Western Heritage Festival

Yeeeeeeehaw! We attended the Texas Stampede Western Heritage Festival twice today! This morning we saw a blacksmith and a farrier at work, visited the petting zoo, and cheered on Sophie in the Stick Horse Rodeo!

Both kids loved the petting zoo. Rhys was not afraid of the animals and seemed to be a fan of the baby pigs. Sophie and Rhys fed the animals. Sophie noted that feeding them "tickles."

This is Sophie and her friend from preschool, Ben. They are waiting for the Stick Horse Rodeo. Sophie was chosen to participate in the color guard and lead the parade around the arena (see video).

It was like a real little rodeo from start to finish. Sophie did the barrel race. She threw the required figure 8s out the window and free styled it. That's our cowgirl! She got a shiny blue ribbon for doing such a good job.After naps for the kids and mommy, we returned to the festival for the Mutton Bustin' event. For those of you who don't know what that is, let us explain. First you sign your own precious child's life away for liability reasons, then you put that child on a sheep and say "hang on" and let them go.

When Sophie woke up from her nap, Keri asked, "Do you want to go ride a sheep?" and our sweet, unknowing girl thought that was a great idea.Yep, that's our little cowgirl on the back of that sheep. He jetted straight out and then took an immediate turn until Sophie and the sheep met up with the railings of the arena. They didn't hit hard but thank goodness for that helmet. I loved it when the announcer told the staff to "scrape her off." It was over is seconds. The adults were always quick to help the kids up.
She loved it! No tears, just excitement. And you can bet your boots she got another shiny blue ribbon! We are so pleased that she is willing to try things and be a bit of a dare devil sometimes.

Chemotherapy Completed!

To celebrate Keri's completion of chemotherapy, we wanted to try something new so we attended an opera. We could either sit at home or sit at the opera so we chose the latter. We saw Anna Bolena at the new Dallas Opera in downtown. Although we know things do not turn out well for Henry the VIII's 2nd wife it was still nice to have the English subtitles for this Italian sung performance.

Keri is elated to be done with approximately 10 months of chemotherapy. She actually cried for joy and relief after finishing. Should be a few weeks or so before she feels more like her old self again. She will continue to get blood work done while the chemo is still in her system. She will have her mediport surgically removed sometime in November or early December. Keri will continue to have regularly scheduled body and brain scans for the next few years.

Thanks for all the support we have received from our family and friends. We love you and appreciate they love and help we had during this year.

Previous Quote of the Blog

If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse. - Jim Rohn

An Award!

Every month we get together with a fairly large group of friends and have a potluck dinner and catch up with each other. Well, at this dinner, our friends recognized Keri's last week of chemo (only 3 more doses to go) with an award. It was to acknowledge that she had been strong, determined, and "kicked cancer's butt." What Keri is most excited about is that she now has documentation that she is awesome.

Halloween Dinner

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday and did our usual sabbath day activities today, but for dinner we did enjoy bloody eyeballs, ghost potatoes, and witches fingers. Happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

After naps Saturday afternoon, we headed out to a joint ward (congregation) Trunk or Treat. There was conversation and donuts to get the sugar binge started. Then everyone opened their trunks in the packed parking lot. Sugar for all!

After our treat supply diminished we drove over to the east church building to enjoy more Halloween fun with our California friends. We ate some awesome chili at the cook-off. Our friends Dave and Heather won awards for their chili. Dave for spiciest and Heather for the vegetarian category. Congratulations you guys!

Then we went for another round of trick or treating. Check out the loot!

Holy sugar rush, Batman! Neal and I have agreed to eating only 3 pieces of our children's candy per day. Definitely a good time to reinforce the idea of sharing with the kids.

Halloween Parties

On Thursday, Sophie's preschool class had a party with crafts and goodies. She was excited to wear her costume and bounce.Then on Friday evening, Sophie and Rhys were invited to their friend, Kenzie's Halloween party. Sophie was easy to keep an eye on in her bright, orange Tigger costume and Rhys made a very spooky spider.

Their was Halloween crafts, goody bags, ghost bowling, mini pizzas, cupcakes, and musical chairs to frightful tunes. Our favorite to watch, by far, was the apple contest of trying to take a bite out of an apple hanging from a tree with no hands and the parade down the street. The kids finished their parade at a nearby park. It was a great party! Thanks for inviting us, Kenzie!

Stampede!

Today Neal took an early lunch and we met up with him to witness a cattle drive down our city's streets. The drive kicks off the Texas Stampede--chili cook-offs, rodeo, big name country concerts, "boots and bling ball", and the like. This is a big charity event in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Mmmmmmm...can you say STEAK!

Ghoulish Gaiety

Keri saw these cute bracelets posted on a craft blog and made several of them. Sophie hand delivered them to some of her friends. What's so great about Halloween. Sugar. It makes life worth living. So the kids get spooky sugar cereal this week. Okay, mom's had a few bowls as well. Ratio of 5:2, pumpkins to kids in the bathtub. Making ghost cookies with Sophie.

We Got Booed (and that's a good thing)

Something frightfully fun is happening in our neighborhood. We got booed! Someone ding-dong-ditched a jack o' lantern full of goodies on our doorstep. We then post a "We've been Booed" sign in our window and begin the fun for two other households. We will be delivering them tonight as part of Family Home Evening.

Rhys' First Haircut--Buzzzzzzzzzzz!

Before...(love that face!)

After...

And a little in between--When Neal started out, Rhys got all dreamy with the trimmers. There were no tears shed, just his curls. The trimmers died 2 times before the cut was done. Neal dressed Rhys (yes, that's plaid and stripes). Thank you Sophie for "styling" your little brother's hair and helping Daddy.Don't you hate it when the hair tickles your nose?!