Great Deal on Pictures!!

Ok, my local friends, have I got a Christmas deal for you?! My talented sister-in-law Nicole will be journeying with her family from Austin for Christmas and has said that she would be thrilled to take pictures for your family while she's here. I know that a lot of families will be together for the holiday, so this is a great time to get some adorable pictures at a really low price (packages starting at only $75!!). Check out her blog to see some of her work: nicolewhelanphotos.blogspot.com
They'll only be in town for the holidays so act fast to get a great deal that will capture your treasured holiday memories! She's very flexible and great with kiddos. What more could you ask? Leave a comment, email me, email her, or call to set up a photo shoot.
Merry Christmas!
-Lindsey Whelan Hughlett

Shauna's Birthday Party!

You are all invited!!!
http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=GYNPXHGXHKGWXNWFMKFI

December 20th, 8-11 pm, at 1604 McGreg Ln, Carrollton

Come celebrate my 30th birthday with us! It is a "dress up" party, which means: Dress up any way you want! Costumes, Accessories, Fancy dress...anything goes, as long as it isn't normal for you! We will have prizes for anything that Shauna likes, so... crazier, prettier, more original, more creative = better!!! Also, if you would like to participate in our White Elephant gift exchange, bring a wrapped gift ($0-$5). Again, think out of the box and over the top!!! I hope to see you there!!! P.S. For those of you coming from out of town, I will bring extra costume pieces, accessories and props so you won't feel left out! Also, and more importantly, WE WILL HAVE THE BYU v. Arizona BOWL GAME ON AT THE PARTY... TELL THE GUYS SO THEY'LL AGREE TO COME!!!

email me if you have any questions! shaunalee33@verizon.net

Halloween

Hi! I love all your Halloween pics! How did you all get your husbands to dress up? I'm amazed! We had a fun Halloween. I went trick-or-treating with the kids this year while Jason passed out candy. It was Ayla's first time to go. She was an 80s rocker. Noah and Joshua were ninjas. They thought the best part was when I let go of the wagon for a minute and it went hurling down a neighbors drive way. I had to make a dive for it and caught it about an inch from the road! They loved telling daddy that story! Luckily no one was in the wagon! I didn't dress up, but I did spray my hair pink for our ward trunk-or-treat. No picture though. I hope everyone is well. I'm sure were all bracing ourselves for the holiday season! Have any of you started any cool holiday traditions in your family, or carried on any from childhood? Do share! :)

Hess Halloween!

We were a cute little puupy this year! Taryn loved trick-or-treating! Especially the candy! She went with her cousin and tried to go into everyones house on the way.

We are doing great! We are moved into our house and I am a due with the second in a few weeks. It is a boy and we are very excited. Taryn keeps asking when her Bubba is coming.

We hope you all are doing well and have a great couple of holiday's that are soon to come!

Amanda, Brandon, Taryn, and the kicker...

Trick-or-Treat!

Here is the Hinckley family in all of it's glory! I had to post several pictures since we didn't have one with all of us. Nathan (4 1/2) was Wolverine from X-men... which kinda fits his personality, yikes! Aerin (2) was Piglet. She carries around a little Piglet doll everywhere -- you can see it in Ryan's hands here! She was about the cutest thing I've ever seen! I was a funky witch and Ryan was a spoof on Superman. I had too much fun planning these and gathering the props! Hope you all had a great Halloween too!

Halloween

Great idea Kayla! (I love Halloween and I would really love to see all of your ideas!)

I guess I never did the family update/introductory post. The last time I saw most of you was at BYU. Since then, I served a mission in South Africa and met Dustinn (handsome guy above) a few weeks after I returned. Now we live just outside of Washington D.C. He's a management consultant and his current client is the DOD. (In the 3 years we've been married, we've moved inter-State eight times. It was really exciting at first but now we are happy that we get to stay put for the next 2 years. Btw, if you want to see D.C., we love visitors!) Dustinn is actually a native Texan, just from the other side of Grapevine Lake.
I've often thought about how fortunate we (girls) were to grow up with such phenominal, faithful, respectful guys like Jared Deter, Jon Cottle, the Mitchells, the Hinckleys, Ben Hewett, Ezra Hood, Jason Weaver, Brett Spjut, etc. The bar had been set high. When I met Dustinn I knew that he was that quality of man. He is good through and through.
Last but not least, our first child (the chubby, handsome little guy above) is named Bradshaw. He is 13 months old and loves to talk to everyone and everything.
Anyway, Jacksons...Meet the Jacksons, They're a modern stoneage family. From the town of Bedrock, They're a page right out of history.

Sorenson Halloween

Here's me and my family all decked out for Halloween. Sorry about Melena's face... it's really hard to get 5 people to look and smile at a camera all at once! haha! Sadly, my bedsheet toga isn't very slimming, but since I am pregnant with the final Sorenson family installment, I didn't really plan on looking like a goddess! Genna is Supergirl, Melena is a witch, Brennan is Mater (from Cars), Brice is an international soccer player, and I'm Medusa. We had a great Halloween and we'd love to see pictures from everyone else's Fright Nights too!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween! Here are some pictures of my cute little pumpkin:) He's almost 2 months old now and finally filling out and getting some pudge.

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to drop a lil note to Jeff and Karen to say Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!! Hope it's a great one!

Hello from California!

Hi Everyone!

We are having fun in California! I thought I would post a few pictures of the kids we took at a playground around here. Did you know that there are about 5 playgrounds in each square mile around here? We can to to a new one each day if we wanted. One of the fun things about San Diego! Will you post some pictures of your cuties? Enjoy!

Hess Family finally posts!

Hello Everyone! I haven't done this yet because life has been so busy and I have given up on getting sleep. Who says it's important anyways? I also hadn't taken the time to try and figure this out but one of my friends sat me down and forced me to make a blog and wants to me keep updating it so I guess I have to learn now!

Well, Brandon graduates this Christmas and I still have like 3 years left. No laughing! I had to stop going to school until last semester and since hardly any of my credits transfered I basically have to start over. So I get to apply for the nursing program in March and then we will take it from there. I have one little girl, Taryn Elaine, who is 18 months and very cute. I am pregnant with my second and I am 29 weeks along this week. I don't know about the whole 2 kids thing but we will see how it goes. I doubt any more will come until I am done with school, if anymore come. The one coming in December is a boy so we will have one of each.

Well, Brandon is soaking up all the college football that he can since it is seasonal and I am mostly doing homework and house work. Taryn spends most of her day singing and playing with puzzles and her little bike. We went to GA this summer for Brandon to work and he did better than he has the last couple of summers that we have done this job. We just bought a house in Provo and plan on leaving when I am done with school, or soon after that. Who knows if we will keep doing summer sales or move on to a "real" job. It is nice having him home durring the school year so we will see. Besides that, it would make it easier for me to finish school. We really like the house and the neighbors. The ward is great and really friendly. Taryn took to her nursrey leader from the second he met her. We can hardly peel her away from her after church on sundays.

Well, when we have the baby we will let everyone know. I have facebook and a blog now so look me up if you want to!

Amanda, Brandon and Taryn Hess

Benjamin Franklin Farrer has arrived!

Benjamin was born on Monday, Sept. 8th @ 5:44am (he obviously does not know his mother is not a morning person:) after 7 hours of labor. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long. I know, how did he fit in such a short person you ask. No wonder I was so uncomfortable the last month! He was 3 days early (no 9/11 baby for me). I was actually scheduled to be induced on the 10th, and my last day of work was supposed to be the 9th. I told my nurse when I came in Sunday night to let the supervisor know I wouldn't be at work the next morning (I work at the same hospital where I delivered the baby). My water broke @ 10:30pm Sunday night just as we were laying down to sleep. No sleep for me that night. They actually put me on Pitocin to speed things along since I came in with no contractions. Actually, I started having contractions soon after I got there, but my doctor thought she needed to speed up the process. I guess she didn't believe me when I told her babies come fast in my family. After about an hour or so of the Pitocin and really hard and frequent contractions, I got an epidural--thank goodness for drugs. After that, it was smooth sailing with no pain and 2 hours of in and out sleep until I was ready to push. I pushed for about 30 minutes, with the doctor arriving 15 minutes before the baby came. With an epidural, labor and delivery isn't nearly as uncomfortable as 9 months of pregnancy:) Anyways, we are all home together now and enjoying our little bundle of joy while preparing for Hurricane Ike to hit Texas. What a week to come into the world:)

It's been a while!

We Hinckley's (meaning just me) have been slacking and haven't posted in a while! Here's the scoop: Ryan is still in dental school, and is nearing the end! But right now, he is applying for Orthodontic programs and that will be another 3 years of school! I am still the mom of two VERY energetic kids, and the first counselor in the Primary presidency (a lot more energetic kids!). Nathan just started pre-school two weeks ago. This year he gets to go every day and that is nice for both of us. Aerin is getting to be a very chatty little girl with definite opinions. Lately her favorite phrase to say about everything is, "It's ALL MINE!!!" Great...a drama queen in the making! But she's so cute about it that you just laugh. Nathan is in soccer this year too and is having a blast! Both kids are growing like crazy.

Blog Crasher!!!

Hi you lovely Mormon Acre people,

Ashley invited me to this blog a couple weeks ago when I entered the wonderful world of Facebook for some odd reason. (Well, I guess I'm in some of the really old pics. way at the bottom of the blog history.) This is my first blogging experience and I'm totally crashing because a) I didn't live in Mormon Acres b) I didn't go to Marcus and c) some of you may not even know or remember who I am! Oh well, you people need some "fresh meat" on here. :) It's blog time!

So, I don't know when the last time I saw some of you so here's a quick update. I got married to Jason Jones in 2000. He actually joined the church in the LV 2nd ward so some of you know him. We moved to Austin in 2002. That's actually a cool story but you don't want me to fill up the wall now do ya? We bought a house in Manor, a suburb right outside of Austin in 2005. It's a small town, but we are expecting a lot of growth. The crazy thing is the school mascot is the Manor Mustages, and there are giant red Ms every where!!!!! How sad is that! :)

Yes, we do live close to the Jason Weaver Fam. Although I haven't seen them for awhile :). (Ahem!) We are fairly close, but not in the same Stake. (for now!) I have three kiddos. Noah is 7, Joshua is 4, and Ayla is a little over 1 1/2 years old. I stay at home and watch other children from time to time, and Jason is a Geospatial Analyst at First American in Austin. We are in the Walnut Creek Ward, fondly referred to as the "Fighting Walnuts". Jason is the ward clerk and I am the 1st councilor in the Primary. Fun times!

Now, although I am not an official "Mormon Acre-er" I do look back in fondness on the lovely times we shared (ahhh) and will be forever grateful to you for such things as introducing me to the various uses of sidewalk chalk, hide in seek in Kids Castle, and the ever popular "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" to name a few! :) I hope you are all having wonderfully happy lives as I'm sure you are, and that you will free to drop me a line from time to time or call on me if ever needed for anything!!!

Missy Jones (Wise)

Now I will answer these wacky questions!

1) We went to the Dallas World Aquarium(pictured above). It was pretty cool. Our families both still live in Lewisville, so we are up there as often as time allows.

2) This is hard. I really liked Forbidden Kingdom (a kind of kung fu movie), Speed Racer, and Get Smart.

3) I'm gonna have to say Facebook. We have a love-hate relationship. I may be addicted to catching up with old friends and flair!

4) Wow, killer penguins huh? Which species are you referring to? I would have to know what sort of climate I'm dealing with before I answer this! :)

5) sweeeeeet!

6) quiet in the mornings and evenings, loud every time in between!

7) Hmmmmm... another tough one. It really depends, but I'm gonna go with plain?

8) delayed

9) Is this really a question? I mean really? TEXAS all the way!

California Mitchell Clan

Our summer fun was playing at the beach, visiting family and friends, and swimming lessons. It is like summer year round here in San Diego!

We saw Dark Knight at the drive in but have not seen any others since it is too expensive and we have a little baby. We love Netflix!

T.V. so addicting and timewasting. But yet you can't tear your eyes away from it.... :)

A mirror to blind the penguins, honey to pour at their feet so they can't run, and a blanket to throw over them.

Sweet
Night, because we are night owls and the kids are somewhat quiet or at least half of them are.
Loud, because with 4 kids it is that way whether you like it or not.
Plain
Barefeet, less mess
Soft, love my bed and so does everyone else!
Delayed, which is hard in our instant gratification world
Texas, it is where our families are!

Your turn!! :)

Cottle family updates

It is about time we get back in contact with everyone so this is a great opportunity to let you know what the Cottle's have been doing.
1. Have you done anything fun this summer? If so, then what did you do?
We have had a memorable time this summer living in New York. We are going to miss the fast pace and adventures. We are about to head back home to Utah. We've been to Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Battery Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Beach. It has been a ton of fun.Manhattan Rocks and Long Island isn't too bad either.
What is the best movie you've seen in the last year?
Jon says Transformers, because he still sleeps with his Optimus Prime pillow case from when he was a kid. I say any movie we get to go to at a theater is awesome :)

In your oppinion what modern convenience should never have been invented?
A Modern convenience that never should have been invented would be the Blue Tooth headset. I hate when you are in a store and someone is talking so you look over and they look like they are talking to them self until you see the little gadget in their ear.
If you were being attacked by killer penguins and you only had 3 household items to protect yourself what 3 items would they be and why?
We say, a greased cookie sheet, to toboggan our way out of danger. A bra, so Jon could sling snow balls at high velocity. Last, the ipod and dock so we can play music and dance. (Because everyone knows that once the rhythm starts penguins can't help but tap along)

Also, pick one of each of these:
Our family loves Sweets
I prefer the mornings in the summer and the nights in the winter that is when Jon is home
Quiet time; it is the only time I get anything done
Plain, who needs the fluff
Barefeet for me, Jon needs his socks. I'd beat him in a barefoot race any day :)
Soft, I love to sleep
I am an Instant girl. I hang my pictures on wet paint because I can't wait to see the outcome
I love Texas it is where Jon and I met :)
Sweet or Savory
Morning or Night
Quiet or Loud
Fancy or Plain
Barefeet or Socks
Hard or Soft
Delayed or Instant Gratification
Texas or not-Texas

Have you done anything fun this summer?
I've gone to the pool a lot with Jacob. He loves splashing, so it's fun to watch him. Josh and I just went to The Melting Pot for our anniversary, and that was yummy. Also, we went to watch Kidd Kraddick in the Morning (the radio show) a couple of times. They crack me up.

What is the best movie you've seen in the last year?
Enchanted. I love that movie! I watched it like 4 times in 4 days. Then I had to give it back to my parents. Alas...

In your oppinion what modern convenience should never have been invented?
Texting. I think it's stupid. Yes, I know this makes me totally un-cool. And I understand that sometimes it's much more convienient. But seriously???? Since when did it become okay to ask people out on dates that way? Not that this happened to me. It happened to Jaclyn. But anyway, it's way over done by these crazy youngin's.

If you were being attacked by killer penguins and you only had 3 household items to protect yourself what 3 items would they be and why?
A large freezer, a drill, and some fish sticks. I'd throw the fish sticks as far away from me as I could. Then I'd run into the freezer (drill in hand). Once safely inside, I'd use the drill to make some air holes.

Also, pick one of each of these:

Sweet or Savory Savory
Morning or Night Night
Quiet or Loud Loud (it's way too quiet in my house, being a stay at home mommy with a baby that doesn't talk)
Fancy or Plain Plain
Barefeet or Socks Barefeet (though I do love my crazy socks)
Hard or Soft Soft
Delayed or Instant Gratification It depends on how gratifying the gratification will be. I'd pick which ever one would make better and more lasting gratification.
Texas or not-Texas Is that even a question??? Who in their right mind would choose Not-Texas???????

What's up?

It's been a while since we've heard from many of our numbers so I decided its time to get the ball rolling. Everyone (who wants to) can answer the following questions in a new post:

Have you done anything fun this summer? If so, then what did you do?

What is the best movie you've seen in the last year?

In your oppinion what modern convenience should never have been invented?

If you were being attacked by killer penguins and you only had 3 household items to protect yourself what 3 items would they be and why?

Also, pick one of each of these:

Sweet or Savory
Morning or Night
Quiet or Loud
Fancy or Plain
Barefeet or Socks
Hard or Soft
Delayed or Instant Gratification
Texas or not-Texas

Any fun pictures that you may have would be great, too!

Engaged

So for those of you who's phone numbers I don't have and didn't get the text, Bryce and I are officially engaged as of Monday night. I'm attaching photos of the ring as requested. He managed to surprise me and I managed to call him a brat before answering yes. (I still don't do well with surprises!) The date is the Saturday after Thanksgiving and will be at my mom's house in Flower Mound. I'll be up in September for Labor Day and mom would love to have a wedding shower at her place sometime that weekend. Let me know if you'll be around and are interested and I'll give you details when I get them.

Birthdays!

Reunion!!

Well, I finally took Kayla's advice and organized a reunion for everyone in the Utah area from the Lewisville Stake. That includes more than Mormon Acres, so if you know of anyone that should be invited please make sure they know about it! It's on July 1st at 7pm.
You can view the evite here:
http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/
FNBJYSKAJBCRYJXLJLLM/TXreunion

Contact me if you have any questions. Hope to see some of you there!

It's a boy!

We've finally determined we're going to have a little Benjamin Franklin Farrer. The echo tech at the hospital where I work did an ultrasound last week for me, and the kid actually cooperated. Clarke and I have done some travelling recently. First, we went to Utah for his sister's wedding at the Manti temple. We also got to see his brother's five day old baby boy. Clarke loved holding his little nephew and can't wait to hold his own little baby. Right now, I'm having fun getting kicked in the ribs. I can no longer wear my wedding ring, and my ankles swell up frequently. I'm not quite ready to have the baby yet, but give me another month of this hot weather, and I'm sure I'll change my mind. We were in Dallas this last weekend for Fathers' Day and Clarke's sister's wedding reception. It was great to see some of you at my baby shower too. I wish we could come up to Dallas more often, but I'm afraid it will be less often after the baby is born. Anyone is welcome to stop by if they are ever in the College Station area (or heading down to the Houston area-we aren't that far off the path).

...And we're back

Hey, it's the Weavers! It's been great reading about everyone lately. I finally ran out of excuses, so guess I'll add our bit.

After Annamaria and I graduated in '05, we moved down to Austin, Texas. Since then, I've been doing my graduate work at The University of Texas, and Anna's been keeping busy with, well, these guys.


Luke just turned three. All day, every day, he's Peter Pan, Robin Hood, or Mowgli. He definitely keeps us entertained.


Ezra is 7 months old now. He's at that wonderful stage where he's starting to show his personality and play with you, but still not quite able to wander off and get in trouble. Won't last long, though. He's doing the familiar rocking back and forth on his hands and knees into face-plants that could lead to crawling at any second.


I just graduated with my Masters in Mechanical Engineering, now I'll be pressing on for my Doctorate in the fall. In the mean time, we're in Utah (and Idaho) for a month! We'll be here until July 8th, so let us know if you want to get together! Let me know if you'd like an invite to our blog too - it's private, but we'd love to share! (jasonmweaver at gmail)

Remember when....

Hi guys, I tossed out the photographs a while back but luckily I have a folder of scans entitled "Lewisville Texas Stake." ....Happy times.

(P.S. I'll do a family update in the near future.)