Christmas Lane 2009

First day of New Moon! 9:40am showing. We had such a great time. Justin was a great sport and went too. The following week, on Wednesday we all (plus a few more) went back with our kids. Our group was so big we took up a whole row and then some! :)

This was a fantastic time with some fabulous Friends!

We are all looking forward to June when the Twilight Saga continues.

Christmas Nativity 2009

This year our church put on "Festival of the Nativity". It was really beautiful. Our whole family got to take part in it in some way. above is a picture of Justin and the girls playing in the live Nativity. Justin was Joseph, Grace was a Shepherd and Emma was a Wise Man.

I was part of the Group Choir and the Woman's Choir. This is a picture taken right after one of my performances. The girls also were asked to sing in Children's Choir. They did an amazing job. We were so proud of them.

Part of the Nativity was the reading of Luke.

Local TV New Station "10's Connect" had several media personalities do

the readings. Here is a picture of my Mom with Reginald Roundtree. He has been bring us the news for 20 plus years now. They had 2 other guys from "10's Connect" read as well. They were both meteorologist.

Letter that evening, I was on seen on the news and the festival was talked about. :)

The "Festival Of The Nativity" will be a annual thing. When you get a chance, check out the website:

www.BrandonNativity.com

Tucker Einstein Stalker

Ok....so our plan was not to get another dog until AFTER Christmas.........we did not stick to the plan very well at all!!!!!

2 weeks later.... Tucker Einstein Stalker is now apart of our family.

He is as cute as a button and FULL of ENERGY. It has been 10 years since we have had a puppy in the house. All in all, he is doing very well. Believe it or not we actually thought at first he was already potty trained....2 days later he had his first accident and realized that we had not taken him out in a while. So WE are going through training too. :) But other than that...he is doing super good!

He is only about 14 weeks old. He is a hybrid (breed) which means that his parents are pure breed (Registered American Cocker Spaniel and a Registered Mini-Schnauzer) but they mixed the 2 breeds to make them hypoallergenic and have little to no shedding. Thus creating a "Schnocker" hybrid.

(Him being hyproallergenic is a good thing considering that Graces allergies and asthma have gotten worse.)

Here is a cute picture of him...even though he is much cuter in person. Note the eybrows which is how he got his middle name. :)

Rest in Peace Nick

We are sad to say that our family pet of 10 1/2 years past away

November 7, 2009 around 5:00pm.

Justin and I got Nick a month after we were married.

We walked into the pet store and right away saw his big floppy ears.

He was solid white and had a ton of hair.

He was so happy.

In other words...it did not take much to convince us to pick him.

Nick was such a good pet. He was mild tempered, always happy, well behaved and full of love.

A year ago Nick got very sick. We took him to the doctor and after many test we determined that he had some kind of infection. We also discovered that he had Heart worms and a tumor on his spleen. All things were treated and taken care of except the tumor. We were told it maybe cancer so there was no reason to operate. A year later his body gave up. He had been getting weaker and weaker for the past couple of months. The last week we kept pushing the issue off hoping an praying he would go on his on. The picture below was taken about 30 mins. prior to him being put to sleep. It broke our heart to make the decision but we knew it was for the best.

He will be greatly missed!

Nick Stalker

January 17, 1999 - November 7, 2009

Halloween 2009

We were Pirates this year!!
We had a huge group of friends that gathered to go "TRICK or TREATing"
We brought home a lot of "TREATing" that night. WOW!

We had our church festival the day before Halloween. Our booth was a treasure hunt.

It too was a "golly of a good time"!

Not So Scary Mickey 2009

Another visit to Disney!!!! We love Disney! It has got to be one of the best parts to living in Florida.....Mickey lives close by. :)

We went again for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. It is always fun and we always come home with tons of candy.

We did our traditional thing and went with some of our closest friends....The Hunter Family! We love spending time with them. They are are always FUN!!!!


Here is Justin and I in the Buzz Light year ride.



Here are all the kids singing and dancing with Goofy, Stitch and Pluto.

We decided to lock the kids up with Zurg!

Emma's 3rd Grade Field Trip

Agriculture Department at the Florida State Fair Grounds

She got to learn about beef, seeds, worms, bees and fibers. She had lots of fun and learned a lot.

Here she is with her friend Ryanne. They got to make a candle from bee's wax.

Crystal is doing WHAT???

Life has been CRAZY busy!

But if you know me, you know that busy is good. When I am busy is when I do my best work. What makes this all even better is that I am gearing up for the HOLIDAYS.

With 2 birthdays this month, Halloween, another birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then New years...the rest of the year will be a blurrrrrrrrrr. :)

To add to all the special holidays, here is the scoop on the rest of my schedule....

1.

The most important!!! I am a Mom. The girls keep me pretty busy with all the little things. Both of the girls have (what seems like to me) lots of homework everyday. That takes at least an hour. With subjects like math, English and LOTS of Reading. Justin is great at helping out when he can. Then there is the extra stuff like, Emma being Class Representative. She was so excited and nervous. It was so cute to see her want and achieve something that she wanted so much. She had to write a paragraph about herself, read it to the class and then everyone had to vote. The scary thing is that she was the only girl who ran against 3 boys. Her class is mostly boys which she thought would swing the vote. Being Class Representative makes her part of the Student Counsel. She has meetings after school about twice a month. On top of that she is apart of a study group that meets twice a week for 2 hours after school. Both of the girls will be starting soccer soon to add to the madness.

2.

I am a wife. This one comes easy for me, thanks to the great man I married. There are a few areas I wish I was better at...like doing the dishes and laundry. Another area Justin is great at helping out. I am luck to be married to my best friend.

3.

I help run our business. I am very lucky that I get to work with my husband. We get asked all the time how we make that work. Honesty, I think it is magic. Where one lacks the other excels. That makes us a great team. Amazingly it works great for us.

4.

I am a "Class Room Mom". I volunteer 2 times a week in Grace's class. I enjoy it. I get to help the kids with their reading test, read books, help make fun stuff and best of all, spend a little extra time with Grace. She is a great student!

5.

I am V.P. of Membership of the PTA at the girls school. I am having a great time with this and serve with a great group of women. They all have an amazing dedication to the school, but most impressive is their dedication to their own families. It has been time consuming at moments but, (with a pat on the back) I have increased our membership by many.

6.

I am still Ward Chorister for our church. And I am still loving this calling. I do wish it was easier to get people to come to choir practise though. :) But I understand how busy life is for everyone.

7.

I am "Stake Young Woman Camp Director" for our church. This one is a biggie but so far it has been an amazing experience. Basically, I will in charge of just over 100 girls who will attend a week of camp over their Spring Break. We are starting to plan already. We have a theme, a place, and several activities already planned out. I am sure I will blog about it more in April 2010.

**

THAT IS IT. That is my, totally satisfying, full plate. I hope I did not bore you too much! By the way....the picture at the top is my school picture taken for this year. It brought back memories. The last school picture I had done was almost 15 years ago!

The Nick Hotel

This year Grace wanted to go to the Nick Hotel in Orlando for her birthday. We kept telling her they were all booked up. So Friday came and we picked the girls up from school. We told them we had to run a few errands after school. That always gets them in a bad mood. So we start driving and talking, girls grumbling, and the next thing we know Grace is asleep. Perfect! She has no idea we are driving her to the hotel she has been begging to stay at. Watch the video...she was so suprised when she woke up. :)
Here is the girls bedroom...
Here they are having fun on the bunkbeds...






While we were there we went to the Nick Studio. It is basically the old school game show, "Double Dare"

We got to see a girl get slimed. Both the girls had a fantastic time!

Grace Turns 7

Happy Birthday to Grace! She turned 7 on October 4 this year. We had a fun little birthday party for her. She asked for 2 main things. One of them was an ice cream cake. Thanks to DQ for doing one JUST the way SHE wanted it. A pretty Princess with pink trim. The second thing was to stay at the Nick Hotel in Orlando. I will post it separately.

Here she is with a few of her gifts. I can't believe has fast time goes by. I love how independent and opinionated she is. She makes us smile!

Anyways....We love you much Grace!

UPDATE on the "Baby Squirrels"...

The squirrels are doing Super Great! They are now living in the tress where they belong. It was fun raising them but it has been even more exciting to see them released and playing in the trees for the first time. They LOVE it. They even have squirrel friends already! I think our squirrels are popular because they have the hook up on great food! :) Not to mention the squirrel condo Justin built them. It rocks! (Not Pictured.)

New "TEMPORARY" Addition to our family!

We are raising baby squirrels. They fell out of their nest and the mom would not take them back.

We are having a heck of a time keeping the girls away from them. They would love nothing more than to stay home all day and hold them.

They are really cute and I hope we give them a fighting chance.

We'll keep you posted. :)

Summer Swimming

Thanks to a bad economy, we still have not put in a pool. BUT lucky for the girls we have amazing neighbors who love us enough to share theirs! The girls swam about 2 - 3 times a week. They are amazing swimmers and if it were possible they would have grown fins already.

Thanks SOOO much Kathy and Rich for letting the girls splash in your pool!

1st day of the '09-'10 school year!

The girls are now in 1st and 3rd grade. They were so excited for school to start.

Emma is growing up...she did not want us to walk her to class this morning. Grace on the other hand was all for it. We did the traditional "Daddy - Daughter Breakfast" which included Mommy this year! (This year I was dressed and ready to go, unlike the past. LOL)

We hope this year will be as great as the last.

My "BABY" is famous!

Grace was in the Osprey Observer Newspaper this week! Here is the article...

Categorized Sports
Pate’s Tae Kwon Do Academy Post Success at National Tournament
Posted on 08 August 2009 by Tamas Mondovics

For the third year in a row, students of Pate’s Tae Kwon Do Academy in Riverview attended the 2009 AAU Tae Kwon Do National Tournament held at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale last month. The size of this year’s tournament, was approximately 1,800 competitors and was broken down into the following categories: novice, intermediate, advanced and black belt. The academy earned two gold and one silver medal as well as three bronze medals, which speaks highly of the academy’s strength in the sport.
First place winners in the Sparring competitions were 10-year-old Nigel Hart and 6-year-old Grace Stalker. While also sparring, 10-year-old Chasen Brown placed third. Twelve-year-old Mikeala Hemenway placed second Sparring and third in Forms. In the adult competition, Trish Hemenway placed third in Sparring and Forms. All of the students reside in Riverview, while Hart has been training at the academy for the past four years.
Not surprised by the success of his students, Head Instructor Robert Pate was very pleased of his team’s performance. “Our students competed in Olympic-style Sparring and Forms and always work hard to produce great results when participating in tournaments,” Pate said, adding, “They are proud and feel a great sense of accomplishment.”
Pate’s Tae Kwon Do Academy, located at 11266 Boyette Rd. in Riverview, focuses on the teaching of self-defense, self-discipline and physical conditioning, which are being taught to both children and adults, while offering martial arts classes in the evenings for the whole family. After-school care and summer camps for children are also a part of the program. “For our after-school program, we offer transportation from several schools in Riverview, and the children participate in martial arts classes every day,” Pate said.
Pate has been studying martial arts for over 20 years and, in 1992, won Grand Champion at the USA Tae Kwon Do Championships in Jacksonville, Florida. He also won a silver medal at the 1994 World Tae Kwon Do Championships in London, England. “My passion is to share my expertise in Tae Kwon Do and to motivate and encourage my students toward a true sense of self-accomplishment,” he said, mentioning that some of the many benefits of his martial arts program include enhanced self-esteem, confidence, discipline, the learning of self-defense and strengthening of the mind and body.
While celebrating the recent success, the students looked forward to training for the upcoming competition scheduled to be held in at Walt Disney World in October.
For more information about Pate’s Tae Kwon Do Academy, please visit http://www.patesmartialarts.com/ or call the academy at 758-3934.

link:
http://www.ospreyobserver.com/2009/08/pates-tae-kwon-do-academy-post-success-at-national-tournament/

Last "Summer HooHa" before school starts back!

We decided to take another trip to Orando. This is to be our last "Summer HooHa" before school starts back. We are apart of a vacation club. So we booked the weekend and hung out by the pool.

The girls got to pet an alligator. It was 6 feet long. It had its mouth taped up so it could not bite.

They also had many pool side activities for the girls. Here is a picture of Emma in a Hula Hoop contest. She did not win, but she gave them a run for their money. She lasted for a good long while.

We got to meet David Archuleta!!!

On Thursday, July 30th, 2009 David Archuleta came to our church for a Musical Fireside.

As many of you know we are Mormon and David is too! The young lady who is with him is his pianist. She is a member as well. It was so an amazing.

He spoke about his life and then shared his "American Idol" experience.

He also sang 4 songs:

Army's of Helaman,

Be Still My Soul,

The Spirit of God &

How Great Thou Art.

When the Fireside was over we all got to go and have our picture taken with him!

Thanks David for a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Emma got baptized!

Emma was baptized on Sunday, July 12th. It was also her birthday. It was such a special day for her and for the whole family. We are so proud of her and her decision. She is a very special spirit!

This is her batismal program:

This is a few pictures of the display table set up out side of the room. We placed pictures and a book for everyone to sign.

This is a picture of the room where it all took place.

A family photo of us that day!

4th of July 2009

This year we spent the 4th at home and with our neighbors!

We had a great time shooting off LOTS of fireworks.

This is Emma, Kathy, Richie and a friend of Kathy's from New Jersey.

The next day our neighbors left with their family and friends on a cruise. They had a limo come and pick them up. The girls thought it was really cool and wanted to know when THEY would get to ride in one. :)