Cousin Love- I mean Fun

This weekend as I traveled away to see my family and a friend, Tom (Adam's brother) and his 5 kids were able to come over for a visit! They had fun playing together, having a Wii fest, and going to up to San Antonio to stay in a hotel and hit Six Flags!
Hanging out with Dad is ALWAYS funner than being with Mom!

Emma and Max continued their love affair~ one which we hope to quench before they hit age 10! Emma told me this morning that Max asked her two times if she would "Go out with him". For a 3 year old boy and a 4 year old girl, they are quite advanced in their dating lingo!

With the approach of Hurricane Gustav, everyone was worried about Tom and kids making it back to Louisiana before the storm. It appears that the storm was not as bad as originally thought and they made it safe!

Thanks for the fun weekend.

Arrow of Light

Last Wednesday night, Brayden was awarded the highest honor and achievement in Cub Scouts- the Arrow of Light. It was a great way to end his Cub Scout career as he moves on to Boy Scouts. He is pretty excited to move on but sad to leave his friends. Here are some pictures of the event!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

No, it's not Christmas in August and no, it's not my birthday~ It's the first day of school! On Monday, all four of our kids headed off to school. Emma is attending Mt. Olive Lutheran Preschool in their Pre-K program. She goes every day from 8:30-11:30am! She loves it and so do I! Her teacher's name is Miss Mary and she is very sweet with the kids.

Cooper is a big First Grader in Mrs. Jochec's class. She is the teacher I would have chosen, if I had had a choice! He has three friends in class from last year and our next door neighbor, Michael, is in his class too! Mrs. Jochec knows how to motivate Coop- tickets you save up to go to the treasure chest!! Cooper LOVES going to the treasure chest and it only takes 5 tickets! If he saves up, at 15 tickets he could take his shoes off in class or get a free homework pass!

Bekah started third grade in Mrs. Guerra's class. She says her teacher is very nice and only yells when you take too long in the bathroom, which Bekah says she never does! Bekah came home with homework on her first day and didn't even complain! No slacking allowed for third graders apparently!

Brayden started Baker MIDDLE SCHOOL and I almost had a heart attack! I thought sending my child off to Kindergarten was hard, but oh, no! Middle School was much harder! We had to show up on the first day, then line up in the cafeteria to get his class schedule. From there, it was fend for yourself. Luckily, most of his classes are right next door to each other. EIGHT periods! My baby has to switch classes EIGHT times per day! He was fine and came home very excited! I had to go home and have a large nap just to relax!
It's nice to be back in the swing of things- so here's our new daily school schedule, from my point of view-
6:05am- GET UP! I can't set my alarm for straight up 6-that just seems way to early!
Shower, pray, read scriptures
6:30am- Wake up kids- again, this must be breaking a law of heaven to wake up sleeping kids, but it must be done if we are to make it on time
Get Brayden in the shower, tell Coop and Bekah to get dressed, fight with Emma about what to wear to school, depending on if she wants to look "Cute" or "Pretty"?
Argue with Emma about how to fix her hair- remind kids repeatedly to brush their teeth, make their beds, and say their prayers.
7:00am- Breakfast, Family scripture time, Regroup before the day begins. Oh, yeah, did I even get dressed yet? (Hair most likely in ponytail, again!)
7:35- Bekah and Cooper to the bus stop. Bus comes at 7:44!
7:50- Get back and try to clean up breakfast and put some makeup on.
8:15- Brayden to bus stop- his comes at 8:25- drive wildly to Emma's school, walk in and sign in by 8:30. Breathe!
Emma is out of school by 11:30
Cooper and Bekah get out at 3:00- the bus drops them off in our subdivision by 3:15
Brayden gets out at 4:00, but the bus ride home takes until 4:44!
Is it time for dinner already??? Homework, lessons, practice, gym, Scouts, Achievement Days, Young Womens!

Bekah's Baptism

What an awesome day we had! On Saturday, August 23rd, Bekah was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

We were blessed to have Adam's parents visiting with us, along with Connie, Dax, Holly, and Tanner from Dallas, and Andy and Rylan, from Austin. We also had many of our great friends from here in Corpus!


After the baptism, we had lunch and a birthday party back at our place. Fun was had by all!

You can view all the pictures we took by clicking on the title of this post!

Happy Birthday to You...

Brayden celebrated his 11th birthday on Friday, August 15th. He had a sleepover with several friends from Thursday night to Friday. We ordered pizza, played the Wii, and the boys stayed up until at least 2am!! Friday morning, Adam went for Krispy Kreme donuts!! 2 dozen donuts devoured in less than 2 hours! Impressive work I must say! Brayden was in the height of his glory just hanging out and playing video games all day.


We left that night and drove up to Austin to pick up Adams parents, so we stopped at Red Robin for dinner~ a Red Robin Bacon Cheeseburger and a chocolate shake topped off his day!
Today was Bekah's 8th birthday. She had breakfast in bed, finally got that pink robe she's been dying for, finally got her own Nintendo DS (in pink) and Mario Kart to go with it- all very exciting for her!


We went to see Clone Wars after lunch and then out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Bekah got to sit up on the birthday saddle while we all gave her a big Texas Yee-Hah! Most adults would rather die than do that, but she loved it! She chose Sonic for ice cream after and then got to stay up later than the boys, so her day was complete!
We love you both and are so proud of you!

Our Weekend Trip to Dallas

This last weekend we were able to drive up to Dallas to be with our family for our nephew, Dax's homecoming from his mission in Madagascar. We left on Thursday the 7th, Adam's birthday, and made the drive in 7 hours! That is a new record for us! The kids did really great in the car. Adam's parents had flown into Dallas the day before and Andy's family drove up from Austin.



Friday morning Tom arrived, driving over from Louisiana, and we all went to Six Flags. It was fun, but SOOO hot! Bekah is now over 48 inches tall, so she was able to ride the Texas Giant- the largest wooden roller coaster in the USA. She was very brave.

Saturday morning we got up early and made it to the 7am session at the Dallas temple with Dax and his parents, Dave and Connie. It was really nice to attend the temple, and so convenient! It only tooks us 30 minutes each way. Adam and his brothers played Raquetball together and came home as friends! We watched Tanner, another nephew, in his ice hockey playoffs and they smashed the other team! It was a very exciting game and the kids all loved it! Sunday was 9am church and sacrament meeting was amazing. Dax's talk was incredible and it was so cool to hear him bear his testimony in Malagasy! We hung out with family and friends for the rest of the day and the cousins all loved being together. A big thanks to Dave and Connie for letting us all come invade their home!
You can check out all the pictures we took on the trip here-
http://picasaweb.google.com/tynel.jarnagin/DaxSHomecomingTrip

Confession...

Hello, my name is Tynel and I am a Twiliholic. Admitting the problem is the first and most important step in overcoming any addiction. While I am not making excuses for my behavior, I know when it all began. On Friday, July 18th, I bought the first book at Target. I had heard so many great things about it and I just couldn't resist. I read the book every night in bed, stayed up until 2am night after night, read while drying my hair, read while eating my lunch, or during any car trip I expected to last over 3o minutes. My poor husband tried to act like a vampire just to get my attention!

I am proud to say that on Saturday, August 9th, I finished the fourth book and have walked away! I have been clean for three days now- I know that's not long, but I am quite proud of myself already! I actually fixed a real meal for my family today, I did the laundry, I spent time with a friend, and have returned to blogging. If any of you are a recovering Twiliholic, please feel free to share. I'm sure a group therapy session will do us all some good!