Sydnie's First Prom

+007.jpg"> Friday April 2, 2010 Sydnie went to her first prom! She went with Spencer who is a very nice young man from another ward in our stake. It was so much fun shopping for a dress which we ended up getting online from Utah because you can't find anything modest in the malls! We decided on green because it was a good color for Sydnie. The girls started getting all pretty at about noon and were done at 6:30 when her date came to pick her up. Sydnie had such a good time and said her first prom was so fun. She enjoyed going with Spencer and said he was the perfect gentleman.

Sisters Make the Best Friends

Lately I've notices Sydnie and Savannah becoming much closer. I don't know if it's the new (old) car we bought for Sydnie to use or that they just have more things to do together but I like it! It makes me happy when I go upstairs and see the two of them sitting on one of their beds just talking, laughing, and enjoying being with each other. They are so different in a lot of ways but sure have a good time when you put the two of them together.

Savannah just had to go shopping for a new outfit for her first dance. So off to the mall we went! The girls had fun shopping together and just had to have a little fun while we were there. They get a lot of comments from strangers that they look just a like. One person even asked if they were twins. Sometimes I think they do look alike and other times not so much.

One day I was standing outside after school with the kids and here come the girls pulling up in the car. Savannah had arranged for Sydnie to pick her up after athletics and bring her home which Sydnie was happy to do. They have been doing that every day now which is nice for me to I might add.

Sisters make the best friends!

That's Our Girl!

Well at the beginning of the year Savannah said in our goal planning family home evening that she had some goals she wanted to accomplish in 2010. If you know Savannah very well at all these won't surprise you. She wanted to read the whole Book of Mormon, get a six pack (Ab's that is), grow to be 6 feet tall, and run a half marathon. We all said okay Savannah that sounds awesome! She comes up with some big ideas sometimes this didn't shock us much, but the shocking part came about 3 weeks later when she decided to run the Texas Half Marathon at White Rock Lake because she didn't have time to train later.Track is coming up and her coaches told her she would decrease her vertical for high jump if she ran a lot of miles during the week. So she decided to just find the next half marathon she could and run it. Then she got the throw up flu real bad for two days, then the head congestion flu. This whole time Lance and I kept saying "you don't have to do this Savannah, you can pick another one at the end of the year or something". Oh Noooooooo, she was having nothing to do with that, she had it in her mind she was going to just go run two days after the flu and " get it over with". Well the night before the race a huge cold snap came through north TX and I though for sure that was the end of that idea because Savannah HATES to be cold! Nope! We were up at 5:30 a.m. on our way to the Texas Half, awesome! Well I was a little worried about her I have to admit. She was running all alone, never trained, never ran this far before, and it was extreme weather. We get there and find they had to have special permission to continue the race because the wind chill was in the single digits. Didn't even phase her. So all we could do at this point is cheer her on and hope for the best. So Sydnie and Savannah's best friend Ari and myself followed her as much as we could in the car and got out to cheer her on at different miles. Well she made it and accomplished her goal. All I can say is WOW- that's my girl!

And she's off with all the other hundreds of runners......

She just kept running..............

and running................

This was her one and only stop for a potty break, she had to get all four layers of clothes put back together before she could start running again.

And she made it of course, we had no doubt, she is one determined girl and we are sure proud of her!!!!! Great job Savannah you have inspired your sister and I.

Once in a lifetime!

And this is why I'm glad it doesn't snow very often in Texas!

Today we got a "snow day" in TX! We woke up to a lot of snow AND they cancelled school! That might not ever happen again in my kids life time. So we rounded up some friends and some "texas" snow gear and went out side for hours of fun!

Quilt's with Grandma Whitworth

This last Thanksgiving Grandma Whitworth taught the girls how to make a quilt! Savannah got it in her head that she wanted to make a BIG quilt for herself, and when that girl gets something on her mind it usually happens. Grandma Karen was nice enough to spend a lot of her time with us over Thanksgiving going step by step through the process of making a quilt with Savannah. We about wore grandma out dragging her all around town shopping for fabric and supplies. Then when Savannah got all her stuff grandma helped her put it all together. Savannah did most of the work herself and grandma helped straighten out a few mistakes. Then at the last minute when it was all done we all gave a sigh of relief just to hear that Sydnie wanted to make one too! Well Savannah was all for it! She said "I will show you how to do it" and she did! They used all of grandmas old scrapes of fabric she brought with her because Sydnie did not care at all what it looked like and most certainly did not want to go shopping. Those two girls stayed up till wee hours of the morning laughing their heads off about how funny this quilt would be! It was awesome and they did finish it and they both use them daily. They love their quilts, what a special memory - thanks grandma!

Injuries Stink!

Sydnie did this at the begining of basketball season this year. Not the very begining it was right about the time they were all in shape and had their first few games out of the way and she was ready to play! She was sure disapointed but happy it was'nt torn, just a real bad sprane. She was out for a couple weeks, but came back strong when she was able to play! Bummer, and yes it did turn green. This picture was about a week after she injured it.

The Summer Climb of 2009

This summer our family went on a backpacking trip with our friends from Kansas. It was the first time anyone in our family had done anything like it. We hiked into the mountains in Utah with everything we needed for the week on our backs. Thanks to all the careful planning and knowledge of the Housley's we all survived and even completed 30 miles of hiking for scouts if needed. Thanks Mark for a great experience we will definitely remember this summers hike for years to come! This video is pictures of the week on the mountain from start to finish and the song became our theme song for this trip before we even headed up the mountain. I can still hear the car full of girls singing it as the mountain came into sight and we were driving up to the trail head that morning to begin our trek.

Family Photoshoot

My friend, Julia, took pictures of us the other day. Here are some of our favorites.