12 years and counting!

It is amazing to me that our first child was born over 12 years ago now!  I remember all of the great firsts... being pregnant and all of those changes, going over my due date, getting induced, holding our fist baby after delivery, sleepless nights, cuddles, laughs, tickles, and lots of diapers too!  It seems like it can't have all gone by so fast, but it has.  We are entering into some exciting times now that Talmage is 12!  He is old enough to be ordained to the priesthood, he gets to go to mutual and do camp outs and lots of other awesome scout stuff. 

 

Talmage is a great son!  He is really responsible and helpful.  He loves to learn new things and set goals to accomplish them.  He still loves to read :).  He is a great older brother and will be a great husband and father some day. 

 

We had a small family party because family was coming into town the next week to be here for his ordination. 

 

Here he is opening presents.  

 

 
His present stash!

 
Daddy loves to light the candles on the cakes.  Talmage and Grant got to help this year too ;).  Talmage even made his cake all by himself.  It is an apple cake and was really good!

 

 
Make a wish!

We love our Talmage!  Happy Birthday!

Texans and the Civil War!

A group of us headed out to Fort Worth to the Civil War Museum!  It was a great way to spend our Friday!  It was great to learn so much about the Civil War and see such cool stuff!  We had a group of about 30 kids and 10 adults. 

Here are all of the kids outside in front of the huge cannon.

One of the reenactment soldiers did a demonstration before we entered.  We got to hear one of the guns being fired!  It was pretty cool (and super loud)!

We had a clothing lesson.  The lady talked about cotton and the war.  She then went over the dress of the day.  I got to go up and demonstrate the corset :)

I think this could be a good way to help me with my posture, not just my figure ;)

Three of the girls got to demonstrate the other outfits.  Alex wore a typical traveling dress.  Ashley is in a working dress and Rebecca in a warm cloak.  It is interesting to see how far clothing has come.  

Here the men are showing off the soldiers clothing, equipment, supplies, and weapons.  

The kids liked the weapons the best :)

What they would have had in their satchels. 

Some of the old Confederate Flags

These were battle flags, not the Confederate national flag.  Each unit had thier own and would make it unique with their name and such on it.  

Ulysses S. Grant's sword.

Enjoying the exhibits

Cannons :)

Tiffany and Owen 

Talmage and Grant

The beautiful Victorian Dresses :)

Tiffany's favorite ;)

Mandy modelling an Abraham Lincoln beard :)

I'm so glad we went.  The kids really seemed to learn a lot and to get excited about history :)

Dallas Art Museum

Tiffany set up a field trip to the Dallas Art Museum for us and friends.  It was our first time going there, but not too far from the museum we have been to in downtown Dallas.  The parking was terrible and took us several times circling to figure out a good spot.  Once we found each other and the museum the day got a lot better ;). 

While on our tour we found our other friends who had been running behind.  We did a general tour of the museum and then th ekids got to make their own creation.  It was a really nice trip!

Here are our friends enjoying the paintings ;)

The museum guide was sure to let us know to be quiet (which the kids did really well at)... and it even seemed that the walls of the museum were there to remind us to be quiet ;).

Cool Roman statue

Sandra and Ella creating

The creation wall.  This is where you make a creation and trade for one already on the wall.  Then yours gets to be chosen by someone else.  It was really great to see the kids so involved with just scraps of materials to work with.

Lorna hard at work

Owen and Talmage

Bree and Mhari

Grant's awesome bull creation!

Talmage's work of art.

Clark

This was my creation:  Feather Face :).   

The art work I took.  Jedi Yoda

Mhari's creation

The boys admiring the art :)

Ella's creation

This was one of the first pieces we saw.  It is HUGE - like the whole wall huge!  It is just chalk on the black background.  I said that my child could have done this.  The guide told us it is valued at 30 million dollars!  Looks like drawing on the walls can pay big money ;).  Interesting how what people consider art!

 President Washington

Sandra's creation

It was a long day.  I'm glad my kids enjoyed the experience :).  Such cute little artists!

Volleyball Time!

I tried to get a volleyball team together at the local rec center for the fall.  I got everything set, but there wasn't enough teams so they cancelled the season.  Well, one of my team members was pretty determined so he kept looking and found a church league for us to join.  We are a mix of two wards and met because of volleyball.  It's turned out well and we are enjoying our season.  

Here's the team ;).  

Chelsea, Adam, Me, Jeff, Laura and Jared!

An action shot ;).  

Yay for volleyball!!!