Free Dress Day!

The kids normally have to wear uniforms to school. But once a semester, they have the chance at the elementary school to get a free dress day if they have earned one or more ribbons for their report cards. The categories are Perfect Attendance (the only ribbon opportunity for Kindergarten), Honor Roll, and Excellent Conduct. Trevor and Hayley love being able to sport their own styles on these days. I forgot to take the picture before school, so this picture is after playing on the playground for an hour afterschool.

Way to go Hayley & Trevor!

For all you HSM fans, Trevor is wearing the shirt Chad wears in the first scene of HSM2. His friends thought it was pretty cool. If you don't know what HSM is,it is High School Musical from Disney.

The Real Reason for the Take-Out Friday

In the last blog entry, I mentioned getting great Tex-Mex take-out on Friday, something we like to do when special people come to visit or for fun occasions. But I didn't mention the real reason for the splurge this week-end (besides my addictive chips & salsa habit of course). Thanks to Michael, we had good eats this week-end. This week he not only successfully defended his 1st chair French Horn status in the band placements, Michael also won 1st place in his middle school oral Spelling Bee. He will be heading off to the District Spelling Bee competition in a few weeks, being the sole representation of his middle school of almost 1400 kids.
Way to go Michael!

Rain, Rain Go Away...

It has been a cold, wet week. While Jake has loved splashing in the big puddles, it isn't nearly as much fun once he is wet and it is 45 degrees outside (I know, that is warmer weather than some of you guys will see in months!). I think we are all ready to warm up & dry out a little, at least enough to get the new sports seasons started. Trevor & Hayley are playing another season of soccer & Michael is playing flag football, since basketball doesn't resume until summer league. I do think it is funny the Y calls it the Spring sport session and it starts in January. But once the rain stops, the weather is great this time of year here, so I am not complaining!



Also another excellent perk of living here is the awesome choices of Tex-Mex food we have close by. Let me tell you, there is nothing like some delicious fajitas with chips & salsa to warm you up at the end of a wet, cold week! Hurray for take-out! A year or 2 ago, we discovered that a great Tex-Mex restaurant near us offers take out, which has been great to do when we have extra family in town or for special events that we want to have at the house. I can supplement with other foods that I know the little kiddos will eat, and everyone goes to bed happy (and I get to stay up late and eat the extra chips & salsa - my favorite!). Buenas Noches!

Undefeated!

On Saturday Michael finished another season of basketball at the YMCA. His team was undefeated for the season. They did so great in their last game, the referee reset the scoreboard at halftime (since it was already 35 to 0). Great job Michael!

Kisses and Kids

In preschool this week, we talked about the letter K and all the fun words that go along with K. I would say kisses and Jake would always reply that he was kissables. There is nothing better than a kissable kid!

School for the older kiddos this week is Stanford Testing, which translates to no homework for the most part, which they are really enjoying. Adding on to the fun today was my friend Lyn having her baby boy, so her kids came and played before and afterschool. They all had so much fun, they want to do it again tomorrow! I think the sister missionaries I fed tonight probably think we are nuts, but it was a fun day. Plus I got a sneak peak at the cute new baby tonight. How fast those kids grow...we'd better kissable them while we can still catch them!

And the Rockets' Red Glare...

Friday night we went to the Rockets/Timberwolves game. It was LDS/BYU Alumni night, so Mark Madsen of the Timberwolves came and talked to a group of us after the game. For an added treat, our friend Kyle Davis was asked to sing the National Anthem before the game. We had a great time & the kids were fantastic for the whole game and the wait afterwards for the Mark Madsen meet 'n greet. And of course, the Rockets won 113 to 82!

Mark Madsen

The Mangum Clan

Jake running after the game (you'd think he'd be tired by 10:30 at night...not so much!)

Trevor and Jake cheering on the Rockets

Hayley getting into the game

Michael & Don

Kyle singing the National Anthem

Eating cotton candy was a family favorite!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Eve, we have the tradition of making a pinnapple man centerpiece for the party table. This year, Hayley took control and our pinnapple man became a beautiful pinnapple woman, complete with a gorgeous edible necklace! The night was a little quieter without any visiting family over New Years, combined with Michael and Trevor getting over a stomach bug. But we all managed to stay up and toast in the New Year, playing fun games like Apples to Apples, Scene It, Harry Potter version, and of course, bowling on the Wii!

Happy 2008!

Welcome to our Blog!

After reading the fun blogs of so many of our friends and family, we decided to give it a shot! Michael is trying desperately to make his parents "off the chain" (translation - cool). He didn't think his parents were fly enough to do a blog. So here we are...of course, I needed Michael's help to get it started! Welcome to the world of Mangum Mania here in Texas!