will see the progression of Taylor dunking the ball. NO, it is not a lowered hoop, he can actually dunk the ball at the official height.

 One of his greatest accomplishments this year!

2013 Allen High School Graduation. Taylor graduated with honors and college credits. He had 1,305 students in his senior class. Yes, I know, CRAZY, but we like it! Fortunately graduation was held at the new Eagle Stadium and the weather was beautiful. The ceremony only took 2 hours 45 min. :)

 Pics before graduation.

On June 1, 2013 Taylor opened his mission call. He will be serving his 2 year mission in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.  He is to report to the Brazil MTC on November 6th.  His friend, Kaden Morris, will also be serving in Rio and is to report on the same day as Taylor.  I am so excited that they will be going together. 

 High School Prom with Rachel Wright and friends from school.  They had a Blast! 

 LDS Prom with Rachel Wright.  Notice a trend here?

 This year Taylor was on the Screamin Eagles Crew.  He was able to run the flags during all of the football games which included the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (We Won!) at Cowboy's Stadium.  

He LOVED being on the field during the games. 

 

 As always, Taylor played basketball in the fall and spring along with an adult team in the off season.  He has become an outstanding player and has finally mastered the art of dunking.  I know he didn't get his jumping abilities from me. :)    Here are a couple of pics of him while playing.  Wish I had better pics to show, I took hundreds of them but most turned out blurry as Taylor was running by or moving too quick.  He assures me he can get a picture of him dunking off of a video I took.  I'll post it if we can get it to work. 

Double Digits!

Jaren has finally reached the double digits and is 10 years old! We celebrated by eating Trifle (Jaren's choice)with Grandma and Bill. That Trifle has become a family favorite and is so good and addicting. So glad it was gone by the next day.

This year Jaren, true to form, choose Sea Food and so we took him out to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. He loved it and is getting pretty good at cracking those crab legs.


After we finished eating the waiter came over and sang to Jaren as he hopped around and flapped his wings. The hard part was that Jaren had to hop on one leg as his other leg was still in a boot with weight restrictions. It was so funny and cute. Jaren loved it.

Jaren opened lots of presents but wouldn't you know, the most favorite by all was the one I got from the clearance rack. My family just loves hurting each other. These balls were flying everywhere. I'll let the pics speak for themselves. He had a great birthday and now he can stop growing up. I just don't like it!

She's 14, FINALLY!!

Hallelujah! Carlee has finally turned 14 and now she can count down to summertime. Carlee has been counting down to her birthday for who knows how long. She can finally go to dances and actually dance with boys! (We love it because now she can tell us if Taylor is actually dancing. (Hee Hee)
This year for her birthday we invited Grandma and Carlee's best friend, Whitney, and her family over for cake and ice cream. She, of course, wanted a two tier cake and so I did the best I could. The bottom layer was a white cake with strawberry filling and the top cake was lemon with strawberry filling and the frosting was a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was sooooo good, especially the lemon cake. Yummy!


This year Carlee wanted Chinese food for her dinner out with Mom and Dad so she chose a Chinese Buffet. She liked it but decided before we even left that she will not be choosing this restraunt again. We loved spending time with her though and really enjoyed splitting the caramel apple with her afterwards. Love you Car!

Grandma Gets Married

On February 12, 2011 Connie, Dave's Mom, got married to Bill Franz.

Taylor was the Best Man.

Carlee was a Brides maid.





Dave had two brothers and his sister, Kris, come to the wedding. We had a lot of fun seeing them and wish they lived a little closer.

We decided to take a couple pics of our family in the hopes that they would turn out cute but Grace wasn't in the mood.

Book of Mormon Challenge

At our August Stake Conference, our Stake President issued a challenge to everyone in our Stake to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover before the next Stake Conference. My family took the challenge and everyone began reading 5 pages a night. Dave decided to offer up a reward to all those that successfully completed the challenge before the Feb. conference. He told the kids that he would take them to Texas Roadhouse and they could order what ever they wanted from the menu but only if they finished in time and not a day late. I have to say that this was a wonderful time for our family. We were all working so hard to finish that I would find my kids upstairs reading in the middle of the day or I would find a couple of them reading together at night so they could help each other. There was a great unity in our house during that time and I liked it, A LOT!!! My kids not only completed the challenge but EVERYONE was finished before the dead line and so the very next Monday, we were at Texas Roadhouse having a blast.
Our dinner started by eating peanuts while we waited for our table. Grace and Jaren especially liked the peanuts.






For starters, Dave ordered a bloomin onion and fried pickles. Yuck you say, well we thought the same thing until we tried them and they were actually really good. The kids dipped them into the onion sauce and ranch, they were all gone in no time.

After our appetizers and salads, we all sat very content waiting for our food to arrive. I think we could have left the resturant right then feeling statisfied, what were we thinking? We rarely order appetizers just for that reason.



Our food arrived and it was soooo yummy. We each ate a few bites off our plates and realized that we couldn't eat anymore and so this is what our table looked like. Our waitress just laughed at us and we laughed too. I was wondering how we were going to fit all of those boxes in the fridge.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Dave was carrying my to go box along with his and Grace's. Each of the kids decided they wanted a couple more peanuts and so they each quickly walked by Dave and dumped their box on top of his and took off to get some peanuts. He was left standing there wondering what just happened to him. It was so funny and he ended up carrying all of the to go boxes to the car. We had a wonderful time and lots of good food to eat for the next couple of days. :)

Remember Remember Remember

For the past couple of years I have come up with a Family theme or motto for the year. This year I decided to introduce our theme with a nice family dinner. Our theme is-

REMEMBER (who you are)
REMEMBER (where you are going)
REMEMBER (you must choose)

This is our before pic.

Abby and Jaren loved helping me set the table and asked lots of questions about the china my parents gave me when I was 16. I put a copy of our theme on the table. I hope to have it put on a board and hang it on our wall close to the front door so they can be reminded of it each time they leave the house. I will probably have it hanging in each bathroom as well.

Can you say YUMM! This was an awesome appetizer and I don't even have a name for it but it was soooo good.

For dinner I made italian chicken, frech cut green beans and garlic buns. We also had ceasar salad, you can see it in the next pic. It was a big hit and everyone loved it.

My family is sitting here patiently waiting for me to take a quick pic before digging in and talking about our theme.

For dessert I made this mixed berry trifle and it is soooo rich and yummy. I guess I need to buy a real trifle dish now that I have exposed my children to it. Taylor had two bowls and I caught the other kids sneaking into the fridge later that night trying to steal another taste. Mmmm Mmmm good!
As of this morning we only have a small container left over and I am sure it will be gone before the day is over.