Austin has been taking woodshop as one of his electives this year in schcool. This is the desk he made. We have been hearing about it for months! It was fun to finally see it all finished! It turned out pretty great for being the first thing he has ever built!! I am still waiting to hear the exact total on how much this thing ended up costing!!! He has really enjoyed woodshop and Mr. Harrington his teacher. He is now making a chair to go with his desk! 
Austin is on the Red Raiders this year
Kyler is on the Longhorns team (he is THRILLED about this!!!)
warming up before his first game
go Kyler
So we learned that Kyler plays basketball in the same attitude he approaches life....not to seriously! He was just there to have some fun! It was hysterical! The whole game he was backwards...when it was defense he was standing behind his guy and not paying a whole of attention and when he was on offense he was defending his guy to every extent possible! When his guy would move, Kyler would hop to get back with him. Everytime a basket was made he was celebrating! He was shuffling his feet all over and doin' a dance half the time! He really did have the most fun though. So last week we worked with him to clarify offense and defense. Last Saturday he played great. He got the ball a few times and still found plenty of time to be "Kyler" on the court! The Longhorns have won both of their games so far! wahoo!
The poor team they played this last Saturday only got 3 points from free throws, they never did make a shot! The score was 24-3! 
Austin during a time out....His coach is awesome!!! He is such a nice guy and very encouraging to the boys! (Kyler has a fantastic coach too!) 
go Austin!
So the Red Raiders struggled during that first game and lost (pretty bad) but boy what a difference a week makes! Those boys practiced hard and were a whole different team this last Saturday! They won their game 26-7 (it was 24-3) until the last minute of the game. The other team had only gotten 3 points from free throws. Austin was much more aggressive. He is the tallest one on the team (& on the court) and was the rebound king! He pretty much just had to raise his arms up and the ball was his! He got a foul...which he was very proud of. The game had to stop when he got his glasses knocked off and when he stood up there was blood dripping down his face. One of the boys had scratched him, so we had to get a band-aid. He is pretty happy with his wound!
This is our life till the first of March....2 games every Saturday and 4 practices a week! The boys have had such a good time though, it really is worth it!!!
this is what it looked like on my office floor
this one they mounted on wood and it's hanging in the galley of the boat
then one for each side of the smoke stack...
I also got invited to go to the "Christening" of the boat this weekend! It will be my very first boat christening! :) I am excited to go!!! Shawn and I will be going with our good friends John and Ticia!
This logo is another project I did for another boat this last summer. This one was long and hard but it was cool to do! I had to redraft the whole image (that part was fun but took lots and lots of hours) There ware 2 of these circles. They are about 3 feet in diameter and they were big 'ol magnets!
{{p.s. Leah....show this to Michael!! Notice it's not a "welcome" sign!!}} :)
This is how we all felt after Christmas morning. It was a bout 2:00pm and I came into the living room and found Ty like this! The kids all woke up at 2:30am (which I found out later was becuz Ty woke them all up) They have a tradition that when they wake up they all hang out in one of the bedrooms till the approved and appropriate time to get mom and dad! How did that escape them this year?....cuz they all came in at 2:30 and wanted to go downstairs! NO was the answer!!! So they went to Kailee's room to hang out and finally at 5:30am I took pity on them and convinced Shawn to take pity too and get up!
These are the gifts from Aunt Alli and Uncle Johnny (making the appropriate Mia face!)
Grandma Sue sent gift cards and these are the things the kids bought with them
hats that Grandma Leanne made for each of the kids (she recognizes that we won't use them much here in Texas but the kids love them none the less and what a neat keepsake they will be!)
Grandpa John & Grandma Karen sent gift cards too and here is what they bought with them
the aftermath of Christmas morning
Bella got a toy too...but she destroyed it by the end of the day
on our way to our Christmas Eve dinner...this year we went to P.F.Changs, so yummy!! Every year we do a gift exchange within our family. We always try to do something different or have some kind of theme. This year everyone got $12.50 and had one hour to run through the mall and find the perfect gift! We didn't find out who we had till right when we left for the mall! It was really fun (just so crazy at the mall). Everyone found really great gifts for their person! We always exchange those gifts on Christmas Eve.
Kailee got a new straightener from mom
Shawn got a Longhorns licence plate thing and a keychain from Kailee
Tara got a necklace and bracelets from Kyler
Kyler got Darth Vader pj bottoms from Austin
Tyson got a salt lamp from dad
Austin got a beanie(that's reversible) from Tyson 
