A wedding

We had a special occasion in our family a few weeks ago, on Friday March 11th Stephen's sister Rachel married Kodie Bennion in the Dallas Temple!

It was a beautiful ceremony and just a gorgeous day! It was a bit windy but it was just a lovely weekend.
Our children looked BEAUTIFUL in dresses made by Grandma McKneely, and REAL pearls that are now carefully guarded by Mom. Sam and Matthew wore bow ties! Sam's wanted one for awhile and he loves it (even though it's pink and Stephen thinks it's a shot at his manhood!)

What's more, this weekend was just full of family. Because we live in the area we were BLESSED (and I really mean that) to have our home just full of cousins and uncles and aunts. We just love spending time together--here are some of the kids waiting outside the temple for the happy couple! They had a great day and weekend and were so well behaved and danced the night away at the reception!And I just have to share how excited our Lindsey was to have Kodie join our family. She knew very well that 1: Aunt Rachel and Uncle Kodie were going to be married in the Temple and that 2: then Kodie will become her UNCLE Kodie! I'll never forget at the family luncheon after the sealing taking Lindsey up to Kodie to give him a hug and call him "Uncle Kodie" and just smile--she was probably one of the most excited for this wedding.

I ran another 5K

Because this blog is part of our family's history I just wanted to document that I ran another 5K race. The Allen Eagle Run was on March 5th. It was super cold that morning and so my time wasn't any better than it was in December even though it could have been.

It happened to fall on the same Saturday as the first week of soccer games and of course it was at the SAME TIME as Kaitlyn's FIRST ever soccer game. I felt awful about missing it.

But I had talked my mom into doing the 5K with me. She walked it along with my dad and I ran it and when I finished I walked back to find them and finished the race with them.

I'm new to this whole running thing and have really found it to be wonderful, and therapeutic and something I'm really proud of. I wanted my mom to find it equally fulfilling, I really don't think she has but I'm so proud of her for finishing it!

I've become a soccer MOM!

And I drive the mini van to prove it!!

Things are REALLY crazy busy at our house. One of the biggest reasons is due to SOCCER!

Both Kaitlyn AND Samuel have begun playing (And I'm ashamed that I still have not taken any photos of Kaitlyn playing--BAD MOMMY, BAD MOMMY!) and for a few weeks I was in limbo trying to adjust to the way their weekly practices changed our family routine. I soon realized that dinner had to be earlier on the nights that they practiced (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and since those were normally "bath nights" we had to find different nights for baths AND be completely ready for bed before their 6:00 practice times because when we all get home from a practice it's time for bed.

This is further compounded as Stephen has a new assignment at church working with the 12 and 13 year old boys as a scoutmaster and he's gone on Wednesdays so our weeks look like this:

Mondays: FHE
Tuesdays: KP Soccer
Wednesdays: Stephen scouts
Thursdays: Sam Soccer
Friday: Date night

But I do have to say that having done this for a few weeks, this has been really nice for our family because while one child has practice it has allowed our other children to play outside and just run around and they LOVE IT!

February Wrap up

AHHHH! I'm sooooo behind, but it's party due to how busy this little guy keeps me--sheesh he's QUICK and into EVERYTHING! But I need to do a little catch up!

February had some fun things for Kaitlyn, she celebrated her 100th day of school! They got to dress up like they were sick and decorate a poster of 100 things. Due to the ice storms that kept hitting our area, that 100th day of school kept getting pushed back and back but the day did happen and here it is!
And then her class got the chance to do the program at her morning assembly at school. They did a lesson on patience (P A T I E N C E--you gotta wait for it!) and as part of their little performance they each had to bring a hat and some sunglasses and she decided to go all out and do this:

AND she has become a bit more of a helper with baby Matthew and is learning how to feed him his food when I'm a bit too busy and he's not willing to wait! Matthew is such a great eater and this time around I've opted to make my own baby food which has been a bit more work but not so much more. And I'm really glad I've taken the time to do it because as we're starting to transition him to table food it's been a lot easier!







And while we're talking about Matthew I just had to share a few cute pics like this one--my sweet boys getting ready for church one morning: Matthew just continues to be a joy and he finds probably the most joy when he's playing with his big brother. Now Sam is a bit rough sometimes with Matthew but he never seems to complain about it. I happened to capture this precious moment of Stephen helping Matthew and Sam box it was too cute!!

Family Photo Shoot

We were a little behind the curve in getting some family photos taken around the holidays so just before all this white stuff showed up, we did manage to have this one gorgeous day and we had a great lady take our family photos.

For the record...

for my 33rd Birthday, I envisioned a quiet, normal day. Wednesdays, my older 2 are at school so things are a bit calmer here. Especially when Matthew takes a nap.

I imagined even getting some scrapbooking done, and doing minimal housework or "chores" since after all it WAS my birthday.

Then that night (while Stephen was away at church youth group) I'd arranged to secretly have a friend come over and "help" me make Stephen some pajama pants for Valentines Day as a surprise. The surprise is the fact that I don't really know how to sew, but I'm trying to learn.

So I wasn't the happiest camper when SNOW, SNOW, SNOW canceled school and turned my birthday into an all-day "mommy do for me" day. I felt like an activity director on a cruise line! When my kids are home ALL DAY LONG it's a long day of work for me. I LOVE my kids, I do, but can I have a do-over?

And then, because of the weather, I had to cancel my evening activities as well and had to give Stephen an IOU for valentines day instead of the real completed item. He understood. But I'm still going to complain about it.

Ice ice baby!

This is Texas, I just want you all to remember that.

So the first week of February shocked Dallas with an ice storm like we haven't seen in YEARS! It sleeted, not snowed, about 2 inches worth and then stayed below freezing for 4 days! Yup, school was canceled from Tuesday-Friday and it was COLD!

What is also noteworthy about this was the fact that it was the first ever time for Dallas to host the Super Bowl and it wreaked havoc on all the plans and all the potential touristy activities planned for our area. And the storm and it's impact on the Super Bowl is what dominated news coverage by far.

We were thankful not to be part of any rolling blackouts that had to happen because our local power plants were not used to generating so much electricity (REALLY? in a place like Texas where it gets incredibly HOT in the summer and people crank their A/C--we can't handle a few days of cold?)

I was grateful for the counsel of prophets who tell us to prepare with having food in the house, we had plenty to eat and ate well. A hot breakfast each morning, lots of hot cocoa, and when you've got full tummies, then most other things seem not as bad.

I had to get creative with the indoor activities. Because this was ice and not snow, there was nothing to play around in outside and what's more it wasn't safe to play outside--way too slippery. So we watched movies, built a few blanket tents, the girls had their toe nails done, we read books, and got a few projects done we've been needing to get done.

Stephen made it carefully into work and home each day except for Friday. It had actually snowed Thursday night (a lot more than expected--like 5-6 inches) and so he stayed home on Friday to play with the kids in the snow and help me get them some exercise. (note the above picture--all bundled up and ready for exploring!) We were all a bit stir crazy, especially Sam--4 year old boys have a lot of energy.