Disaster

On December 16th Maureen called our home at 1:01am. She was crying and she said the shop was on fire. Shilo jumped out of bed and frantically tried to get dressed to get over there. I got up with him and we said a prayer to help settle us down. He left and I stayed with worry set in and expecting the worst. At 1:19am Shilo called me and said it was horrible get a sitter and come out with him. I called Uncle Gene. He showed up with Aunt Ann and she stayed with the kids, Shilo came back and picked me up and we went to see the flames. It was horrible, I've never seen fire up close and personal, but take it from me, you never want to see anything you own going up in flames. I cried, prayed, and cried some more. This was our hopes and dreams on fire. This was our life up in flames, this was our lively hood ablaze.

You might think that this is the worst thing that could happen. You might think we would be angry or wonder what we had done wrong. But the truth is we're not mad and it wasn't anything we did, but a crazy battery charger. From that terrible morning we've had people calling and offering to take care of our kids so I can go help, offers to help clean up the mess, offers to give us money if we need it, offers of dinner, offers to use their work location and tools til we get up and going, offers of interest free loans, offers of discounts on tools (you better believe we'll take you up on that one!!), and even a business down the road bringing lunch for free to our guys who were out in the rain trying to figure out what to do!

You might think we'd be upset, but really all we can be if happy! Happy that we are loved, happy for the help, happy that we are all safe, and happy that we have insurance.

208 Cimarron

We moved to 208 Cimarron in July. This house is pretty much double the size of our last one, so we can now stretch our legs a little. With the bigger house we decided to get a bigger tree. For FHE we decorated it. With the bigger tree we had lots of space to cover and not a lot of decorations to use. I guess those little trees didn't take too much. We pretty much had fun. Ethan got a little carried away and had to do some wall sits, but other than that no broken ornaments and no tears from the kiddos.

Music Time

I have always been partial to music. I played piano for many years, then played the flute and percussion in school. Shilo was in choir and he learned to play the violin. Both of us enjoy different kinds of music and now for the first time we got to be in the audience listening to a concert. Stormy is now in the VISD orchestra. She plays the cello. VISD has a program for 4th and 5th graders who are interested, they pick an instrument and if they can get rides to and from they can participate....oh yeah did I mention Stormy got a brand new cello. Yeah, they gave my 9 nine year old a brand new cello. We are so proud of her. Besides the cello, Stormy takes piano lessons from me, and she sings in the De Leon 4th and 5th grade choir. WOW! I think she got the music gene.

One Year older and Wiser

The Fall brings lots of Birthdays in the Monney household. I guess I was a good girl because I even got a cake!!

My kiddos surprised me with new running socks, new scriptures, and a beautiful opal ring:)

Shilo, (the old man in the house) celebrates his birthday in October. He got TONS of gifts for his office. Either he doesn't need anything, or he's really hard to shop for. He had a yummy German Chocolate Cake from his Mom....yummmmm (Nanny's recipe)

Bowling Memories

Grandma Vela and Abby

Elijah

Ethan

Cumorah

Stormy

Volleyball

Stormy's volley skills are amazing, she was in a "volley" match of 4 passes going back and forth!
Cumorah's serving skills have improved tremendously...watch out or she'll Ace you!

Team Jacob

For any who know me you know how much I love to read. Yes I think the Twilight Saga is wonderful. If you haven't read it you truly are missing out. It is just fun. I went on OPENING day to see the New Moon movie. Kristel S. and I had been talking about it for a while...obsessively would be a nice way to say it. We were lucky our hubbies decided to "take us" to the 12:30 pm showing....yup Shilo even took off of work for me! Truly I'm loved. Now that that is finished I can focus on our next MAJOR event...Christmas

Games

Do you want to see our gang play? Here is the schedule:
11/14 Eli 9am
Girls 12:15 pm
E 2 pm
11/21 Girls 9
Eli 10 & 11:30
E 2 & 4
12/5 Girls 8 & 8:45

Fantastic Fall

Carving Pumpkins for FHE was a definite Success!

Dancing King?

Yup, Eli is a very good dancer, but notso great soccer player. I take that back he made one goal this year, true it was for the other team, but he sure was excited! All the people in the stands love watching him dance. As a "Tiger Shark" you'd think he'd be a little scarier than his hip thrusts, but alas, he is a lover not a fighter (a little like his dad huh? ;o

Go Ethan

Ethan is having a blast in Soccer. His team is the Green Hornets...buzzzzz. They sure are mighty! I must admit my little E sure is fast, as a first year player you sure can't tell! He loves playing DEFENDER, (goalie. without using hands)

The Crazy Calendar

Have you ever looked at your calendar and thought wow, I must be crazy to think that we could or should do all of this? That is pretty much how the Monney's next three weekends are looking. I must admit when we signed up for sports and then coaching I really wasn't looking to what the future would be like. However, it sure is fun to cheer you little ones on.
Ethan is in soccer and is 4-0...his is the only team we are not coaching
Elijah is in soccer and is 2-2...Shi is coaching
Stormy and Cumorah have their first volleyball game this Saturday...I am their coach.
It is fun, but very time consuming, but I guess the good news is we aren't sitting at home watching TV :)