Happy Halloween

OK, don't everyone fall off your seats! yes, I am posting again! It's been over 6 months, I know! I've been looking at all my siblings' halloween pics and thought I'd put some up for your viewing pleasure! Hope everyone enjoyed halloween and the sugar rush!

Spidermen and Hermoine Granger

The Pumpkin Carving

Emily's Baptism

Emily's baptism was Sunday, March 8, 2009!

She was really excited for her important day. I got the idea from a friend to make the week leading up to her baptism really special, so we made a chart and each day she got to do something special or help get ready for her baptism. Tuesday she had her baptism interview with the bishop and then she got to have a treat. Wednesday she got to pick her favorite dinner. Thursday she got a haircut and we picked out white undies for the baptism. (which btw, stores don't make plain white undies... they all had some kind of color on them). Friday, she got to help make the baptism treats, and Saturday we had a BBQ with Grandma and Grandpa Theriault and her cousins and Uncle Dan and Aunt Kathy. She felt very special and we were glad we got to focus the attention on her.

We were so excited that we have relatives that live near by to help share in special occasions like this one. (Steve's Sister and family live in Round Rock). We were also so happy that Grandma and Grandpa Theriault made the trip down from Canada! It meant a lot to us and to Emily! We are also thankful to all our friends who came out to support Emily!

In our ward all the February birthdays get baptized on the same day, but it just so happened that Emily was the only one getting baptized on March 8th. She helped set the program. She chose her cousin, Caleigh to say the opening prayer, Grandma and Grandpa Theriault gave the talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. All the cousins did a special musical number in the middle. They sang all 3 verses of I am a child of God. They did an awesome job. Steve baptized and confirmed her. Grandpa Theriault, Uncle Dan, Brother Smith (our home teacher and Emily's primary teacher), Bishop Croft, and Brother Matthews stood in the circle. Then Sister Woods and Bishop Croft welcomed her into the primary/ward. Aunt Kathy said the closing prayer. It was perfect. One thing that Sister Woods said as she was talking to Emily about Primary, (they are focusing on Forever Families this year). She mentioned that during the musical number she heard more than kids' voices and she looked over where our family was sitting and she saw Dad and Grandpa and Grandma all mouthing/singing the words. (the kids were really worried they'd forget the words). She said that's how a forever family works... We all help each other. It was really touching.

After the baptism we had a little open house to celebrate! It turned out to be a great day.
We love you Em and are so proud of this step you are taking in your life!

Here are a few pictures from the day. I'm so disappointed we didn't get a full family shot or one with all the relatives that were there.

Emily and Grandma and Grandpa

Grandpa and Grandma and the kids (Noah and Austin were not cooperating as you can tell)

This is as close to a family picture that I got... we're all in it! :)
Daddy and Emily

Waiting for the Baptism to begin

Grandma & Caleigh
I remembered to take a picture of the cake after I had already made a slice in it!


The spread (thanks to Kathy and Steve's Mom)

First Dance

At church when you turn 8 you get to start going to Activity Days. Emily's leaders put on a dance for the girls and their dads to teach the girls how to dance: line dances and to slow songs. Here's Emily and Steve all ready for her 1st Dance!

8 YEARS OLD!

Emily turned 8 years old in February!
She had a friend slumber party the Friday before her birthday.
They all got makeovers!

Opening her presents on her big day!

Her cousins came over for cake and ice cream

We love you Em!

Cowtown 1/2 Marathon

I survived another 1/2 marathon! I ran my first one in October of 2004 in Minnesota! The forecast for that one was 35 degrees with a wind chill of 22 degrees with snow flurries! Now that's to be expected in Minnesota in the Fall, but at the end of February in Fort Worth, Texas you'd think I'd have better odds of warmer weather (especially since it had been 80 degrees the day before)! Oh no, it was pretty much the same forecast for this race minus the snow flurries! Needless to say I was pretty discouraged! Running in cold is one thing, but in wind... that's pretty much the worst weather element I could choose to run in!

I ran my race with my friend, Joy. We stayed in Dallas at her brother's house the night before and left around 5:30 am to get to our race. Our families came up to cheer us on too (just a little later though)! It turned out better than I imagined. It was sooo cold when the race started, but once we got out of downtown, the sun came up, and our bodies were warm from running the conditions weren't as bad and the wind subsided (a little).

I felt really good the first 5 miles of the race and then it got more hilly and it was a little harder. Our goal was to run it in 2 hours and 10 minutes and my official time was:
2 hours:14minutes:59seconds
not bad... just about 5 minutes off our goal.

The day of the race my joints (knees, hips, etc) were all sore and today my muscles are sore, but it feels great to accomplish another 1/2 and it was so fun to be able to run it with Joy. After the race we ate and then my family stayed in Fort Worth that night at the Omni Hotel. (that's another post though)
So there's the low-down on my Cowtown 1/2 Marathon.
Here are some pics:

The kids waiting patiently for mom to cross the finishline (don't they look cold??)

This is me just after rounding the last corner and trying to sprint the last straight-way to the finish line. Steve caught me off guard and yelled to me so here I am waving! (I was expecting them closer to the finish) You can barely see Joy in this pic... she is not right behind me, but you can see her white sweatshirt behind the other girl behind me.

Posing with my cuties! Proud of their Mom!

Joy and Me
(Everyone got medals:))

So, Sew, Sault

I decided to take on the project of sewing matching pajama pants for my family this Christmas. I bought the material in October, but, as usual, was down to the wire with finishing them! My mom taught me to sew as a kid, but I haven't sewn anything as an adult (besides mending things), so it got interesting... from loading the bobbin in backwards to picking out seams, etc. Thank heavens my mom was here over Thanksgiving and Steve's mom was here right before Christmas or I wouldn't have gotten them finished!
So here we are... the camouflaged family!
(Luckily we snapped this picture Christmas Eve because Austin threw up in his bed that night and so he had on nice bright red pjs for Christmas morning)

Curtain Call

I've been talking about redecorating my family room since we moved here over 2 years ago! In November I decided to take it on. We painted, took down the nasty blinds and bought curtains! YAY!