Happy 8th Birthday Amberly!

Today is Amberly's 8th Birthday. I have had a mixture of emotions today.
First, it's really hard to believe that my baby is 8! Wow, how the years have flown by. Second, it's really hard to believe my baby is 8! :) It seems like just yesterday that she was placed in my arms for the first time. She came into our family at a time when we needed her sweet presence with us. We had had an incredibly hard year before her birth and her arrival was truly a miracle in our lives. The sweet spirit she brought with her healed our hearts and brought such joy into our home. From day one I do believe she has had everyone wrapped around her pinkie! She has always had a determined strong willed spirit, yet a gentle sweetness that everyone just loves. Amberly can appear to be quiet and shy, but at home I do believe she is one of the loudest! Recently she has become very cuddly and wants to be held and loved on all the time. If she's in the family room with her daddy it is usually on his lap. If she's sitting by me she wants my arm around her and holding her close. Amberly loves girly things yet at the same time is slightly tomboyish. She loves to get dirty outside in the mud, climb trees, not afraid to kill a bug, play basketball, ride bikes, wrestle, have tickle fights, read books, color, play with barbies (finally!), play with cars, play school and house, scrapbook, play games, dance, sing, play the piano, and be with her family having fun. She is a bundle of energy and likes to be busy. She gets grumpy if she's bored.

She is so excited to be baptized this Saturday. I have been truly amazed with her as she has been preparing for her baptism. She wants to do what is right and says that is why she wants to be baptized. We love our Amberly Kate so much and are so happy she is a part of our family.

Amberly's 1st white dress on her blessing day

Happy Birthday Amberly

Our Baby Girl is growing up!

This past Saturday Amberly and I went on a mini-photo shoot. We had a great time as we discovered some new places to take some pictures. Amberly will be getting baptized this Saturday and I needed some pictures for her announcements. She was in such a happy, fun mood!

This first picture is actually the picture we decided to use for her announcements.

Skating with Friends

In an attempt to do something different and to stay out of the extreme heat we have been having, we decided to spend the day at the skating rink. Trent invited some friends and off we went! Next time we plan to invite more people with more notice! It was so much fun!! We spent 4 hours there and they never once asked me if it was time to go! I was able to sit and enjoy visiting with a friend and reading my book in the A/C. It was GREAT! We even scored by having buy one get one free coupons. I think I spent around 15 dollars total and the kids all had loads of snacks and cold water.

I know this first picture is blurry, but you can see Trent getting up off the floor where he spent a lot of time. He hasn't skated in years! He informed me toward the end of the day that he needed pads, especially for his bum. I think he was quite sore when we left.

Ms. Amberly enjoying herself. She did quite well skating. She is ready to go back!
The Jensens and the Quiriantes were there also. This is Seth Jensen. He was quite a good skater!

Around and around they went! Its amazing the memories this brought back to me! The skating rink in Midland growing up was the Junior High hangout. I spent plenty of weekends there.

Trent, John Jensen, and Jaron Quiriante

They had such a great time!

John taking a snack break.

Sweaty, Stinky, Tired Trent

One happy girl!

I wish I would have pulled the camera out earlier and taken more pictures. We had a great day! They all agreed we need to get more people together to go again before school starts back up.

Amberly and the Bears

After such a rocky beginning to her basketball career, I am happy to report that Amberly's 1st year of basketball with KYB ended happily. No, they didn't win a lot of games. (They actually lost all but one) But, I have never seen a happier group of girls playing and a happier group of parents. After our fiasco with our first coach the team and parents really rallied together and had a great time! It was actually sad to see the season end. I really enjoyed getting to know many of the parents on the team and the girls loved being together. After each basket made you would have thought that it was a game winning shot! It was definitely a learning and growing experience for all of us involved. Just last night Amberly said to me "Is it true that if you are having fun then you win?" I said, "Yes, if you are having fun and happy then you are a winner." She then said, "Then I actually won all those basketball games that we lost because I was having fun?" Yes. The score on the board doesn't always show who the actual winners are! It is how you play the game and if your having fun. You may not get the trophy at the end of the game, but if you are happy with how you did and have fun doing it you are definitely the winner in my book. Amberly getting ready to bring the ball down the court.


Some of the girls cheering on their teammates during halftime free throws

Warming up

This picture is really fuzzy, but I didn't get many with Amberly coming down the court with the ball.

Throwing the ball in

Shooting a free throw. It was amazing to see how her upper body strength developed over a few short months.

Way to go Bears!! It was a Roaring great time!!

Eureka Science

This morning I was able to go and help the 1st graders at Eureka Science. Eureka Science is a parent run science program at our elementary school where the children get to learn fun and exciting aspects of science. Today the 1st graders were learning about simple machines. It was sooo much fun!!! I was able to work with the children as they got to use a peeling machine to peel and core apples. When the apple came out it was actually like a slinky! The children loved it!! Other activities included using a screw driver, using pulley's to lift a carton with rice in it, using catapults to fling marshmallows at a target, getting on teeter tater's with a classmate, and some other small simple machines they got to experiment with. What a great program it is!!! I always feel so blessed for the wonderful schools my children go to! Amberly looked like she was having a lot of fun. I loved being able to be with her. It made me sad because when her class was done and my shift ended to go home she began to cry. It broke my heart! She wanted me to come back for lunch but I had lunch plans with friends and couldn't. I'm glad that there are lots of opportunities to volunteer in our schools!

Amberly (middle) using her screw driver to put a screw in a board

Amberly at the apple peeling/coring station

50th Day of School

Today was the 50th Day of School and Amberly got to dress up for it! Doesn't she look adorable!! I love that they get to do such fun activities at school! I bought Amberly's skirt about 4 years ago at a garage sale for 25 cents. Best deal ever!! She has gotten to wear it so much and it's still a little big on her!! Love deals like that!!

Amberly's Kindergarten Graduation - Celebration of Learning Day!

Yesterday we were able to go to Amberly's Kindergarten Graduation! It was wonderful! I guess I hadn't really thought too hard recently about the fact that my youngest was finishing kindergarten until they asked everyone to raise their hands whose child was their first to graduate and those whose was last. Then said about how it was an emotional day. Okay, your not suppose to give the tears permission! Amberly was precious as she walked across the stage and was presented with her "diploma". What a great year she has had!!

Amberly walking to Ms. Ljungdahl on the stage after her name was called. They said the child's name and then said what they had said they liked about kindergarten. Amberly said she had loved everything but especially having Junior Achievement with her Daddy. Priceless for Daddy!

Amberly and Mrs Fleming our wonderful principal. We had Mrs. Fleming as our principal when Trent was in Kindergarten and Eyn was in 4th grade. Love her!! The children absolutely love her!! I do believe a great Principal makes a great school!

In Amberly's class they always talk about how they are a kindergarten family. This is the extended kindergarten class family.

Amberly and the lovely Ms. Ljungdahl.

Mom, Dad and Amberly enjoying the day together!

Congratulations Amberly and good luck in 1st grade!

Junior Achievement

Earlier this year Darin went to a Chevron meeting where they talked about the JA program (Junior Achievement). Chevron is very active in the JA program and actually are sponsors to many schools. Darin quickly became interested in this but wanted to do it in our elementary school. He decided to start from the bottom with kindergarten. Katy Independent School District is actually the only school district in the world which is completely parent ran and in everyone of its school and grades. It's a wonderful program and Darin has had a great time being involved in it. He was able to teach it to the class next door to Amberly's class first and then found out the JA leader for her class had backed out and he did her class too! Since Chevron is a sponsor he gets to leave work and do it. He usually works from home for the rest of the afternoon after he teaches the class. All I know is that ALL the kindergartners have gotten to know Mr. McShane and absolutely LOVE him! I've gone up to the school with him on the last day of it to help him pass out all the goodies they get. Chevron gives each child a pencil bag with some crayons in it and Darin takes them cupcakes to celebrate. It is a wonderful program and I know he looks forward to doing it for years to come!
Darin with Amberly's class on the last day of JA.

I think we have learned over the years how important parent involvement in the schools are. The amount of involvement here is absolutely incredible and we feel very blessed to be in such a wonderful area where so many parents are involved in the lives of their children.

Kindergarten Mommy Makeover

Yesterday I was invited to Amberly's Kindergarten class for a Mommy Makeover! What a wonderful time we had! I arrived to find the lights in the room dimmed and quiet soothing music playing. We were served cookies and apple juice as we arrived in the "spa". Each child then got to give their mommy a makeover! Amberly had so much fun doing my hair! (Notice the bows in the hair! You should have seen the back of my hair!) She gave me a massage and a manicure. My nails are now a beautiful purple and white with cute butterfly stickers! She presented me with a beautiful picture and poem. We were also given beautiful plants that they had grown in their classroom. It was a wonderful treat for all of us! Amberly also gave me a card where they filled in the blanks. It said the following:(bolded words were the added words by Amberly.

My mom is the most wonderful mom in the world! Her name is Patricia. She's pretty as a butterfly. She is 18 years old. She has green eyes and red hair. Her favorite food is "pasketti". I think my mom is funny when she is wearing fuzzy slippers. I wouldn't trade my mom for anything! I love my mom because she loves me.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Love, Amberly

I had a wonderful hour with my little Amberly! She most definitely made me feel special being her mommy!

Katy Carnival

On the Friday night before Easter we took Amberly and Trent with us to go look for shoes at Katy Mills Mall. When we drove up we saw a big carnival in part of the parking lot. (Elizabeth was at work and Eyn was over at a friends house) We surprised Amberly and Trent and stopped at the carnival. Talk about childhood memories! Darin and I both have bad memories of nausea at the last "cheap" carnival we went to. We let Trent and Amberly each pick a few rides to ride considering we didn't have very long to stay. (4 tickets per ride, $1 per ticket. Expensive!) Well, we had a lot of fun and Amberly and Trent really enjoyed themselves.

Trent really wanted to ride the "Scary" rides, and that is exactly what he did! He always looked a little apprehensive before getting on the ride, but he loved them! I loved his facial expressions when the ride first started to go. We really thought he was turning green a few times!

Amberly absolutely loved this Ferris wheel! She said she could see everything so high!
This next picture is what Amberly looked like after she rode the next ride.

Trent really wanted to ride this ride and Amberly didn't think it looked that scary. I guess she was wrong! Every time it came around we could hardly see her because she was as low down in the seat as she could get! It was funny because the ride would come to a near stop and then start up again. I don't think she ever thought it was going to end! When she got off she practically ran into Darin's arms and didn't want to let go for a little while. I don't think she'll be getting back on one of those again!