This is for you Shannon

It took me two months and my daughter's amazing skills but I now have a new post.

Are you happy now Shan?!?

'Cause we are!

and Taysom :P

Previous post cont...

New Beginnings

My Young Women's group

Alyssa, Lauren, Me, Brittany, and Priscila

I'd like to say that that wasn't our pose and that we just weren't ready, but...

The steps to kissing someone

1: get close to them

2: Look deeply into there eyes

3: Do it before they realize whats going on and move away

Tucker knows he loves me, even though he is apparently too cool to have his sister kiss him on the cheek.

shouldn't this be the opposite???

the two princesses of the house

Say cheese!

This year for new beginnings my ward all represented a value and a princess who went along with the value. I was Belle and I represented knowledge. We all had to explain how the princess went along with the value, and tell it like we were the person. I must admit everyone said I did the best and was the funniest. Just had to mention that :) I had a lot of fun, and I think everyone else did too. I mean who doesn't like wearing crowns and eating refreshments?

The Most Spectacular Update Ever by Taysom

Well, I don't know about you, but i am tired of getting onto our blog and seeing the same thing that it has been for the past two months, so I am making a new post. Below are some pics of some events that have occured since the last time this blog was updated.

Henry's black hole powerpoint

I never got to see him present his powerpoint, but my mom did and she said it was phenominal. I truly believe Henry is perfect for speaking to a crowd because he speaks very loudly (anyone who knows him would back me up on that statement :) and he is very confident. I can't wait till he starts debate in a few years! Henry also is very knowledgeable about black holes. He tried to explain to us what everything was and what everything does at the dinner table, and i must admit most of it went over my head.

Ilah's Math Competition

Ilah has recently been placed in math advanced, which is basically just a club that allows the members to go to competitions and just brag about being smart... you really can't go wrong :) She went to her first competition in Bolivar and although she did not place, she had a great time with her friends and got some good experience. She is working really hard at her math homework and goes to meetings on wednesdays to help prepare her for the next one. She definetly is continuing to carry on the family name in the world of academics!

Ilah's reading project

Ilah finnished the book Bridge to Terabithia and for a project made an awesome diorama of Leslie and Jess' tree house and the rope swing. Check out the awesomeness above.

Henry's Pinewood Derby

giving his car some last minute encouragement before the big race

Henry! faster than a speeding bullet!

Henry and his car arrow-dynamic... haha! get it :)

Henry recently had his pinewood derby. He did awesome! He took first in his age group and I think he took third overall, but his car was definitely the most creative. He made his car an arrow, and my dad came up with the name arrow-dynamic for it. (Get it! Instead of aerodynamic it’s arrow-dynamic… Ah! I love it) Needless to say, it lived up to its name. Good job, Henry!

Four of My Favorite Valentines

B-ball season is over~

Tucker has always been on athletic, competitive sports teams... As far as I can recall, they have always finished in 1st place. So it was quite a shock to Tucker's system when his 8th grade b-ball team finished 3rd this season. For the tri-county tournament, his team played Carthage to determine who would play in the championship game. Tucker's team lost by 1 point. The "reffing" was horrible. (Ask Tucker, he'll tell you about it.) I hated watching these boys come out of the locker room looking like the weight of the world was on their shoulders.

A couple of days later, they played Memorial for 3rd place and won by 20+ points.

Although Tucker is going to do track this year, middle school sports are basically over for him. I hope that he continues to make the highschool teams and improve his skills. I love watching my kids play sports. It was one of those things I pictured as a young, in love teenager... Mike and I sitting in the bleachers, cheering on Ty and Trae (those were my favorite boy names as a teen). I can only think of a handful of times when Mike was in the bleachers with me - usually he is on the field/court or coaching his own team.

Mike, on other hand, is thrilled his coaching season is over! Football kicked butt! Girl's basketball - finished strong in 3rd place! Boy's basketball - ended up in 3rd as well.

For those of you who read our Christmas letter...

Our good friend, Bill Tucker, gave us this comic strip after reading our Christmas letter. :)

In case you can't read the poor scan it says, "Concerned about the poor geography skills of Taysom Wallace, Joplin School District found a creative way to address the problem."

Seriously???!!???

Our principal has implemented a change for block teachers. He asked us to divide up our kids according to ability levels and each teacher takes a group (two low groups, a proficient group and an advanced group) during 3rd hour. I have the lowest group. We were working on 'setting' last week. I showed several movie trailers so we could discuss the settings. I first showed "Night at the Museum 2" - I asked them where and when they thought this movie took place. Thankfully they all knew it was in a museum, although they couldn't remember it was the Smithsonian even though that was mentioned several times throughout the short 3 minute clip and Ben Stiller's character had a big patch on his arm that said, "Smithsonian" throughout the entire clip, but I digress. Anyway, when I probed them to figure out when it took place, I asked them - past, present, or future... thinking that was going back to the basics and sooooooo obvious. My first response was, "Past." When I asked why, she explained, "I saw Abraham Lincoln in it, and he lived a long time ago." After our discussion about the fact that it was actually a statue of Abraham Lincoln that is coming back to 'life' in this movie, etc., I asked for any other ideas. My next response was, "Future." Their reasoning was that they saw animatronics with the dinosaur. I was about ready to pull my hair out. We watched it again this time with me pointing out their clothing, the transportation, their dialect, etc. and we all agreed it was present. (Even though a few of the kids were very hard to convince that the teenagers clothing was similar to their own. They insisted that they don't dress like that.) I thought I'd try again with another clip. I played "Marley and Me". The clip we saw showed aerial views of the ocean, swimming pools in every back yard, palm trees, beautiful weather, summer clothing, swim suits, etc. I asked again when and where they thought this movie took place. My first response was "New York." I was floored, but I still managed to ask why. She shook her head and said she didn't know. I began to point out everything I mentioned above, and thankfully one boy said, "California." I praised him to the hilt and then told them that I had seen this movie and even though California was a good guess, it wasn't where the movie took place. Did they have any other thoughts? One girl bravely raised her hand and said, "Mexico" - I would've started laughing except by this point I am sweating bullets thinking, "How in the world can I make a difference with this crew by MAP time?" M.A.P. is our state test given in April. Back to the story - I asked her if she noticed anyone speaking Spanish? Or if she noticed the people to be predominantly Hispanic? Of course she said, "No," and we went on with the lesson.