Howard County GT History Fair

Joshua works pretty hard in school and I was so proud of how hard he worked on this project! He created a website about a battle over water rights in Los Angeles. He spent hours perfecting his website. He got an interview with a famous author. He put pictures and videos on his website. He worked on it almost every single day for a few months!

Here is Joshua with his friend Duncan who won first place in Howard County and who's parents both attended Yale. For that day we felt kind of proud to be in the mix with a 'Yale' family:) Joshua won 3rd place on his project in all of Howard County.


Here is a link to his website: http://50331554.nhd.weebly.com/index.html

Winter Break 2011 Part 2

The weather outside was perfect for miniature golf!


Mike and the kids inside the lodge (they packed their own clothes, can you tell?..I especially like Cameron's all red outfit...ha ha):


Another fun thing they have right next door is this:


My kids love Sonic! Joshua usually loves to get that giant hot dog and eats the whole thing!

Winter Break 2011

Last February we started to get really tired of winter. I started getting really cold! I just wanted to escape to someplace warm, so we did just that! We drove south a few hours near Williamsburg, VA to a fun indoor water park. It was also really nice outside, so we enjoyed a bit of miniature golf and some touring around town. If I had it to do over again, I would have stayed longer:) Oh and since it was also my birthday gift, Mike surprised me with an appointment to the spa with a massage! Isn't he thoughtful?

The first thing Joshua did when we got to our room was this (I don't know what he would have done if he had forgotten his yo-yo):


Can you tell Madeline was excited? She was the first to get her swimsuit on.


This is how happy Madeline was after she went on a few water slides. She surprised me a bit, because she wasn't afraid of any of the slides. I had to hold her back, because I was getting frightened for her!


There was this really cool wave rider that the boys all had a fantastic time on. I'm just so sad because all of those pictures somehow got corrupted on our memory card and all we have is this lame, teeny tiny picture, so if you can squint enough to get the idea..here it is:


Madeline on one of the many slides she excitedly rode:


Cameron coming out of the ginormous water playground:


Madeline after swimming to the side. She has become quite the little swimmer.


Cameron running off a slide, trying to hurry to the next one:


Joshua must have been coming from and going to the next slide:


Zachary walked across some logs that wobble around in the water and he did a pretty good job!


The kids and I in the hot tub. After all that talk about going to a warm place (it was 80 degrees in there), I still longed for more warmth! The hot tub was super nice for that!

More of Christmas 2010

Two good looking shepherds, Joshua with his cousin, Jared.

My sil, Jennifer made the costumes for all the kids. Isn't she talented? The kids love acting the story of baby Jesus out and this year we even had a few babies to choose from (we went with the youngest). Oh and my brother is trying to put one of his kids in the picture, who didn't want to be in the picture. ha ha:)

Christmas with Cousins 2010

Every Christmas Eve we gather with siblings and cousins to eat dinner, act out the manger scene, and open a few gifts from each other.

The cousins have a great time together! (Madeline is wearing an angel hat.)

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? This was almost a year ago. Now they are all three running around, so this Christmas Eve should be even more exciting!

3rd and Last 2010 Baby Blessing

Can you believe there were 3 Schoeny boys born in 2010? I think they are going to have tons of fun together when they get older! It's so fun to watch all three of my brothers with their kids.
The baby blessed in December 2010 is on the right:

I made a cake for him (well really us, since he didn't eat it):

Cake close up (it looks crooked to me..does it to you? I'm going to say it happened on the car ride over...must have been Mike's driving:)

Here's the happy couple cutting their 1st baby blessing cake! Ha ha, we had a great time:)

Band and Singing

Joshua plays the saxophone and here are a few pictures from December 2010's concert taken from the very back of the auditorium with a cheap camera, but I managed to capture him!

Joshua also plays in the jazz band, in addition to the regular band. The jazz band is so fun and is the last performance of the night. I think it's also the best performance of the night!

Zachary plays the trumpet in his band (last year it was elementary school, pictured here and this year it's middle school...pictures of middle school will come soon!). Sadly I didn't even get a picture of Zachary playing in his band. The seating was arranged in such a way that all I could get was this! Oh well, he was there, I promise:

Zach also sang in the chorus and I was VERY impressed with their performance this year!

Cameron sang in the same chorus as Zachary. They both said they didn't like it! I thought that was funny, though, because it was really really good. I guess the teacher was pretty strict with them (part of the reason for it sounding so good, I think!)

Joshua's Birthday

Almost 1 year ago Joshua turned 14 (I can't believe he'll be 15 in less than a month!) Here are a few pictures of the family party we had for his 14th birthday:

Joshua picked Qdoba for his place to eat. We all loved it!

Joshua had 14 candles to blow out. My boys were all in this 'wearing a hat indoors' phase. They thought it was funny and it was kind of cold, so it is kind of understandable.


We couldn't ask for a better 'oldest' child. I don't know why we were blessed with Joshua, but we were. He is the best example for his younger siblings and not only that, but he loves to play with them! My favorite thing is to watch him read books to his little sister! I LOVE that! He also genuinely enjoys playing with his younger brothers, which I LOVE too! He also loves adult time with Mom and Dad, which I of course LOVE!

We Have a Lot to be Thankful For!

Last Thanksgiving (2010) we went to my brother's house. This is a tradition every year, since they have the best "Thanksgiving" house.
We eat food that looks like this: (I forgot to get a picture of the pies and cookies, but we have lots of that too.)

The men gather to watch the football game (and get a little sleep at the same time):

The young men gather outdoors to play a football game (much more fun in my opinion):

The girls play indoors and outdoors doing flips and such on the trampoline:

The little girls do about the same things as the older girls:

The oldest girls do mostly the same as the younger girls (minus trampoline jumping...maybe we should try that this year?):

Family Picture 2010

Last November we went to a little park near our house with our cheap camera and tripod and took our family picture:

It gets so much easier to use the tripod trick with children who are old enough to get it. Madeline took a little coercing, but I can't complain. She was pretty good too!

Since I am posting these pictures a year late, I thought I'd add our most current family picture here: (tripod again, but now we have a better camera)

Leaving for Their Mission

My parents left for their mission to Argentina almost one year ago (November 2010). I can and cannot believe it's been one year. At times, it seems the time has gone so fast and at other times I look at my kids and see how much they've grown and what my parents have missed while they have been gone. It still makes me happy that they are serving the Lord and blessing the lives of many.

Some of us were able to be with them when they were set apart for their mission.

Some of the grandchildren were able to be there too.

I dropped them of at the airport and after they walked into these doors I realized I forgot to take a picture! Seriously? I guess we were so worried about them forgetting something, that we didn't think about a picture. So, I thought all is not lost..........I'll take a picture of the doors of the airport they walked in. Adios la madre y el padre!

Another Baby Blessing Fall 2010

Our family just keeps getting bigger. Let's see....my parents now have 19 grandchildren. I always have to count, because it's constantly changing these days!

This is another little nephew.

Here is the blessing cake I made for him.

Here are his awesome parents (with him). This is my wonderful brother and fabulous sister-in-law. This is their sixth baby. Do you think they look like they have 6 kids? I don't know how they do it, but they still look like newlyweds to me.

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves! 2010

Here on the East Coast we have LEAVES! Tons of leaves, every fall!


The kids LOVE to rake them, but they also LOVE to jump in them! I LOVE to watch them:) It always brings a smile to my face and I found out the other day that some of the older couples who live around us love to watch them out their windows! I guess we are loud and entertaining in this neighborhood!