Courtney on Helium....

Let me translate for you;
Hey guys, it's Courtney and um, I'm not quite sure what's wrong with my voice, but oh my gosh....
(inhale, inhale)
I don't know what's wrong with my voice, but I really like this song, let's start dancing, aaahhhhh.....

Hilarious. Though, she said the Helium made her sick. I don't know if she'll try that again!

Crystal Ball

Well, Brad & I finally let Courtney go to her first dance, It was called Crystal Ball (just a winter dance) and a friend asked her to go. She tells me he's only a friend, and that the boy she likes had already asked someone about a month prior (talk about being organized!). So, she went with Ryan just as friends. He came over before the dance for us to take pictures, and for Brad to clarify that if in fact he tried to make any moves on her, or his hands went further down on the slow dances than they should, he would suffer the consequences of Brad, the dad!! LOL
By looking at the pictures, Courtney could have taken him down herself!! (don't tell her I said that!) No, really, she is beautiful, and had a really fun time. She didn't know that her mom used to work for Glamour Shots...... hence all the pix. No, just kidding. I never worked there.

Awkward...

Should I have asked him to show me some muscle?

I told them to give me some attitude. Pure craziness don't you think?!?!

This would be her showing me how'd she fall on her face at some point in the evening.

She told me she looked Amish with the Daisies! I love it.

Big daddy, little date!!!









Cute hair, right??

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #3

Taylor's turn. 8 & growing. I think all of my kids have had a growth spurt this winter. Every ones pants are short!! Anyhow, as if our own 5 girls aren't enough, we invited over 6 more. PERFECT! Now we're up to 11 females (not including myself or my M.I.L. That would be 13). What a man I have! "What's a few more women in the house?" he says. The girls came home with Taylor right after school, and played hard all afternoon and night, until they finally went to bed (not sleep) at 10pm! I didn't hear them too much after that though. They had to be tired! You could have mistaken me for a Taco Bell worker with how fast and efficient I was whipping out those tacos on our assembly line! Thank goodness for bedtime!!!!!!!!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #2

Mommy's bday. As you can see by the candle, I turned one year older than I was last year! I received beautiful flowers from my hubby & a new perfume from my girls. The yummy chocolate cake was made by my lovely husband, who knows the way to my heart! It was delish.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #1

Courtney's party. First sledding, then a basketball game, then the sleepover, which why do they call it a "sleep over" when there is little to no sleep?? Pizza, cake, ice cream, and the Wii was had by all and everyone had fun fun fun.

Christmas Day

What a wonderful day we had together rejoicing in our Saviors birth. I had thought that if the weather was good, we would all go sledding after opening presents. Well, I didn't even make it out of my pajamas nevertheless out of the house. Any opportunity the girls have to dress up in dresses and tights; their all over it (excluding Courtney of course!) They were already dressed before we were even out of bed! Aunt Bobbi gave us our beautiful dresses and shoes to match! THANK YOU AUNT BOBBI! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and our dresses!)

What a great time when your able to stay still with your loved ones, and not have to worry about life outside your home. We hope you all were able to spend time with your families and loved ones as well. And by the way.... Happy New Year! 2009, I'm getting old. Wasn't Stallone in a movie where he was a cop (with Sandra Bullock) in the future? Wasn't the year 2010? If so, be prepared for robocop next year & new police uniforms! Scary.
Well happy picture viewing.

The big family gift was the Wii. What a hit that was from the teenager all the way to a 3 year old! It was the perfect gift! I do believe that we all have been sore from playing the wii. How fun is that?

BTW, Ashley is the best boxer in our house! She is still #1!

Family.... if you'd like to see all of our pix from Christmas Eve & day, go here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=o7a5351.bgaeym21&x=0&h=1&y=myn5o1&localeid=en_US

If you have any problems, let me know. Love to you all!

The Life & Times of The Mehmen’s 2008

Our time and entertainment is filled with our children, horsing around, renting movies, cleaning &keeping the house in order, laundry, and homework! Same ole’ same ole’. We feel so old! Our new year is going to bring in more time for friends. We have had little to no time with our friends over the last year or two and we miss them dearly!! I wish that we (the culture that we live in) could stay still a little longer than we do. Time goes by so fast as it is. I wish that we could all just slow down, and really spend time & focus on the important things in life. (and that’s not work or school) O-well, we’ll do the best we can with the time we do have.

2008 was a very challenging year for the Mehmen family. Lots of trials, tribulations, and more trials. God was obviously working overtime in our hearts and lives. What a Praise! That is always a good thing, but not always a fun thing. So the 15th of June we closed the doors at the Café. We needed to make some changes so that it would work here in Nevada. We opened it back up in September. During that time, we sold the west side of our building which eliminated quite a bit of overhead, and put in a drive-up window. The adjustments have been great!

Ashley is 5 & has joined her school going sisters by attending the Kindergarten class. She LOVES school. Ashley is our most smiley girl. Always happy, always smiling. Quite in class, but is louder than a herd of elephants at home. I guess I would rather have her be more quiet at school, but it’s funny when the teacher asks, “Is she’s always this quiet?” HA! Ashley talks about 10 notches higher than anyone else in our family. We are working on her with that. It’s SO LOUD! She’s still so thin, and still so beautiful. They all are. She has begun to have play dates, and boy does she love those! Her good buddy is Ella! (don’t you love that name?) The other friend is Isabella. LOVE THAT NAME TOO!

Our little Katrina, is not so little. She is getting so big, and is so independent (stubborn!). She makes herself known loudly & clearly. Especially if she’s not getting her way! She is so cute though. She seems to talk the most clearly than the others at this age, and with complete sentences. It must be because she’s the youngest, and has all of this help from her older sisters. That’s what I’m guessing anyhow. She has met a little friend that she met at daycare that comes over now and again. She really likes her a lot, and her name is Shelby, so we remember our Shelby very often!

Brooke is 9 & in the 4th grade already. It blows my mind & I can’t believe it. She loves school and her teacher & her friends. Brooke is a loving mother at heart, and is just always happy. That doesn’t mean that she never argues with her sisters, because they all do, but in general, she’s just always happy.

Courtney is 14 & a freshman this year. She is taking Spanish, which I think she likes, and accounting, which she doesn’t like at all. Good thing she’ll be done with that class in a couple weeks. She does work at the café a few hours a week and does some babysitting. She likes going to her friend’s house, and the library. What’s so exciting about the library, I don’t know. She is already boy crazy, but we’re still sayin’ NO!! She still loves to read, so that’s good. Oh yes, she is now a cell phone owner. That came ONLY because we turned off the home phone. (Mom isn’t too thrilled about it.)

Taylor is 7 & in 2nd grade this year in the public school. Last year she was still homeschooled ½ way through, but so far this year has proven to be a good one, and she is happy attending & learning, and is really doing a great job. She has had more black eyes this year for one reason or another, so I’m thinking she’s the tom-boy of the family. No broken bones (knock on wood), but lots of tree climbing!

All the girls are growing and growing, and getting bigger and bigger. Stephanie has been working & running the café full time. During the summer while the café was closed, she ventured out into the hotel industry as well as the grocery industry. She has decided that she is getting mature (meaning old & stubborn J ) in her ways, and has decided that she likes her little own world at the Café. Trying to stay caught up on housework & homework is a full time job in itself! We all share in these job responsibilities since mom slacks sometimes!

Brad finished up a pretty big trimming job this summer, and has started with a company here in town called Almaco. They build & sell farming equipment. He’s enjoying it so far. It offers a steady income plus great benefits, and the commute is like 5 minutes! Can’t beat that! He’s praying his Stealers will go all the way to the Super Bowl! (hoping anyhow)

Love you all & wishing you all a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year