Happy Birthday Sophie

My second daughter enters the world of teenagers today.  It is so hard to believe.  There was a time I did not think she would make it to the ripe old age of 2.  She had colic, and tested everyone around her.  She is such as joy now - it is hard to believe we ever thought bad things about her.

I decided to post a few pics of her through the years - and yes looking at the pictures did indeed make me cry.

First Easter - she is crying which was typical.

First Christmas - a rare smile.

First Birthday.

18 months or so with Kelsey.

2 at Christmas.

2 1/2 with Aunt Megan.  Megan knelt down to get a picture with Sophie, and Sophie decided she needed to kneel down as well.

4 at the pumpkin patch.

Halloween at 6 yeas old - Becca and Rachel with her.

First Day of Kindergarten with Kelsey and Brian Wilkinson.

 First day of 2nd Grade.

Her 8th birthday.

Random picture of Sophie and Rachel - always being goofy.

First day of 5th grade.

First day of 6th grade.  She hated me for getting her hair cut, but I love it.

First day of 7th grade - this year.

Happy Birthday Sophie - I love you!

What Are They Teaching My Children?

The twins have decided we needed a recycling bin at our house.  I discovered this when I saw this sign.

Here is the actual bin (they went all out).

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't hate the environment, although I have been known to say things like I hate the environment.  To me, the whole environmentalist crap is crazy.  It reminds me of Al Gore, and that makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.  I drive a big car.  I like my big car.  I don't recycle my diet coke cans even though we drink A LOT of it.  If someone came to my house to pick them up, I might.  Too much work otherwise.  I don't bring my own bags to the grocery store.  I could go on, and on.

But, now my kids go to school where they are under the influence of others.  So, a recycling bin made of a Hot Chocolate box it is.  'Cause even though I don't care about recycling paper, I do love those twins of mine!

Back To Normal

I have enjoyed the winter break.  Christmas with all that fun.  Lack of structured activities (you can read in that soccer, cause that is what I am talking about).

It is all over.  This is what greeted me this morning in the kitchen.

I am not an overly clean person - I wish I was.  There are many times our house, and specifically our bathrooms, look more like the Chevron down the street than a nice home.  There I said it...  Judge away.

This morning, however, things were nice and tidy.  And there sits Sophie's water bottle.  It was stay there until about June when our next break happens - that is when she remembers to dump it out.  Many times it is found sitting next to her soccer bag in the family room, which she dumped on her way in the house.  Sigh...  I put it away, and she comes home and dumps it right there.  Most of the time I just give up.  It is a good thing she loves soccer so much.

So off we go back to the old grind.  At least this season I have convinced Caroline to play soccer instead of volleyball, so it will be one less game every Saturday.  That is something, right?

Frozen Pipe Update

Thanks for the calls, texts and comments.  It was just the landscaping pipe valve thing.  It is a real problem for these suckers in Houston.  5 houses, on MY street alone, had the same issue this week.  We have turned off the oustside water, and on the inside water.  Good thing, 'cause getting water from a well is not my thing! (although I am going to try the Pioneer Woman Potato Leek pizza for dinner) Now we just have to wait until all the hardware stores are stocked back up with the part.

When we got back from Dallas over Christmas, this was waiting for us.  Hard to believe my boy is just one of the many Elders/Sisters out there serving in the Utah Ogden Mission.  I have circled him for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Monday.

Houston Winter Freeze

Guess what we woke up to this morning?  A broken pipe creating a geyser outside our house. 
The upside?  We have some cool looking icicles.

The downside?  No water on inside the house.  When we get some light and it warms a bit, we are going to see if we can just shut it off outside.  I just had to brush my teeth with food storage water.  I guess we can think positive - at least it was not a leak inside the house, right? 

FYI - this is why I DON'T live somewhere cold.  I don't like cold.  I like heat (remind me I said that in August will you?)

The Letter Jacket

It is here.  Kelsey was finally able to go to school today (she missed the last two days due to illness).  I know it was killing her not to be there since she was picking up her letter jacket.  She came home very excited, and how nice of the weather to turn cold so that she had the need to wear a heavy jacket!

Class of 2013?  Hard to believe.

Cross Country.

In case she forgets her name!

Or her last name.  No nickname yet - we can add it later.

She worked really hard for this - she worked out all summer and kept up with cc even when it was hard.  She is one of the first freshman to earn a varsity letter!  Good Job Kelsey.

The Dallas Clan

On Christmas day about 12:30, after we got to talk to Ryan, we drove to Dallas.  The whole clan was there - minus Laurie, Michael and Steven (who will be off his mission next Christmas!)  Here is the whole crew after dinner.

Some members of my family who will remain nameless, Julie, are ashamed of the Waffle/piñata tradition.  For them, and Michelle who still wants to get a whack at the piñata, we had another one on the 26th.  Here are Julie's kids Shelby, Jenna, Josh and then Sophie who broke it open.

It snowed the day before we got there - real snow that was still on the ground when we arrived.  It also snowed on Tuesday, and I got a picture of 3 of my 4 girls.

Now, this part is really for my brother Steven who is on his mission.  His president lets him check my blog, so here you are - we went to Babe's without you.  Here are some pics!  For everyone else, Babe's is home of the best artery clogging fried chicken.  They only have chicken and chicken fried steak.  All good - not good for the body, but good to taste!

I told them it was Michelle and Brady's anniversary, so there is their heart biscuit.

One last pic of the fam.  Megan drew my brother Patrick in the family name draw.  This is what she got him.

Patrick has taken up cage fighting.  So Meg got him a boxers robe/thing.  She played the theme to Rocky when he opened it.  She pinned on a card that said the Grand Patri - which was his nickname growing up.  It was funny, and very appropriate.

It is always fun to get together with everyone.  We missed those who were not there, but had fun.  It was crazy and loud, but great Linford Family Time.

Not To Be Leftout

Just got some pics from Ryan.  Here he is trying to open a piñata one of his investigators dropped off when she heard about our family tradition (how sweet is that?).  He brought it over to the family who was nice enough to feed him on Christmas.

So, I guess I do have pics of all my kids hitting the piñata this year!

A Snuggie Christmas

You have heard of Snuggies?  A backwards robe that, according to the commercial, can be worn at home or even to sporting events.  It is a blanket that allows you to still have your sleeves.  Who wouldn't want one? 

The older girls have been wanting one for a couple of years.  Of course, the twins got in on the action, and snuggies it was for Christmas.  They have gotten lots of use out of them!  And ours are special - Santa personalized them.  And he brought Red for Tomball HS (Kelsey can bring it to a game) and blue for the new Tomball Memorial HS (Sophie can bring it to games).  How thoughtful of him.

Christmas Eve 2009

It was the usual Christmas Eve traditions at the Pearson house this year - waffles, piñata, Luke 2 (both video and reading) and pj's.  This year we were able to have the missionaries join us.  It was a little lonely without Ryan, but having two 19/20 year old boys helped.

Pics to follow.  It is fun to see how excited everyone gets for these traditions.  These are the traditions I brought from my house - I have been doing this since I was a little girl.  It is fun to have the continuity.  Ryan told one of his investigators they had this tradition, and they dropped a piñata off for him.  Even in Utah, he still could have a Pearson Christmas.

Caroline Takes a Whack

Next up Allie.

SPD is the next batter.  Does this girl own anything but soccer shirts?

Up next, Kelsey.  Now you can see Sophie did damage the bottom, but Kelsey was nice and did not break it open so that Elder Martin could have a shot.

Elder Martin was not as nice - he broke it so that Elder Gustafson did not have a shot.

Everyone in their new Pj's - even the missionaries put theirs on over their clothes.  The Elders got Houston Texan PJ pants.

As I said, it was fun.  We missed Ryan, but we did manage to enjoy Christmas Eve.