Bang!

Our families favorite game is Bang!  What's your favorite?

Visitors, Baptism, & our fifteen minutes of fame lived vicariously through Luke.

We had three special surprises in March.  First, Dave's sister's little boy decided he wanted to be baptized into our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. The Mormon church) .  They have been inactive most of his life but have recently been coming back to church., and taking the missionary discussions.  None of their kiddos have been baptized so we were all really excited when Matthew decided he wanted to be baptized.  Which leads us to our second surprise . . . Dave's parents came down for the baptism meaning we got to see them again!

And third, while they were visiting, Dave's cousin, Luke Matheny, happened to be in Austin for a panel for the sitcom Maron.  Luke directed several of the episodes.   In 2011, Luke won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film for his film God of Love.  So, we all met up with Luke for dinner.    He is the spitting image of a younger version of Dave's dad (with lots & lots of hair).  He looks more like Dave's dad than any of the Matheny kids.  It is almost uncanny!  :)  Their mannerisms, etc, were the same too.  Wild.

~ Kevin, Katrina, Luke, Halli, & Dave ~

~ The whole gang ~

 Taylor is really into all things theater so she was beyond excited to meet him!  Dave hadn't seen him since they were in high school and I had never met him so it was so fun to all get together.  He's quite the character, that Luke. (If you want to see his Oscar Speech, click here.)  He's currently producing his first feature film starring Chevy Chase and Matt LeBlanc.  So, not only am I related to someone  kinda famous (in a round about way) but I now have the inside scoop on Chevy and Matt!  Ya baby.

Taylor still plays with dolls . . .

Just kidding!  She's never played with dolls which saddened me a bit as I loved dolls as a little girl.  Taylor is taking Child Development this year.  For one of their projects, they get to take home a baby for the weekend.  These are not regular dolls, they are little computers.  They record everything from feedings, sleep, amount of time spent crying, diaper changes, etc.  If you drop their head or accidentally hit their head, it's recorded.  You can not turn them off.  They cry, coo, etc.  It's pretty funny.  Their grade is based on how well the baby is taken care of.   Taylor & her friend, Emily, chose to bring home their babies on the same weekend.  It was so funny to see them try to get through a two hour movie . . . I think it took 3 1/2 hours!  :)   

 By the end of the weekend, they were exhausted!  :)  

Basketball

Have I mentioned that Carter LOVES basketball?  He eats, sleeps, breathes it.  We just finished a league and have started a select team.  He has his first tournament this weekend.  Luckily, it does not fall on Sunday.  When we signed up for the league, we did not realize they played on Sundays.  Carter was upset when I told him, "we don't play basketball on Sunday so if the games fall on Sunday, we'll have to miss them."  He thought we would make an exception . . . sorry bud!

Solutions

Our dog, Maggie . . . 

. . . was eating all of the cat food.  So, I asked my dad to make me a top for the dog crate so I could put the cat food on it.  This is what he made for us . . .

Isn't it gorgeous!  He's so talented.  And it keeps Maggie out of their food!

 Problem solved . . . thanks dad!