Karate Kid

Meet our new "watch dog" for robbers. Wesley signed up for karate with an agenda in mind:

-to be able to beat up robbers!

-to beat up his sisters if they are mean to him!

Doesn't he look scary???

He's so proud of his white belt and can't wait to earn his yellow belt!

Whether he ever gets to beat up robbers or not....I'm just glad he's learing self disciple, respect, focus, confidence and is having fun!

He's such a cute little guy and he's grown up a lot this last year! It's good to see him so excited about this class!

Top 10 HIGHLIGHTS of Trip to Utah

(in no particular order!)

1. Meeting, holding, feeding, and snuggling with my new nephew, Clayton!
2. Visiting my granparents again. Picking apples with Grandpa Cooper!

3.We went to a real pumkin patch! Ty, Kyle, Mom and I picked a pumkin from the patch in the dark of night, just so no one would take Ty's special pumpkin....the biggest one in the patch!

4. I love seeing the leaves change colors in the fall!


5. I spent more time with my neices and nephews than I have before. Tawni actually admitted that I can be a fun person without kids!

6. We picked tomatoes from Jenn's garden and ate wonderful tomato sandwhiches!

7. Jacqui made me Pico de Gallo from the fresh veggies Reese and I picked from the garden!

8. I got to see Riekers adorable smile and he gave me a kiss good-bye! I met his new little sister, Reagan!

9. I went shopping without kids!!!

10. Dinner at Grandma Coopers and time to visit with family!

Lake Powell

After a LONG and MISERABLE summer last year it was time to get out and have some fun together! Thanks to Stephanie and Paul, we had a great trip to Lake Powell on the Arizona- Utah border.

We swam back into narrow canyons and explored caves..hoping there were no creatures from the dinosaur period that would swim up and have us for lunch! The kids loved tubing, and exploring the caves, rock climbing and playing on the huge sand dune hill. The landscape was so beautiful with the contrast of the blue sky (at moments) with the red rock. We took a small hike up to Rainbow Bridge which I think, is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. This is a place everyone needs to see! Thank you Merrill Family for all the fun memores!

Thanks to Jocelynn, we finally got some family photos!

Ellis' got ran over by a reindeer......

So much for our plans to leave early for vacation in hopes of making good time while the kids were sleeping! At 6:00 a.m. we awoke to a loud yell followed by the brakes and impact. According to Annika, we hit a reindeer who is now sleeping in the grass on the side of the highway in Vernon, Texas.

I was actually proud of myself for not getting to uptight about the whole event. After all, who can be upset when you learn that the world still has good Samaritans in it. Within 10 minutes the nicest cop came to our rescue. He gave each of the kids a stuffed animal, showed them his sirens and lights, and took us to the police station. Then his kind wife took us back 50 miles to Wichita Falls to rent a car. Thankfully we were all safe and although we were a little behind on our trip, we learned how good it feels to be helped in a time of need.

Our Trip to Washington D.C.

Despite the Obama overload, Brian and I had a really good time in Washington D.C. Thanks to his teams' good work on a project at Textron, he and his boss were sent to D.C. to represent the company at an awards ceremony. I tagged along for some touring and we met up Linda and Jamie.

Our favorite sites were the Holocaust Museum, Mount Vernon, and Arlington Cemetary. The part that really hit home was when we exited the museum....there were 2 rooms with shoes piled high and covering the entire room...shoes of Jews that were killed by caloused Nazis. I don't know how anyone can not come out of that museum and changed person. It's amazing to think someone that cruel could rise into power and get that many followers to do unthinkable inhumane things.

Linda and Jamie introduced us to some great pizze (Uno's) and we rode a double decker tour bus to see all the sites of the city. It was great to see Straight-A-Jam-ay again. She just finished her PhD and we're very proud of her. Again...she aced her way through everything! Good job Jamie!

A big thanks to Shayne, Jen, Mom, Dad and Tyler for watching our kids so we could get away! It was so nice to be alone for 4 days.

Summer Fun!

You gotta love it when your kids find something to entertain themselves.....a rare occurence around this house! The kids love to jump on the trampoline when it's raining! Micaela and Wesley can do "knee" flips now!

Speaking of trampolines, last night we had a horrible storm come through. Our neighbors trampoline was thrown over the fence into the greenbelt and the other neighbor's buckled. The kids prayed for our family's saftety and for the trampoline and we all made it through. The tornado sirens went off and we sent the kids to the bathroom under the stairs for safety. It was pretty scary to see the clouds moving in a circular motion over our home! I hope this isn't the "norm" for around here. I think I watched the Wizard of Oz too much as a kid!