Monday, June 29, 2009

Noah Clark put together this clip of the black belt promotion board breaks. Some of you will recognize Ryan Green, Hayley Diggins and Kristin Engebretsen. It is so exciting cheering on these kids and seeing them learn and grow so much over the years!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Fun Edits

Just a couple photos that I edited for Rebecca's enjoyment! We talk a lot about purity with her and we pray for her and her future mate every day. She is choosing to wait for her "knight in shining armor". Enjoy!




Monday, June 22, 2009

Second photo shoot with Rebecca

In no particular order, here are my favorites of Rebecca's 2nd photo shoot. These were taken on Harbor Island.














Party Time!

I can't believe I pulled it off, but we were able to surprise Rebecca with a party this past Saturday to celebrate completing 8th grade! We invited both sides of our families and Diana (Rob's sister) graciously allowed us to use her house. My parents and two of Adela's children were the only ones from my side that were able to come, so I invited a close friend of ours and her family to "stand in the gap".

I made her a beach themed cake which tasted superb!


Rebecca loved it! I took lots of pictures of her, but didn't show her the ones from our second photo shoot. So those were a surprise for her as well. She now has that frame hanging on her wall in her room.


Close up of the table decorations. I made chicken salad sandwiches, and ceaser salad and my sister-in-law was so sweet to make a lovely fruit salad and a plate of cookies to add to the menu. (I didn't think to get a picture of the table before everyone dug in. :-(


The younger group ate outside on the patio while the rest of us stayed in the cool house!


James decided to eat here, all by himself.


This is Diana's father-in-law. His name is Radim and he is from Czech Republic. He is visiting for the summer. (Trevor digging into the food in the background.)


I also didn't think to get everyone together for a group photo. (what's wrong with me???) But here we have Rob's mother looking on while Rebecca opens one of her cards. My friend Ana and her daughter Katrina are on the couch. I DO have a picture of my parents, but it isn't a nice shot of them. (Mom, if you read this, see if there are any good ones of you on Dad's camera that you can send me!)


I have been planning all year on putting together a yearbook for Rebecca. Picaboo.com is a fabulous website to do just that. She had NO idea that I have been working on this! It turned out absolutely beautiful!


Ana and Katrina checking out the yearbook.


Rob's sister and brother, Diana and Eric.


The youngest of the group cooling off in the pool. I think we had 9 in the pool here.


So happy to be in High School now!!!

Blue Belt Promotion

In order to keep my Tae Kwon Do blogs from becoming the same from promotion to promotion, I decided to cull just a few of my favorite shots from Rebecca and Elijah's latest promotion. Also, to keep you on your toes, I purposely (ha!) mixed up the pictures!

Christopher Jackson promoted to 1st degree black belt. He had to break a cement brick. Let me tell you, this boy make it look easy! The brick might as well have been a block of butter! He was also invited to become part of the STORM team. You can see Kayla W. in the background in the blue uniform. It is a very special honor to be a part of this demonstration team. If I remember right, STORM stands for Special Team of Role Models. They are chosen for their character, leadership and "giving their all". Christopher's sister, Danielle was chosen as well as my friend's daughter, Lilly.


This was something I hadn't seen before either, so I'm including it here. Christopher had a 3 board break which he also did flawlessly. He is amazing to watch!


You can see what he did better in this picture by looking at the way he set it up. Low, medium and high breaks.


Back to MY kids! Rebecca doing her board break.


Elijah was first in line for their group. He snapped this baby so hard it broke into 3 pieces. There is a piece in each of Steve's hands and the 3rd flying in the air over Steve's head. (above the white door in the background)


We have been fortunate to have my parents come for a lot of their promotions and this time was no exception! They also brought along two of my sister's children, Taylor and Trevor.


Traditional shot with Steve and Bri.


Ms. Hwang happens to be Steve Morris' instructor. Her father brought Tae Kwon Do to America. She is a 6th degree black belt with her father, and considered 5th degree here in the States. Rebecca and Eli enjoyed meeting her!


Big group = 2 1/2 hour promotion! It was great fun, though!


Yay!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer time in Florida!

An afternoon at the beautiful Coral Cove park.



















Friday, June 12, 2009

8th grade? Been there, done that!

My 8th grade year was a year to remember. It was our family's first year in Florida, I made a bunch of new friends who I am still friends with to this day, I had a WONDERFUL teacher, Mrs. Linda Deckard, I had a crush on a boy who shall remain un-named and I was able to go to Epcott, my first experience with a Disney park of any kind! I loved every minute of my 8th grade year!

I never thought my daughter's 8th grade experience would look so different than mine. School at home, History with a co-op on Tuesdays, Bible study on Monday nights, Signing class on Wednesday nights, no class trip and no tassel turning. But, she has made "forever friends", grown closer to her Heavenly Father, went on a TON of field trips, promotes to blue belt in Tae Kwon Do in one week, and, well, if I say any more, it'll ruin the surprise! Rebecca had her evaluation this week and was officially promoted to High School with mostly A's. We spent a couple hours this past week taking some "official" pictures of her at the beach and at Harbor Island. (I'll post the Harbor Island photos later) Here are a few of my favorite shots.










Congratulations, Rebecca!