Christmas Day

This is the first year that I told my kids not to wake me up, I think I have turned into the scrooge :) They woke me up anyway :)

Emma got a robe and some littlest pet shops, a travel size Mad Gab, and cooking mama for the wii.

Tayler got a robe and an erector set and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for the wii.

Jackie got a robe, my sim for her DS and Harry potter and the order of the phoenix for the wii.

Hope got a robe, some yummy smelling perfume and some make up and Donkey Kong Barrel blast for the wii.

For the family we got some more remotes and nunchucks so that everyone can play.

I was also pleasantly surprised that my kids wore their robes the whole day and the day after and some of them are wearing them today, just goes to show that you never know what they will like.

These last pictures are to show you what our house has looked like for the last two and a half days, I don't think their bottoms have left the couch longer than they had to. They love the new games, and have played and played.

I am going to tell you our rating system for these games, each of us will rate them for you .

Tony Hawk Downhill Jam: 12 Thumbs up (6 two thumbs up)
Cooking Mama: 13 Thumbs up (Tayler gives it 4 thumbs up and George gives it one, the rest of us give it two thumbs up)
Harry Potter: 4 Thumbs up (Emma gives it two, Hope and Jackie give it one)
Donkey Kong: -3 (Tayler two thumbs down, Emma one thumb up, Hope no thumbs, Jackie two thumbs down, and George no thumbs, I don't count I haven't played it)

So for all of you new wii owners out there, you now know what we think about these games. I need to run, I have to beat George one more time at the skateboarding (Downhill Jam), just so I can say I did it!!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went to Sid and Chan Heis house.

Last year when we were there Sid had bought a new game that we all played, and this year he didn't disappoint us :) This years new game was named SET and we were sucked into it. It is a card game with different designs and different colors and different shadings, and we had to find a set. So we did a lot of yelling "Set". It was a lot of fun.

Chan Hei fed us a wonderful meal, as always. We had Ham, rolls, broccoli salad, green salad, Uncle Sids famous sparkling Jello, and mashed potatoes. They had invited a lady in their ward to come to dinner also, so it was nice to meet her. We had a very good time.

After hours of playing and talking and Uncle Sid trying to talk us into doing a Hispanic Christmas(opening our gifts at midnight) we drug ourselves home and went to bed.

Yummy challah bread

Take a deep deep breath, can you smell it? Jackie is baking again!!! YAHOO, she is the kitchen whiz and I love it!!

The recipe is yummy and looks awesome too.

Challah bread

1 tbsp. Dry yeast

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp. Butter

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cup flour ( flour is an estimate)

1 egg

Topping:You will need to do this on day two:

1 egg yolk mixed with a little water

1 tsp. Poppy seed (optional)

Soften yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Combine milk, butter, sugar, and salt until the sugar dissolves. Stir in 1 cup flour. Beat well. Add egg beat well. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. Bag in a zip lock and put in fridge.

Day two:

Divide dough into thirds. Roll each third into a rope: braid strands and secure ends. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until doubled in size. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake ate 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Robotics competition

I guess I should give a little info on the competition.

The teams start with a lego kit, that has wheels and wires, sensors, the usb cord, a central computer system, the mat and all the things needed to program and build a robot that will complete as many tasks as possible within a two minute time range.

The theme this year was alternative energy sources, so every task has something to do with that. The robot is programed to go out from the home base and complete a task. Taylers team sent it out to do one or two tasks at a time and then come back to base, some teams completed two or three tasks at a time and then came back, each team can decide what they want to do. Each time the robot does not make it back to base, and they have to pick it up they lose points.

The robot goes out and hopefully gets a task done and comes back, Tayler's group pushed the windmills over a line, tripped a switch that sent a coal car down a track, pushed a dam into place, pushed a car to a house, picked up some uranium and corn, hit a switch that activates a solar panel, after they collected the corn and uranium and power poles they have to have the robot take them to different areas on the mat. This isn't the order they did it in, I am just trying to remember them, and I am not sure which ones I am forgetting. They have ten tasks to complete in a two minute time frame. The robot has to leave the base and make it back to the base to get the points, so they try to get as many points as they can.

In addition to all of the programming and stuff they had to do an energy audit of a local business, and then present to that business all of the ways they could conserve energy by using alternative energy sources. What the cost and savings would be and how long it would take to pay off the improvements. They went to our local swimming pool and filmed the video and then the day of competition they showed the video to some judges.

The team gets judged on how well they work as a team, how well a robot is built, how well it performs, they judge on if they think the kids built and programmed mostly by themselves, and lots of areas, so it is a full day

They also did a alternative energy fair at their school, all of the kids researched a different energy source and made a display.

And just recently they went to our City council meeting to present their ideas of how they could save money using alternative energy sources.

I am sure I am forgetting something, but in a nut shell that is what they did, it only took them every single friday and saturday evening since August to do all of this and I am sure Uncle Sid put in more hours than that. It is amazing to see, and I only have a small idea of all that they did. It's a lot of work but Tayler just loves it.

Another Video

This is the first of the three rounds in the competition. Tayler and Erin ran the first two rounds, then our cousin Sydney and Onaka ran the third round.

Banks Bots Video's

This is their cheer. These kids are amazing, they got together every friday and saturday night since August. Uncle Sid and Aunt Chan Hei are amazing also, tons of work has gone into this so far and now more work is needed before January 19th, but Tayler loves it and comes home excited every week with all of the things they are getting accomplished. This experience has been very good for Tayler, he has learned alot. Go Banks Bots!!!!!

We're Going To State!!

Today was an exciting day!! Tayler has a robotics team and they had a competition today. They did very well, and they are going to state. They have been practicing since August and it has payed off. On the spread sheet below, his team is number 940. It shows the scores of each of the runs they did. I will post some videos of the competition later.

It's raining, it's pouring.....

I got a call today from Judy, wondering if we are floating away or not, so I thought I better let you all know what's going on.

Friday we got snow, I already told you that,well friday night it started raining, then it started pouring, then some old man started snoring :) (sorry couldn't stop myself :)) It rained hard all day saturday and on sunday so that monday lots of places started flooding. So Stacey if you were still here you wouldn't have been able to leave your house at all and if Dave was at work he wouldn't have made it home with out trying to drive through a river. They sent kids home from Dilley early and those that didn't leave with the buses had to be transported out by I think National Guard? So lots of water everywhere, by far the most water we have seen since we moved here.

The important news is that we are all ok and that the flood hasn't hurt us at all, the kids didn't have school today, and we didn't work yesterday, other than that life goes on for us. Lots of people did get flooded and I have heard they are getting help, that is good and hopefully they can get things cleaned up. Hopefully this is the only really bad weather for the winter.

Let it Snow!!!

The first snow of the season here in Oregon started tonight!!!! Emma got excited and with in a few minutes she ran outside. She hurried back inside and got her gloves and coat so she could go out and make a snowball(which is shown below). And right this very minute, she is making a little snowman! Hope is mad because she doesn't want to miss school, but everyone else is excited because maybe school will be canceled.

George's Birthday

Yesterday was George's Birthday, it was a busy day and I feel bad because we didn't get a chance to celebrate. George always says he doesn't care about his birthday but I know everyone likes to at least hear the ones they love tell them Happy Birthday, and we definitely did that. Over pizza, we sang and had a little party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I love you!!

Teenage driver AHHHHHHHH

Hope got her drivers permit over the weekend, so we have been driving around alot. She is doing very well. I thought it was funny that very few kids get their license as soon as they are 16 here, but I think all of the blind corners and crazy roads might have something to do with it.

So soon we will send Hope on all of those boring erands that I really hate to do and then before long she will find driving as exciting as I do :) So all you people out there look out there is another teenager on the road.

Thanksgiving 2007

This year I feel very Martha Stewarty, we actually made our pie crusts and the filling except the pumpkin, if I ever bake a pumpkin and scrap all the pumpkin off the shell and make a pie that way I will be as shocked as the rest of you. For now though this was a huge accomplishment for us and so I need to post. Jackie is the crust lady, culinary is teaching her more than she will get from her dear ole' Mom.

We did our first ever George and Lora family Thanksgiving, every thing was wonderful. We did Ham and twice baked potatoes, stuffing, jello yummy potato rolls (no I didn't make the rolls either, that will be another shocker :)), and salad and all of that stuff. Then of course we gorged ourselves on the pumpkin, apple, banana cream pie and pecan cheesecake YUMMY!! It was a great day and we had a lot of fun playing games and spending time together.

Tagged

Kelli just tagged me so here it goes. Six of my habits are................

1) I love to read books, I could read all day long if it is a good book, like the Twilight series.

2) I am a clean freak, so my kids say. I do hate messes though :)

3) I love to eat, anything gooey and full of really bad for you calories and fat.

4) I love sitting somewhere pretty and quiet and just feeling peace (temple, outdoors........)

5) I have to have at least 8 hours of sleep or you just might not like me :)

6) I really enjoy walking and haven't done it enough lately and really miss it.

And now I tag, G and G Young, Tina, Trudy, Stephanie and Stacey. Can't wait to see what you say :)

A Very Late Blog...

Well, I have been slacking off a lot, and I forgot to post these pictures of Emma at Halloween. As you can see, she was a devil and a very cute one! She was the only one out of my kids who went trick-or-treating this year :0(. I couldn't believe that Tayler didn't want to go, but he is getting older. He kept on changing his mind but in the end he didn't go, so here is Emma.

School fight

Jackie came home with a broken nose today. The reason is because Hope got into a fight with some of her old friends. They haven't been getting along lately. Anyways, Jackie stepped in, but the girl hit her in the nose before she could do anything. So now we have to go to the hospital. Those pictures will come soon.

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Just kidding, Jackie has stage craft and so her teacher made her up for Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we were invited to go to Uncle Sid's house to carve our pumpkins. We had a lot of fun, as usual when we carve pumpkins. Here we are gutting out our pumpkins














Here we are again.



This is me gutting out my pumpkin also. Hope didn't want to carve a pumpkin because she hates to gut them out. To me, this is the best part!

This is my mom's pumpkin. She chose the hardest one in the book. She said the hardest part was the pitchfork Emma and Dad's pumpkin,








Taylers pumpkin,

















This is my pumpkin. I was lazy and chose the simplest one there was.






Uncle sids pumpkin, which he carved in like two minutes. (it didn't take him very long at all. Even i took longer than him and i had an easy one!)



And last but not least, Sydney's pumpkin.

Halloween Party!

George and I were invited to go to a Halloween party with a whole bunch of other people from our ward. So we decided to go dressed up as Sonny and Cher! There was a costume judging , and we won!




























Everyone had to bring some kind of fingerfood to the party also. So we went onto the internet and this is finally what we decided to do. A pumpkin puking up its guts (which in this case is guacamole). Then we brought a bowl of tortilla chips. They judged on the best food too, and we won again!

Homecoming

Hope was asked to Homecoming. After weeks of shopping and hours of make up and Hair, this is "THE" look for 2007 Homecoming.















Hope is lucky enough to have an awesome friend who came over and ran around like crazy, helping us get her all dolled up. Karen is so much fun to have around.

I invited a bunch of friends over because everyone wanted to see "the dress" so we looked like we had paparazzi in our house. Lots of camera flashing and I have to say everyone was really nice to let us get lots of pictures. Hope and Koda both could have been upset but I think they handled it great. I guess Hope wouldn't have been upset, she told me to call everyone :) Poor Koda just had to put up with it. But isn't that what boys do, they have to wait for us for hours and then smile for all the pictures. I think Hope looks so beautiful, he was lucky to get a chance to wait, right :)

This is Koda, waiting patiently for Hope to get ready. He came an hour early!!!!!! I guess they didn't communicate the time very well.

Then after waiting for Hope to get ready, Koda had to wait for George to get home.

Finally George came home, the dreaded "TALK" didn't happen (we only kidded Koda a couple of times about that) Now where is HOPE!!!

There she is, WOW!!!! The corsage looks beautiful too. Now where is the ride????

Hope, Karen and Katrina. Friends are so great.

Hope, Koda, Jason and Katrina. Group dating, that's the way to make parents feel at ease :)

Hope and Koda, they look cute together. Off to Red Robin for dinner. Then lots of dancing.

Hope had a blast!!!

Squirrel

Here is the little (BIG) squirrel that likes our deck. For some reason the flash makes it look even more posessed than I made it sound, but he does look a little creapy with the white eyes. Jackie can't get over his feet, my children all have foot phobia :) I think they are very interesting to watch as they run and jump from branch to branch.

This and that....

Ok Grandpa here is a picture of the front of our house. I call it the Brady Bunch house, even though it doesn't look like that house.

Here is Emma's room done!!!! Yahoo, one down many to go :)

Here are the fish, we couldn't leave them behind. Because Jackie would have nightmares about her Dad's fish dying. She says it's because they are the only fish we have been able to keep alive, but really it's because she has a soft heart and so does her Mom it's just that her Mom is to tired some days to let the softness show. (Written with Jackie looking over my shoulder)

This is a picture of our back yard, or some of it.

This is us having a good time after our crazy day. Except Hope who probably thinks we are way to loud while she is trying to read. (Just kidding, she is having a good time too)

This is me and Emma looking for a squirrel, didn't see one but the other day I was sitting on the deck when one came up right behind me. I'm not sure if I like the idea of them getting that close but as long as they don't attack us, it should be ok.

Ok I need to let you all know that Hope got asked to Homecoming!!!! Today we went and looked for a dress. Found a beautiful dress, it's sage green and lots of fun. Those pictures will be coming later.

The pictures today are courtesy of Jackie, she just got a new camera that she has been saving money for. Kind of an exciting day!