The Horton Home

lets begin again

2010-07-25T15:55:00.005-06:00

Yes.
i am going to start blogging again. its been an entire year since i have. but i am going to start up again. i will just start from the beginning of the summer.
These first 5 pictures are from aspen grove.we had a ton of fun there.
Next is all the pictures from the 4th. My sister and her family came down and we had a blast with them.
After they left, Keena and Andy had Efy and they seemed to have a lot of fun.
Right when they got back, Me, Keena, and Malia all headed off to girls camp up in Shalom. We had a really fun time up there.
As of today. We are packing up for Oregon and Washington. We are leaving for Oregon on Wednesday, staying there until Saturday, then driving the rest of the way to Seattle to stay with the Andersons. We like to call it the Anderson resort.
Enjoy the pictures!

Okay just a few more....

2009-05-13T22:23:00.002-06:00

More Spring Time Pictures

2009-05-13T22:19:00.002-06:00

2009-05-13T22:15:00.001-06:00

What the heck where are the pictures!!

Busy Spring Time !!

2009-05-13T22:09:00.001-06:00

What a busy spring!!! The kids are counting down the days of school now and it feels like summer already. I thought I would just post a few pictures of what we have been up to lately :)

Knee - Deep!

2009-04-08T22:06:00.002-06:00

Well we are knee deep in soccer season. With three kids playing right now it's been pretty busy. Malia is still on her competition team and is playing great. She has killer practices (2 per week) and two games per week which is keeping her running....so to speak! She loves the sport and I really like the coach and team she is on. Caleb loves soccer season - there is just no other way to say it! Andy is his coach -- which he also loves -- and they are doing great. Marcus on the other hand is sort of plugging through the season. Last year he had a great team with all his little school friends but this year he is on a team with a bunch of random kids that don't even go to his school. He also doesn't love the sport because it "makes his legs too tired". So he will just finish out the season and we will talk about next year.

Needless to say this is our life right now but I love it. I love watching them play -- well unless it's 20 degrees and snowing!

I'm HORRIBLE!!!

2009-04-01T23:58:00.001-06:00

Okay I know it I am the worst blogger ever you don't have to say it!!! No excuses except well I guess I just can't keep up with everything! I mean one minute it's "Hey try out these new blog things" and now it's "look how cool FaceBook is". Really I mean this is pushing me to the limits in the technology world. But if I am going to be married to Andy I guess I really should try and keep caught up.

But since it's conference weekend and time to fix those bad habits this is coming up. Time to keep up with blogging and no more excuses..........

So it's either blogging or keeping Quincey's hand out of the Nutella jar!!

It's a Miracle...

2008-12-04T17:23:00.002-07:00

Well it's officially an early Christmas Miracle at our house. This year Andy decided to put up the lights (which is a miracle in and of itself) but he also had them up and working on December 1st. Now to some of you that may not sound like much but since Andy has compared Christmas lights to childbirth we all know that it's a big accomplishment. The lights look great and we are all just happy to have them. I guess it's true there really are Christmas miracles!!

Disneyland 2008

2008-11-19T13:44:00.007-07:00

Wow, we had a lot of fun in Cali! It was about 70 degrees each day and there was no such thing as lines. We also went to the beach a few times, and we also saw a lot of "Vote Yes" signs everywhere... even one in the sky over Disneyland. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few:

Happy Halloween

2008-10-30T10:37:00.002-06:00

We carved our pumpkins finally. I love how the kids each did their own personality in the pumpkins.

and the winner is......

2008-09-21T22:28:00.004-06:00

Here is Caleb with his winning Pinewood Derby car. He was pretty excited to have his pencil car win. Andy was just happy it made it since before the race even started one of the wheels came off. I guess a little praying and some super glue saved it!
Malia just found out that she won as the student body secretary. She is pretty excited about it.
Then there is Marcus with his award winning "Lego glasses". We have more Lego creations around this house we can hardly talk about it!

2008-09-10T22:11:00.006-06:00

How cute are these girls?? They both look so grown up lately. Thanks to Malia these two girls had quite the photo shoot.
We finally got the blog fixed and hopefully back to normal. So I thought I should share some recent cute pictures.

Lake Powell was Awesome!!!!!

2008-08-21T21:55:00.006-06:00

Cory and Amy were able to find us a cool cave-like area to park the houseboat where we had shade the whole week. The cliffs even protected us from the rain.

We went on a great frog hunt and watched lots of movies on the roof of the houseboat. We had great weather, great company, and great fun. There was a huge storm the night before we left and waterfalls fell from all the cliffs surrounding us.

It was hard to leave and come home to start school a week later but we built some great memories. There's nothing quite like sleeping in a pitch black canyon with stars and a full moon staring down at you and the sound of 13 kids snoring in the darkness. What a party.

"Oh what do you do in the summertime . . ."

2008-07-31T16:29:00.018-06:00

Stephanie and I just came back from a great time in San Diego. I had to go down to speak at a "Best of EFY" on Saturday so we went down 3 days early and did nothing but play. We stayed at the Coronado Village in on Coronado island-the same little romantic B&B we stayed in on our honeymoon 16 years ago.

We walked the beach, ate lots of good food, shopped and hit some movies (Mama Mia and Dark Knight) and Phantom of the Opera in Downtown San Diego. We also toured the USS Midway- a 63-year-old aircraft carrier docked off the San Diego Harbor. It was all lots of fun and very relaxing. Thanks to Kris and Michelle, our kids partied hard while we were away also. BTW, we did like Mama Mia (minus the suggestive parts) and did not like The Dark Knight. The Phantom of the Opera, however, was AWESOME!!

The day we returned from San Diego, we unpacked, packed, and took off for Midway for a reunion with Andy's family. It was a lot of fun too. We are home from that now but are leaving for Lake Powell in 2 days for a week. We really need a vacation from our vacations I think, this is getting ridiculous.

Random People on Andy's Bus

2008-07-11T12:51:00.000-06:00

"Gentiles"

2008-07-07T07:16:00.005-06:00

Never a dull moment at the Horton home!!

Keena took a little spill on Saturday evening while getting off the trampoline. She lost her footing and fell on a delicate spot- straddling the rail. She landed so hard that it forced a 1-inch gash in her underparts. After finding lots of blood, we gave her a blessing and rushed her to the hospital at about 11:30 pm. I don't know why we drove 90 mph to the hospital when we just ended up waiting for 3 1/2 hours in the "EMERGENCY" room with 40 other people that drove 90 MPH to get there. We were finally brought into a room at about 3:30 am. Keena put on her brave pants, (actually there were no pants involved- only one of those air-conditioned hospital gowns), and endured 10 shots to numb the area. Her crying out in pain was nearly more than Stephanie and I could take, fortunately, I (Andy) am not effected as much by the trauma's of needles or blood and was able to be a comfort and support to all that were present, including hospital staff. Keena braved it out and survived the ordeal, walking (actually we carried her) away with 5 stitches, 2 very tired parents, and a cute little brown teddy bear provided by the hospital. We got home at about 5:00 am.
Fortunately, Kim and Brad were at our home that night to help us out. The best part of the night was Mackenzie's comment, "Keena should be glad she doesn't have boy gentiles!"
Keena and Steph won't be able to go to girls' camp this week which is a shame.

Half the fun was sitting in the ER and guessing other people's names and injuries and how they got hurt. If you are every hard up for entertainment, go to the ER and place your bets. We had some good laughs, at the expense of others of course. We did make some new friends; we met a woman with a foot swollen as large as our first minivan. We met Tipsy, a local alcoholic with a cyclops-type abrasion on the front of her forehead. We also met a 25-year-old student with a broken nose- he got beat up by a 115 lb girl. There was a 12-year old young man with no obvious problem other than his mouth; he just kept talking and talking and talking. I'm sure he was there to have that gash under his nose fixed. I guessed that his name was Louis, but Steph said, "No, he is more of a Sean." I agreed and told her, "Good call!" A few minutes later, Steph walked out to go to the restroom and while she was gone I overheard "Sean's" brother actually refer to him as "Sean." I just about died; by the time Steph came back, Keena and I could barely breathe or talk from laughter as we tried to tell her that she had guessed right. Well, she confessed and told us that she had overheard his name earlier. We had a good laugh and decided that Steph got us good on that one. Sean just kept talking.

Anyway, all is well. We are feeling very blessed and grateful that Keena wasn't hurt worse. She is resting well and walking funny. The doctor recommended no horseback riding, bike riding , or trampolines for a the next few weeks- what a bummer.

We just came back from a week at Aspen Grove and WOW! It was a lot of fun!

2008-07-02T08:35:00.007-06:00

Top 20 Quotes from Aspen Grove:

1. There's corn in your hair! -Steph
2. This is what I call a vacation! -Malia
3. I hate being up on stage, except for at church. -Kylie
4. Dad, are we made out of meat? -Marcus
5. Tony the Tiger. -Andy
6. Dad, can you put your hand somewhere else? -Kylie
7. You've gotta be kidding me! -Andy
8.I don't like to sleep on the couch, unless it's made out of a bed. -Kylie
9. Mom, I'm hot. -Marcus
10. Uh huh, the deer could have done this... -Marcus
11. Why is it okay to say, 'please pass the chicken' but not okay to say, 'please pass the pig?' -Keena
12. Everything happens for a reason! -Keena
13. Well, the most painful part of camp is over! -Elder John H. Groberg
14. I like everyone, except licorice. -Kylie
15. You guys, Quincey is clear over by the turtles! -Steph
16. Bless you Dad! -Quincey
17. I'm a potgut! -Quincey
18. I don't think I'm eating enough meat. -Malia
19. Why don't you make two snowcones and give one to all your friends! -Caleb
20. Why do they call them "cowboys" and not "horseboys?" -Marcus

One Cool Dad

2008-06-15T21:50:00.002-06:00

We can't help but wish this cool Dad a Happy Father's Day. Even if this motorcycle is way too loud for little Quincey (and everyone else in the neighborhood for that matter) she still likes to sit on it every now and again. I have even become soft enough to let her ride down our street and back....that is what six kids does to you it makes you soft in many places!!
We think we have the best Dad in the world that does everything from movie nights to making kids shoot spaghetti out their nose from laughing too hard at the dinner table.
Hope everyone had a GREAT Father's Day!!!

A day in the life of Quincey

2008-06-10T23:07:00.002-06:00

Our busy little Quincey!! She was trying to turn on the light so that she could play the piano. She was working with her partner in crime Tyler to get into as much trouble as possible.
She is so busy right now and keeps us running to keep up with her!
We love her new favorite saying of "it's freaking me out" when she sees a any bug outside and really anything else she says. She is really cute....we just hope we can keep up!

2008-05-26T22:24:00.004-06:00

Uh, oh! Guess what Andy did? Yup, it was time for an upgrade. A Honda Shadow 750 Spirit. It's so loud that the first time we started in the garage, we had to peel Caleb off the ceiling and change Quincey's diaper.

2008-05-16T13:59:00.003-06:00

Oh, and don't forget to vote for David Archuleta on Tuesday, May 20th.

The Latest Laugh at the Hortons

2008-05-16T13:55:00.007-06:00

We have taken a journey back in time to the year 1964where we find Gilligan, the Skipper, a bamboo car, and and radio with a battery that lasts longer than the one in my cell phone.
One interesting bit of trivia that might enhance your mind while watching this entertaining but seemingly lightweight show: The producer intended the island to represent the world and each character to represent a country. Their interaction was to represent world politics. Keeping that in mind when you view it will be a whole new experience. That could make for some lively discussions.
The guys out there can also ponder the age old question: Ginger or Mary-Ann?
And for the ladies, I don't know, Gilligan or Skipper?

2008-05-13T21:48:00.008-06:00

Soccer Season has come to a close once again. Malia, Caleb and Marcus had a great season and are already looking forward to next year.

We Are Back!!!

2008-05-09T13:04:00.000-06:00

We haven't entered anything in this blog for months and months but we are back!!

We have a crazy summer coming up with a week at Lake Powell, a week at Aspen Grove, youth conferences, girl's camp, EFY, Hannah Montana, and if we are lucky, we will even fit in some time at the Scera Pool so Marcus and Kylie can show off their newly acquired swimming skills. They are often mistaken for fish

2008-05-09T13:01:00.002-06:00

Keena is almost done with her first year in Jr. High and has learned more in those halls than she really wanted. At 13, she is already counting down the days until she drives. She really would just like to spend each day at the mall or Old Navy and is going to start the "Keena Horton shopping fund" if any of you would like to donate. She has also become quite the "Hymnist" on the piano. She has been earning $5 for every hymn she memorizes and is also teaching Caleb how to play the piano. She can text faster than anyone I know.

2008-05-09T13:00:00.002-06:00

Malia is as busy as ever running the 5th grade at Westmore. She is also getting pretty used to hearing Quincey say, "Mawia, jeep!" And they end up driving the jeep around the yard for hours at a time. She just finished a great season of soccer and average 3-4 goals per game. She is also doing well with piano. If she isn't in the Jeep than she is hitching a ride over to her friend Annie's house to organize some sort of day-care or intergalactic-children's carnival.

2008-05-09T12:57:00.003-06:00

Caleb is always outside. He is either playing basketball, dodgeball on the trampoline, soccer, baseball, or riding scooters. He is our in-house, quick-witted comedian that always has something funny to say. He had a great soccer season too and as stated earlier, is learning to play the piano. There is never a serious moment when Caleb is around.

2008-05-09T12:54:00.002-06:00

Marcus is a professional X-box player. He also just finished a great season of soccer, even though he says his legs get tired. We recently walked the half-mile, thirty minute walk to church one Sunday and I didn't think Marcus would make it. He would collapse on someone's lawn about ever 100 yards. When we finally got to the church, one of the kids said, "now we know what it was like to be a pioneer!" Marcus is our pioneer with the "cute little eyes."

2008-05-09T12:51:00.003-06:00

Kylie is our princess. She is very independent and somehow seems to survive all the madness of a big family. She loves to play with her little sister and her best friend, Brittany. They both boss each other around pretty well. She would like to live at Disneyland someday forever.

2008-05-09T12:48:00.002-06:00

Quincey runs our home. She is all that and a bag of chips. She talks a hundred miles an hour and loves to break things that matter. She says prayers very well and even shouts "amen" at the end- she would make a great baptist. Her lease is up but we have decided to keep her even though doesn't sleep at night. If you ask her, "who is a stinkpot?" she will answer, "me!"

2008-05-09T12:46:00.004-06:00

Stephanie and Andy are always running around like they just got off a 2 hour spin on a merry-go-round. Steph is very busy with PTA, Stake Young womens, and Laundry. Somehow, though, she manages to attend all the soccer games, clean the house, sit and do puzzles with Quincey and Kylie, and cook three meals for the rest of us every day. I guess that's how she stays so thin. She really would like about 24 hours to go work in the Garden uninterrupted. She has become quite the coupon-shopper and saves us hundreds of dollars with her deal discoveries. For this reason and about 70 others, I really like her.

Andy is very busy at work. I'm working on visual resource DVD products for the New Testament, D&C, and Book of Mormon. The Old Testament Version is in seminary and institute classrooms already and will be out for families next year. I'm also busily getting ready for EFY this summer, youth conferences, and a week at Aspen Grove speaking and playing with the family. I'm thrilled to have a new book and CD targeting high school graduates. (see the link below). High Council, coaching soccer, and being a Dad is giving me some great experiences.

Life is great and we all feel very blessed.

September 2007 at Lake Powell

2007-10-13T00:25:00.001-06:00

The day of the Blog

2007-10-12T22:35:00.001-06:00

Today, our blog was born.