First Day of School

Happy First Day of School everyone! Here's how it happened at our house:

Emily's in 4th grade / Noah's in 2nd

Austin is doing the co-op preschool again!

1 more year until Kindergarten... he can't wait!

Happy Halloween

OK, don't everyone fall off your seats! yes, I am posting again! It's been over 6 months, I know! I've been looking at all my siblings' halloween pics and thought I'd put some up for your viewing pleasure! Hope everyone enjoyed halloween and the sugar rush!

Spidermen and Hermoine Granger

The Pumpkin Carving

Emily's Baptism

Emily's baptism was Sunday, March 8, 2009!

She was really excited for her important day. I got the idea from a friend to make the week leading up to her baptism really special, so we made a chart and each day she got to do something special or help get ready for her baptism. Tuesday she had her baptism interview with the bishop and then she got to have a treat. Wednesday she got to pick her favorite dinner. Thursday she got a haircut and we picked out white undies for the baptism. (which btw, stores don't make plain white undies... they all had some kind of color on them). Friday, she got to help make the baptism treats, and Saturday we had a BBQ with Grandma and Grandpa Theriault and her cousins and Uncle Dan and Aunt Kathy. She felt very special and we were glad we got to focus the attention on her.

We were so excited that we have relatives that live near by to help share in special occasions like this one. (Steve's Sister and family live in Round Rock). We were also so happy that Grandma and Grandpa Theriault made the trip down from Canada! It meant a lot to us and to Emily! We are also thankful to all our friends who came out to support Emily!

In our ward all the February birthdays get baptized on the same day, but it just so happened that Emily was the only one getting baptized on March 8th. She helped set the program. She chose her cousin, Caleigh to say the opening prayer, Grandma and Grandpa Theriault gave the talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. All the cousins did a special musical number in the middle. They sang all 3 verses of I am a child of God. They did an awesome job. Steve baptized and confirmed her. Grandpa Theriault, Uncle Dan, Brother Smith (our home teacher and Emily's primary teacher), Bishop Croft, and Brother Matthews stood in the circle. Then Sister Woods and Bishop Croft welcomed her into the primary/ward. Aunt Kathy said the closing prayer. It was perfect. One thing that Sister Woods said as she was talking to Emily about Primary, (they are focusing on Forever Families this year). She mentioned that during the musical number she heard more than kids' voices and she looked over where our family was sitting and she saw Dad and Grandpa and Grandma all mouthing/singing the words. (the kids were really worried they'd forget the words). She said that's how a forever family works... We all help each other. It was really touching.

After the baptism we had a little open house to celebrate! It turned out to be a great day.
We love you Em and are so proud of this step you are taking in your life!

Here are a few pictures from the day. I'm so disappointed we didn't get a full family shot or one with all the relatives that were there.

Emily and Grandma and Grandpa

Grandpa and Grandma and the kids (Noah and Austin were not cooperating as you can tell)

This is as close to a family picture that I got... we're all in it! :)
Daddy and Emily

Waiting for the Baptism to begin

Grandma & Caleigh
I remembered to take a picture of the cake after I had already made a slice in it!


The spread (thanks to Kathy and Steve's Mom)

First Dance

At church when you turn 8 you get to start going to Activity Days. Emily's leaders put on a dance for the girls and their dads to teach the girls how to dance: line dances and to slow songs. Here's Emily and Steve all ready for her 1st Dance!

8 YEARS OLD!

Emily turned 8 years old in February!
She had a friend slumber party the Friday before her birthday.
They all got makeovers!

Opening her presents on her big day!

Her cousins came over for cake and ice cream

We love you Em!

Cowtown 1/2 Marathon

I survived another 1/2 marathon! I ran my first one in October of 2004 in Minnesota! The forecast for that one was 35 degrees with a wind chill of 22 degrees with snow flurries! Now that's to be expected in Minnesota in the Fall, but at the end of February in Fort Worth, Texas you'd think I'd have better odds of warmer weather (especially since it had been 80 degrees the day before)! Oh no, it was pretty much the same forecast for this race minus the snow flurries! Needless to say I was pretty discouraged! Running in cold is one thing, but in wind... that's pretty much the worst weather element I could choose to run in!

I ran my race with my friend, Joy. We stayed in Dallas at her brother's house the night before and left around 5:30 am to get to our race. Our families came up to cheer us on too (just a little later though)! It turned out better than I imagined. It was sooo cold when the race started, but once we got out of downtown, the sun came up, and our bodies were warm from running the conditions weren't as bad and the wind subsided (a little).

I felt really good the first 5 miles of the race and then it got more hilly and it was a little harder. Our goal was to run it in 2 hours and 10 minutes and my official time was:
2 hours:14minutes:59seconds
not bad... just about 5 minutes off our goal.

The day of the race my joints (knees, hips, etc) were all sore and today my muscles are sore, but it feels great to accomplish another 1/2 and it was so fun to be able to run it with Joy. After the race we ate and then my family stayed in Fort Worth that night at the Omni Hotel. (that's another post though)
So there's the low-down on my Cowtown 1/2 Marathon.
Here are some pics:

The kids waiting patiently for mom to cross the finishline (don't they look cold??)

This is me just after rounding the last corner and trying to sprint the last straight-way to the finish line. Steve caught me off guard and yelled to me so here I am waving! (I was expecting them closer to the finish) You can barely see Joy in this pic... she is not right behind me, but you can see her white sweatshirt behind the other girl behind me.

Posing with my cuties! Proud of their Mom!

Joy and Me
(Everyone got medals:))

So, Sew, Sault

I decided to take on the project of sewing matching pajama pants for my family this Christmas. I bought the material in October, but, as usual, was down to the wire with finishing them! My mom taught me to sew as a kid, but I haven't sewn anything as an adult (besides mending things), so it got interesting... from loading the bobbin in backwards to picking out seams, etc. Thank heavens my mom was here over Thanksgiving and Steve's mom was here right before Christmas or I wouldn't have gotten them finished!
So here we are... the camouflaged family!
(Luckily we snapped this picture Christmas Eve because Austin threw up in his bed that night and so he had on nice bright red pjs for Christmas morning)

Curtain Call

I've been talking about redecorating my family room since we moved here over 2 years ago! In November I decided to take it on. We painted, took down the nasty blinds and bought curtains! YAY!

Time out

We went to Ikea like every weekend it seemed this summer. One time the boys were running around acting like crazy monkeys climbing on everything, touching everything. I was a little ways behind them and as I walked up this is what I saw...

I cracked up... I couldn't imagine what in the world they were doing. Apparently, Steve had put them on a time out hugging a pole with their noses touching it. I love this pic and my crazy boys!

Happy 10 1/2

It was our Anniversary back on May 29th!
Just wanted to say Happy 10 1/2th Anniversary to my love and my best friend!
And here's to millions of more years! :)

(For all you wondering why it took me 6 months to post... I was waiting to get to our wedding photos... they were on our desktop that crashed last March)

DisneyWorld

The 2nd week in September we went to DisneyWorld and WOW... it was sooo "magical!" It was a first visit for the kids and me... Steve had gone when he was younger. We met Steve's sister's family and his parents there. We were there for 6 days and could have stayed longer... Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were our favorite! We didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted at Epcot and Animal Kingdom. We all had a hard time adjusting back to real life when we got home... my kids keep asking when we're going back.

I'm having a hard time being motivated to do a long post... so here is our representation of Disney in one picture!

Sisters

My two sisters, Karen and Suzie came to visit us! They both had babies within the past 6 months, so it was fun to hang out and be moms together. We had so much fun chatting and letting the kids play... my kids loved their little cousins and keep asking when we'll see them again! We went swimming a couple of times, went out to eat at Whole Foods and County Line, and had a downtown tour. We all used to live in Provo with in a 1/2 mile radius of each other and now we live thousands of miles away from each other... it was nice to be together again. Thanks for coming to visit!

Suzie, Karen, Me

Baby Catherine at the pool

Cousins
Emily, Miranda, Noah, Julia

Downtown

Eating at Whole Foods Market

Austin skyline

And of course no trip to Austin would be complete
without visiting the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue
(this one's for you, Steve)

California Trip

The day after my sister left, we went on vacation to California to visit my parents and sisters and their families. It was such a great trip. We live so far away from my family, I cherish every moment I get to be with them. It was so great to go talk and relax and remember who I am and where I come from! My parents were so great... we got to their house at 11pm and they were up waiting for us. My mom had made the yummiest strawberry cream cheese dessert... we literally had a midnight snack! They have such a fun house with a huge backyard with so many fruit trees, a swing set, and a gazebo... It was so fun to see Grandma and Grandpa make memories with the kids like picking and eating fruit from the trees with them, eating breakfast in the gazebo, etc. We also got to go to both of my sisters' houses to hang out. I feel like we got to spend quality time with everyone! Thanks for making our stay so enjoyable! Steve got sick for 3 of the 6 days we were there, so we didn't get to go to SF, but we went everywhere else we wanted!

Boarding the Airplane (my kids were sooo excited to fly)

The boys got their own row!

Big boy, Austin kickin' it by himself on the plane
(Dad and Noah were in the potty)


First Day: Train ride & Merry-go-Round at the Park

Grandma, Aunt Stef, Aunt Kris, Mom, Austin

The "big" cousins riding the train
Spencer, Parker, Kelsi, Afton, Emily, Taylor
(Grandpa, the loaner :), in his own car, so he can take pics)


Trevor and Noah


Riding the Merry-go-Round

Kelsi

Emily


Second Day: Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk

Emily and Spencer playing in the water

Grandma & Austin building sandcastles

Emily's shell from her shell hunt with Grandpa

Austin, a little leery of the water!
mom, Austin, Grandpa

Digging for sandcrabs... check out the big one in someone's hands

Wading in the water: Emily, Afton, Spencer, Taylor

Cute cousin Brenna

Emily, Austin, Dad playing in the water (Austin finally decided he like the ocean)
notice there are no pics of Noah anywhere near the water... he was afraid of the "sharks"


The Boardwalk

Emily


Noah

Dad and Austin on the log ride


Third & Fourth Day: Hanging out at Grandma's & Grandpa's

Picking apricots: Grandpa and Emily

Em helping Austin on the swing set

Grandma and Noah showing off their "roly-polies"

Drying Apples with Grandpa

Washing the apples: Em, Noah, Austin

Peeling & coring the apples: Austin and Grandpa
(Each of the kids got to take a turn)

cool apple spiral

Em dipping the apples in the cinnamon sugar

Grandpa and his apple dryer

Noah and Austin "washing" the windows.
It was like 104 degrees in California while we were there... the kids played for hours in the backyard with spray bottles spraying each other and the windows and any and everything else

Taylor, Austin, Spencer watching a movie

Noah and Austin taking a bubble bath in Grandma's jetted tub


Fifth Day: Hiking and geo-caching at Bel Gatos Park
This was Steve's first day back among the living, but there are no pictures of him...
he obviously had the camera on this excursion

Grandma, Mom, Austin, Grandpa, Emily, Noah

Cute Austin

Beautiful view of where I grew up: San Jose, CA

looking at the view
Grandpa, Noah, Grandma, Mom, Emily


6th Day: Castle Rock
Castle Rock is this cool rock formation with lots of caves and high rocks to crawl around on

Shelf Em found to sit on

Mom and Aunt Kris

One of the Caves:
Brenna, Austin, Noah, Parker

Noah and Trevor being monkeys

Monkey Boys: Noah, Parker, Trevor, Spencer

Leaving

Shuttle at the airport
Noah, Austin, Mom

Emily got to stay in California for 4 extra days at Grandma and Grandpa's house! It felt so crazy to leave her there. It also was so weird to only have 2 kids for a week! She had a blast and got really spoiled with all the 1 on 1 attention she got from Grandpa and Grandma. They at breakfast in the gazebo, went miniature golfing, went to the children's museum, went geo-caching, watched movies, and she got to choose a toy at the toy store... and got to hang out with cousins!

Here's a cute one Em at the Museum with Grandpa and some of her cousins

The hardest part of leaving her in Ca was she had to make the 4 hour plane trip home all by herself! She did great and the flight attendants took great care of her. Grandma and Grandpa walked her to her gate in Ca and had to stay at the airport until her plane took off. Steve, me and the boys got to meet her at the gate here in Austin.
Here she is walking off the ramp after her 4-hour flight all by herself! So BRAVE!