Happy Anniversary to US!!

Married for time and all eternity!

December 19, 1986

My, my how we have changed! 22 years has flown by, we have been married as long as we were single now. It has been an amazing journey! Lots of trials and tears but just as many joys and triumphs! We have been so blessed. What more could we ask for?

I love you Spence!

Our Christmas Poem 2008

We send this out in our Christmas Cards each year. If you didn't get a card and you want to read a cheesy poem, read on. This way, those of you in our ward won't feel left out.


We wish you a merry Christmas in this year 2008
Our poem needs to be written, I know it just can’t wait.
The time just flew right past me and our poem, I’m sad to say
Last year didn’t get written, nor sent out on ANY day!
So now I am repenting and trying to set things right
I’ll finish up our Christmas poem, even if it takes all night!!

I’ll start out with my Spencer, our dad who works so hard,
Although his work for this year doesn’t take him past our yard.
His company’s based out of Portland, but he has no need to roam
He does his work so happily each day, right here from home!
The church has given him a rest, in the bishopric he is no longer,
He works within the High Priests now with testimony growing stronger.

I try to go to institute and the temple once each week
Learning more this year about our Savior has really been a treat!
The chorister in primary is my calling in church right now
I think this is my 5th time and I love it! Holy Cow!
Now if you want to have a laugh and keep up with our news,
Go to toomanyteenagers.blogspot.com and you will have a clue
Of what goes on in our house, with pictures and stories galore
So if this poem just once a year isn’t enough, go there for more!

Brad is a mighty senior, it is still hard for me to believe,
That in a year and a half from now, for his mission he will leave.
He loves the freedom of driving and he also dates up a storm,
I’m always glad each night, when he’s in his bed safe and warm.
He is learning to budget his money and has heaved a big sigh of relief
Gas prices went up so high, he’s glad they’re back down now, good grief!!

Shannon is a studious sophomore and is already counting the days
Till she’ll be that magic number when being older really pays!
It’s for working, and dating and driving that she just can’t wait to do,
She’s grown up way too fast, she should wait another year or two!
She can’t live without her cell phone, that, for her “new attitude” she did earn,
To be respectful, kind and obedient are the wonderful things she did learn.

An energetic eighth grader describes our cute gal Michelle,
It’s for sports and not academics that she waits for the ring of the bell.
She puts in some time and works for grades that are high
So when sports season is here for a team she can try.
She loves to read and read, book after book after book,
And when you cannot find her up on her bed you should go look.

4th grade is now the school year, our Rachel is learning in,
Coronado is also now her school, not Franklin where she had been.
Her interest are very artistic whether thru art, song, gymnastics or dance
She’ll have you watch a production of hers if you give her half a chance.
If a baby is anywhere near her, she’ll snatch it up right away
For helping mom’s watch their babies is just as fun to her as play.

Kindergarten, this one more time, our big girl Jen has done
And now at the skills of math and reading she has totally won!
Her speech is getting better, on the horse she still loves to ride,
Although at 7:00 in the morning, under the covers she tries to hide.
She has no time for princess things, it’s all batman and superman too,
And on her bed is Lightning McQueen, or yes that’s really true!

Well, that’s our year in a nutshell, and what a year it’s been,
I catch myself sitting thinking, “oh, I remember when….”
Thru the laughter and the tears, weather triumph or a trial
Over the bumps and the hills, striving mile after mile
To follow the one who showed us the right way
To make it back to our Heavenly Father someday.

Our hearts fill with gratitude and love in this season
For our family and friends and our Savior is the reason.
We hope you feel joy and happiness too
Not only this day but the whole year thru

(We do truly love all of you are wonderful friends who have become family to us as our family is so far away.) Merry Christmas!!

Brad's santa hat band....?

This past Friday was our ward party. Some guys asked Brad to be in the band they were doing. He was their keyboard guy and he even played the drums on one song. (You can't really see Brad in this picture because he is in the back, so I had to have him pose later.) They had about 5 practices and that was it. They sounded pretty good and they had ALOT of fun doing it.

I told him they should do a battle of the bands for a stake activity. Every ward could have a band and then have a contest. They had a great time.

Jenna was the most excited about seeing Santa!!

Christmas is such a fun time of year!! soooo magical!

Gingerbread House Building

Well, here is our annual Gingerbread house building for 2008! Brad and Jenna did a house together. We do this every year and the kids really have a great time doing it. Here we are at the beginning. and......here is the end result! Yum Yum!!

Traditional "Stairs Christmas Pic"

Even though we were in a "rush" to get to church, we took a minute to take "the" picture, which we didn't take last Christmas nor the Christmas before. Gosh, they have all grown up ALOT!! How blessed I am to have these amazing children. True....they can be a trial at times but they are truly amazing and I am in awe at their strength. They are bombarded with Satan's fiery darts constantly and they strive hard to still remain strong and faithful!

Jenna wanted her picture taken with her picture from last year at school (I think) anyway, some of us don't change a whole lot in just one year. Just a little longer hair but still the cute mischievous smile and silly personality to go along with it! What would we do without her?!

Yes her hair is wet because she doesn't want to get ready for church till the LAST possible second!

Christmas (Winter) Formal

Well, the girls planned a "day" date before the dance so they all got together about noon and went to savers to buy some cool outfits for each other. The girls picked for the guys and the guys picked for the girls. This is what they all came up with!Check out the leather pants black for Brad and silver for Tyler (I think that's his name) got to wear! Very stylin! After they got their fabulous outfits, they went to the mall on a picture scavenger hunt.

One item was "a movie poster"They had a list of 12 things they needed to find, these are just a couple. But sad to say they got kicked out of the mall before they were all done. They weren't being bad, I guess they are just intolerant of teenagers being silly. Brad's team had 10 out of 12 so they won I guess.

another item "someone wearing a cowboy hat"

Check out Colter's outfit! High top leather boots with his overalls tucked inside with a stylin pink and orange shirt! I told Brad, I could just hear Shelly laughing and saying, "oh, that is great!"Then back home for a bit of a rest for the guys (since it only takes them about 15 minutes to get ready but longer for the girls) and they met back at one of the girls houses for a nice dinner that they had to order in whatever order they wanted but everything was disguised like "marshmallow" for roll, "Reindeer Delight" for salad, etc. Brad said he didn't do too bad but some ended up with their cheesecake first. They all went to the dance and danced till the skating rink opened at 10 and then they ice skated till it closed at midnight. Brad had a blast. His observation was that it is WAAAAAAYYYYY more fun with lots of people. I'm sooooo glad Brad has some really good kids for friends!

Jenna Jenna Jenna!!

Spencer was washing the cars the other day and this is what he found on the back of his car..

and this on the back of my car....

yes! written with a sharpie...!

You be the judge!

Some of the Manwaring Family think brad looks like Jacob from Twilight. What do you think? Maybe there is a little similarity?

New Family Pic

We went to Power Ranch park on Saturday to take a family picture since that is the only thing Mom wants for Christmas. There were SOOOOO many families there! yikes! Despite the many people and level of frustrations, we were able to get some good ones. I forgot to get one of just the kids so we may have to try again for that.......um, maybe not.....

The "studly" senior...The "sophisticated" sophomore...

the "energetic" eighth grader....

The "fabulous" forth grader.....and the "kookie" kindergartener!

....and some people were just plain HAMS!!! :)

Thanksgiving 2008

All because these two fell in love!

We had a fabulous thanksgiving. Alot of my family were able to come down. Mom and Dad, Susan, Bruce, Linda and Maria and their whole families. We had 29 people here counting my family.

There was a HUGE pile of shoes by the door....and I didn't even tell people they needed to take their shoes off, they are just true Manwarings and that's the first thing we do when we get home is kick off our shoes! ahhhh

It was basically a 3 day party for the kids. They had a blast with all their cousins. We even had an impromptu talent show and all the teenagers sang the theme from efy and the little ones sang If the savior stood beside me. Then many did individual talents. It was so good. I'm so blessed to belong to such an amazing family! We just kicked back on Friday and played games and such. Dad brought his "Shocker" and that was crazy! On Saturday we HAD to go to In N OUT for those less fortunate than ourselves who don't have one close to them. It was so busy there we took it to Discovery park and ate there.The kids all had a great time playing on the golf cartand the big boys palyed hide and seek in the dark with it. They made a fire (I'm not sure it's legal) each night in the back yard and it was great! Made lots of memories!!

This Thanksgiving was truly TOO MUCH FUN!

The only thing that would have made it better is if Michael, Amy and Mark could have been there with us.

Hairspray Girl

So Jenna gets out of the tub last night and as I was combing her hair, she straightened her hair flat to the side of her head and said, "can we do my hair like this, not curly?" I told her we could try but I didn't know if it would work since she has pretty curly hair, especially in the back. So we got the blow dryer out and began. She was pretty patient and by the end, she was kind of giggling. Her hair wouldn't straighten the whole way out, there was a cute little flip at the ends. So the conversation was like this.
Jenna: My hair looks different!
Mom: ya, it does, do you like it?
Jenna: Ya! Hey! I look like Hairspray!
Mom: Hair spray?
Jenna: Ya! you know, the hairspray girl!
Mom: Oh ya! Tracy?
Jenna: Yah! Can I have my hair like this tomorrow? Mrs T won't know who I am!
Silly girl! So needless to say, she wore it that way today. I'll post a picture later. She looks so grown up that way. Even Michelle couldn't believe how different she looked when she walked into the bathroom.

New Dating Deal

So, I made a deal with Brad that if he had a date set up on Friday nights then he wouldn't have to take his turn babysitting for me. It has to be with a different girl and not just a "hang out" date. Well, he is up to the challenge. He is finally past the "girlfriend" thing THANK GOODNESS! NOT a good thing for a young man who is preparing to serve a mission. It is so interesting that they can't see how wrong it is for them to steady date until they are out of the situation. He made a covenant (is that sacrilegious?) with me that he would not have a serious relationship with a girl till after his mission. He won't kiss, hold hands nor date the same girl more than a few times but always someone else in between. He and Mike are planning a pizza game night this friday. woo hoo!

Jenna's Veterans Day

Since Jenna doesn't really fit into the "teenage" mold, she had her own idea of what a fun day off would be. She begged to go to the park. So we asked her best friend Abby to come with us. We were at the park for about 10 or so minutes when whey came running over asking to go to a

different park because they were bored! Sheeze! I told them we could always go home and do some work! They didn't like that idea so ran off to play only to come back about 10 minutes later asking if we could go to the choo choo train park. Long story short, they finally just played and we stopped on the way home and got an ice cream cone from McDonald's. Then they sat at the counter watching the Spencer's "tiny" black and white TV eating their ice cream. Abby asked, "can't it change into color?"

They made lipstick with their ice cream and wanted a picture. Abby was very good at this, she must have lots of big sisters to watch and practice with! Jenna would rather be outside riding her bike or something!!

Silly girls! So glad that all my kids have great friends!

Our Veterans Day

Started about 8:00 a.m. with a bunch of teenagers making breakfast. I was surprised they started so early being "teenagers" but anyway, they made a HUGE breakfast of hash browns, eggs with sausage, waffles, crepes, juice, fruit with dip and french toast. They made the fire alarm go off and also flipped the power breaker twice. They did have a yummy breakfast with only a few waffles left over. They used about 2 1/2 dozen eggs and 2 loaves of bread! But the best part of all cleaned up after they were done. Then they all hung around till about noon playing games. Ahhh the life!

Family Home Evening Treat

So every now and then I get the idea that I will make something more exciting for our FHE treat besides the typically easy brownies or ice cream, so this week I attempted cream puffs. They are a bit of work but they turned out pretty good. Everyone liked them except Jenna. (she really wouldn't give them a try) she always just goes for the plain vanilla ice cream. I'm not sure I did them exactly right because the recipe said after they are baked slice them open and remove any small amounts of dough that may be left but there was a lot of dough left in mine. I filled them with chocolate pudding mixed with whipped cream. I guess I'll have to try it again and see if I can do better.

Brad got asked to the dance!

Last Friday morning we were reading scriptures at 6:15 a.m. (blink, blink!) and the doorbell rang.

This is what we found on our porch........ Brad's said, "Alyssa who! I know 3 Alyssas!"

Shannon said, "My bet is on Alyssa Miller!" Brad kind of asked around and did find out it was her. The girls were sooo excited. They kept asking him, "how are you going to say yes?! Can we help you do it?!" So being the great sisters they are, they cut out the shapes and flowers while Brad was helping Spencer put a new fuel pump in his car (which had been sitting waiting to be fixed for about 2 weeks, but that's another story). Then he took the three older girls with him after it was dark and stuck them all over in her lawn. So now we wait for the dance. Poor guy, having 4 sisters he doesn't have a chance! What a great husband he will make someday!

Cinderella, Cinderella, Cinderella!

The plan was to take Rachel and Jenna to the play at Hale Theater on Saturday to see Cinderella. But the day didn't start off too good. We had alot of "attitude" going on and alot of disobedience. I called Kristi Bradshaw and told her to see if she could find someone else to use our tickets. There was alot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth along with screaming and such. I was feeling pretty mad inside because I wanted to see the play. Then about an hour later thought, "wait, why am I punishing myself?" It all worked out because Kristi found someone for 2 of the tickets so mine was still available. It was such a cute production. I was sad that my girls didn't get to go and experience it too. They would have loved it. It must be hard for Heavenly Father to have to withhold blessings from us when we don't do what we should. Gosh being a parent is hard sometimes.

Life is never smooth

With these 5 amazing kids I have, one of them will be going thru something hard and that is the main source of my concern and then when that trial gets ironed out and thing are well with them again, someone else comes up with a wrinkle that needs attention. I guess we wouldn't grow if it wasn't that way.
I am so amazed at how strong my kids are as I see that things they have to be around every day when they are away from home. I'm not sure I would be as strong and resilient as they are. They have strong testimonies of who they are and what is right. I am so grateful for good leaders and scriptures and prayer to help us. Raising kids is so hard but I feel so blessed that I was chosen to have these 5 beautiful children to help guide. At times it can be so overwhelming but other times it's just TOO MUCH FUN!

For the Temple is a holy place....

Yesterday was our stake temple day and I was able to go and do 3 sessions. That is the first time I have ever done that. I was quite surprised that it didn't seem like that long. I left about the time the kids do and made the 8:30 session. I met Spencer there, he had gone earlier and done sealings. He left and I stayed and went to the 10:30 and then the 12:30. I got home just as my highschoolers were geting home. It was a good day!

Haaaaallll-llloooo-weeeeen!!

This is not one of my favorite holidays, in fact, it is my LEAST favorite. I will be glad when everyone is big enough that we don't have to bother with it anymore. .... let's see, hmmm I guess I have a few more years. It was a CRAZY day! Our ward youth did baptisms for the dead (Stacy said "what an appropriate thing to do on a day like this! ha, ha, so funny!) so the girls left about 4:00 with Spencer as one of the drivers and workers at the temple and Brad left at 5:00. Rachel went to a friend's neighborhood to a block party and then to trick or treat so that just left Jenna and me! We sat down to watch a movie to kill time before candy time.

Jenna was a cute priate and her friend Morgan was a pumpkin fairy thing.

Just as it was starting to get dark, we set out the pumpkins and lit them all and then off she went with the neighbors while I stayed to pass out candy. Shannon got home around 7:o0 or so. Michelle got home with Spencer around 7:30 and Brad returned around 8:00 or something like that. Shannon went off to be with her friends, as did Michelle and Brad too. Hmmm, do I feel unpopular? Naaaaa!! Rachel came back around 8:30 and she and Jenna continued to play with the neighbor kids till around 9:00. Shannon came home with some of her friends around 10:00 and they started a movie. Brad showed up with a couple of his buddies about 10:30

they grabbed some costumes and left again.

Shannon's friends left about 11:00 just as Michelle was coming home. Brad returned at midnight! Holy Cow! Teenagers!!!!! They don't need any sleep! I usually take the late shift (waiting for the kids to come home) and Spencer takes the early shift (getting up with the early bird little girls). Sooooo Silly

The candy haul!!

Rachel had already taken her costume off. See her costume below in previous post.