Top 10 of 2013

....in no particular order

1.  Tucker started kindergarten.

2.  We got Tilda (ahem.... at least Emmaline did- it's her pet chicken).

3.  Savannah made it onto the varsity soccer team at East High School.

4.  Iconography finished temples in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Gilbert, Arizona.

5.  Oliver got a solo in the school Christmas Program.

6.  Emmaline PR'ed and placed 4th at the Footlocker West Regional race in Walnut, California. (tibits if your interested- watch for her in the right corner at the beginning, then skip ahead every time they show the front of the race).

7.  Dad went to Bolivia to work on the temple there.

8.  Savannah received a spot on the Southern Virginia soccer team.

9.  Emmaline got hit by a car.

10.  We went to Toledo Bend for a family reunion.

Top 10 of 2012 (in no particular order)

1.  We went to Argentina.
2.  Our first year to complete two temples.
3.  Dad got called to be Elder's Quorum President.
4.  Emmaline started High School and received the "Freshman of the Year" for Cross Country.
5.  Oliver started Carden Memorial School.
6.  Mama ran the Ogden Marathon.
7.  Savannah completed her Young Women's Personal Progress for the first time.
8.  Megan got hit by a car.
9.  Oliver got baptized.
10.  Tucker stayed the cutest baby in our family.

2012 was eventful to say the least.  We laughed a lot and learned a lot and we can't wait to see what next year brings to our family.

Merry Christmas!

Emmaline is the "Freshman of the Year"

From the December East High Communique:

CROSS COUNTRY

The East High cross country team

closed its season with the annual awards

banquet held in the East High Ballroom

on November 8th. Tomy Gutierrez and

Abigail Hurst received the Athlete of the Year award.

Chris Rushing received the Performance of the Year

award for his top 15 finish at the Murray Invitational.

Emmaline Huntzinger and Garek Bielaczyc were

Freshmen of the Year, with Ellie Lowell receiving the

Rookie of the Year award. Megan Rushing and Brooke

Hamblin shared the Endurance Award honors, with

Anders Hart winning the Endurance Award on the boys'

side.

A big thank you to all the parents who helped make the

awards banquet a memorable experience. The cross

country team next heads to Walnut, California for the

Footlocker Western Region Championships to be held

on December 1, 2012. Good luck, Running Leopards!

Quotes of the Day

After the first day of school, Oliver's teacher rushed over to tell me that he was "so smart!" When I asked him why she might say something like that, he explained that they read a poem about wind and he told her that the wind was "metaphorically speaking".  Hmmm- I think she was impressed.

The other day Tyler was asking him how math, his favorite subject, was going at his new school.  "That math is my playground," he replied. 

Both of the boys LOVE playing on the iPad and they are always talking about "upgrading" things.  Tucker sometimes draws flames and such on his cars and tells me he is "upgrading" them.  He is having a bit of an adjustment as he transitions back into the Spanish Preschool.  The other day, as we were walking in, he said, "I can't wait until I get upgraded and can go to school with Oliver."

Not making any promises...

But I might just start blogging again.  Please excuse posts about things happening over a year ago.  I think first I'll try catch up!

the "Little Preacher"

I was reminded the other day about Jeffie's kindergarten teacher calling him the "little preacher".  I brought Oliver cupcakes to share with his class for his birthday.  After they sang to him (a horribly long rendition of "The Earth Goes 'Round the Sun," he stood up and said to his teacher, "There is something special I want to tell you about my birthday."  He then began to tell the class about turning eight and how he had chosen to be baptized in the river at our ranch at our Horn Family Reunion this summer.  After he sat down his teacher, who is not LDS, said to me, "Some day he is going to be an amazing orator." I think for just a moment she felt the spirit and didn't know how to identify it other than to think she saw a glimpse into his future.  He  certainly reminded me how important it is to share the gospel of Christ in even a simple way. What a great example!

Family Mission Statement

I recently decided we should write a family mission statement. I introduced it in Family Home Evening with a basic structure in mind. I should have known better! In about 5 minutes it was total chaos as the kids shouted the things they thought were special about our family. I kind of thought it would be an ideal of how we wished we were while they thought it was a statement about who we already are. In the end, I gave in and learned a lot. I love how it turned out and we'll soon make a vinyl cutting of it for our hallway.

In this house...
We ride for the brand.
We have fun.
We play games.
We are not at our best in the morning.
We can do hard things.
We depend on each other.
We are determined.
We are LOUD.
We like to hear the truth.
We live by the spirit.
We love.

The Hair

I don't know if I've given Tucker a blessing or a curse. EVERYONE comments on his hair and I hadn't realized until recently that he was already sensitive about it. They had "crazy hair day" (dia de pelo loco) at his school last week. We talked about it and he told me he did NOT want to do it. I explained that it would be so fun and just in case he changed his mind when he saw his classmates with crazy hair, we brought along a clown wig. By the time we got to school, he was in tears. He didn't want to leave the car until I promised we wouldn't bring in the clown wig. Poor thing! Maybe he's just heard enough laughing after stunts from his older sister like this:

I wouldn't do crazy hair either!

The Fish

Recently Emmaline went to an "Intro to Scuba" class. She was, of course, the youngest and smallest in the class- but she did great! After class her teacher said, "You are a fish!" She loved it and is really looking forward to saving enough money to take the full certification class.

Top 10 of 2011

In keeping with our family tradition, here are the top 10 events for us in 2011 in no particular order....

1. Savannah made the JV soccer team.
2. Tyler got to begin installation on his second temple.
3. Emmaline got a starring role in her school's Gala.
4. Oliver got his orange belt in karate.
5. Tucker learned to speak Spanish at his Spanish preschool.
6. Charlotte ran another marathon (her 3rd).
7. Megan made it another year!
8. Emmaline joined High School Cross Country and ran 6 miles for the first time.
9. Savannah learned to do the hurdles and did really well.
10. Oliver got his first set of stitches.

Merry Christmas!!

The Ugly Sweater

Emmaline and her friends had their own "Ugly Christmas Sweater" day at school. One of her friend's mom has a whole collection. We searched everywhere and this was the ugliest we could find. Of course, she is so cute, she can make any sweater look good. There is a teacher at the school that Emmaline doesn't like so much. She happened to wear a particularly ugly sweater the same day as the girls. Emmaline couldn't help but whisper to her friend, "I guess Miss ______ got the memo!" Silly girl!

O Christmas Tree!

We have such a hard time in our family choosing a tree.

Some of us like Charlie Brown trees.

Others like trees that are a little more full.

Some just like to hide in the trees.

Others just want to choose any old tree and get out of the cold!

We decided to let Tyler choose the tree.

I think he did pretty well. This is the first time I can remember a tree that we bought making the whole house smell like evergreen. Guess we've been buying the wrong kind because that's the thing that I always loved about Christmas when we were growing up... the whole house smelling like a tree. Now to find time to decorate it!

Las Vegas Thanksgiving Tournament

Savannah has recently complained that when I blog about her tournaments, I don't say much about her and playing soccer- just what the rest of the family did. So let me begin by saying... it was quite a tournament! It was the first one we've ever played outside of Utah. The competition was stiff and we lost EVERY game. But amazingly enough, although we were playing teams ranked number 1 and 2 in their state (Nevada and New Mexico)- they only beat us by one or two points. In other words... we played our hearts out and it was great to watch. I don't think any of the girls felt disappointed in their performance and much of our losses could have turned to wins if we hadn't recently lost so many players on the team.

So the rest of the family did the usual... hung out at the soccer fields and played on playgrounds. Tucker was amazed to find that his preschool language (Spanish) was not only spoken at school- other people speak it too! He really enjoyed making friends on the playground.

We only had time to do the strip one night and pretty much focused on the M&M factory.

Had to get a souvenir stretched penny, of course.

Emmaline made a sack with the colors of the Young Women's Values.

It was a quick trip and Georgia was sweet enough to make Thanksgiving Dinner for us beforehand so we could rush off to Vegas right after.

The Great Salt Lake

Emmaline went on a field trip with her school to the Great Salt Lake, but they didn't let the kids get near the water. She was pretty disappointed since she had even brought little containers to bring home brine shrimp. We decided to take a little family trip out since it was kind of fun to show the kids where I started the marathon. We spent some time at the Fielding Gar Ranch. There are about 600 head of Bison that roam around freely there and a little ranch house with lots to do. The kids had fun trying their hand at roping,

ringing the dinner bell,

and watching the Bison.

Although it was cold, the kids couldn't resist a dip in the Great Salt Lake.

Emmaline was finally able to get her brine shrimp!

Tyler's Birthday

Tyler always LOVES a party for his birthday. Sometimes that is a little hard for me to swing, but since LaVar and Judy were also in town, I thought it would be a good excuse for extended family to come for a visit. When we starting talking about it, the girls decided they really wanted to rent a cotton candy machine a bounce house. I think maybe the bounce house was for them, but the cotton candy machine?

He was like a kid in a candy store. Literally! He loved it. And he had a few helpers to eat it.

How do you like the band aids on both sides of his mouth? His lips got really chapped and he had cracks in the corner, so he said his "smile hurt." Band aids make everything feel better.
Our friend, Shukri took some pretty amazing pictures. This one says it all.

It was a good night.

Cornbelly's Halloween Festival

This year we went to the Cornbelly Halloween Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was a lot of fun. Tucker loves to tell us that he "isn't afraid of ANYTHING!" That appeared to be true at the beginning of the evening.

Not so much later as we went into some pretty bizarre haunted, blow-up bounce houses. He was terrified! Oliver enjoyed the plain old bounce houses best.

He is such a nut.

Tucker's favorite part was a giant trampoline type bouncer.

I'm not sure if this activity was enjoyed more by Tyler or Oliver.

It was a set of giant Lincoln Logs. We would LOVE a set of those! Although the chilly air reminded us that winter is just around the corner, we really enjoyed the night!

Quote of the day

I was getting out of the car to go in a store and Tucker asked if he was going inside. When I said of course, he answered, "Good else somebody would come and say 'that's some good curly hairs' and take me home with them."

He's got some great hair for sure!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Serendipity

I've been working with the girls on the teenage section of "Values Parenting" by the Eyres. Right now we're talking about serendipity or the happy "accidents" that happen while you're searching for or doing something else. Last night Georgia and I were talking about all the things we used to do for fun since we didn't have a t.v. I've mentioned playing hide-and-seek before, but another game, that is a little bit less conventional, that we used to play is flipping on the stairs. We would flip all the way up and all the way down using this odd little system that we worked out. When you have to entertain yourself, how creative you can be... true serendipity! (great ab workout as well =) And to have the stories to tell and the wonderful memories years later, what a happy accident. As we were getting ready to leave, I looked over to see Tucker giving Daddy Jeff a "too tight" hug. I had to snag a quick picture because I wouldn't want to miss even one moment of serendipity!

(Doesn't Daddy have the greatest smile?!!)