Trevor

My younger brother, Trevor passed away on August 12 th-2010. I was devastated to hear the news. I still feel like we are all in shock. He was 29 years old and left behind 4 amazing boys 6 yrs and younger and an incredible wife who he adored.

Our family and friends gather together in Spokane, WA for the funeral on Saturday the 21st. On Friday the 20th, we had a Remembrance Gathering for friends and family to gather and remember so many amazing memories and so many ways Trevor had blessed each of our lives. There was a slide show and tons of pictures put together to remember all of the good times.

The next day hundreds gathered for Trevor's funeral service. It was so nice to have so many people who loved Trevor there. The eulogy was full of stories and examples of times in Trevor's life when he showed compassion and optimism. Stories of him being an actively involved dad and loving husband. These stories were inspiring and uplifting. I want to serve others how Trevor did. He always looked for ways to help people. Often the people he helped were homeless.

He loved life and was the most optimistic person I have ever known. At the cemetery there were bag pipes playing. My dad dedicated the grave with so much love for Trevor. Afterwards we all let hundreds of balloons go at the same time. It was heart wrenching to watch the balloons disappear. But as I thought about Trevor and all the joy he had for life I could picture him grabbing all of those balloons. He loved everyone and everything about life!

Visit the Trevor Stephenson Memorial page on face book.

CARSON and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Carson entered the reading fair at his school. He read the chapter book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He was sooo excited to see the movie when it came out. Then he was required to make a poster describing his book.

He had great ideas and really enjoyed making his poster. Right away he knew he wanted to make meatballs out of cotton balls and hang them from cotton clouds. He was creative and thought of fun ideas. Carson made a hamburger out of pipe cleaners. He drew fantastic characters. I helped him a little with the hot glue gun.

Carson was all smiles when I picked him up from school the day of the fair. He told me he won. Earlier that day Easton had passed out and had a small seizure due to a bad reaction to the flu shot, so I was relieved to get the good news about him winning when Carson's teacher called. The school asked if we planned on continuing in the competition. I said of course. I knew Carson would be so happy.

Well the competition continued at a regional reading fair in Jackson MS ( 2 and half hours away) this past Friday. I took Carson, his poster, Ty and Bo to the competition. As soon as we walked in I knew we were way way out of our league. Lots of kids were in costumes to match their books and their posters were AMAZING! I could not believe it. I was worried Carson was going to feel bad. Judges came by while we waited for a couple of hours. We had a 2 hour break. When we came back Carson was so worried that we were going to miss the winners being read while we were in the bathroom. I honestly thought that it would be fine to miss hearing because I thought there was NO Way he was going to win.

Sure enough when it came to his Division they read 3rd place and 2nd place and then

CARSON SAINSBURY 1st place WINNER!!!!!!

I was shocked and so excited for Carson. He was thrilled! This means we are moving on to the State Competition in Jackson held in May. What a great Day for Carson! He chose a Shaun White shirt from Target for his prize. He loves those shirts! All the way home Carson and I just could not believe he won. Life is Fun!

Pinewood Derby

With 5 boys Bob has sure made a lot of pinewood derby cars. Robby and Carson designed their cars. East, Ty and Bo all used cars from last year but got new paint jobs. I was incharge of decorating so I borrowed decorations from a friend at church who builds race car engines. His stuff sure made the church look like a real race. It was a great night. Robby won 1st place and Carson won 2nd place.

Summer Birthdays

Catching up on some Summer Birthdays!

EASTON turned 6!
He chose to go to the movies with some friends. We saw "UP". He had a great Birthday.

BOWEN turned 2! He had a "cars" party. He was so excited. I can't believe our baby is 2. This is the first time our baby has ever been 2 because we have always had a new baby by the time someone turned 2. We had Box Car Races.

Once your 2 you get your own shaved ice. Bo was thrilled to have his own.

Shaved ice taste sooo good in Mississippi in the Summer.

Amanda turned 33. I still feel like I'm 23. We went to Georgia to see friends on my Birthday. I was spoiled.

It was so great to be with Carson's best friend, Kory for his 8th birthday and baptism. So many boys!

Barrel Horse Races and Vet School Petting Zoo

So we went to the Horse Park to watch the Barrel Races. My boys loved it. They wanted to dress like cowboys. So we found the closes to cowboy outfits we could find. I love going to all of the events in our college town.

Bowen enjoyed the petting zoo more than anyone. He could have stayed there all day. He calls most animals Scout. (Scout is Em and Matts dog)

Carson and a month old piggy.

Ty and his friends Audrey and Micah riding the bus over to the Vet School.

Bowen was just taking it all in. What a fun age.

"Holey Cow"; not your ordinary petting zoo...

Mississippi State University VET School had an open house. There was a cow named Peaches that was eating grass. While she eats we stuck our arm in her stomach....."Holey Cow!" It was real warm and full of chewed grass. You wear a glove. Kinda creepy kinda cool.
Carson

me

Easton and Robby

Peahes eating.....is this humane? She did not seem to mind. She stood there for 2 days while lines of people put their arm into her stomach. Somethings you just can't believe it until you see it. Only in Mississippi!

Cousins at Christmas

I know I should have posted all of these Christmas pictures at least 3 months ago.....we had such an incredible time I didn't want to not post them eventhough it's almost Easter. Thanks for entertaining all of us Emily and Matt. Jack,Ty,Bay,Easton,Ry,Nate,Carson,Robby, and Bowen

Christmas 2009 finally

Christmas morning in star wars jammies.

My mom and dad, trevor, holly and their 4 boys met us at Emily and Matt's and their 4 kids. Trying to get a picture of 13 cousins Christmas morning was crazy.

Hiking in Surprise, AZ.

Bowen is 18 months here.

Christmas in Arizona

We spent Christmas in Arizona at Emily and Matt's. We had an amazing time. Emily had a list of about 100 things/events to do while we were there. We hiked, 4 wheeled, played at parks, toured chocolate factory, went to 4 drive in movies, had danced parties, played games, taught kids to ride bikes, toured the lights, watched motorcross, did cabellas, shopped til we dropped, baked goodies, and ate bob's cooking just about every night.

Bob turned 32! He is such a great sport having his birthday 2 days before Christmas.

Temple lights in the rain.....it does rain in Arizona.

It is official we are a 2 car....I mean van family. We flew to AZ and bought a 2008 ford 12 passenger van. I'm not joking! No we are not planning on having 5 more kids we just needed more space in between the kids we already have. We love it. It's kinda ghetto to have a giant van but there was no way we were going to survive in our minivan. We had been a single van family for about 4 and half years. I drove Bob to and from the bus every day. If we missed the bus or he had late class I loaded up the boys and headed 45 minutes downtown Atlanta to pick him up. We spent alot of time in the minivan. Wow my life has changed because Bob can drive himself to work. I sure do appreciate having an extra vehicle. I'm grateful for the extra 30 minutes in the morning and evening. We are sooooo blessed.

We loved loading up the van to full capacity at Emilys.

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we had my brother, Trevor and his family and the O'donnell family over. We had a great day of yummy food, crafts, dancing and of course a fire.

Halloween....finally

We had such a fun Halloween that I wanted to post the pictures even if we are a few months behind. Easton was darth vadar

Bowen and Carson had fun as pirates. Bowen had to get a hair cut the next day because someone thought he was girl while trick or treating.

Robby was a doctor.

Getting ready to trick or treat.......

Fort in the backyard!

The boys have been wanting to build a fort FOREVER..... now that we have our own backyard the boys found the perfect fallen tree to build around.

It is amazing what $12 dollars worth of ply wood will do for five busy boys. They had all week off for Thanksgiving and spent many hours outside doing what boys do best.....climbing, collecting fire wood, digging holes, and just getting dirty.

Mississippi State FANS

We are now Mississippi State University Fans..... when you live in the South in a small College town that is just what you do. Some of Bob's co-workers rounded up enough tickets for our whole family to go to a game. It was a lot of fun. Some of the boys enjoyed it more than others. Fans ring cow bells extremely loud at the games. We could not believe the tailgating scene at every game. Fans set up 24 hours before the game.

Flag football

Ty goes in phases with wanting his picture taken or not. I have had to leave portrait studios with no picture more than once with him throwing a huge fit. So when he is in the mood I love it .....he is just too cute to not have his picture taken. Bowen has been such a fun baby. He talks more than any of the others did at his age. (He walked way, way later than all of the others). I can't say no when he asks, "Please Please"!

Robby and Carson played flag football this fall. I think it has been my favorite sport to watch. They learned alot and had a really fun season!

Robby's 9th Birthday

Robby wanted a Star Wars Party. We had lots of fun with the theme. He does not like cake so he had cinnamon rolls. It is hard to believe that he is 9.....wow