Sister Houston is Home!!

well i can't believe that 18 months has past and Tori is home from her mission. Time really does fly. Tori made it home on October 27. she seems to be adjusting well so far. But i think deep down inside she would hop back on that plane and head back to Ohio to be a full time missionary again. She has alot of decisions to make in the next little while and i know whatever she chooses to do she will do it well. She has always given herself 100% to what ever she does. Go see her blog if you want to keep up on her. I am gonna turn it over to her now!

Mitchell is doing great. He is serving in Springfield Missouri right now and loving every minute of being a missionary. His favorite line when he emails is " This is my best week ever" he basically says it every week!! and says that everyday is the Best!! check out his blog if you would like to keep updated on him.

Hunter is a Senior and already has senior-itise!! poor kid he still has awhile yet to go before he graduates. He is busy working out at "the pit" which is his mma gym. He is really enjoying that at this time. mom not so much.....who wants to see their baby punched haha. but i will survive. i am glad he is enjoying it. He also stays busy working on the trucks for us and is learning alot.

We added a new face to the household too a few months ago.. Our nephew Anthony moved down from Las vegas and is living with us. He is currently working a few hours for us and looking also for more work. but we are thrilled to have him be apart of our crazy lives.

me and kevin we just getting older and well you know what comes with older.....

My grandkids are getting big: Kael will be 3 on Nov 20th and Claire just had her first birthday on Oct 15th. They wear me out but i wouldnt have it any other way!!! i love being a Nana!!! its the best!!
shalyse and chase are getting ready to start a new school adventure...... Chase is going to school and shalyse is gonna have the adventure of being a single mom of a husband that is at the library or locked in his room studying!!

Definately some fun times happening for our family!!

OH MY.......time does fly!!!!!! its been forever since i posted anything....no really it has been forever.....so much has happened since 2010 haha so sad that i haven't kept my blog up!! i really meant to but when Tori left on her mission i seemed to focus on keeping her blog updated. so if it means anything i did keep a blog up just not mine!! so now that she is coming home this month maybe i can get back to doing mine....haha oh wait i have another missionary out.....Mitchell left on his mission in may of this year. ok i will try to get something in here to update our lives.

sooo watch for it.... otherwise go to sister houston@blogspot.com or elder mitchell houston@blogspot.com and get updated on my two missionaries

MORE TO COME...... promise

Summer?? When did that happen??

Ya summer was here and now it is gone!!! Amazing how fast that went!! It started out kinda slow and ended in a fast crazy frenzy!! I have been so good at keeping up Tori's blog that i forgot about keeping mine up!! haha

Lets see i will try to some up our summer in just a few paragraphs!!
June - we ended up in Texas for a week right after school was out! not much happend the rest of the month. The boys headed to the lake a few times to losen up there muscles so they could show them off the the girls!! They went as often as there dad would take them! The lake is something we can always count on for a great time!!
July - Me and Kevin both had birthdays in July!! yipee for Birthdays!! I decided that the grandbabies get to have all my birthdays from now on!! Kevin headed up to Holbrook and New Mexico for a couple of weeks for work. So while he was gone Me and Hunter took a road trip to Las Vegas to visit the family!! We stayed with Travis and Tanya and the rest of the gang!! It was fun to get away and visit!! We headed home with three extra kids!! Cortney, Anthony and Colin!! Crazy kids wanted to come hang out in Arizona? It was so fun!! Hunter seemed to keep them all entertained!! poor Cortney, the only girl cousin in the group of smelly boys!! but she was a trooper!! I loved having all of them here for the week and i hope they had a great time too!! See ya next summer!!
August - Started out not such a good month!! We lost a niece Beth Houston, to a motorcycle accident. She just missed her 25th birthday by a few days!! Beth belongs to Kevins brother Rick! What a sad thing to have happen, but thank heavens we all have the gospel and know we will see her again! Then a few days after Beth's accident we got a call from the family that Kevins uncle FD had passed away!!! He has been ill for some time!! so guess what we did? ya headed to Vegas to attend 2 funerals!! It was a hard, long weekend!!

Soooo basically that was our summer!! School began on August 11 and Hunter began his Jr year at Mesa high!! He has a full load of classes and is working for his dad after school mechanicing on the dump trucks! And is enjoying life as a 16 year old!! all tho he reminds me daily that his birthday is just a few weeks away!!! Mitch is busy looking for employment again!! He was able to work with the census for awhile and then has been doing odd jobs here and there but has yet to land a good job!! Tori is doing great!! she is loving her mission and we miss her!!
Shalyse is very pregnant...... and is ready to have her baby girl!! (still no name yet) October 18th can't come soon enough for her. But in spite of being miserable she is a great mom to a busy almost 2 year old!! Chase is busy working his butt off and being a patient husband and wonderful daddy!!
Kael.... oh what can i say...... I LOVE being a grandma!!! he is the highlight of my life!! So glad we can spoil them rotten!! cause i do!! Kael is a typical little busy boy and i love every minute of it!! but he does wear me out!! But i can send him home to mom and dad!!
Well that's our summer !! The holidays will be here before we know it so enjoy life now before it gets hectic again!!

On May 28th the gang all loaded up in the Tahoe and headed to Montgomery Texas!! Kevin Me Mitch Hunter Shalyse Chase and Kael!! so 18+ hours later we pulled into the KOA to stay in the cottages they have there! It was a great place to stay!! Amazing enough we all still liked each other after 18+ hours too! We went to see Colten give another farewell speech before he headed to the MTC! We had a lot of fun Eating, swimming and going to the Houston Space Center(NASA)The space center was a lot of fun! there were lots of hands on activities and things to do!

As you can see kael wants to be a big boy and feed himself!!

Littlest Space man!

cooper decides to go on a bike ride!

he didn't get very far

I don't if the boys were laughing cause i made them stand with a star wars guy

or if they were so excited they couldn't control themselves!!

Aren't they just the cutest kids you ever saw??

Great grma Jeannie bought them matching shirts!

so of course they had to show them off!

All in all we had a great time with the Houstons in Houston and of course the Hartnetts too! We miss them alot!

Update me Please!!!

WOW!! I really stink at Blogging!! I am so not any good at this kind of stuff
I have been bribing and paying Shalyse to do it for me. Then i realized she is just as bad as me!! so I am going to attempt to keep this a little more updated!!

With Tori getting ready to head out on her mission I really want to keep everyone and her updated on the Family!!
It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks. Getting her ready, shopping for a Sister Missionary, URG!! what a challenge!! but hopefully she is ready willing and able cause there's no turning back now!! When Mitchell heads out it will be a breeze!! pants shirts shoes!! easy stuff! NOT skirts, mid calf that you can't find anywhere and shirts to go with and well you get the idea!! It really has been fun and exciting and we are anxiously awaiting her report date which is coming really fast May 12th!!

much needed update

These are a little back wards but thats okay. :)

Father's Day in Dewey/Prescott

Family Reunion

Rocky... spoiled?

Tobin's Farwell

Hunter and Kael

Tori and Danette

Amber, Braiden, Tori, and Hunter

Graduation 2009

Colten and Mitchell's Prom

Colten's Birthday

Kevin and Danette dancing

Grandpa and Kael

Mitch, Danette and Hunter

Jamie and Jarom's Wedding

Danette and Rocky at the park

Kael and Grandma sleeping

Kael, Grandma and Aunt Tori

Kael and Shalyse

St. George Temple

Tori and Danette in Idaho at the temple. Tori was moving up there for four months.

Colten and Mitchell

Rocky (the other baby in the family)

So yeah, this is Shalyse, since my mom doesn't update her blog EVER since I set it up for her I figured I would do it for her this time and hopefully I can train her better and get her blogging. Anywho, I haven't done anything since Christmas so A LOT has happened since then. In January Mitchell turned 18, it's crazy he will be able to turn his papers in so soon for his mission. He is growing up so much my baby brother. (sniff, sniff) Hunter got surgery on his shoulder and is doing pretty good. He will have to do physical therapy for a while and not much with sports till he's in prime condition. Tori is single and searching for that perfect major hunky dunk. Ha, ha just teasing Tori. Love you. She is starting college. She still not quite sure what she wants to major in but figured she better get the pre recs out of the way since they need do be done anyways. Me I'm just peachy, as you can tell I actually update my blog. Ha, ha. Mom has been crazy busy with girls camp and her spoiled kids (us) and her spoiled rotten grandbaby. She has been missing her sister Cyni who officially moved to Texas with her family. They had an opportunity with business out there and they took it. They are doing good as far as I know. We miss them so much but are lovin hanging out in their pool. ha ha. (even though we hung out in there pool when they were here) Dad as been workin hard on Houston Trucking. That's basically the scoop on us. Birthdays, Weddings, Family Reunions, Traveling, Packing, Saying Good byes, Graduations, and Swimming. Hopefully it won't be another six months until I get her to update her blog.

ta ta for now,

Shalyse

So we've had a lot happen. Christmas was great and we got to go to a ton of family parties. Santa gave everyone awesome goodies this year!

Shalyse and Chase blessed Kael on January 4th.

Then the very next morning I drove Tori to Idaho. (sniff, sniff) She is living in Rexburg by BYU. She isn't attending school but her cousin is. She just wanted some change so she moved up there close to where her cousin is and living with three other girls in an apartment. She is freezing her butt off, but enjoying her time there. I'm so proud of her!! Love you babe! 

Me and Shalyse took Kael to the Wildlife Zoo for the first time with his cousins. I think me and Shalyse had more fun than he did. :)

We are enjoying being Grandparents and seeing our lil' Kael all the time. We miss Tori (even Hunter and Mitchell) hehe. Mitch just turned 18 on Jan. 14th, only a year to go before his mission. He is also getting close to graduating from Mesa High Hunter is getting close to finishing his last year in Jr. High. So crazy my baby is going to be in High School!! Hunter is pretty bummed about his shoulder though. He played football this year for Taylor and hurt his shoulder. His is going to have to have surgery, so this possibly means no baseball this year. He is doing track though and has been practicing for that. 

Well "Life is Good" in the Houston household.

That's all for this month's update