Mom's New Hair

My mom is finally growing her hair out! I've been begging her since I don't know how long. She asked me to take a picture of her posing with her hair. It ended up being a lot more than one picture though. I kept laughing at her modeling!

This is how Mom eventually wants her hair to look. She thinks it's stupid that I'm even putting this picture on the blog, but I think it's nice to see what she's aiming for! (Just don't say anything if her hair doesn't end up looking like this!)

The Pinewood Derby & Trebuchet Contest

Okay, this is a little different. It's me, Jessica! My mom really struggles with the blog, so being the computer savvy girl that I am, I've put together about four posts! Hopefully it looks good!


Lauren worked very hard on her catapult! Her little blue one ended up throwing the golfball about 20 feet! Good work Lauren!



Matthew came in second place in the Pinewood Derby this year! Last year he came in first and dad spent a very long time working on it with the chisel. This year however, dad didn't have very much time on his hands so Matthew bought a kit and put it together. He still came in second place though. Good job Matthew!

Matthew's Ninth Birthday!

I know my mom just barely finished putting up his eighth birthday, but it's been a year and we are living in the present! Matthew had a very fun birthday. He had a big pancake breakfast to start the morning. Then we opened presents and went shopping so he could pick out a new video game. (This was despite my protesting. Video games ruin your brain!) Then we got some lunch at Wendy's and went bowling! It was a lot of fun, and our dad received a big slice of humility. My mom won! She was quite a bit ahead of dad too. So it was a very fun day. Happy Birthday Matthew!

Christmas 2007

Here are a bunch of pictures for Christmas 2007! The first one is at Home Depot when we got our Christmas tree! We were a little disappointed because in Oregon we always got to go out in the woods and chop down our own tree, but it always looks the same when it's standing in the living room, right?
The rest of the pics are from Christmas Eve. The first one is in our dining room, the second is in our family room, then it's Lauren and me vegging out in our new Christmas 'jamies! The last one is the whole family in their new pjs with the boys showing us their "Spiderman"!

Mom's Birthday (continued)

These are just a few more pictures of Mom's Birthday!

Mom's 29th Birthday :)

Last week we celebrated my mom's birthday! It was a great birthday party. We (Lauren, Matthew, Benjamin, and I) made mom a poster and cute little cards to tell her what a great mom she is. She also got a new Schick Intuition razor that she LOVES! Dad also bought her a nice rotary cutter that she really wanted! It was a fun party and a great opportunity to remind our mom how much we love her!

Matthew's 8th birthday

Matthew turned 8 in January of 2007. He is such a sweet, good boy. He makes friends easily and is a great big brother to Benjamin. For Matthew's birthday he invited several friends over to play all kinds of football related games. After pizza and cake, we took them all to see "Flushed Away" at the dollar movie.

Matthew was Baptized in May. We waited awhile so that Grandma and Grandpa Stoner could come. It was a very nice baptism. Jessica and Julie sang, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and the talks were given by grandparents.

After the baptism we all went down by the river to eat lunch at Calhoun's. We had the greatest time and the day was so beautiful.

Lauren is our volleyball player. She was on an excellent team last Spring. Her team went all the way to the championship game. She looks forward to playing in Middle School. Lauren also got contacts during the Summer of 2007. She has been so responsible with them. Only one has ripped so far.



Jessica has had a very busy year at West Valley Middle School. The amount of homework she has is amazing. High School should be a breeze for her. Jessica works very hard and gets great grades. She also auditioned, and was accepted into the 8th grade Ensemble Choir. Every Tuesday and Thursday she has to be at school at 7:30 a.m. for rehearsal. It has been great for her. She was also selected to sing in the East Tennessee Honors Choir. We had to take her to Cleaveland, TN for her rehearsal and concert.





Benjamin started Kindergarten last Fall. At first he loved it and hated it at the same time. He really likes school and all of the friends he has made, but he hates to get up in the morning. It's a real trial sometimes! Ben is so fun. He is definitely the baby of the family.






The highlight of our summer was our trip to Washington, D.C. From there we went to Hamlin and Palmyra, NY, then on to Niagra Falls. It was a lot of driving, but such beautiful country to drive through.






That's all for now! That was a quick update. I sure enjoy seeing all of the cute blogs out there. Please keep posting.