Homecoming 2009!

[*First off I want to say, please don't forget to comment to Kristy on her birthday blog because she waited almost two months for that blog! Maybe some nice comments will get me out of the dog house. Thanks!]

This past weekend was homecoming at good ol' MLHS! The events started off with a Homecoming assembly and (in true Chiefs' style) the first thing that happened was that everyone had to evacuate the gym because someone pulled the fire alarm. How nice!

Here is a picture of Kendall and Kylie right before they performed with the drill team at the assembly:


It was a beautiful night and the Chiefs won their game against Davis! Here is the half time scoreboard to prove we were ahead...



Our good friend and fellow Molahiette and fellow dancer, Kiersten Redal, was named Homecoming Queen so we were all happy about that!

Kylie went to the dance with Jordan Wilks. As you may remember, Jordan (aka Troy) asked Kylie (aka Sharpay) to the dance after one of the High School Musical performances. Little girls all over Moses Lake are still traumatized by that event. How could Troy choose Sharpay over Gabriella! Many young girls were visibly shaken as they avoided Sharpay in the hand shaking line. It was very cute.

First we found the dress:



And then we found the shoes:



Luckily, Jordan is quite a bit taller than Kylie because these shoes made her about 6'1". (Normally I would make a joke now and probably call her "Ginormica" but since that is Kacey's regular heighth, I'd better refrain!)



Jordan arrived looking good with matching attire.





Now onto the obligatory exchange of flowers that nobody really wants. I tried to convince Kylie that boys do not want boutonnieres (yes, I had to look up that spelling.) I succeeded in talking her out of getting a boutonniere for her first date to a formal dance and assured her that her date would thank her for it later. It turned out that he whined and complained all night that he didn't have a flower! Seriously? So even though I believe he was the one and only anomaly, she no longer believes me that boys do not want boutonnieres. Oh well, I tried!

The corsage was easy enough:



But boutonnieres like to be difficult!









Five minutes later and with mom's help (though really I didn't do any better than Kylie) we have a successful flower exhange!





Here is Kylie's typical Asian picture as a shout out to Tricia!



I just have to share with all of you how little this outfit cost. It wasn't our intention to save money (don't tell David!), it just sort of happened. When we bought the shrug, it wasn't for this dress but it looked really cute with it and someone stole my sewing machine the week before Homecoming so it worked out that I didn't have to add sleeves. (I know! Who steals a sewing machine? It disappeared from my house when I was in New York. Arrgghh!! I have lost hope that someone just borrowed it because it hasn't been returned yet and I don't know who would do that- even though it would have been fine.)



dress - $19.99 at Ross
shrug - $12.99
shoes - $22.99
necklace - $22.00 (the necklace was more than the dress!)
hairband - $12.99
extra rhinestones to add to buckle and bodice - $5.00

Less than $100 from head to toe = gorgeous! (Although, granted, Kylie would look gorgeous in burlap sack!)

Kristy's birthday blog - finally!

24 reasons why I love Kristy!

1. She was a beautiful baby. (I would have loved her anyway, but isn't she cute!)



2. She is kind.

3. She is funny.

4. She is a Simpson's trivia expert.

5. She was a great sleeper. Even when she was in Kindergarten she would go to school in the morning, come home and take a nap and still go to bed at 8:30! Here she is taking a little nap in the restaurant during a break from Sea World.



6. She is a great cook.

7. She has a strong testimony.

8. She wore the same Halloween costume two years in a row. I honestly can't remember if this was my idea or Kristy's?!

1987 - Mini & Mickey:


1988 - Jem and Mickey?


9. She is smart.

10. She gets us Marriott discounts.

11. She was and still is a good missionary.

12. She can rock the short haircut.



13. She loves good food.

14. She is a great sister. (There may have been some instances in the past that she is not proud of...)

15. She wore a McDonald's happy meal pumpkin bucket on her head for about 6 months. I have no idea why!



16. She is always in search of the perfect creme brulet.

17. She is an excellent employee.

18. She chose sports over dance. (I just don't think I could have handled one more dancer!)





19. She is a good and loyal friend.

20. She is optimistic.

21. She has nine lives. (3 down, 6 to go!)

Accident #1:


22. She is honest.

23. She has great taste in men.



24. Her Uncle Doug once said, "The best way to describe Kristy is that she is without guile." (If you don't know what that word means, look it up.) I think it is one of the best compliments that a person could get.

I love you Kristy!

Happy 24th Birthday (a little late!)

Poor Kristy!

So Kristy's birthday was August 30th and still no birthday blog for her. Poor Kristy! On Kristy's birthay, David and I were celebrating our anniversary and his birthday in Victoria. I wasn't a good enough mother to get it done before we left on our trip. Oh how I wish I was that good of a mother. Alas, I leave for New York in 15 mins. and my goal was to get the blog up before I left. Of course, my scanner is not cooperating so I cannot post the pictures that I wanted to post. It looks like Kristy's birthday blog is still going to have to wait. I'm sure she won't mind. She is starting to know just how Courtney feels as the forgotten middle child!

I spent last week with Kristy in Utah doing wedding stuff. We found a wedding dress and it's gorgeous. Not very many girls can pull this dress off but Kristy can. We also got their engagement pictures take and there were a lot of cute ones. The camera loves Kristy! (It likes Trevor - but it loves Kristy!!) Now we have to design the invitation. So much to do but Kristy is handling it like a pro.

I am so happy for Kristy. Trevor is a wonderful guy and I think they are going to compliment each other nicely. I am thrilled for both of them. Trevor recently fixed my computer which had a virus and he bought me an external hard drive so I can back up my stuff - how's that for sucking up to his future mother-in-law! I like it!!

Kristy, you have always been and will always be special. There is just something about you. I love spending time with you. I loved spending time with Brad and Courtney too. I forget how much I miss them when they are away at school. There is no one that I would rather be with than my kids. After all those years of trouble, who would have thought that they would turn out to be my favorite people in the whole world?

I love you Kristy. Your birthday blog is coming! At least I hope it is!! I still haven't posted about picking Brad up in Slovakia. I just need a little more time!!!

Happy 14th Birthday Bryan!

I am way behind on posts but I am going to do Bryan's birthday blog first and work my way back to Kristy's birthday and my anniversary - hopefully!

Bryan turned 14! I can't believe my youngest is 14. I never thought this day would come. When all my kids were little I would look at moms in the ward whose youngest kids were teenagers and I just couldn't imagine when I would ever get there but here I am.



When I think about Bryan when he was young, the same word always comes to mind... trouble! It seems like he was always getting into something. As a baby, he did not sleep much. I was so used to my young babies sleeping a lot during the day and then Kendall decided she wanted to be awake most of the day and then Bryan came along and slept even less than Kendall. As a tiny baby, he rarely slept during the day and when he did it wasn't usually longer than an hour. He really threw a wrench into my schedule. I counted on infants to sleep so I could get something done. He was adorable, though, so that made up for it!

He was so cute with his strawberry blonde hair. I think one of his biggest fans was Nesha Roylance. Every time she saw him she would say, "That kid is so stinkin' cute!" (Maybe she says that to all the little boys but she sounded pretty sincere. It always cracked me up.)



The following picture of Bryan brings back a lot of memories! He would constantly find shampoo,conditioner or lotion (often all three!) and put it in his hair. He would also dump the bottles into the bathtub and make a big concoction. None of my other kids did this but he did it all the time. We tried to keep things out of his reach but with 6 older siblings, there was bound to be shampoo around. How can you not love this kid?



I was always amazed that my kids did not write on walls. It just wasn't a problem around our house. Then Bryan came along and made up for all of them. We couldn't get him to stop writing on walls! I hoped that he would outgrow it by the time we got into our new house and he just about did. The last surface he wrote he was 3 years old and it was on a dresser in my closet. It was permanent marker and I was so grateful that it wasn't a wall in our brand new house. I still have Bryan's artwork on my dresser from 11 years ago. I took this picture today. It makes me smile now but it wasn't so funny then. I could have relaxed if I had known it was his last work of wall art.



For his birthday he had some friends over for some paint ball wars.



Zach Dart, Chandler Stever, Noah Noble, Sheldon Law, Kenan Dehart, Reece Leavitt, Cameron Law, Ben Crowell, Bryan, Easton Baker, James Hurst



Then Grandma Earl came over and made her famous scones! Yummy!!



Bryan and Grandma Earl:



All the party credit goes to my wonderful husband who planned it all while I was gone in Utah. He's a gem and he knows what is fun for boys. Here is David and Bryan:



Bryan is a great kid. We were so happy to have another boy. He is the perfect caboose for our family. (Although I must admit that I have told Bryan - maybe more than once - that we wanted 8 children but he was the straw that broke the camel's back! I said it lovingly?)

We look forward to watching Bryan grow. I do always say, though, that if he turns out bad... his brothers and sisters will have to take the blame! They have had way more influence on him (for good and bad) than his father and I have. I am hoping that it has been more good than bad!!

Luckily, he has good friends as you can see from his illustrious paintball group. Here are Bryan and Easton Baker:



I love you Bryan. Happy 14th birthday!

Look out girls, he's coming to the stake dances...