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!!

Christmas 2008

Christmas morning is always fun at our home! Amberly and Trent tried to start the morning before 6:00 but we held them off until nearly 7. Once we said okay Amberly was instantly in Eyn's room jumping on his bed to get him up and Trent was doing the same to Elizabeth. Just a little excited!

This picture is of Elizabeth, Trent and Eyn anxiously awaiting the opening of our "Big" Family present that Santa brought us this year. For some reason he decided that our family needed the Wii system. Everyone was quite thrilled about it and have had so much fun playing it! We also got the Wii Fit. (more pictures to come!)

Eyn opening his new weight set. Trent opening a present.Amberly excited to get her new Easy Bake Oven. Elizabeth holding up a sign Trent gave her for her bedroom door. Amberly excited over her gift from Elizabeth. She made her a cute little apron. It's adorable! Anxiously waiting by the Christmas tree. We had such a wonderful day! Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon came over around noon and spent the rest of the afternoon with us. It was a fun day that ended too soon.

Family Christmas Photos

This past weekend we "finally" went out and took our family Christmas pictures. We had so much fun being together in search of the perfect picture! I was finally able to have everyone match for Christmas! No complaining either! Miracles do happen! Hope you enjoy the pictures! Elizabeth and Amberly
Elizabeth and Eyn (Elizabeth was attempting to be taller than Eyn. I think she sometimes gets mistaken for being younger than him because she is so much shorter than him. Sorry Elizabeth! You'll appreciate that someday!)

Eyn and Amberly

McShane family

McShane Children

Absolutely Hillarious!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween!

Halloween is such a fun holiday! It was extra special this year because it was on a Friday and we didn't have to worry about getting up for school/work the next day! Here's how our night went...

Elizabeth had to sing the National Anthem at the High School Football game so she went there first and then left the game after singing and came home and changed into her costume and went to a party some friends from choir were having. She had a blast and got home around Midnight wanting to tell us all about it! I failed to get a picture of her on my camera. Bummer!!

Eyn was our candy disperser for the evening. We noticed that there wasn't as many trick or treaters this year. I don't think he minded because he liked the leftovers.

Trent and Amberly had a great time roaming throughout our entire neighborhood. We followed them around part of the time with the top down in Darin's car. It was a beautiful night to be out!

They returned home exhausted but with bags full of treasure! I guess you can say it was a successful evening!

Trent has become quite the Star Trek fan and so of course he had to go as out

as Captain Trent McShane.

Trent and Amberly ready to attack the neighborhood!

Amberly as Dorothy. She was excited because Elizabeth did her make-up for the night. Amberly loves to dress up!

Happy Halloween 2008!!

Kindergarten Book Character Parade

Today the Kindergarten classes at our school had a Book Character Parade. Each student picked a book and dressed up as a character in it. Amberly chose The Wizard of Oz and dressed up as Dorothy. She looked adorable! She really wanted to be Dorothy because she wanted to take her Puppy to school. Here is Ms. Ljungdahl Amberly's Kindergarten teacher dressed up as Minnie Mouse. Her class is lined up after her.
Here comes Amberly! Aren't they all cute! They invited all the parents to come up and after the children paraded the school for all the other grade levels they came out and paraded for us!

Beautiful Amberly starring as Dorothy!

Pumpkin Carving

Each year our family has fun carving pumpkins. We have always done a boys pumpkin and a girls pumpkin. It's a fun family tradition we all look forward to. With everyone's crazy schedule it's sometimes hard to accomplish, but we always do it!

I love Amberly's face in this picture as she was reaching in to pull some gooey seeds and guts out of the pumpkin. Trent and Darin hard at work on their pumpkin.

Amberly and Elizabeth working together on our masterpiece!

Love the face expression Trent!

Elizabeth getting her hands all gooey!

The Boy's Finished pumpkin!

Great job!

Introducing the girls finished pumpkin!

We call him Edward the vampire M & M pumpkin!

(Edward from the Twilight book series!)

Tricia's Birthday

We celebrated my 39Th birthday on October 23rd. My family and friends really made it a great day for me! The day started by smelling fresh homemade muffins. Elizabeth had gotten up before Seminary (by 5:00 AM) to make them to be ready when I got up. They were yummy!

When I went out to take Amberly and Trent to school we found that 3 sneaky people had painted my van! Before they left they had painted my windows with words like - Honk It's my birthday, 39 (for the first time), pictures of a cake with candles, balloons, etc. It was funny! It was kind of fun to get honked at! (I always jumped first and then laughed.) I went out to lunch with a sweet friend and was able to talk to friends on the phone throughout the day. That evening we ended up eating Subway and enjoyed yummy birthday pie. I told Darin I wanted Pie instead of a cake. It was yummy! It was a great day! Thanks everyone!

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.

Spartan Homecoming 2008

Last week was Seven Lakes High School's Homecoming. We went to the parade on Wednesday evening where Elizabeth was on the Super Choir float. All of the choir students had dressed up in Super Hero outfits. They won the best float award! ($300) It was a lot of fun! These are just a few of the pictures from the parade. I added this one because Elizabeth is a Senior!
The Spartan Football Team.
I spent ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT working on Elizabeth's Homecoming overalls. Its a cute tradition here in Texas. She looked cute all ready to go to school here. (Elizabeth made the flip flops that matched the overalls)
Here is Elizabeth again getting ready to go to the football game. The chorale sings the National Anthem for each home game. They sound awesome!! Doesn't she look cute!!
Senior 2009! Go Spartans!