What a busy time we've had!

We've had a very busy week. Last Saturday Kenneth got to be a cub scout for the first time. They did a service project by going door to door to collect cans. He did an awesome job!

WE GOT SNOW!!!!!!!! It was brief but beautiful. No ground cover, but the roofs were white. If it had been more humid it would have been bigger, still I got what I wanted for Christmas!


Sam was a clown in his first school play. He pretended to juggle onstage while sporting his homemade clown outfit. He was so crazy!

Tonight, Evan went bravely up to sing with the Primary at our ward Christmas party. He didn't sing but he went, unlike his brothers who pretended to have stage fright. They eventually went up but their sour faces didn't fit with the Christmas theme. Kudos to Evan!!

Mara had her first visit with Santa tonight too. She was so good! So far we only have one crying child sitting on Santa's lap. Mara just looked around and yawned. It will be more exciting later.

Well, this Christmas will be very special! I can't wait until Christmas morning when they open their presents! More importantly though, we try to focus on the Savior and his birth and what that means for all of us. That he came here as a mortal man, to perfect for earth, to save us individually, is the greatest and most precious gift of all. Happy Birthday to Our Lord. May we always give as he does.

Our very busy weekend

Kenneth turned 8 on Nov 14th and you know what that means. He was Baptised and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was so proud that he made that decision. Also, we blessed our baby girl Mara. She is wearing the same blessing outfit my mom made for me. Thanks to Tara and her boys for coming to Kenneth's party. And thanks to all the Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who made the trek to Austin for a few short days. It was so wonderful to have you here. We love you very much, and we'll see you soon!

Twilight review

I saw it twice! It was incredibly well done with such a low budget. I was very impressed. Nothing compares to the book but it didn't take anything away from it, and it added positively to the whole Twilight experience.

Please leave your review here. I want to know what everyone thought. What did you think?

Also:

SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES

TWILIGHT SEQUEL - NEW MOON Los Angeles, CA November 22, 2008 —

Summit Entertainment announced today that the studio is officially moving forward with the production of NEW MOON, the second installment of its filmed franchise TWILIGHT, the action-packed, modern day vampire love story. The movie will be based on the second novel in author Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series titled, New Moon. The first movie in the TWILIGHT franchise, the self-titled TWILIGHT, arrived in theaters this weekend to sold-out showings.

Stephenie Meyer stated, "I don't think any other author has had a more positive experience with the makers of her movie adaptation than I have had with Summit Entertainment. I'm thrilled to have the chance to work with them again on NEW MOON."

What would you do?

We recently had a cat show up at our door with no collar. It looked rather mangy but he was hungry so we gave him some tuna. A neighbor told us it belonged to our neighbor, Deb, so we took Mittens(aka mangy cat) back home. Deb thanked us and then told us that she was taking him to the vet the next day to put him down. Kenneth caught on to that really fast. She said he was just too old. Almost twenty years old. Anyway, about an hour later Mittens was back in our yard. I haven't fed him, but I haven't taken him back either. I feel terrible about taking him to his death. Kenneth thinks he knows what's going to happen so he's hiding at our place. I don't know. It's been 4 days and he's still here.
Would you take him back?

Does anybody know what Provisional voting is? I do! It's an excruciating way to vote inflicted upon those whose county screwed up their registration! I will not inflict the details of the process on the readers, but I will say that after checking all 5 databases they could only find my canceled registration from Houston, proving that I sent it in, but no one completed it. So After filling out 3 forms and giving them all my ID numbers, making sure I touched every document "for verification", and making me seal the envelope myself, they got all my info, fingerprints, and even my DNA! I was then allowed to vote but I have to wait 2 weeks to see if they will count it. If I get arrested for a government crime, everyone will know I was framed!
Dead people can vote easier than that!

A Howling Halloween!

It was a very nice time this year it was Mara's first (obviously).

The boys had three different events to go to so there was a parade of costumes. Evan was the only one who wore his Bumblebee Transformer costume for everything.

For the school Fall Fest, Kenneth was Spiderman and Sam was Bumblebee too.

For the Halloween Bash at UT Kenneth was Superman. Sam stayed Bumblebee.

But for Halloween Trick-or-treating, Sam turned into Batman, Kenneth became a Vampire, Evan was good ol' bumblebee and Mara became a little Ladybug.

For pumpkin carving, we let the boys clean out the goop and draw a face that Brent and I cut out. Brent did Mara's little pie pumpkin. See the resemblance?

They got a fair share of candy but it will be heavily taxed by their dad.

We've had a Birthday! Shout Hooray!

Yea!! Evan is four! Unfortunately, mommy only had one candle, but he didn't mind.

Daddy tried to get fancy with his cake by doing math problems that equaled five. Then Kenneth asked him why they equaled five, and Daddy said "That's how old Evan is, silly."
Kenneth had the last laugh while daddy took off the sugar numbers to make math problems that equaled four.

Evan got loaded with gifts thanks to our friends and family. Thank You for making his b-day so special. We love ya!

Life saving CPR to the tune of "Staying Alive"

Click here to save someone's life.

Oh My GOSH!! I'm SOOO Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smile on, Angel!

We finnally caught a real smile on her face! She doesn't have gas, I swear!

She does smile in her sleep too!
This is Brent trying to get Mara to smile, but he only managed to suck out her brains. He says it's her fault for tasting so good.

Mara loves to lay on daddy!

Supersilious

It's been a long time since my last entry. Sorry, but it's hard to type with a baby on your lap.

Had to share this though. Sam was telling 'jokes' tonight at the dinner table and was getting prouder and prouder of himself as he thought of better and better ones. It kinda went like this:

Sam: Mommy why did the fireman wear suspenders?
Me: Don't know Why?
Sam: to keep his pants on.
Me: oh my (he he he)
Sam: Mommy why did the curtains not move?
Me: Don't know.
Sam: Cause they could move by themselves!!
Me confused: oh okay hahaha
Sam with pride: I am so crazy.
Me: Oh yeah.
Sam: Mommy why did Mara cross the road?
Me with raised eyebrows: Why?
Sam: To jump over the fires and the chickens HAHAHAHAHA!
Me: That's a good one buddy (insert fake laugh)
Sam with more pride: I am so good at telling jokes. I'm the super silliest.
Me: (Real laughter)!

I am mourning the potential loss of Midnight Sun. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

For the moment it seems Edward is trapped indefinately.

Mara's birth. Not for the faint hearted.

This is rather gruesome but it does have Mara's first cry. It's a C-section, so I'm covered, just really bloody. Plus you can really hear the excitment in Brent's voice.

A lot more pictures.