Mary Elizabeth at age 10

There are times when the kids change gradually and time when they grow exponentially.  As Mary Elizabeth turned 10, her growth in maturity was so fast, that we feel like she changed from a little girl to a young lady!  Here is a look at Mary Beth as a 10 year old.

*She made the dance company at her dance studio.  This requires double the amount of dancing in a week as well as numerous dance competitions and exhibitions.  She has LOVED the jump up in responsibilities and challenges.  She is a very graceful dancer and I am so happy that she has found something she loves.

*She also loves piano and has started 45 minute lessons this year.  Mary Beth is so excited each morning that is a piano day and has such a great relationship with her piano teacher, who is also named Mary Elizabeth!

*Mary Beth was so sad leaving her elementary school but adores her new school and teachers.  She is the female good will ambassador for her class, so she will give tours to new students coming into her intermediate school.  She is off to a great start at school and reports that she never dreamed that her new school would be this amazing.  :)

*She has moved up to the older class at church and loves the "deep" discussions in class.

All of the things listed above have increased the level of joy in our already joyful girl.  She practically bounces everywhere she goes!  She continues to be our most helpful child.  Anytime someone mentions that they need something, Mary Beth jumps up without being asked to bring food or drinks to the family.  She also loves to help cook and clean the house.

One of the biggest changes this year has been her level of responsibility.  She has 6 classes and lots to keep up with, but she has done so beautifully.  Mary Beth turns in assignments early and can easily stay on top of her work.  She also makes her lunch every day and lays out her clothes the night before.  Yes, it seems like our "baby" isn't much of a baby anymore!

One of our favorite things about Mary Beth is her level of compassion.  She recently read a book about a child with cerebral palsy and she talked to me just this week about how she is trying to get to know the kids in her school with disabilities.  She also is so interested in various charities in Waco and around the globe and is trying to decide which of these charities that she wants to support.  Mary Beth also loves our child who we mentor, Carnease, and is always after me to eat lunch with him during the week.

Bryon and I are so blessed by Mary Beth's life and are thankful to call her our daughter.

Fall Football 20-Fourteen

Well, back to school also means back to football!  It has been such an exciting start to the year.  First of all, Matthew's junior high had four football teams and two of them were A teams, and he had been on one of the A teams both years.  When he moved to 9th grade, there was only one A team and one B team.  As competitive as his grade is athletically, he spent the entire summer working his tail off to improve his chances of making the one A team, and wouldn't you know?  He became the starting middle linebacker on A team!  His first game happened to be at Lake Travis in Austin the first week of school.  Lake Travis is an extremely wealthy school district that beat us in the state championship several years ago.  The entire drive to Austin, I was nearly sick to my stomach.  On the first drive of the game, the Lake Travis quarterback threw a ball in the middle of the field and Matthew jumped up and intercepted it!  After that point, I have calmed down a bit and have thoroughly enjoyed watching Matthew play the game he loves more than anything.  We've seen him sack the quarterback and make countless tackles.  Go Matthew!

Mary Beth amusing herself during games.

Matthew was the team captain last game.

Then there is Thomas!  He is the starting center for his A team.  He also plays tons of time as defense end as well!  He is playing so well with clean snaps on offense and several tackles on defense.  We are so proud!  He also is playing his final season for Pee Wee.  As time consuming as it is, his coach called us this summer and pleaded for Thomas to play his last season as the team needed experience and bulk on the line. Coach Rojo has been T's coach since he was in 4th grade and we could never tell him no.  So, between T's Monday night school game, Matthew's Thursday night school game, our varsity game that we are season ticket holders for on Fridays, T's Pee Wee games and Baylor and Alabama games on Saturday, you could say that we are a bit overloaded with our favorite sport!  And we couldn't love it more!

Back to School!

This year was full of BIG changes for the Barnhills!  All three kids changed schools.  We didn't have the classic "back to school picture" since Matthew had 6am practice.  I managed to get a picture of him walking into the gym at literally 0 dark 30!

An hour and a half later, these two were ready for their first days at their schools as well!  Everyone had a great start to the school year!

After school, typical Matthew being cutesy and letting us know he's in the grade that needs 9 fingers!

Mary Beth even managed to be the profile picture of the school district for a month!

McLane Stadium

For an entire year, there has been so much hype about Baylor's new stadium.  We  have patiently watched as it progressed from a pile of dirt to a 100 million dollar beauty on the Brazos River!  The entire family (um, save Mary Beth) couldn't wait for the first Baylor game!

Two days before kick off, I got to model "game day wear" on the news. This was my first glimpse inside the stadium.  Baylor, we've come a long way, baby!

On game day, we arrived hours early along with most of Waco.  We actually parked at the courthouse downtown and walked to the stadium!  Considering it was a billion degrees at the time, I was impressed with ourselves!  Here is Dad and me tailgating.

The walk up to the stadium was surreal.  The atmosphere rivaled any game day atmosphere I have ever experienced.  Kudos to Baylor for a beautiful job!

RG3, the man who started the dream, was here for an unveiling of his statue, the invocation before the game, and he even directed the band.  It was great seeing him have so much fun.

The student section which happens to be filled with the largest freshman class in the history of Baylor.

Matthew even got to talk to Eddie Lackey, who was our star linebacker the past few years.  That is Matthew's position, so Eddie gave Matthew lots of pointers.

Mary Beth's 10th birthday

Mary Beth had been looking forward for weeks for her big day!  She had been wanting to get her ears pierced, but we decided to wait until her 10th birthday to actually get it done.  29 years and 2 weeks previously, I had done the same thing on my 10th birthday!

She was grinning ear to ear and only flinched a little.  So exciting!  Then, we had a family dinner at Ninfa's to celebrate our double digit sweetie!  She asked for sopapilla cheesecake instead of birthday cake this year.

To finish up the celebration, she had her friend party at Crop, Paper, Scissors.  We waited until the day before school started to celebrate, so it was fun getting all of Mary Beth's friends together to talk about the first day of school!

Summer Misc

Like every good summer, it seemed to be over before it even started!  Here are a few other memories from Summer 2014.

For the first time, we sent all three kids to camp and stayed home BY OURSELVES for 5 days!  Of course, Bryon worked during the day and I read 3 books. But we went out with friends all but one night, and even went to dinner one night at 5pm...unheard of!  Mary Beth was in good hands at camp.  My youth minister, Scott Talley, still goes to camp with Crestview kids.  How cool is that?

 Love this picture of MaryBeth at a friend's birthday party.

 Mom and I went to Austin for the day as a pre birthday shopping trip.

 Fancy Mary Beth enjoyed eating breakfast in the dining room on my great grandmother's depression ware.

 The last week of summer vacation, we went to the Hill Country Hyatt.

 Super Moon!

 We also got new tile floors in the kitchen!  Something we had wanted to do for the past 8 years but just got around to it.

 We also spent a fun day in Keller with our dear friends, the O'Quinns.

 And Mary Beth and I got to spend the day in Frisco visiting cousins and school clothes shopping.

 Back to school time!  For the first time at River Valley, I helped decorate a locker.

 And Matthew had his first high school scrimmage where he intercepted a ball and I nearly died of a heat stroke.