Sunday Activity

Tess and Noah had fun on a lzy Sunday afternoon making videos and taking pictures of themselves. I love it when they have fun together.

"Oh Say Can You See"

Noah sang the Star Spangled Banner for his school's commemoration of Veteran's Day. He did a great job. One of the men honored was a Tuskegee Airmen, they were the first black pilots, and they fought in WWII.

Halloween

Halloween was alot of fun in the neighborhood. We had the neighbors over on our front driveway for a pot luck. We had pizza, pasta, salads and pumkin desserts. It was so fun to get together before trick or treating. There are a good group of boys for Noah to play with and ven a few girls for Faye. We live in a great place and love our neighbors.
This is Lana, she is the official hugger in the nieghborhood. We love her, she is always so positive and happy


Noah and the boys eating pizza, Noah is like a rock star to them.





Can you believe everyone of my girls wore this BYU Cheerleading outfit, from Brooke to Faye.
It was a great investment and is still in good shape. I'm sure Reese will wear it in a couple of years.

I made skunk costumes for Chelsea and a couple of her friends. Noah saw me making them and wanted to join in on the fun. He does not like to be anything scary and in fact still doesn't like to walk into a Halloween store.

Tess was a ballerina/butterfly.

She went out with a great group of girls. We are proud of her and all the good choices she is making.

Teenager!

Can you believe it Noah is a TEENAGER!
13 years old and what a great boy. I don't know if there is a boy with a kinder heart than Noah. He is really maturing and in school he is growing by leaps and bounds.
There once was a time when he was 3 years old and he hadn't talked yet, oh my goodness, not so today. Noah is the master story teller and the wise giver of Noahisms. Just the other day a boy at school wasn't being very nice and Noah said,
"If he keeps that up, he is going to have a BAD Future."
We love our boy!

Where have all the flowers gone?

I came out of the house last Saturday to find all my flowers gone. Not a single rose petal or geranium left in the front yard.
I asked, "Faye, What did you do?"
Faye replied, "I made a flower path just for you Mom, you're not mad at me are you?"
I paused then said, "Of course not"
How could I be, she made it just for me!

A Weekend Celebrating the Girls.

We had a weekend celebrating the older girls in the family. First Glen and I flew to Utah to watch Chelsea play volleyball against the Utes. Wow, what a game, lost in 5, but it was a heart stopper. So fun to see her play.

Next we flew home on Saturday morning just in time to catch Tess play soccer. She had been sick with a fever the day before, but really wanted to play. She played keeper great and then score a goal in the second half. It was fun to watch her.

Third, it was Brooke's birthday on Sunday. We had Thai Dara, which I ordered on Saturday. And we got her an electronic piano for her home. She is awesome, "I have never wondered about you."

Love all my girls, it is wonderful to watch them grow into outstanding women.

You are no longer a woman, you're a Mom!

Yes, it's the mom jeans of the 80's. Found these great Gitano Jeans at DI in Draper for Julie Vance's 40th birthday. And the blouse and bow were definitely my style. I don't know how we wore those pants or why. And Glen actually proposed and married me in the 80's. He must have been attracted to more than just my fashion sense.

Lowers

Glen and I spent the morning yesterday with Diane and Curtis Reese relaxing on the beach. It was a beautiful day.

The Hurley pro surfing contest was taking place at lowers and we trecked on down took a sit and watched for about
2 1/2 hours. Talk about a relaxing time, with great friends. I had a house hold of things to do, but sometimes you just need to go anyway.

By the way Kelly Slater was awesome, he did a great 360.

I wish I could go watch again today, but the things of life are getting in the way.

Noah got a haircut.

For the past 20 months, Noah has been growing his hair out in dreads. He and Glen drive to LA every 6 weeks and get his hair twisted.
Probably everyday someone commented to Noah about his cool hair. But sometimes, cool isn't where it's at. On the day of the last scheduled trip to LA, Noah didn't want to go. Seems it hurts a whole lot to get each piece twisted, it was comfort Noah wanted, and so he got it.
His comment when it was all gone, "
"My head feels so light" I think he looks super handsome.

1st Day of School

Is is too cliche' to say, Time Flies? But it does, it truly does.


Tess is in 9th grade, high school at Dana Hills, she seems fine about it, but I have had a really hard time. She will be fine I know, she is a great girl.

Noah is in 7th grade, and everything is pretty much always fantastic to him. Don't know is there is a better boy than him.

Faye would have rather stayed in kindergarten forever, but alas she is a 1st grader. Change is hard for her, but she has a wonderful teacher and will be fine. It seems just like yesterday I got the phone call of her arrival.

Life brings changes and like Faye I have to deal, it's just hard when it's your little ones growing up and having to face the world. I am thankful for prayer.:)

...and so the sun sets on our San O summer nights

Summer Monday nights at San Onofre are wonderful. I think if you ask my kids what their favorite tradition is it would be San O.

Our last night was fun, lots of friends and everyone had a great time being together. I think it being the last one made everyone stay just linger a little bit longer and have just a little bit more fun together.

Family, friends and the beauty of the earth.

What more can one ask for?

Party for 4

Faye, Reese, Brooke and I had a tea party on Saturday. It was too hot outside to go any where and so Faye and I planned this special event. The cake was from Ralphs and surprisingly very good. Thank goodness Noah's friends in the neighborhood came after the party was over (noah did not want to take part in a girl's tea party) and finished off the cake so I wouldn't.

Happy Children make for a happy mommie and Gigi!

Baked Alaska

This summer Tess has worked on and completed three of her value projects for Personal Progress. We spent 10 great hours in the kitchen together for her knowledge project and she learned about cooking. She learned how to chop and dice and slice many vegetables for minestrone soup, Glen really loved this dish. We rolled out sugar cookies (using Diane's famous recipe) for the boys who were working on Noah's eagle project. We also made homemade salsa and homemade ranch dressing, plus the yummy pretzel jello salad. The cream of the crop though was our Baked Alaska. We molded the ice cream in a dome shape and put it on top of some pound then Tess seperated eggs (very tricky) and whipped up some fluffy egg whites. She put it over the ice cream and popped it in the oven. And taada! the ice cream doesn't melt. Very fun and facinating to all.

Noah's Lego guy climbing the Baked Alaska.

The finished dessert.

Other projects we did were learning how to sew. She made a happy birthday banner for her future home and a car quilt. The last project was organizing her room and her wardrobe for the start of high school. It has been fun.

Fun At The Pool

On the oceanside of Corolla Light is a pool.  it is fun after the beach to jump into the pool.  

All the sister-in-laws.

Brooke and Charlee enjoying the coolness of the pool.

Tess, Faye, Danny and Matthew 

Chelsea getting some sun.

Push-up Contest

Thru out the week there are contests going on.  This day at the pool there was a pushup contest.  Glen, Taylor, KC, and Brooke entered for our family.

Taylor was the ultimate winner!

Way to go Brooke, she was the top female.

I don't know how Glen didn't triumph with his Mitch Gaylord abs.

Crabbing

Our house in the Outer Banks is on the sound side.  Just out back we have a dock.  The kids love to go down and tie up some chicken necks and throw them out for the crabs.  The crabs start nibbling and then you pull up the string and get the crab in the net.  Alot of the crabs were too small and fell right thru the net.  But a couple were keepers.  Below is the one that Faye caught.  

Faye's catch with Tess' help

Matthew, Shae and Faye

Danny seeing what he caught.