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!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today would have been my Mom's 66th Birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!! On August 22nd it will be 8 years since she died. We miss her being a part of our lives so much! But, we know that her spirit lives on and that we will all see her again someday!!

I've been thinking about her a lot recently and have tried to pinpoint the different things that I learned from her. I guess the greatest thing I learned from her was her example of love towards everyone. She always smiled and made those around her feel special. My children absolutely adored her. Our guest room became "Grandma's Room". She made each of my children feel special and loved for who they were. She never chose favorites. She was incredible! When she passed away a huge hole was felt in our lives. Yet, we feel her closeness to this day. I have felt her presence on many occasions. I have felt her beside my children as they sit at the piano playing it. I have felt her with me as I have had struggles. I am so grateful for her life, for her example and especially for her love. Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you and miss you so much!!

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!!

Graduation Party!!

The night before graduation we held a graduation party honoring all the high school graduates from our ward. All the moms had gotten together to help decorate and to bring yummy food for a fun evening to honor our children. It was great having them all together. We have known several of the graduates for quite a few years!

The graduates of the Katy 3rd ward are:

Elizabeth McShane (will be attending BYU-ID), Kendra Davis (BYU), Aubrey Steenhoek, (BYU-ID), Blake Redfern (BYU-ID), Carter Peterson (BYU), John Oettli (planning on mission in August), Taylor Schroedter (BYU), Connor Allred (Texas school), Zach Wheeler (HCC), Emily Felt (BYU), Rachel Olsen (BYU), Stephanie Vance (Houston), Anna Moore (BYU).

They are an amazing group of graduates!!

Partial group picture Congratulations graduates and good luck as you take your next step!

Trent's 5th Grade Graduation

On June 3rd Trent officially graduated from the 5th grade and elementary school. It was actually a very emotional day for both me as his mom and for him. He had an absolutely incredible 5th grade year and having it come to an end was really hard for him. Trent began school at Kilpatrick Elementary for kindergarten and was there for K, 1st, and 2nd and absolutely loved it there! I feel very strongly that a good principal makes a great school. Mrs. Fleming was his principal there and she is awesome! Well, 3rd and 4th grade a new school opened and we were moved to it. 3rd grade teacher abandoned the class before Christmas and left us all in limbo and the way the principal handled it wasn't the greatest. 4th grade the teacher was great, but Trent wasn't happy at the school. It was a hard few years. And then 5th grade started. Another new school built just a few blocks from our home. Bonnie Holland was opened and we got Mrs. Fleming back! All I can say is what an awesome year it has been! Trent has been able to ride his bike to school. He loves his teachers and the principal makes school a fun place to be!! At graduation Trent got a little emotional as he realized it was all ending. How grateful we are for a great year!!

Graduation was great!! Elizabeth was done with school so she was able to join Darin and I as we watched our handsome boy walk across the stage and receive his certificate of completion. Emotionally I was doing good until the principal informed us that we only have 7 years left with them before they are off to college. Open the flood gates!! It hit me quite hard. My little buddy is growing up on me! He has had a huge growth spurt this past year and I know that all too soon he will be towering over me as well! How proud I am of my little Trent and all his accomplishments this year! Way to go Trent!

This picture is a little blurry - Trent receiving congratulations from Mrs. Fleming as he walked across the stage.Trent and his homeroom teacher Mrs. Gutierez.
Trent and Mrs. Fleming

Our happy 5th grade graduate

Trent with Mom and Dad

After graduation we wandered over and found Mrs. Getz room. Mrs. Getz was Trent's 1st and 2nd grade teacher. She took her entire 1st grade class and moved up to 2nd grade with them. What an awesome experience that was!! We all love her so much!! She is Trent's all time favorite teacher and we were thrilled when she moved over to our new school this year so we could see her again! Trent loves to see her in the hallways at school!

Trent with Mrs. Getz in 2nd grade. He's grown up just a little!!

Congratulations Trent!! We love you and are so proud of you! You'll do great in Junior High next year!!