Go Texan Day!

Today is Go Texan Day in Houston, signaling the beginning of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of our favorite things.  Just about everywhere you went today including the grocery store and library, you saw people showing their Texas Pride.  Of course, some preferred the bandit side of things. Jake actually wanted to wear his bandanna over his face in Kroger's, thinking people would be scared of him.

The kids got to dress Texan for school and watch the Trail Riders ride into town,  passing their school this morning.  It is always fun to watch the kids get excited about the horses, wagons and "real cowboys".

It's Trevor's week to have the flu (Hayley and Jake were hit with it last week), so he missed out on most of the fun. 

Luckily, Luke had enough Texan Spirit today for both of them!

JIMMER TIME!

We had a blast watching BYU beat TCU. The sold out crowd was 3/4 BYU fans, which made it even more fun. Michael went early and watched the teams warm up. 

Michael watching warm-up

BYU Warm-up

Jake & Anna enjoying the snacks

Tip Off

Part of the Gang

Grandma & Grandpa

The kids made signs to hold up at the game.

Jake and his sign

The girls and their sign

Alex and Trevor with their sign

Jean and Cynthia

Even Luke got into the action, dancing, cheering and clapping his hands.  He loved sitting next to Grandmommie and Anna and making silly faces.

Anna, Luke and Grandma having fun

After the game we were able to go hear BYU's head coach, Dave Rose and 2 of the freshman players, Kyle Collinsworth and Logan Magnusson speak for a couple of minutes.

Head Coach Dave Rose

Collinsworth announced his mission call to Russia, which got as loud of a cheer as the players did.

Kyle Collinsworth

Michael and Ashlynn

As Magnusson was leaving, he gave Jake a high five.

Jake showing his lucky hand

After we left the field house, we stopped at the bus and waited for the team to leave for the airport, giving one more cheer for our mighty Cougars!

Fans waiting at the bus

Jimmer heading to the bus

It was great having all 17 of us together cheering on the Cougars to another win!

17 Awesome BYU Fans

Jean, Don, Luke

LeeAnna and Ben

The womenfolk

Ben, Grandma and Bob

Quick Trip

This week-end we made a quick trip to Dallas, despite Hayley still recovering from the flu.  She was a real trooper & thank goodness, no one else has gotten sick!  We had fun playing with cousins and seeing grandparents and aunts & uncles. 

We got to take in lots of basketball games on Saturday.  First watching Alex, then Abby play in their games. 

Alex & Trevor

Abby

After Abby's game we headed to TCU to watch the BYU/TCU basketball game.  We had a blast watching Jimmer & the Cougars play. 

After the game we headed back to Bob & Cynthia's for a fun pizza party where we ate, played games and even watched a little more Allstar basketball. 

We came home Sunday afternoon, so it was a super short trip, but full of great memories!

Wax Museum

Trevor participated in a live Wax Museum at school last week.  He had the bright idea of choosing Thomas Edison to portray as a wax figure.  So after lots of research and practice, it was time to perform.  They opened up the Wax Museum to the 3rd, 4th & 5th grade classes to visit, as well as parents.  Hayley & Jake were home sick with the flu, but Don was able to go "press Thomas Edison's button" and record Trevor doing his thing.

Michael's Court of Honor

Last week Michael had a Boy Scout Court of Honor & advanced ranks.  They haven't had a Court of Honor in about 6 months, and Michael has been busy.  He received his 1st Class and Star, as well as 6 merit badges he had earned. 

They also gave him a poster of his climbing the huge rock tower at camp last summer.  It was fun to see Jake's reaction to the rock tower Michael climbed since he had just climbed a "mini" rock wall at the museum the week before - "Whoa, that's gigantic!" 

Field Trip!

Jake had a fun field trip to the Children's Museum that I chaperoned.  In the last couple of years, the museum has been remodeled & it really is amazing. We didn't even cover half of the museum during the couple of hours we were there.  We definitely want to go back soon with the rest of the family.

The bus ride, one of the best parts of any field trip!

The first area we went into at the museum was called the Invention Convention, where they made all sorts of inventions, from lego cars to race down a big hill, to paper airplanes, robots, tools, etc. 

Jake building his Lego car

Fixing the road with his friends

Another area they explored was the Power Play area, filled with Rock Climbing Tower, snow boarding, a climbing 3 story power wall,and Kung Fu mediating and lots of other fun activities.



Dylan & Jake, Kung Fu Masters



Jake snowboarding



Climbing the Power Wall



They also visited the Matter Factory and were able to make molecules and do lots of other science experiments in their lab coats.

Jake and his teacher

Jake & Jean, heading back to school on the bus

iLove

For Valentine's Day we made these cute iPod Valentines for teachers and family.  Luke demonstrated a new skill of slyly unwrapping and eating the Reese Cup ear phones.  I made the first 2 while Hayley was at school & then when they got home, I held one up for her to see...only the strings lay empty.  I wondered out loud,  "what happened to the ear phones?"   Luke came running up, grinned and pointed to his mouth, where there were trace amounts of chocolate.  Apparently he had unwrapped, ate the candy & threw away the trash without me knowing.  I guess you do really have to watch out for those quiet ones!

We had a fun day eating heart shaped food like muffins, sandwiches and sugar cookies.  The elementary school kids exchanged valentines at school, except for Jake, who conveniently left his Airhead valentines in his backpack, because, as I found out after lots of prying, "they say the word HUGS on them!".  Too gross for kindergarten apparently!  The night ended with a fun Love FHE lesson and our favorite Valentine treat, homemade chocolate covered strawberries.

The Big Freeze

February has brought some cold days to us here, including a get out of school ice day.  While it was projected to snow, we only got ice, much to the disappointment of everyone.  Ice just isn't nearly as much fun to play in as snow! 

Jake dressed for the weather
...no shorts today!

Hayley checking out the icicles

But we made the most of our no school day and played games, snuggled and watched movies and ate great food...even if we couldn't make snow pudding.  It was a fun day filled with games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Zingo and Wii. 


Movie Time!




Luke loved having everyone
home to play with!



Trevor ruling the real estate world

Michael schooling us in scrabble

Michael and his apples

Luke helping me with Zingo



Apples to Apples always makes us laugh!



NBA Jam on the Wii

We ended the day toasting marshmallows and making smores.

Toasty marshmallows

Luke loving his first smore!

Jake Having S'more Fun!

It was fun while it lasted.  By the next afternoon, all the ice had melted and it was back to 60 degrees!