What do you do when your bored in the van?

I was going through the pictures on Elizabeth's camera and discovered these pictures that she and Trent took on our way to Galveston for a quick over night trip. I guess they were bored and needed something to do!

It put a smile on my face!

Elizabeth's Late Birthday Party

Since Elizabeth was gone to school for her birthday we had a "late" birthday party on her break home. (She only kept reminding Amberly for a few weeks that we needed to do this!) We had planned on doing it, but life gets busy and getting everyone home and a time when the grandparents could come also took some quick planning. We had planned to surprise her, but I don't think she was actually surprised. It was a fun evening celebrating our beautiful daughters 19th birthday. It's hard to believe she is that OLD!!

She wanted a chocolate/chocolate cake and of course I had to get yummy Blue Bell ice cream for her!

Happy Late Birthday Elizabeth! We love having you home and miss you like

crazy when your gone!!

She "FINALLY" Did it!!

Elizabeth "FINALLY" Got This - So that she could do this -


I think she is now wondering why she didn't push to get it when she was 16!! I have absolutely LOVED having her have her license! It's AWESOME making a grocery list and handing it over to her with my credit card and off she goes to the store for me! I think she's loved the freedom it brings with it. But, I have to admit, she is avoiding any freeways (not hard here) and going the long way to avoid any... I don't blame her! Houston traffic is horrible and it scares me too! We have also decided we can't wait till Trent gets his license. He is the WORST side seat driver ever!! Even if he is sitting in the back of the van he is constantly looking up to see how fast your driving. Elizabeth has gotten to the point where she doesn't enjoy him riding with her. You better watch out Trent! When you get your license it will be pay back time!!

Happy 18th Birthday Elizabeth!!

On July 10th, 1991 our lives were changed forever with the arrival of our beautiful daughter Elizabeth. Our first little Texan!! The years have gone fast as we have watched her grow into a beautiful young woman. She is both beautiful on the inside and outside and we love her very much! We look forward to watching her continue to pursue her dreams. Happy 18th Birthday Elizabeth!! Try not to "grow up" too fast!

We love you!

Elizabeth's High School Graduation

I never knew how emotional it would be to have a child graduate from High School! The day that Elizabeth graduated from Seven Lakes High School was such a wonderful day! The entire day was spent honoring our beautiful graduate. Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon came over to share this special day with us.

The principal, Mrs. Whitbeck, is big on the number 7 considering it is SEVEN Lakes HS. So, graduation was on June 7th at 7 pm.

We spent the afternoon having fun honoring Elizabeth. Darin and I had put together a DVD of pictures of Elizabeth's life set to music. It was emotional for everyone watching her grow up in pictures. She said it was her favorite gift, but I know know she loved getting her new Laptop computer! We had planned on giving her one for graduation but she didn't think we were going to give it to her until right before she leaves for BYU-ID. But, we surprised her with it now. We then ate Chicken and Steak cooked on the grill with baked potatoes and the fixings and salad. I told her she could have whatever she wanted for her graduation dinner and that's what she chose. We then quickly went outside for picture taking. It was a whirlwind day!!

The Honor GraduateElizabeth with Grandpa and Grandma McShane
Elizabeth, Trent, Eyn and Amberly

Our Family

The whole group! Grandma Sharon was hiding!

The Merrill Center - Elizabeth had to be there by 5:30 so I took her so I could save seats for our family. I was lucky to get seats on the second row behind a row of seats reserved for the teachers who entered with the students. They just happened to decide to sit behind the students instead so we didn't have anyone in front of us!! Great seats!!

Elizabeth entering the center and walked right in front of us! We had perfect seats!!

After she walked in she joined other Chorale Seniors on the stage where they got to sing the National Anthem. It was beautiful!! Elizabeth right after she came down from the stage with her diploma. Doesn't she look happy!!

Hats off to the Seven Lakes High School graduates of 2008!!

There was 577 graduates! This is the first class of graduates from SLHS to attend there for the full 4 years. The principal got up towards the end and congratulated them for not just graduated but for being exemplary students. They recently had their project prom at Dave and Busters and the Houston Police Dept. sought out the school administration to let them know that they had never had such a good group of students on Prom night before! The week before school was out they had their senior trip to Galveston where they spent the day at Schilterbahn and again the management there could not believe how well behaved and good they were. They truly are that! Congratulations Graduates!

Elizabeth and a happy Amberly!

Elizabeth with her proud Daddy!

Elizabeth and her "puppy" Trent.

Elizabeth with her taller but younger brother Eyn.

Elizabeth with her extremely proud Mom!

Our official High School Graduate Elizabeth

What a wonderful accomplishment you have achieved! We are incredibly proud of you and look forward to watching you continue on in your education at BYU-ID. You will do awesome and will achieve great things in your life! We love you!!

Seminary Graduation

Last night we were able to attend Elizabeth's Seminary Graduation. What an incredible experience that was for us! For the past four years Elizabeth has been attending early morning seminary. When I say early, I mean early as it started at 6:00 a.m. before each school day! I promise you, it is no easy task! It is hard on both the students and their parents and especially the teachers who dedicate so much time and effort to their classes!

Our ward currently has 4 classes which are held in the teachers homes. Chris Quirante has been Elizabeth and Eyn's teacher for the past several months. Elizabeth's former teachers have been Tari Davis and Diane Noren. I don't think that Elizabeth and Eyn realize how blessed they are to be able to attend such a wonderful program. Each one of them got perfect attendance this year along with other awards. Elizabeth earned the Master Scriptorium Award for the past 4 years. This is the highest seminary award you can get and it comes with a medal. Some of the requirements for this award is : at least 90% attendance, memorization of 25 scripture mastery, read the entire New Testament, and it seems like there's a few more and I can't remember them. Eyn received the Scriptorium award which has a few less requirements. What a great accomplishments for them both! I'm so proud of them!

Here is a picture of Elizabeth, Darin and I with Elizabeth's teacher Chris Quirante. Elizabeth and her teacher
Elizabeth with some of her fellow graduates. They have all known each other since they were around 10 -11 years old.
They are: Rachel Olsen (will be attending BYU-ID with Elizabeth, Tara Bauer (BYU), Kendra Davis (BYU) Elizabeth (BYU-ID) and on the floor is Lauren Riggs (Lone Star)
Before Katy 2nd split we were all in the same ward together. Tara and Lauren are both in Katy 2nd while the others are in Katy 3rd. They both will be graduating from Cinco Ranch High School while the others will be graduating from Seven Lakes High School.
Elizabeth and Lauren

It was a wonderful evening. Elizabeth was part of a group of girls who sang a musical number. There was 5 of them and they sang "I know that My Redeemer Lives". It was beautiful! As I sat there with tears running down my face all I could think about was my hope and prayer and Elizabeth will truly always know that her Redeemer lives and that He loves her. I hope and pray that she will always have a testimony of Christ and that she will continue to live her life in following his example.

Seven Lakes High School Choir Banquet

May 15th - Choir Banquet

We were able to attend Elizabeth's Choir Banquet. It was held at a very nice country club and the tickets were $32 per person. Luckily, Seniors were free so Darin and I just had to purchase tickets. In years past either Darin or I attended but considering it was Elizabeth's last year and that they honor the seniors we both "had to" go. It was a wonderful evening! It was by far the best choir banquet! The food was delish and the program was great! It was a little emotional at times during the program, but we really enjoyed the evening.

The pictures are out of order that they were taken, but it will do. :)

This is Elizabeth and Mr. Carter - the head Choir Director. All I can say is that he is the best director we could have ever asked for! Elizabeth has been in his top choir since her freshman year and absolutely has learned so much from him!! Photo Op on the staircase leading into the ballroom where the banquet was held.
Elizabeth and a few of her choir friends.

Elizabeth and Mrs. Cooper - the assistant choir director. This was her 2nd year at Seven Lakes and she is loved by everyone! One wonderful thing about Mrs. Cooper is that she is also Sister Cooper! She is in our Stake at church and the youth have worked with her in the Stake Youth Choir. She is such a wonderful example and has really been a wonderful addition to our choir program! It's great because we'll still get to see her around!

Darin with his flowers he received for the work he's done on the Choir Website. He has helped with it for the past 3 years and is happy to now pass it on to the next person.

Elizabeth with Mr. Carter when he was spotlighting her. He told about how out of all of his students he has really seen her grow and mature over the past 4 years. She was in tears as he spoke about her. She will really miss the choir program!

Elizabeth and Mr. Carter again during her spotlight. He had each senior come forward to be spotlighted. While they were there they had a baby picture, an embarrassing picture, and a present picture come up on the screen. We were one of only a handful of families who had been in the SLHS choir program since the beginning of the school 4 years ago.

It has been a joy to be a part of such a wonderful program in such a great high school. We will miss it.

Elizabeth Senior Prom 2009

Senior Prom... Wow!! What a wonderfully busy week we had getting Elizabeth ready for Prom. Just a little history... Elizabeth was first asked to prom by a young man she works with and has known since grade school. She told me he had asked her but she wasn't excited at all. She acted confused and hesitant. A few days later she said she had told him no because she just didn't feel good about it and honestly didn't trust him. She said she would rather go without a date in a group than with him. Well, a week or so later Elizabeth came home from school literally floating! She had been asked to prom by Jon D. who she has been good friends with since their freshman year. He had approached her after choir and gave her some flowers and asked her to prom. She was so incredibly happy! So.. the planning began. Luckily Elizabeth and a friend had went in January to find prom dresses. Talk about prepared! (I'm glad that she did! It made it that less stressful!) The week before prom was incredibly busy! We had last minute fittings, we had to find the perfect shoes, we went and had her nails done, had to buy a few personal items, and on and on and on!! On the day of prom we went to pick up Jon's boutonniere to find out they had messed up the order. But, due to their mistake they gave her a more expensive one for the same price and it was beautiful!!

We decided to splurge and went to Wen Chic Salon and Spa to have Elizabeth's hair and make-up done. They did a fantastic job! I had a few teary moments as I sat and watched my beautiful daughter grow up before my eyes! We were of course running late from the salon and came home to find Daddy Darin and Jon having a deep conversation in the living room. :) They had enough time waiting for Elizabeth that they even played some Wii! They may have had to wait for a while, but the results were worth it!
Our Gorgeous Daughter when she first made her entrance. Jon's remark was Gorgeous and Darin could only say Wow. It was awesome!

We went outside to take a few quick pictures. Amberly wanted to take a picture with her Kindergarten Huskies to share with her class on Monday! (They loved them! Her teacher talked to me a few days later and raved about how beautiful they looked and how excited Amberly was to brag about them!)

Elizabeth and Jon then left to go to his house where they ate dinner with their entire group. His mom had made dinner for 20! Darin and I went over to take pictures too! It was fun watching all the excitement! (Jon and his mom made a killer chocolate cake! I've got to get that recipe!)
We went out in the backyard for some more pictures!

Too bad Jon isn't looking at the camera in this one! It's my favorite picture of Elizabeth!

Quick shot with part of the group before leaving for prom.

Elizabeth and Jon posing in front of the limo. Quick limo story - after prom they called the limo driver to tell him they were ready to be picked up. They were suppose to wait only a few minutes and ended up waiting around an hour and fifteen minutes. Not happy! Then they got in the limo to find liquor in it, shot glasses, and it was spilled on some of the seats. Not happy at all! Well, when they got back to Jon's house the dad who had set up the limo met them and really griped out the driver. We found out a few days later that we would be getting a full refund for it! (it cost nearly $2000 for the night)

Elizabeth in front of the limo.

Jon holding the door for Elizabeth at the limo.

Being silly in the limo on the way to the dance.

At the dance - this group are all original members of the Concert Choir from their freshman year. Being that it was the first year of the high school it was the top choir.

More about the dance - Elizabeth had the time of her life! She said Jon had her constantly with him and he was whisking her around "showing her off" to everyone. He kept telling her and everyone else how beautiful she was! She truly felt like a princess!

After the dance the group went back to Jon's to change clothes and then Head to project Prom. Project Prom is a lock-in event they hold at the Dave and Busters in Houston. (it's a separate purchased ticket!) They drove to the high school and boarded buses which safely took them to the event. It's a safe alternative for after prom activities! They are "locked in" until 6 a.m. They had an amazing assortment of activities and food for them to enjoy. They each had to wear the project prom t-shirts while there. They also had incredible prizes! Computers, TVs, dorm refrigerators, airline tickets, gift cards, etc, etc, etc.. Elizabeth actually won a digital photo frame that she really wanted for her dorm room next year! They had the parents make posters of their students which were all displayed there.

One of the agreements Elizabeth made with us before letting her go to project prom was that she had to go to church with us when she got home. The other girls and her all wore their dresses to church and looked beautiful! Elizabeth had so many compliments on her dress! It was funny watching her and some of the others during sacrament meeting. She could not keep her eyes open and her head bopping up and down was hilarious! I finally told her to scoot closer to me and she slept on my shoulder.

When we got home from church Elizabeth instantly sat down in her new chair she got at project prom and fell to sleep. She still had her purse on her arm! She slept in that position for nearly 3 hours and then went to bed and we didn't see her again until Monday morning! She was exhausted!

So, I guess you can say that Prom was a huge success! For days after she said she was in

Prom LaLa Land! Next big thing is graduation... It's going too quickly!