2010 March 12. Elder Jensen returns.

Elder Joseph Jensen returned home safely from Denven on Friday, March 12. He spoke in church on Sunday and gave a wonderful talk on the Book of Mormon. It's amazing how you send these young guys out on a mission and when they return you can really see the spiritual growth that occurred on there mission. Joe is an amazing young man, and we can't wait to see what his next adventure will be.

2010 March 3. Cory receives his mission call.

Dad set up a conference call with Cory, both the Grandparents, Linds, and us so that we could all be together when Cory opened his mission call letter. Cory called us earlier that morning to tell us that he received his letter, but he couldn't open it until 8 pm that night, after his class. Then later that day, Cory texted to tell us that we now had to wait until 9:10 pm, when Lindise's class was over. So at 10:10 pm our time, Cory called the conference line and ...all we heard was screaming in the back ground! I'm not sure how many people Cory had crammed in his apartment, for the big opening of the letter, but it was noisy! So Cory ripped open the envelope and read ....Antofagasta, Chile Mission, and he was to report to the MTC in Provo on May 5th. You could hear in his voice that he was tearing up a bit, but mostly you just hear all the yelling and screaming in the background! Not sure why, but Lindsie never did call into the conference call. After the conference call, Cory went over to Lindsie's to see why she missed the call. Linds was asleep, I think that she thought she had already missed the conference call. Cory is going to Chile, it was a great night for all of us!

Below is a video link posted on Facebook, of Cory opening his mission papers.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=1286053476836

2010 February 23. It's snowing in Houston, again!

It snowed again! It wasn't anything big around here, but farther north of Houston they got a few inches of snow. I can't believe the crazy winter we are having here! It stays cold for a couple of days, then it goes back up in the 60's for a day, and then back down into the 30 and 40's.
You have to look really close at the fence so see the white spots of snow!

2010 February 6. A little less wisdom.

To get ready for his mission, Cory had to have his wisdom teeth pulled. Lindsie took this picture of him when he was done at the dentist. No swelling, and no pain...excellent pain meds! Lindsie said that Cory was really loopy. Lindsie was taking to the nurse, getting instructions, and Cory kept interrupting and trying to be part of the conversation. Funny thing is, he wasn't talking straight, he was acting so funny! Lindsie was in tears, she kept telling Cory to shut-up...and he would say something and make funny gestures...and then they would both bust up laughing!

2010 January 23. Lindsie's birthday!

Lindsie had a great time celebrating her 24th birthday with Cory and her friends.
Celebrations started on Thursday, with dinner at Goodwood BBQ....and free cornbread for the birthday girl!! On her birthday, Lindsie had lunch at Tucanos with her friends and meet up with Cory later that evening and they went to the Nickelcade for some Jurassic Park and Mortal Kombat! Cory got Linds the best present, Supernatural Season 4!!! After the arcade Lindsie spent the evening with her roommates watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and eating cupcakes. I think she had a pretty good birthday. I think she liked the red purse we sent her, loaded with all sorts of stuff! Happy Birtday!!!!!!

2010 January 18. Waller with Austin and his new friends.

Everyone loves having a day off from school for MLK day! It was a beautiful day outside, the sun finally decided to shine again. Chuck took half a day off, and we took Austin and the new neighbor boys out to Waller. A few weeks ago, their family moved into the neighborhood, the Francis'. Their youngest son, Matthew, is in 1st grade with Austin and in his home room, and his brother Justin is in the 4th grade.

The boys wanted to check out the woods first, so Chuck went fishing and in no time had a fish. Austin wanted to throw it back in the pond.

Just a couple of pictures of the pond.

I love to come out here and just sit in the sun and watch the wind skim across the top of the pond. It's nice to clear my head and not have to do something.

I think Chuck enjoys it to. Here he is trying to catch a bigger fish!

Justin was excited to give it a try, I think this was his first try at fishing.

After running around in the woods for awhile, Austin and Matthew wanted to give fishing a try too! We had a great time!
After we got back from the property we went to the Homeowners Annual dinner and elections,they served Del Pueblo for dinner...and that was yummy! It was my last meeting as a member of the board, I decided not to sign up for re-election this year....eight years is long enough, I've done my civic duty.

2010 January 14. Jamm'in.

Kelly's Grandmother called her to see if she wanted any oranges or lemons from the trees in her yard. Apparently she had a good crop and had more than she could use. So Kelly and I went to pick them up, and later that week we got together and made some lemon jelly and orange marmalade! Marie came over for a bit to help us, it was a messy job!. The jelly and marmalade turned out great. After I got home I also made a batch of raspberry jam too! I hope next year she has a good crop too!

2010 January 11. Freezing cold in Houston!

This week we have just been trying to stay warm, it was 23 degrees today! And it has been in the TEENS for the last 3 days. I found this great picture of snow covered trees...it's to cold to snow, but this picture represents how cold we think it is! It is suppose to stay above freezing for the next couple of days with a high in the fifty's again. I have been making lots of soup and hot chocolate. I think Austin is enjoying the cold weather, but he hates it when I make him put on warm clothes! When Linds, Ash, and Cory were little, they would always try to wear shorts and a t-shirt...no matter what the weather was like outside. They would get so mad at me, I would make them go and put on long pants and shirts because they were making ME cold, looking at THEM! They still remember me doing that and are happy to know that I do the same thing to Austin too! Chuck is even complaining that it's cold!

2009 December 31 - 2010. Happy New Year!

For New Years Eve we had the youth over, and the Jensen's also stayed to hang out with us. We played a card game called, "Would you Rather?" Where it gives you two examples like, would you rather eat worms OR eat a spider? And I choose to "eat a spider" anyone who knows me would have guessed that I would pick "spider". If you choose correctly, they keep a card..first person with 6 cards wins. It was a pretty fund game. Some of the youth played Rock Band upstairs in the game room, and others played Xbox games on a projector in Ashlie's room. Cory and Lindsie were still home and they hung out with everyone, and I think they had a good time. Austin was in hog heaven with everyone here and he just followed Cory and Lindsie around. A few of the youth also played some 'real estate' game in the kitchen. I watched Harry Potter 6 in the living room, and a few kids would come in and out and watch a bit of it and so would Austin. We had fruit trays, veggie trays, chips & dip, and pop. Then Linds and Dad made egg and bacon tortillas at midnight after we toasted in the New Year with some Martinelle's...Happy New Year!

The next day we drove to Katy (30 min up I-10) and went to see Brett & Fatima Donaldson. They had sent us a Christmas card and with it an invitation for a New Year Day Party. We got to their house just a little after 11am, we didn't see any cars parked out front and we were hoping we had the right address. We knocked, and Brett answered, half asleep. Apparently they had cancelled the party, but only had our old email and we never got the message. So everyone jumped out of bed and they asked us to stay a bit since we drove all the way over to Katy. Fatima insisted on making some breakfast and we ate pancakes & bacon and talked for a bit, we ended up staying until 1230. It was so good to see them, but we felt bad that we had gotten them out of bed just to visit with us.

After that we went home and made some Potato/clam chowder and took it over to the Jensen's for 'soup day'. They made gumbo and chicken tortilla soup. Later, the Corringtons' came over with some cheddar soup. We stayed quite awhile, and Dad wanted to play that 'real-estate' game again. So I took Cory and Lindsie home to get their laundry done and pack and went back to get Chuck and Austin. It was fun to bring in the New Year with good food and great friends!

Christmas. December 25, 2009

Christmas Eve and all is quiet. Austin is trying to decide which present to open before he goes to bed. We have read the birth of the Savior in Luke, and then we read the Christmas Story of Santa. Chuck is already working on the cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning and soon Santa will be filling stockings and filling trays.

Christmas morning started with cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Afterwards we started to open presents. Lindsie was excited to open presents.

Here's a picture of Cory opening his present.

Lindsie got Chuck this awesome baseball cap from The O'Reilly Factor.

The Missionaries spent the morning with us too! Merry Christmas.

Chuck's present this year was an electronic foot warmer...he always says his feet are cold when he's working upstairs.

Lindsie and Cory are opening a present. Cory picked out these lime green pair of Puma shoes.

Austin's present this year from Santa was Indiana Jones, Lego's.

Uncle Mel's present from Grandma Rose....underwear!

Austin had a busy morning and took a break in the wrapping paper.

Linds, Cory, and Austin checking out each others presents.

Linds helped me set the table for dinner.

After dinner Linds and Cory took a nap, I think that the rest of us followed later too! The best part of the day was when Ashlie got to call us! We had a conference call with us, Ashlie and both Grandma's and Grandpa's. It was so fun to talk to her. We got to talk for about forty minutes.
After this week things should be back to normal. Cory and Lindsie are going to have to go back to Utah this weekend, it has been fun having them home again, and for two weeks! Austin has loved having them here to play with! This last week Cory had his physical for his mission papers, and on Wednesday he goes to the dentist to check on his wisdom teeth. So he is getting the ball rolling. I think it really pumped him up to talk to Ashlie on Christmas day. Since Cory and Lindsie have been home, we have had the missionaries over 3 times, I'm not sure if they are coming over on New Years. This week we will just continue to hang out and watch movies that we got for Christmas.

Welcome home Elder Anthon. December 23, 2009

Elder Andrew Anthon returns home from his mission in Michigan. Andrew was stopping over in Houston on his way to Arizona, to meet his family for Christmas. He had a couple of hours lay-over, so the Pyper's and Austin and I went to the airport to meet him prior to his flight. It was nice to see him and talk to him about his mission before he went off to Arizona, and then headed off to BYU Hawaii for the winter semester. Can't wait to hear about his adventures at BYU Hawaii.

Houston Ballet. December 23, 2009

Chuck loves to go to the Nutcracker and this year he went to The Nutcracker Ballet with Cory and Lindsie. It was Cory's first year to go, and he really enjoyed it. The three of them dressed up for the occasion. I know that I took a picture of the three of them, but I can't find it anywhere.

Unfortunately, after the play, Chuck got a call that Pam Johnson's husband, George, passed away that afternoon. Chuck and the kids had to head straight to the hospital to be with her.

Soccer party. December 12, 2009

Here is a photo of Austin's soccer team this season.

The team had their trophy party at Del Pueblo, where they had lunch and then handed out the trophies.

The team had a great season. Chuck really enjoyed going to practices and games with Austin. I was able to catch a few games and Austin did really well this season.

Austin was so excited to receive his trophy!