Aspen's Baptism Day

What a beautiful day it was. October 31, 2010. Aspen has grown up so fast and is quickly becoming a wonderfully, beautiful young lady. We are so proud of her and her decision to be baptised.

First things first, some shots I took for her Baptism Invitations.
Isn't she just so big!!

Nana (Jared's Mom) made her beautiful dress. Smocked and everything. She made all the kids blessing outfits and many asked if she's to make the girls' Wedding gowns too. We shall see.

This fit Aspen perfectly, and she was so proud of how beautiful she looks in it.

The day of. Would you look at that smile. No teeth but all excitement! :)

Daddy was so excited to baptise his oldest little girl. There is nothing more wonderful than an Honorable Priesthood Holder as a husband. We are so glad he is our Daddy!

Family Photos!

With Jared's Mom and Dad.

My Mom and Dad and sister, Aunt Marlene.

I didn't get to come in with London, so it was extra special to be there with Aspen. Definitely words exchanged on the importance of her decision. She really is grown up, and really does know what she's doing.

Just before we got started, a little practice with the hands to help calm both Daddy and daughter. She looks so little here to be making such big choices. :) After the actual baptism Jared also Confirmed her a member of the Church and gave her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Aspen then was able to share her Testimony with everyone. She's borne her testimony many times but I think this was the first time that she truly felt the Spirit. Her lip was just shaking and she really spoke from her heart. We are so Proud of you Aspen, and so grateful to have you as our daughter.

Time to Celebrate! Cake and Nachos for everybody.

Grandpa Kenison smiling just as big as Aspen.

One of our bestest friends, Sophia Strathearn. These 2 are peas in a pod, neighbors and partners in crime. So glad she could be there to see Aspen baptised.

Our favorite babysitters. Brother and sister, Nikki (16) and Ben (12). Their mom already has Aspen and Ben's marriage arranged. She pointed this out to her husband (who happens to be our Stake President) just after Aspen bore her testimony. To which he said, "Hmmm. Now are they the same age?" To which she said, "Think about this Honey, Ben's 12 and Aspen just got baptised....you do the math." Love it!

Playing with Papa

Papa and Nana got here Saturday night for Aspens Baptism which was on Sunday night. After church Phoenix was apparently needing to burn off a little energy. Too much candy I think. Him and Papa went at it with his balloon sword. You've gotta zoom in on that face of his, pure joy and fun.
But after a few good hits from Phoenix, Papa did get back at him, much to his giggling delight!

Trunk-or-Treat / Halloween

What fun it is to dress up your kids for Halloween. My older ones are finally getting of an age where they want to BE something in particular. Aspen this year wanted to be a Peacock. And I must say our costume turned out quite nicely. Dad found the wings and skirt, Mom made the Mardi Gras Mask and added the Peacock feathers to the wings. And with Aspens help it all came together.

Beaux was easier to dress, though he was not happy about it in the least.

Because Halloween was on a Sunday this year our Church hosted a Tri-Ward Trunk-or-Treat the Saturday before. We all had such a good time. There was a carnival first with games and food then the Trunk-or-Treating began. We brought home WAY more candy than we handed out. I was a Fortune Teller, Sicily's a Graduate, London was a Werewolf, Aunt Marlene a Doctor, Granma with the Spiders, and Grandpa just as Grandpa.

Phoenix went as Bumblebee and found his friend Adam was Optimus Prime. You'd have thought they'd worked it out.

Let's get some Candy!!These little girls are just the cutest. You've got Princess Peach, Princess Zelda and Cleopatra. They're mom made all these costumes, can you believe it!

Jared wanted to take our snake, Flame, as part of his costume. He was thinking a Pirate of Wizard or some such. Well shopping for costumes is tougher as your "kids" get older. In the end I found a Snake Charmer costume. Well, we called it that anyway. It was a HUGE hit. Every kid there got a chance to touch Flame.

And now that Jared's an Early Morning Seminary Teacher even the older kids were impressed.

This guy was awesome! Had to pose for pictures all night.

This is the Marine that came to my Den Meeting last year. Looking good as a Musketeer.

I never knew you could get these chairs this big. You'd have to put it in the back of your truck just to take it with you.

Disney's favorite ghost.

And my favorite. The Aussie dressed like Vegemite, with free samples and everything. I'll take the Chocolate though, thanks!

All in all a good evening.

Actual Birthday Oct. 28th

This is our true Aspen. We took some cutest Halloween cupcakes in to her class. They were rather tasty but also FULL of dye. Of course the kids loved them.

Little Jack-O-Lantern

Little Jack-O-Lantern so small and round and fat. Phoenix had to carve a pumpkin for school and roast up the seeds inside. He was so proud of his tiny Jack-o-Lantern and needed a candle for it straight away.

Family Birthday Dinner

Aspen picked Mexican for her Birthday Dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Marlene. They had this awesome balloon artist going around making things for the kids.

I think Aspen was happier about her ladybug than the loud waiters singing her Happy Birthday. But it may be a toss up.

Kitty Dance

Aspen has started dance again and they did the cutest little mini performance for Halloween.

This is Aspen, her friend Jessica, and their teacher Jana. She's such a good teacher, and the girls just love her.The whole class, aren't they just the cutest Kitty's!!

HMNS with Grandma & Grandpa

I love Museums: Art, Science, Children's, Health, War...everything. You can learn so much and experience everything in a museum. You don't have to travel the world to do it either, it's just right there in your back yard.


Well the Houston Museum of Natural Science has a rather large Chemistry section. And since my Dad is a Chemist I knew he'd love this section, which of course he did, made a Bee Line right for it. That section is followed by an Energy Section that pretty much walks you through Jared's job of how they get Oil out of the ground. So this was an adventure I knew my parents would love.

Let's start with some Amethyst. Isn't it lovely! They have huge ones like this all over the museum. There is a Pirate Exhibit going on. We weren't able to go through it, but we did get a few shots with the local pirates just for fun.

Now I know where I get my craziness from, and here I was thinking it was from my Mother. Silly Grandpa!

This wall acts like a mood ring. Sicily loved it! Notice she has bare feet, we were making footprints on the wall too.

In Oil Field language this is a Christmas Tree. After they've drilled the well this is what they install to continue to flow of oil coming from the ground.

There is Oil all over the world. When I think of oil I think of slippery, black, wet stuff. Well that's not always the case. In some places it's red, or green or even silver muddy goop. This shows you the thickness and colors of oil in different places around the world.

Nitrogen compared to Oxygen, or something like that. Pretty much just a cool spot to take a picture with my Mom.

Racing to make the most energy. HURRY, HURRY spin it faster!!!

Cool little model of how they refine the oil and make it usable as gas or what not. Jared and Dad had fun learning from each other.

Mom, Dad and the baby. Even though I'm 31 I'm still the baby. So nice to have my parents visit, stinks that we can't live closer together.

Brazos with Grandma & Grandpa

What a perfect day for a picnic and to go exploring in the alligator habitat. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa, and it was fun to just have Sicily and I there. Nice and quiet, actually able to have a conversation.
Notice the sign: "Don't annoy the alligators." Dad was tempted to poke at them with his crutches. But we told him they'd probably steal them from him and then what would we do. :)

This big guy was right there off the dock. Close on 8-10 feet long. He'd just hang out then randomly float along a bit. So neat. There was another one there by the dock that scared the hebbie jeebies out of us when he jumped up to eat something. I thought I was a goner for sure, even though he was still 6 ft away at least. Those suckers can move!

Just a beautiful view of the swamp. It's actually quite pretty, good weather today and hardly any bugs.

We met these birds when we were in Guatemala. They nicknamed them "Jesus Birds" because they seem to be able to walk on water. Though one guy said he calls them "Peter Birds" because sometimes they fall in. :)

Mom was so excited to see these mossy trees. I think this stuff is so cool, and kind of freaky when you're out there at night. You can just hear all those Southern Ghosts coming out to get you. I prefer them in the day light.

See ya Later, Alligator! It was a good little trip.

V-Formation

I've seen an average V-Formation many times, you know, the ones with 12 or so geese. This one has to be over 50 geese. Crazy! And so cool!

Mexico

Jared just recently took a 2 1/2 week trip to Mexico for some work training. And though he says he worked rather hard while he was there, it is apparent from some photos that he did more than just work. Here's a few shot for you to enjoy, and me too, to live vicariously through Jared's work.

Big fat Olmec Heads, there were a few of these around. They remind me mostly of Indiana Jones more than anything.

Mosaic Tiles. I thought they were cool.

A God coming up from the Underworld, not sure why, but there you have it.

Coatimundi (Quat-i-moon-dee). Their like a cross between monkey's and raccoons. Super cute but if you stop feeding them they'll bite you, not very nice. Ancient Mayan Ruins, there were many a shot of these and they reminded me so much of Guatemala that I really want to go back.

They actually had aqueducts of sorts running through these ruins. They're naturally fed from the river water and still work, once they were excavated that is.
Current view of the city where he was. He was there while a hurricane was hitting the coast so they had some rain and a bit of flooding. As you can see from this river, a bit higher than it should be.

So we're glad to have our Daddy back, a lot changes in 2 1/2 weeks, and it's much better to have him at home than away.

Weird Science Wednesdays.

Our rather large snake shed his skin a while back. He finally shed it in one shot, all in one. So we set it out to measure. Flame's rather hard to measure himself, doesn't really hold still and all, so it's hard to get it accurate. So we went for the skin. Flame is now 4 ft 8 in from head to tail.

I asked Aspen if she wanted to take his skin to school and show it off. In the end her Science teacher put her on the school's morning news for Weird Science Wednesdays to talk all about Flame and his habits. Pretty cool, and the whole school got to watch her on the TV's in their classrooms. She was even good enough to share that when he finishes off his mice he looks like he's eating spaghetti, but that it's just the mouses tail. Nice!

London's TV sound is a bit broken so they couldn't hear a lot. One kid asked out loud, "I wonder how long that snake actually is?" London said, "4 ft 8 in." "How do you know?" "Because that's my snake and that's my sister." Bonus points on the cool kid scale. It's funny what does that for kids.

Wicked

Jared and I got the opportunity to go see Wicked, and man was it Wicked!!! So Awesome!! We've been to a few musicals over the years, some good, some bad but few are amazing. This was one of those. We both really enjoyed it. A lot!! I'd recommend everyone to take the chance so see this if you have the chance. It was that good.