Channing's 8th Birthday!

Channing had her special number 8 birthday! In our family 8 is a big one and we were excited that she is now 8! She was lucky enough to have both her grandparents with her on her birthday. She had to go to school, but we started the morning off with a healthy breakfast of donuts and chocolate milk :)

We love our birthday donuts! 

At 11:00 we brought her McDonalds, per her request, for lunch. Her Oma and Opa and brother Deacon were also able to join. It was fun to be there with her and she was excited to have us. 

They even put her name on the ESE school message board.  

That evening we hurried over for dinner at Culvers and then she had her 2nd grade musical Seussical the Musical. Both grandparents and Natalie and our family came to support her and be there for her birthday. 

She really loves to perform and sing and dance and had her number down! 

She has such a great group of friends at school that she loves and I am so glad they've been in class for a couple years together! 

Here is Maely and Emmy. 

After the musical we had cake and icecream and then presents!! She chose red velvet cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes! 

She got her own set of scriptures.  

A squishmallow, jewelry, art supplies, clothes, gift cards, and her big present was.. 

She got to decorate her room! We went to look for some decorations, and this is what she chose. 

She was excited about her new room. 

Here is her 2nd grade school shot. She is such a fun loving girl. She is so brave and her confidence over the last year has soared. She knows she can do anything now. She is ALWAYS singing and if she's not singing, she's talking or hugging or writing people thoughtful notes. She is a very loving child. She is also very artistic and creative. She still identifies as an orange head instead of a red head :) She is always wanting to help me and serve others and think of nice things to do. She likes to roll her eyes and raise her eyebrows. Haha. She is a good kid who has great faith and loves jewelry and especially shoes! She is our girly girl and we love her! 

Another Soccer Season with Heatwave and Math Olympiads!

Cavin has played his 6th year with the Texas Heatwave soccer club. He really likes soccer and does a good job. Ragnar stepped in to help coach last season after having a very inexperienced coach the previous season. Cavin really enjoyed having his dad as the coach. This season Ragnar coached again and they were the Green Arrows. His assistant coach was Coach Nate Williams.

On his team he had 12 players. Aaron, Stephen, Sebastian, Caleb, Alex, Adolfo, Blaine, Corbin, Jesus, Caleb, Luke, and Cavin. 
They were ranked 2nd for most of the season and played in the tournament on April 27th. They tied and went into a shootout after the first game. Cavin was the goalie so I was a little (or a lot) stressed out. He ended blocking a lot of shots, but most of the boys on both sides kept missing. Finally, after I think 8 shots Blaine got one in and we won the first game! We came back later to play the championship game against Coach Cantu's team and we ended up losing pretty bad. I think it was 9-0. 

We ended in second place and the boys I think were fairly happy with that.  

Cavin has great skills, body size, and an understanding of the game, he just really has to work on his speed and conditioning. 

I enjoyed watching him play and watching Ragnar coaching him along as they both love soccer. 

A couple days later Cavin participated in the Math Competition at the Humble Civic Center on April 30th. Out of his Math Olympiad club, the top 5 kids were invited to go to participate. He was excited to compete.  

Here are the kids representing Eagle Springs Elementary! 

They competed with kids grades 4-6. They did well but did not place in the top 3.  

They had a fun day and I am proud of him for working hard and leading his club as the Captain this year. I know he loves Math! Way to go Cavin!

Cavin is ELEVEN!

Cavin turned 11 on April 12, 2019. He was excited to celebrate his day. We woke up to traditional birthday donuts for breakfast!

After breakfast he headed to school and Deacon and I met him there to have lunch with him.

We ate McDonalds and he talked about his day. 

After school his Uncle Chris and Aunt Chira and cousins Caden, Coleton, Charlotte, Crew, and Cai came over along with Grandpa Speers and Natalie for dinner, cake, and games.  

He got more Michael Vey books that he has been wanting and a series he is really into right now. Shoes, a Nintendo Switch game, gift cards, money, and....

a new bike which he wanted most. He is so tall that he has already outgrown his other bike. At 11 he is in mens shoe sizes, clothing sizes, and now he has to get a mens size bike! It doesn't seem fair to have to pay so much more for "kid" stuff just because your kid grows so fast! Haha

He created a Kahoot that we played and the kids played outside and had fun. He really loves to be with his cousins and that's all he really wanted for his birthday.

Cavin is a sweet kid. He is very gentle and shy. His teacher at school insists that he is always talking which I find hard to believe since he usually doesn't say a word. She swears he has come out of his shell at school and has a great group of friends and is very confident in his schooling and as the Math Olympiad Captain. I am proud of him for working hard to be more outgoing and involved. He really enjoys anything with Math, Soccer, and watching the Rockets play and can't usually sleep until he knows the score. He and his brother play sports outside after school everyday of sports they make up either Sockey or Frisball. He is a great big brother. We love him and hope he had a special 11th birthday!

Ragnar's Transformation

Since I have known Ragnar, he has always been a big guy. He has a big German frame and he has always held his weight pretty well. We both enjoy exercising and he has tried a little off and on to lose weight, but has never been mentally invested in the process. 
Last year Ragnar decided to take charge of his health and lose some weight and become healthier.  He weighed an all time high of 328 lbs and was finally mentally ready to make a change. He started running quite a bit and cutting portions and lost about 33 pounds. He was grateful to have lost some weight, but he plateaued and was stuck at 295 for 6 months. He was very frustrated, so we decided to think and pray about what we should do to help him kick start again. On October 4th he decided to try a program called Optavia and stick to a strict diet of their foods. He ate 5 "fuelings"a day and then one lean and green meal which was usually either chicken, salmon, or lean turkey or beef and vegetables. He worked hard and started losing weight quickly. He lost 27.5 pounds the first month. He wasn't able to exercise as he didn't have enough calories to maintain enough to exercise. He worked really hard with the program and I was so impressed by him. He didn't cheat with food even once. He ate what he was supposed to and continued to lose weight.

Here was the pictures from October, November, December, and January. He was making amazing progress. 
He finished at the beginning of March with the program and his final weight was 222 lbs. He lost 73 pounds after October on the program and a total of 106 pounds from his highest weight. Incredible!! Here is his first picture and last from October to March.

His final picture! I am so extremely proud of him. I know how much he loves food and how hard of a journey this was for him.  

Here was a picture of him at his highest..ironically next to a professional athlete.

Now his work pictures look so much different. I love seeing his recent work pictures because he looks so much more confident and so much younger ;) He has always been a pretty confident guy, no matter his weight, but he looks good and holds himself even higher. I have always known that he could do it and lose weight, I am just so glad that he was able to know it for himself as well and be able to do it. He is running 3 miles in 23 minutes now and I am shocked!! We went running and it's so fun to go together now as he can keep up :) I am excited to have new possibilities for fitness and health as a couple. Here is to a new life and a new and improved version of the Ragnar I have always loved!

Spring Break 2019

Spring Break was kind of a bust this year as Ella and I had girls camp the first three days and Ragnar had 4 games that week. My kids enjoyed being with Grandma Speers and playing with their cousins while I was gone. Thursday morning after I got home the night before I had to take care of the mess in the fridge as our fridge and freezer stopped cooling. We lost all the food and I spent most of the morning cleaning everything out. We went to the park, but I was exhausted. Friday we tried to make sure we played. We went down to the Houston Rodeo. 

We got there just in time to hurry to the pig races which are my favorite!  

We did fun at the farm and then played carnival games and looked at some animals. It was crowded so we didn't have that much time. Deacon won a basketball and Ella and Channing a few stuffed animals.  

It was a beautiful day and even though its always crowded, I love the Houston Livestock show and rodeo. 
We hurried and left the rodeo and since we were downtown we planned to go to the Houston Rockets game as well. We ate dinner at the Toyota Center which is a treat for us, and we watched the Rockets win a basketball game. We had nice seats in the suite and had a good time.

We do love going to Rockets games as a family. 

Saturday morning was my 36th Birthday. We slept in a little and then I got my birthday wish. Ragnar went running with me.

It was great to go with him. He has transformed. He ran so much faster that it was actually nice to run with him. His head was up and he was strong and confident. I loved seeing a new side of him and having him enjoy what I love with me.

We then got the traditional birthday donuts which the kids and I love.

A little bit later my mom came and she and my sister Natalie and I went and got pedicures. 
After the pedicure we got dinner from chick fil a since we still had no refrigerator it made it hard to do a BBQ. 

We ate cake and played Cover your assets with the adults and had a nice time hanging out. We even ended the night with a Hallmark movie. It was a pretty good day and I had several people stop by and remember which was kind. Birthday's aren't my favorite day, but it was a nice one.

Young Women Girls Camp

This past October I was called to be the Young Women president of the Lakeshore ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our ward had split and the boundaries changed, so not only did I have to adjust to being in a new ward, I had to dive in head first to be over the young women organization. It has definitely been a stretch for me emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I have a lot of growing to do. As the president, I was asked to go as a leader and attend girls camp. Girls camp in the Summerwood stake is during Spring Break as it is so hot in Texas, they try and do the camp during the spring to make the temperatures more bearable. This year we went to Camp Olympia. Leading up to camp there were several issues that had required a lot of counseling with others and time and effort with talking to mothers and other leaders and the girls to resolve some situations. The situations weren't handled well, and so by the time camp came around I was already emotionally exhausted. I was trying to get myself in the mental state to be upbeat and exited to go, but it was a challenge for me. Thankfully, Ella came to camp and was excited to go, so I did my best to put aside my frustrations and head to camp. We had 27 girls from our ward that were attending the stake camp, so the transportation and such was difficult. 

Here are most of the girls who went from our ward. We got everyone there and we got things set up! They had the young women from my ward split into all of the cabins, so it was difficult getting everyone settled, but we made it work. Ella was with me in the 7th grade cabin I was in charge of, so that was fun. She still thinks I am cool and doesn't mind being with me ;)

The first thing we did was a service project for the camp where we painted the fence where the horses stay. 

The weather was nice and the girls did a pretty good job making the fence look good. It was super muddy from having rained the week earlier, but the girls did a nice job.  

We got to spend a little time reading scriptures and enjoying nature.  

They had to make dresses out of paper to do a fashion show. 

The YCL for our cabin, Nathaly Corno was from our ward and she did a great job with her devotionals.  

One of Ella's best friends Jaemi Smith was in our Cabin. Our cabin name was Herra. 

I was a little stressed the first night as there was so much going on that I was having to take care of, I thought it was fitting that this was in my fortune for the night. 

The second morning I had to help with the workshops and I was in charge of helping with physical fitness. I was excited thinking we would do a ropes course or obstacle course, but it was zumba...not my forte. I did my best shaking my hips anyway, but was really hoping for something more challenging.  

We went to workshops in the morning on self defense, beauty, physical fitness, and crafts. Then in the afternoon, they got to spend time around the camp and do activities.  

Ella loved the riflery last time at camp and said she did awesome. She had a pretty good shot. 

The loud noise of it all wasn't my favorite, but it was fun to try! 

Next we went to archery and of course Ella was one of the best shots of the day. She did great.  

On the other hand, I only hit the target a few times :) 

That evening we had to do skits and the girls prepared a skit using a Disney princess and had to related it to having super powers and involve a Young Women Value. We were given Jasmine and we used Individual Worth. They did a pretty good job at making it work. Rachel was Raja and really got into her role as a tiger. haha 

Here were the girls who were in my cabin. Top was Jaemi Smith, Madeline Lewis, Ashlyn Bales, Savannah Petersen, Vanessa Morles (and Nadia Houston not pictured because sadly she got the flu and went home) Bottom Addy Dyer, Ella, Lilly, and Rachel. Overall they were good girls and when my cabin leader Kylie Bales and I told them to go to bed, they listened really well.  

The last day we all wore our matching shirts from the theme "If ye love me, keep my commandments" 

Addy was her other close friend in our cabin. She was so glad to have Jaemi and Addy with us.

The last night there was testimony meeting and they did a reveal of this paint project they did. They each painted a square of the picture of Christ and it turned in to this awesome masterpiece.  

Overall, I think the girls had a good time at camp. It was very difficult for me as a leader. The first day I had 2 girls from our ward throwing up, 1 of the girls in my cabin had the flu, and 2 other girls in the next couple days in the nurse office off and on. I felt like I knew the nurse Jen Houston well by the end and she was amazing, but the organization of it all and the logistics were very stressful to me and so it was hard. I really think the girls didn't see most of that and had a good time and Ella has great memories, so I am grateful for that for her. As for me, I will not be sad if this was a one time experience.