Trent's 1st Orchestra Concert

When each of our children have begun junior high we have allowed them to choose which Fine Arts elective they want to take. Elizabeth chose choir and continued with choir until she graduated from high school. Eyn chose band and played the saxophone for two years before deciding it wasn't what he wanted to pursue and chose to only be in sports. Trent has chosen orchestra and is now playing the cello. It is a beautiful instrument! I never knew how much I enjoyed listening to it until the past several months. Once Trent chose the cello its amazing how much we have heard others playing it in performances. The sound it produces is incredible and I'm excited that Trent loves it!! He knows how to play the piano so he has actually been taking his piano music and transposing it so he can play it on his cello. We are always hearing him play it in his room!

The Beckendorff Junior High Orchestra held their first concert on the 24th of October. They did a superb job!!

Amberly and her Puppies

Each night I go in and tuck Amberly into bed I tell her a make believe story about her stuffed animals and the adventures they have while she is away from them. Each night she learns about the many close calls they have with her and others in the house. She recently learned that they have even become friends with our dog Prancer and our cat Katy! It's fun to make up these stories and see her eyes light up as new tales are weaved together. She even tells me the story some nights! Well, the last few weeks her two special puppies have been planning a Halloween surprise for Amberly! "Puppy" and "Spots" had been planning long and hard about what they could do to surprise their favorite person Amberly! Well, yesterday when she came home from school she went into her room and found them perched up on the end of her bed waiting for her in Halloween costumes!! They looked so cute and they were so excited to see Amberly and so happy because she was thrilled by their surprise!!

Here are a few pictures of Amberly and her cute puppies!

Amberly reading her book to them

"Puppy" and "Spots" all ready for Halloween!

11 year old Scout and Father Campout

Last night Darin and Trent went camping. Trent said he froze, but had a great time. (I actually have a child that feels like anything cooler than 70 degrees is freezing! He loves HOT weather but loves wicked weather! Crazy boy!!)

They went down to Brazos Bend Park for the camp out. They spent this morning hiking around and saw alligators and deer. It was nice because it was cool enough to have a fire and enjoy it! It's the perfect time of year to camp out here!

Chris Quiriante, Darin, and York Richards (probably waiting for their breakfast to be done!)

The 11 year old scouts working on their requirements. We have such a great group of boys!!

Working on breakfast

Playing in the fire. Boys and fire- not a good combination!

In this picture if you look closely you can see the deer in the distance.

Trent and a few of his friends

Spartan Football

There is nothing quite like Texas Football!! Growing up football seemed to be a huge part of our lives. Football is huge here, but nothing like it was in West Texas! Go Rebels!!

Eyn decided to give football a chance this year and has really enjoyed being on the Seven Lakes High School JV football team.

Thursday evening we were able to go and watch him play against the schools biggest rival Cinco Ranch High School. The weather was vicious!! We enjoyed the majority of the game under our umbrella! Darin had to hold one side of our umbrella down to keep it from flying away! We tried to keep dry, but came away quite wet! The team did awesome!! We were winning 13 - 0 with only 7 minutes left in the game when they had to call the game due to lightening. Once the stadium was empty and our team in their locker room it poured rain! We enjoyed the storm in the van waiting for Eyn. We found out later that we were actually in a tornado warning at that time. Love the wild Texas weather!!

(We have actually had around 6 inches of rain at our house this past week!)

Way to go JV team!

Not the greatest pictures, but I only had a few minutes between downpours to pull out my camera! Eyn is number 81 on the blue team!

Seven Lakes High School Pumpkin Patch Fest

Last Saturday Darin and I took Amberly and Trent to the Seven Lakes Orchestra Pumpkin Patch Fest. It's amazing how it has grown over the years! The weather was actually perfect for being outside and we really enjoyed ourselves!

Amberly wanted her hair spray painted green to go with her witch costume for the Ward Trunk or Treat we went to that night.

Amberly and Trent went on the hay ride through the neighborhood.
Hayride leaving

Amberly posing in the pumpkin patch.

I didn't get any pictures of it, but Trent's favorite thing at the festival was actually the students from the orchestra who were gathered together playing music. He just sat there and watched them spellbound by them. He began playing the cello this year and absolutely loves it!

McShane Family Pumpkin Carving Traditon

For as long as I can remember the McShane family has been carving pumpkins for Halloween. This year Amberly wanted to do them as part of her family home evening. Don't ask me when, but it became a boys vs girls pumpkin contest of sorts. There's never a winner, because they each look great. But we work together as teams and have a great time! It's always fun to see what designs each team will come up with!

This year the boys team actually took one pumpkin and each designed their own faces for the different sides of the pumpkin. It came out great!

Trent and his side of the pumpkin

Eyn with his creationDarin

(yes, that's a bead necklace around his neck. For some crazy reason Amberly had Darin and myself wear long beads during the carving!)

Amberly and I decided to do a two sided pumpkin. One side had a funny face on it and the other was in honor of Elizabeth who is at BYU-Idaho. We missed her help on our pumpkin this year!! (She actually called us while we were working on our pumpkins and let us know that that's what her Family Home Evening group were doing that evening also! They even had caramel apples for dessert like we did!)

Amberly and our cooky pumpkin!

Thanks for the great Family home evening Amberly!!

It's time to catch up!

I've decided it's time to reenter the blogging world. I took a temporary break and now I hope to get back on track. So, bear with me as I try to keep up with the present and add a little bit of our family happenings from the past few months. It's been a crazy few months!