Church Basketball

Each year our Stake has a Teacher/Priest Basketball Tournament that takes place over several Saturdays. It is AWESOME!! Eyn was on the Katy 3rd Ward Priest team. (Katy 3rd had 2 different teams) I love watching them because the boys have so much fun! They play relaxed and hard. It's different than High School Ball. There is not the pressure of their coaches. I was sitting by another Mom on the last Saturday and we were talking about how our boys play with more aggression here than at school. I just think when their playing at school they have so much pressure put on them that half the time their paranoid of what the coach is going to say or do. This was just fun to watch! Eyn invited friends from school to play with them the last few weeks and they seemed to enjoy it also. Eyn and some of the other boys enjoyed staying the entire morning so they would get selected to play for teams that didn't have enough boys. They didn't seem to get tired of playing!

Homecoming Parade 2009

Last night was the Seven Lakes High School Homecoming parade! We found a great spot and really enjoyed it! Eyn was on the football team float and looked like he was having a great time! I always enjoy seeing the school spirit. The band sounded awesome and the floats were fun! Amberly and Trent liked that they were handing out candy. (Just what they needed, more candy!) Go Spartans!

The Spartan Football teams!! Eyn is on the top row on the end with his arm raised in the air. He had waved at us so we could see where he was.

Amberly and Trent watching the parade

Choir Float (Elizabeth asked me to take these!) Another view of the football team!!

Go Spartans! Beat Taylor HS this week!!

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!

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.

District Champions!

Eyn's Basketball team won the District Championship! What a great season they had! He had to work extra hard this year to come back after breaking his elbow over the summer, but he did great and we're extremely proud of him! At the end of the last game the head coach came out and asked all the parents to remain sitting for a minute because the players had a special recognition to make. He then told us it was parent recognition night and that they wanted to show their appreciation to each of their parents for their support during such a great season. Each one of players then came out carrying orange roses (school colors are orange and blue) and letters. They presented each mother with a rose and each father with a letter they had written to them. It was very touching moment watching these young men present them to their parents and then hugging and kissing them. Eyn was attacked as he not only hugged his mom and dad but got a "hugful" from Amberly, Trent and Elizabeth. One of those "moments" that stick forever!

Eyn also just completed a 6 week teachers/priests Stake basketball tournament. He was awesome! It was so much fun to watch those boys at church play! You see a different side to them when they are on the court and don't have the pressure of their coaches. Eyn loved this tournament and I think is sad it's over except for the fact that most of their games started at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday. Gotta love it!

Spartan Basketball

One of my favorite things to do is watch my children do well in what they love doing. For Eyn Basketball is what he loves. He loves the NBA (especially the Rockets) and he loves to be on the court. Over the years it has amazed us to watch him as he has gotten better and better at it. I can still picture him out in our driveway playing with the "big boys" in the neighborhood. Now, he is probably a good 6-8 inches taller than most of those boys and could take them all down! Every time there is a game my heart begins to race and I am so excited! I love it!

A few weeks ago we played Clements in Sugar Land where Darin took these pictures. It's sometimes hard to take pictures because we get so into the game we forget!

Eyn Going up for the shot. Taking some free throw shots after being fouled under the basket.
Going after the rebound.

Basketball at the High School level has been lots of fun. He practices usually 3-4 hours a day and has usually 2 games a week. We have been so impressed at our school with the team spirit. The players stand up and praise each other. The support and encouragement they give each other is amazing. We watch the other teams and it's just not there. I'm so thankful that Eyn is a part of such a great program!

Go Spartans!!

Eyn's Birthday Party

We had a fun time celebrating Eyn's Birthday! Its nice having a Sunday birthday because we could celebrate the entire day! Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon came over for the day. Eyn wanted to play Monopoly so the boys had a fun time playing that. We had hamburgers and hot dogs cooked out on the grill and Eyn's favorite potato salad. It was yummy and fun!

Eyn had said several months ago that he wanted a pink chocolate cake. I'm sure it was a joke, but no one would let it be forgotten! So he had a HUGE 3 layer chocolate cake with pink and green frosting. It actually was really good!First bite of cake. (Family tradition - no hands allowed!) Eyn was excited about the new stereo he got for his room. I don't know if my ears were ready for it!
Money is always one of Eyn's favorite gifts!

We hope you had a great birthday Eyn! We're so glad your a part of our family!

Happy Birthday Eyn!

Happy 15th Birthday Eyn!
How grateful we are to have Eyn as a part of our family.

He adds more than he will ever know to our family.

Eyn was born in Tucson Arizona on October 12, 1993. He was by far my easiest labor! I ended up having to have a C-section at the end, but being in labor was an incredible spiritual experience for me. He arrived weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz. with lots of red hair! Over the years the red has diminished into a beautiful strawberry blond. Eyn came out long and has never stopped growing. At 15 he now stands at around 6'2. Out of all of our children I have to say that Eyn is my most obedient child. I'm afraid I may take advantage of that sometimes. Whenever I ask him to do something, he does it. We can trust him to get the job done and do it without all the complaining. I love my moments with Eyn when he opens up and talks to me. I love Eyn's love for sports! I absolutely love watching him play basketball! It is my favorite season of the year! He is sooo competitive and hard on himself, but he is incredibly talented! Our family has been greatly blessed with Eyn in our family.

Happy Birthday Eyn!

Eyn and PawPaw at about 8 months old.

Eyn with his 1st Basketball trophy! He's acquired quite a few now!
My gentle Giant. I love this picture!


October 12th - Happy Birthday Eyn!

Ice Cream for pictures

Last night I took Elizabeth, Eyn and Amberly out for ice cream. Going to get ice cream was just a bribery to try and get Eyn to take some pictures. Well, I failed miserably! He did not want to cooperate and take pictures but I did get a few cute ones of Elizabeth and Amberly. (Eyn said I only wanted them so I could put them on my blog and he didn't want that. UGH!! It was actually for Elizabeth's birthday project for him. His 15th birthday is tomorrow.) Amberly is enjoying spending the weekend with the kindergarten huskies this weekend. She got to bring home Holland Husky and her baby Binny for the weekend. She has had fun documenting their activities together which she will share with her class on Monday.

Surgery Success / July 4th Celebration

I'm happy to say that my surgery is over and appears to have been successful. After nearly 3 months of insurance nightmares it's such a relief to have it over with. It has been a rough week, but I'm so happy to have it behind me. Darin has been incredible this week. After I came home from the hospital things were going well when I started to get nauseous. I couldn't get past it. It was horrible! I couldn't keep anything down all day and night Friday. Darin was exhausted because he was up with me most of the night. We spoke to the doctor in the middle of the night and he suggested going to the ER and getting blood work done and finding out what was going on. Friday night in an ER just didn't appeal to either of us. Finally early Saturday it came to Darin to try some anti-nausea medicine I had taken before. He started giving it to me every 10 minutes and It worked!! I was finally able to drink fluids and keep them down and then he fed me small bits of bread. Miracle! With the nausea gone a lot of the pain stopped. I'm still struggling with comforts of sleeping, but that's getting better too. YEA!!

Eyn had his surgery on Monday. I have never been on the waiting end of a surgery. It was hard watching them wheel him away to surgery. We luckily only had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to talk to the doctor again. His doctor is incredible! I feel really blessed to have him. Eyn came out of surgery groggy and looking so incredibly sad. It broke our hearts! He hurt and I hated that! We were able to bring him home early Monday afternoon. He has his arm wrapped straight and tight with a splint in it. He will get it taken off on Friday and then he will start rehab. I know that will be tough, but he can do it!!
Were both kind of a pathetic sight!
The past few months have been really tough with all the problems with our insurance, but Darin and I can't help but wonder if we were suppose to go through these problems so that the changes could be put in place so that when this happened to Eyn that he would have the doctor he has. It's amazing how things happen and work out for the best for everyone. I know that our prayers have definitely been answered and we are stronger and better because of them.



July 4th Celebration



On July 4th I was incredibly sick, but we had children who still wanted to enjoy the fun. One of the great things about living where we do is that you can do "all" fireworks. It is always so incredibly loud outside on the fourth of July and also on New Years Eve. But it's so much fun!! They had been asking all day long about fireworks but I felt so bad Darin couldn't leave me. We had a few left over from New Years in the garage so we were just going to let them do those. But luckily, that evening some friends of ours called and asked what they could do to help us and Darin said PLEASE get our children some fireworks. They were more than happy to pick some up and bring them over. We were saved! So, while I was laying on the couch miserable they all went outside and had some fun for a little while. I was more than happy laying on the couch listening to the popping outside and the barking of our dog going crazy from them!! Here are a few pictures of their fun night.

Eyn's Basketball Injury

Last week was quite the trying week in our home. While I was sitting in the doctors office for myself on Thursday I received one of those phone calls you just don't want to get. It was the High School Basketball coach letting me know that Eyn had hurt his elbow and it was quite swollen and probably needed to get checked out. Well, after several unsuccessful x-rays we were referred to a orthopedic specialist/surgeon. (Eyn couldn't bend his arm at all so they had a hard time getting a good x-ray) Well, Darin took him yesterday while I was in San Antonio and found out that he has fractured a bone in there and that particular bone helps control his wrist. If it does not heal correctly then he would have difficulty with it the rest of his life. So, he wants to go in and operate and put screws in it. He said that it will heal quickly and that he will be fine to do all the sports his heart desires. So.. He wanted to do surgery on Wednesday but considering I'm having surgery that day Darin didn't think he could handle two in one day at separate locations. He is scheduled for his next Monday. The doctor was very positive about the outcome. Eyn won't be able to play basketball for a while, but the doctor said that playing basketball will be what he wants him to do to get the strength back in it. Eyn is one tough kid and seeing him injured has been hard. He is one to jump back up and keep going. He actually tried to do that, but it didn't work. The coach at the high school was great and I really appreciated him and the others there who helped Eyn. He'll be back on the court before we know it.

What goes up, must come down.

It's a bird, it's a plane, No! It's a rock thrown high in the air by Eyn with hopes of it falling in the pond right beside them and not on their heads!