Someday I'll miss....

...cereal boxes with faces drawn on them. And....


... the stacked up collections of Capri Sun pouches. (Sorted by flavor.) And...


... the Spring Break pancakes you made (by scratch) for the whole family. And...


.... the homemade puppets hanging on your bedroom wall.

You make everyday magical, Rebecca! We love you!

(Allison lovingly pointed out that I hadn't posted on our family blog for about a month. Wow, when your work is blogging, it's the last thing I want to do on my days off! I'll try to do better, though- I promise! Comments are awesome and keep me going, too. :))

He's still got it!

We didn't want Thomas to feel left out this last week! We're thinking we need to somehow make a family band, but we're not sure how to mesh 2 drummers and a classical piano player with a singer and the violin player.

John's excited that Rebecca wants to save her money for an electric violin. (!) We'll see what we can come up with... :)

It's been a musical kind of week...

Allison participated in a choir competition today. It was serious business- no moving during the performance and NO smiling! (Smiling stretches your vowels- we all knew that, right?)

They did very well! A '1' is the highest mark and they received '1's from all the judges in the concert performance! The picture and video snip (a whole 8 seconds) are from the sight reading portion of the competition. They got a '1' and 2 '2's during this. Hmmm... I was impressed! They learned a whole song in about 5 minutes!

Tuesday Tunes

Rebecca came home last week super excited about their Music program, "Tuesday Tunes." Her music teacher asked the kids in the older grades to sign up to play their musical instrument in the hall while everyone comes into the school on Tuesday mornings. The note said, "First come-first serve" so she made sure to get her note in the next day!

Today was the big day. Look at this cute sign they set up!


Her music teacher was thrilled and said Rebecca was the first one to sign up!


She's had all of 3 or 4 months of lessons, but still she's not afraid to play for her peers. We're so excited that we were able to find a violin teacher again, she starts up again this week!


She played, "Ode to Joy" & "Jingle Bells" & "When the Saints Go Marching In." We're proud of you Rebecca, way to show your talents! (again....)


Here's a snippet for the Grandmas and the Grandpas and anyone else who would like to hear. :)

We never thought we'd do this...

... or go here! See how surprised Thomas is?! We went to the the "Monster Jam" show at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium! The promo team asked me to write up a giveaway for the event on Savvy Sister Shops and gave us tickets for the show in return. They gave us seats on the 2nd row!


We were a little concerned about what the crowd may be like at a show like this. We felt okay about it right away when we saw a member of our Stake Presidency on the first row in front of us! (It was actually suprisingly conservative, believe it or not!)


On the way in... the stadium is, well- like nothing you've ever seen before. I told the girls that the stadium is "sick" and John thought I was trying to be cool. I told him I really think it's pretty sick! :)


As far as the show goes, it was very entertaining to say the least. Lots of huge trucks with huge wheels making jumps, flips and spins over obstacles. (We thought of Uncle Aaron...) The last truck was called "Ultimate Destruction" and he totally demolished his truck. We're pretty sure it was on purpose... Allison and I kept looking at each other like, "What?!!!"


Outside the stadium again- just to prove that we were there! ;)


The promo team sent us some toys and Becca's hat- the kids felt pretty spoiled!


In other exciting news, Rebecca's art was chosen for the "Youth Art Show" in our school district. Here she is with her art teacher, Ms. Johnson and her art work in back. (It's the one with the doves and the basket.) We're so proud of you, Becca!

The basket was textured with glue and she used pastels for this piece. She still needs to name the piece.... I'll have to ask her about that! Way to go, cutie!

Grama & Grampa Ryan in Texas!

Oh boy- oh boy! You don't know how MUCH fun these two have together! They are cute little buddies and all is well as long as we hide Tommy's prayer rock when Henry has a sleepover. :) Here they are at Gatti's Pizza- all-you-can-eat! Grama and Grampa Ryan were in town, so we thought we'd show them to the very best of McKinney!


Jane was a little sad, but VERY patient while waiting for her dinner. She perked right up when the food was served. We think her favorite item on the menu was the cinnamon-sugar breadsticks. Yummy!


All the Texas "kids" outside the McKinney Town Hall (a.k.a. Back to the Future Clock Tower...)


Taking a tour of McKinney downtown. Our favorite shop by far was the MOM and POPcorn shop! What fun (and retro) candy and gifts! They have candy there that you haven't seen since 1978- even the lipstick candies!


Grama and Grampa with all the Texas grandkids outside the Heard Natural History Museum. We had a fun (muddy) hike as well!


"Hiking"- Texas style. As Josh put it, ".000001% grade."


Inside the museum.



Cockroaches, tarantulas, walking sticks- oh my! (and beetles, hermit crabs, and more...)


There were 2 really awesome trees to see on the hike- a 150-year-old Sycamore (seen here) and a 250-year-old Maple. Wow! They are impressive!


Playing with fake plastic bugs is fun to do....


It was Valentine's Day when Grama and Grampa came! Here's Thomas working hard on his valentine cards. He took this job very seriously. What a trooper!

P.S. We're hoping that more relatives of ours may make a trip down south after seeing this post!? We may even venture over to Six Flags and we'll definitely make a permanent Wii character of you. ;) Love you Grama and Grampa Ryan! Please come back again soon!

SUPER Snow Days & Sledding in Texas

We never thought we'd be doing this in Texas! We're so happy we kept our sleds.


(ha ha- those huge gloves of John's look ridiculous on me...)




After 4 SNOW Days, (yes, FOUR straight days of NO school!) we were super happy to get outdoors and have an adventure.


Rebecca had an especially great time. Sick on Sunday & Monday + 4 Snow days stuck indoors= a little onery girl! She recovered quickly while sledding- phew!

John and I had tons of fun taking lots of pictures.

Super style Thomas.

The other highlight of the week was the homemade play dough for our snow days.

Peas in a pod by Rebecca.

Birthday cake (for a 5-year-old) by Allison.

Thomas' version of the birthday cake.

Super scary snake by Rebecca. (After a week like this, we'd still like spring to come back.... in a hurry! We're so glad the ice on the streets melted on Saturday. Now Dallas can get back to business and school as usual.)

You know you're in Texas when....

... you show up for Stake Conference 45 minutes early and still have to sit on the hard chairs.

... you get used to being called "Ma'am", "Sir" or "Y'all" (whether you're alone or in a group.)

... your child brings home a DVD from school sponsored by a Christian summer camp. The DVD includes explanations of "energetic worship."


... 3 inches of snow will cause school & church cancellations.


... the high school football stadiums are bigger and nicer than most college football stadiums you have seen.



... there is a donut shop every 2.4 blocks or so with names like "Donuts", "Donut", "Donut Palace" or "Happy Donuts." (They are only open in the day, however and not at night when we think about picking up some donuts.)


...traffic lights are horizontal.



... it's a HUGE, HUGE, BAD thing to be tardy to school. WOW! 5 tardies and parents get a warning letter about how you could be called into COURT if your child accumulates 10 tardies/unexcused absences. In court, you will need to explain your neglect towards your child's education. (I'm totally not kidding.)


...high school marching band director is a hot, sought-after teaching position and the bands have amazing trailers!



... after the Pledge of Allegiance is said every morning in schools, the Texas pledge is also repeated:
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible."

(*As observed by a small town Utah girl in a new place! We wanted to record our observations of a few differences while they are fresh.)

I love Photoshop.

My new favorite photo.

(Thank you Shelley!)