Pictures

Putting the finishing touches on Maverick's duct tape zoot suit.

Almost ready.

Walking out the door.
The boys in their Missionary poses. Abby just being darn cute.

Mikkel's post-mission facial hair - look REAL close, use a magnifying glass if necessary, you'll see it!

Isabelle and Matt at band banquet.

Two Months of Updates

Since Mikkel got home, I've had very little time on the computer but when a few people asked me why I hadn't written in a while (people that I didn't even know read my blog!) I decided it was time to assert myself and kick him off the computer for a while.

I decided that his homecoming deserved it's own post but now I'll just fill everything else in.

Mikkel: He got home too late to apply for fall semester. I was trying to get his application in on time but kept running into problems trying to get transcripts/SAT's (maybe it was meant to be). One of the first things he did was apply for winter semester at BYU and BYU-I. He's been accepted to BYU-I but won't find out about BYU until early November. He's confirmed with Idaho so for now he can get housing, etc situated in Rexburg. If he gets accepted to BYU, he'll have to make a decision but won't worry about it now.

It took a month but he finally found a job at TGIFriday's. He's currently a host but has been told that he'll be trained as a server very soon. He's looking for a second job, he figures he's used to working 60 hours a week so it won't seem like too much. Plus - he needs to pay for school!

Isabelle: She got accepted to BYU. After much prayer and fasting, she decided to go to BYU-I. She's majoring in music and will probably focus a lot of her other classes on farm animal-type studies. She's rooming with a great friend who is a junior there and will be a big help getting her college life figured out.

She made duct tape clothes with a friend for prom and they're hoping to win a scholarship through the 'Duck Tape Stuck at Prom' contest. Their picture will be on the website soon and you can go on to vote for her and her date. The couple with the most votes win a $15,000 prize to be split evenly between themselves and their high school.

During duct-tape-dress-making, she was in water polo regionals in which her team took 3rd place. This also took them to the state tournament in Houston where they took 13th. The O'Connor girls team decided to take that opportunity to dye their hair neon pink. She had a stripe right in front and one half-way back. It did look pretty cool, but the school won't allow any "un-natural" hair color... pretty sure that includes pink. So, after several days of wearing a hat during passing periods (her teachers don't care - only the administrators) she decided it was too hot (we did have temps in the 90's that week) and dyed it back.

She's been busy with Jazz festivals and competitions too. Her teacher discovered that she can also sing so she's become a big part of their show. She went to the band awards banquet and won the award for Best Female Jazz Performer. The band banquet is fancier than prom so we re-worked an immodest dress and she was able to wear it that night and also last night at Mormon Prom.

Jacob: He's been taking private swim lessons and has confidence in the water now! He has a great coach that he really looks up to - apparently that was all he needed. He's been swimming since his second class! He has been spending the last two weeks exercising so he can be ready for second grade... I have no idea where that came from!

Abigail: She's also taking swimming from the same coach. She's not quite as coordinated in the water as I expected, but she's fearless and is doing great. She's counting the minutes until Kindergarten. She's also exercising to be ready for school...

Daniel: He's taking swim lessons from a different coach and just has her wrapped around his finger. She loves his personality and assertiveness, I don't know what he does or says but I see him making her laugh - a lot! He started up again with speech therapy at the elementary school so we get to see Jacob on his way to lunch all the time now. He's doing well but I have to admit I'll be so sad when he actually starts to say "Okay, Mommy" instead of "Otay, Mommy".

So, there's our previous two months - in a nutshell. I'll post pictures soon.

Mikkel's Homecoming

March 10, 2011 - we got up EARLY to drive out to Houston and pick up Mikkel. We drove there because his original itinerary had him on layover in Houston for 3 hours and he asked if there was a way we could just come get him there. It's a 3-4 hour drive each way so we'd get home about the same time as he would have flown in and he just wanted to see his family - I know the feeling!

So, we got on the road around 6am, his flight was scheduled for arrival at 10:10am. Along the way I would check out flight tracker to show the kids about where his plane was. I also had the airline website queued up so we could keep an eye on it.

Early on, the airline said the plane was leaving late and would be into Houston at 10:30am so we stopped to get some egg mcmuffins to hold us over until lunch. Each time I checked the website, the same information kept popping up. That is, until we were about 30 minutes away and suddenly... the flight was scheduled to be in at 10am. It was now about 9:50. I kept praying that he would be detained in customs (not for long, just 20 minutes was all) so we would be there to meet him instead of him waiting for us on the curb. Flashbacks of "The RM" were racing through my head.

We drove up to the terminal and Fred said "just hop out, I'll park and meet you there". So we did - except it was the wrong terminal... luckily though the right terminal was connected to the one we were in so it was just a little longer run to get there in time (and believe me, we were running!)

Just as we made it into the lobby area where we were told to go, I was searching to see if he was sitting around, waiting for us when Isabelle yelled out "Mom, there he is!" I looked to my left and he was just strolling out of customs (where he was not detained) and through the doors to us. Of course, I yelled out "Mikkel!" (at the top of my lungs which got everyone's attention) and ran to him. He barely could put his bags down before I hugged him so tight he probably thought I'd suffocate him.

Isabelle was the designated photographer but got caught up in the mood so we didn't get too many there in the airport but here are a few of the good ones:

These are the soccer jerseys he bought everyone.

So, after all that commotion Fred and I got in touch with each other and he was still looking for a parking space. I told him to just come pick us up since we were done there anyway. It was a little crazy and I have to say I'm grateful for smart phones... we had so much more information at our fingertips because of those! Of course, we probably wouldn't have stopped at McDonalds without that information too... Oh well, it all worked out and we were so excited to see him that nothing else mattered anyway!

After we got home, we had some friends come over for hot fudge brownie sundaes - his "first request meal" and then went to see the Stake President who then released him from his full-time mission. Here we are just before we went to the church - he's wearing a tie he discovered in the MTC that was made out of pajama pants:
By the way, he didn't wear that tie to meet with the Stake President.