Merry Christmas 2008

Looney 2008

This year our family is doing great!
Take just a moment for this short update.

Our little quiet Kailey is lots of fun.
Doing everything with the big kids she forgets she's only one.

Hunter started TaeKwonDo now that he's four.
He likes baseball and cowboy boots; He's never a bore!

Hannah is 6 and in grade one.
Dance, yoga, sleeping, and shopping are the things she finds fun.

Our 3rd grader Tanner loves being eight.
Being baptized, starting scouts, and his black belt were all worth the wait.

Middle school keeps Taylor quite busy.
With TaeKwonDo, scouts, and band we're all kinda dizzy.

Running our TaeKwonDo school is worth all the work.
Spending so much time together is and added perk.

Brendan teaches and does lots of training still.
Earning his 4th Degree Black Belt was a really big thrill.

Mandi finds time for her new hobby of blogging.
She does Jiu-Jitsu, TaeKwonDo, and yoga, but still hates jogging.

We hope you are well, safe, and happy this season,
As we give thanks let's remember that Christ is the reason.

We send wishes of hope as we finish this line:
Here's to peace, love, & happiness in 2009!

Looney San Antonio Christmas

The annual Looney/LeBouef Christmas at Brendan's grandparents Paul and Genie was wonderful as usual. I wanted to get lots of pictures with Grandpa, but he wasn't feeling well, so we let him rest. He did come out and greet us with big hugs when we arrived. We did get pictures with Gram though. She was as lively and energetic as ever. I've never met anyone with more Christmas spirit and she went way overboard as usual. Here's Gram with all of the Brendan's boy cousins. In the back there is Todd, Chris(Renee's husband), Charlie, Jacob, & Brendan. I think Steven's the only one missing. He's in Iraq, but he'll be home for next years!

In the front: Justin, Sean, Clarissa's boyfriend, and Dylan. And Gram of course.

All the guys got leather jackets for Christmas. Brendan's uncle Jim said, "Do we get Harley's next year?"LOL.

Here is Gram with the great granddaughter's.

Hannah, Kailey, Payton, and Emerson. There aren't many girls, so they really stick together. The big girls hold the little girls hands or carry them around all night. "Happy" had to be in the picture, 'cause she's a girl too.

Hannah just loves Payton and talks about her all year long.

Kailey and Emerson just loved each other! Here they are hugging in the kitchen. They both thought the other was a baby and so cute.

Brendan and his sister Sara.

Taylor and Tanner.

Hunter got to open the first present of the night. He was so excited. We loved seeing every one and just wish we could all get together more often.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

The Perfect Tree!
After searching the field for what seemed like hours, we finally went back to the one we knew was "our tree" from the beginning. It happens that way every year. All the trees are beautiful, but there's only one that's right for us. Our job: find it and chop it down.

The kids get to take turns with the saw(with Daddy's help).

Tanner drug our tree all the way back to the tractor by himself this year.

We all have fun on the hay ride and love to play tether ball while we're at the tree farm.

Getting our tree is my favorite of all of our family traditions.

Away in a Manger

Christmas Parade

We participated in the Leander Christmas parade and tree lighting along with some of our students. This was our second year to do it and it's an absolute blast! I ride in the back of the decorated truck with some of the kids and we sing a TaeKwonDo holiday carol that my mom wrote for us. Some of the older kids and the adults walk behind us, handing out candy canes. The weather was gorgeous and the kids were so excited and well behaved.

Taylor and Kailey

Tanner securing "The Guy" to the back of the truck. My mom painted him for us to put out in front of the school for advertising. She always tries to name him. "Black belt Billy" or "TaeKwonDo Tim" or something, but we usually call him "The Guy" anyway.

Hunter and Mitchell


Hannah with her friends Brianna and Issac.(They're eating pretzels waiting for the parade to begin.)

Panda Dance

The kids learned to play the song from Kung Fu Panda on the piano. Here's Kailey dancing to it on the coffee table while they play for her. (Turn on your speakers and pause our playlist to hear the song.)

Turkey Bowl

After stuffing ourselves at our delicious Thanksgiving feast at my parents house we all went to our TaeKwonDo studio for some turkey bowling. The ball was actually a frozen turkey. It was pretty funny, but messier than we'd predicted.

My cousin Tasha was our grand champion Turkey Bowler.

Here's a video clip of Trisha demonstrating how it's done. By this time the poor turkey was double bagged.

It was harder for the little kids and they insisted on wearing gloves.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dinoland

My friend Christina and I took our 10 kids to the Dinoland exhibit at Zilker park. It was really neat and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Keely & Hannah

Butterfly Hannah


Taylor

Hunter showing me a dinosaur on top of a waterfall.

Twilight

Like the rest of the country, we are totally obsessed with BYU grad- Stephanie Myer's Twilight saga. We read all four books in like 2 weeks. The much anticipated vampire movie came out today. We loved it!

Hunter's 1st Testing

Hunter tested for his first rank in our tiger cubs program. He received his new belt at our awards ceremony tonight. He is now a tiger cub yellow belt. It's a white belt with a yellow stripe down the middle. He started TaeKwonDo right after his 4th birthday. He loves it and begs to take class every day.
Here he is with his cousin and best buddy, Mitchell. I don't know how we managed to keep them still even long enough for one picture. For part of their testing they have to stand at attention without moving for a whole 30 seconds. It's very difficult for 4 year olds.

Mitchell tested for and received his cub brown belt. We sure love and are proud of these guys even if they are super silly. ♥

Cold Front

A cold front blew in today while the kids were playing outside. Hunter started off in shorts and a tank top.(It was in the 80's). As the front blew in, he would come in and add a piece of clothing every 5-10min. It was amazing how quickly the temperature dropped.


Hannah was pretty cute too. Notice all of her accessories are sequenced. A must for cold weather when you're a 6 year old girl.

Happy Halloween!

BOO!

Kailey was a ballerina for Halloween. She loved her tutu and had a blast trick-or-treating!

Hunter couldn't make up his mind, so he ended up being a ninja and Batman!

Here is Hannah as a cute little old woman. Her and Tanner thought of their own costumes this year.

Tanner dressed up as an old man. He was hilarious! He looked just like pictures of his great-great grandpa Silviano Lucero. People also said he looked like my dad. I guess my Dad thought he needed to look older than his grandkids, so he dressed up too. He made some trick-or-treaters cry! Kailey plugged her nose and said he was stinky! I guess she doesn't know the words old or ugly yet.

Taylor had two costumes for this year. He was a kid going to school for our wards Fall Festival and a really bad paint ball player for Halloween night. He had a mask and paintball gun, and we painted him with all different colors of paint splats.

Happy Halloween!

Band Concert

Taylor did awesome in his first band concert! I was so surprised at how much the 6th graders have learned in such a short amount of time. To be able to play 4 songs well in less than 2 months of starting an instrument is just beyond my comprehension. It was also fun to hear the older kids and see what potential these kiddos have. My awesome mom was able to magicly recove the pictures of Taylor with his baritone and his fan club that came to watch and support him. Taylor ROCKS!