Mikayla and Brianna both had their Drill Team competition on Saturday, November 22nd. Both of their teams took First Place (City Champions) and Best Costume award. They worked so hard all fall season and it paid off for them. Many, many many countless hours were spent practicing their routines and We were so happy for them on Saturday night when they received their trophies. Here is a picture of them befor the competition began. I must admit, it was nice to have this football and drill season over. Until next year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brianna's Community Project

It is that time of year again for our third community project. The project has to be about something here in Mesquite only. Every 2nd grader in our home has had to do one of these and this year it was Brianna's turn. She decided to do Incredible Pizza, which is just an incredible place. It is a glorified Chuck E Cheese with go-karts, bowling, mini-golfing and a fairgrounds area. The food is pretty good and there is LOTS of it! Our kids love that place and it is a bit pricey but a lot of fun! This project took many hours and I am SO glad it is over! I slept great last night knowing it was over!

Halloween leftovers

We had a great Halloween. Brianna decorated a pumpkin for 2nd grade. Our traditional pumpkin contest we enter at Pirrung Elementary with whoever in our family is in 2nd grade. Mikayla did Mickey Mouse, Andrew did Batman, which I believe is shown in an older post from last Halloween and now Brianna decided this year to create Alvin the chipmunk. It was a very Heavy pumpkin and a lot of work. She won first place, which is also a tradition in our family.

Trunk or Treating was fun this year and we had a family picture taken by a sister in the ward. Wayne had been gone all week to Minnesota and we enjoyed spending Halloween with him. All in all it was a great night. Since then, we have been eating a lot of Halloween leftovers and enjoying the candy!

Football Season is almost over. I look forward to having more free time as a family, but we are a big football familyand enjoy watching our boys play as well as the girls cheering. Wayne and I loved watching the game last night against Texas and Texas Tech. What a game!

The Kids in their Saints Jerseys

Gabby and I took a quick trip last week to American Girl Place. We had reservations for Bitty Fun Day and our little date consisted of playing with Bitty Bear and all her friends, coloring a Bitty Bear Picture, playing a few games, a yummy little luncheon and Gabby Oooohing over everything at American Girl Place. She was in HEAVEN to say the least. It was a great memory that she and I made.

This past week, we had Homecoming for the Saints organization and Brianna was crowned Homecoming Princess. She was so excited and loved getting a bunch of extra "Stuff". I say, Football in Texas is like NFL Football. It can be really fun, but also very extreme. We are going a million miles an hour these days. Both Mikayla and Brianna are practicing for their Drill competition and the boys continue to practice super hard. David's little flag team have only won 1 game, but Andrew's team have only lost 2 the entire season. I think little Dave's team are just too cute and adorable for words. They are so little out there playing. It is so fun to watch. Andrew's team is just all tough and tumble. Andrew sure likes to sack when he plays defense or offense. He is a big guy for his age and loves to use his size to his advantage. His coaches have all told us that they wish every player was like Andrew, willing to work hard, listens and follows through with everything he is told to do. He delivers for sure! He plays Center, Tight End and Running Back positions, depending upon the play.

Wayne is in St. Paul Minnesota this week learning about products for his company. We miss him dreadfully. It will be a long week. We have a sister in the ward living with us right now. She had a stroke about seven weeks ago and is staying with us for a while. That has been pretty crazy, but we're adjusting, I think.

We had our Primary Program today and I am so glad it is over. It went really well. Those Saturday practices sometimes stress us leaders out more because we hope and pray the children act better on Sunday than they did on Saturday. All works out for the best though and the spirit was strongly felt during Sacrament Meeting.

I am Really Not With It!

You Know, I never wanted to be the kind of mom that lets things go, but I find that I am so overwhelmed some days that I let things slide. Writing on my blog would have to be the top of my list of sliding. I feel so guilty when I don't write, but feel that FHE, Church, Scripture study, callings, seminary, primary, high grades for each of the four kids in school, sports, scouts, meals, achievement, well things are getting a little nuts around here.

We are busy, but wanted to post to let you all know what is going on! Both Andrew and David are in Football again and Brianna and Mikayla are trying their hand at Cheerleading this year. It has been A LOT of work, but they are so happy. Mikayla, Andrew and I get up every morning and go running at 5:30 a.m. This is during the time when Wayne teaches Seminary! This has been very good for my old body and sore muscles and great for the kids.

I am tutoring two days a week and keeping busy during the school day with our two littlest ones at home. Gabrielle and Amelia are good friends and play together really well.

Wayne is working hard at his new job with Roma/Vistar and campaigning in the evenings for Mike Anderson, (Running for House of Rep. Republican - side)

Finally Home!

We just returned from a long vacation from the northwest. We, me and the kids, went to Idaho to be with Grandpa and Grandma Hawkes. Wayne stayed in Texas. We missed him, but not the Texas weather! We mostly played around G & G's house and swam in their pool! We did take a few turns around the valley to the Sanddunes, canoeing, and zoo, but mostly just relaxed with nowhere to go. It was a very nice change of pace compared to the busy hectic lifestyle of Dallas!

While we were gone, we had a few major changes to our lives. We sold our pizza store, brought on two business partners with us at The Bow Wow Wash and Wayne got a new job. Needless to say, our family lifestyle changed quite dramatically in the last month! It was an amazing experience. The Lord is always mindful of us. Wayne and I have been patiently learning faith over the past 9 months or so and things happened all at once! We should never doubt that the Lord loves us so much, but teaches us a great many things along the way that stretches us to our full capacity!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

I took the Challenge! Which Jane Austen heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

Happenings in a paragraph!

It has been some time since my last blog. I guess I've been busy enough that I fail in many endeavors. On a brighter note, Mikayla made Honor Choir at her school and then went on to make All-city choir. Andrew has been in his first PineWood Derby and got fourth place. Not bad for a first year scout. He is planning on attending twilight camp and getting lots of belt loops and arrow points while there. Maybe they made Twilight camp name after Twilight. I am really a pathetic fan! How droll my life must sound to outsiders. Brianna, the tomboy, had such a compassionate heart, gave a bunch of her pairs of socks to a girl in her class that had no socks and Brianna was so praised by the act of compassion that the principal even wrote a letter to us thanking us for raising such a sweet girl. The next day Brianna ended up visiting the principal's office for punching a boy in the face. Talk about bi-polar, even though she isn't, she can be very extreme. She is a perfect example of Dr. Jeckyle and Mr. Hyde. David is just David and thinks that boys rule the world. Gabby is now potty-trained and "No Binkies" trained. She was Very unhappy with her Dad about this binkie move, but she seems to be more grown up for the loss off binkies. Mia is just Mia. SWEET AS PIE and my little piece of heaven. Wayne stays busy between the Pizza store and the Bow Wow Wash. He works so hard! I am staying busy with the kids and am in charge of the children's choir for Stake Conference coming up in three weeks! We are excited about that !

Miss Mikayla and her artwork

Time has gone quickly as of late. We had spring break and my parents came out to spend time with us. The kids loved it and we were able to spend time fixing things up around the house! Wayne worked both the Bow Wow Wash all day until 8 p.m. and then went to work at the Pizza Store each night until close. This lasted for a week and he was completely exhausted each night. Bless his heart! I think I saw him at the house a time or two!

Mikayla and her talent in art is beginning to show! Her artwork done with the art teacher at Pirrung Elementary was selected to be placed at show at the Professional Building in the City of Mesquite. We attended a reception in her honor and I was very amazed to see something so abstract come from little Mikayla! It was Very Good! Then, within a week of that reception, she was notified that her Reflections art piece placed as Third in the District. This is amazing simply because there are something like 32 elementary schools in the district. She loves art and loves to write, Maybe she'll be an illustrator/author! She definitely has the talent for it!

Included are two pictures of Mikayla's B-Ball team at playoffs. They went in undefeated, but lost to a team from inner-city Dallas. I have never seen girls play so mean! Yikes!

Twliight Saga

Have you ever been into something so much that it emcompasses your thoughts in Everything you do? You analize it against all else. Well, that would be me as of late. My mom introduced me to the book Twilight about three weeks ago and sent me the three books out by Stephenie Meyer. It is a series of books about a human girl, Bella and a vampire, Edward. The author graduated from BYU, is a member of the church and the books are Great! If you haven't read them, you should! It is a fun read and I never imagined that vampires could be so cool. I am more the Jane Austen type reader, but I have now broadened my scope! The last and final book comes out August 2nd and I am finding it very difficult to wait that long, so I started over again with book 1 and will see what a missed the first time I read through them. The movie, based up the first book, will come out in December! It will be a great year for movies with Harry Potter #6, Twilight and don't forget about Indiana Jones in May. Holy Cow! I don't normally get so excited, but how fun to look forward to!

Political Junkies!

Could politics becoming too much of a topic in our family? Andrew informed Wayne on the way home from church yesterday that he would not be voting for Mike Anderson as state representative and would be voting for Thomas Latham. This statement surprised Wayne. I don't know why? Andrew is always Mr. Analytical and on the In with what is going on. Andrew's comments still surprise me too! Wayne and Andrew got into a big discussion on these two representatives and in the end, Andrew got frustrated with Wayne trying to be positive with both candidates. His statement ended with, "Well, I can't vote for another ten years anyway so I am not going to worry about it anymore!

Tuesday, March 4th, is election day! Thank Goodness! I am tired of election mail and phone calls with all this mess! I won't even comment on John McCain. I just end up hanging up the phone during the surveys because I just can't bring myself to state that I will vote for John McCain or Huckabee. Filling in a dot will be a lot easier than hearing my voice state that I can vote for anyone, but Mitt! What a blow this has been and not been easy for me to get over! It's been weeks and I am still depressed over it! When will it end? Probably oh, NEVER!

Mom, Didn't You Know?

Yesterday, after school, I was finally relaxing after working through three kids homework assignments, signing folders, analizing school pictures that had come from school that day, getting everyone a light snack, making some phone calls about the Children's choir for Stake Conference, organizing practices for basketball tournaments this weekend . I decided I just needed to rest my feet for one brief moment. In that ONE BRIEF moment, Andrew comes up to me and says, "Mom, didn't you know that I was made to Eat instead of just sitting around and playing my DS? I believe Andrew was trying to say that it was time for dinner. Well, another day, right? That one question says it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Chaos Has Begun

We opened our new Bow Wow Wash business on Monday, Feb. 4th. This means that Wayne is always at the business, teaching clients how to wash their dogs, sometimes smelling like a wet dog himself , but I love him anyway. He is the greatest. He only got bit once last week and I think this next week will be better.

We did a dry run before any one else tried our business and Darby got Spa Lavished by our family. He smelled GREAT afterwards and sat at the grooming table for about 1 1/2 hours while we de-matted the poor guy. I guess when your an Irish Setter, you should learn to brush your own fur. Do you think that will ever happen?

David had his ear tubes taken out last week and is still struggling with problems in the ear area! He was so miserable at church yesterday that we wouldn't even go to Sister Casserole's (Sis. Castro - really - David says Casserole) class. That is a first for him to not want to go to Primary!

Mikayla and Andrew are finishing up basketball season. Both are on great teams! We have tournament next weekend and so both my babysitters will be busy! What will I do?

I decided to go to Amy W. (used to be Jensen) baby shower on Saturday night and left my two oldest in charge of the other four. They were being major couch pototoes watching Scooby Doo I and when I got home, all six were in the same position watching Scooby Doo II, even the Pea Pod (12 months). I had picked up a pizza before the baby shower and it hadn't even been touched when I got home! I was shocked at the intense focus of the kids that not even Andrew had gotten something to eat when all he thinks about is food! We hurried and bathed and did all the necessary Saturday night routine stuff to get ready for Sunday! I felt great when by 9:00 p.m. I had everything ready for Sunday, even the meat browned and ready to be put in the oven Sunday morning, Jello made, clothes laid out on the couch for all the kids with all the kids in bed, and then realized that I didn't ever feed the kids that pizza. It was still in the same spot! Well, no one complained and felt that it would be okay this once to not stress over it! I think having six kids teaches you to not stress out and that if you do, your whole life would be a stress out because having six kids is Stressful! Did that even make sense? What?

Sunday evening, Wayne had a Presidency meeting at our house and I found myself hanging out in Mikayla's room. We did some scripture reading and Faith in God signing off stuff and had a great time together! She is a good girl and growing up way too fast. I do not look forward to when the kids are gone! I love noise, really!

It seems since our church schedule has changed we have so much more time on Sundays. I have decided that this is a great time to blog. We'll see how long my goal lasts! These are pictures from Six Flags at Christmas time when Mikayla and Brianna sang at the Carousel. It was FREEZING, but we had a good time. We left the babies at home with a sitter and the rest of us braved the cold. We were literally frozen within minutes, thanks to the humidity. We lived for the Sponge Bob Ride and a Looney Tunes Christmas production. These were both inside buildings and it was nice to get warm! The good thing about all that was we didn't have wait in any lines, except for the Sponge Bob ride!

A New Year! A New Family Picture that never made it in a Christmas Card!

Andrew was baptized in December so I thought I would post this great picture of our family. The picture itself is a little crooked, but well - that seems to be like our family anyway and how crazy our house is, that it makes me feel normal to look at that picture. At least the kids all had matching Christmas outfits this year. A First for us,for even the boys had matching plaid ties with the girls' plaid dresses. We would definitely not be found in Better Homes and Gardens or on a Disney Cruise Line picture because there has Never been a time when ALL of us are looking at the camera at the same time. This is very normal, I tell myself. All mothers struggle getting their kids to pose for a family picture. THAT is why computer programs were created to change features on a photo, but by the time I could figure out how to do all that and take the time to do it, my house would be a wreck and who knows what food would be on the ceiling.


Have a Great day!