We took Eve to Sears to have her 1 year old pictures taken. The photographer was so loud that I didn't think she would get one good picture. Boy was I wrong. I should have known that with such a cute subject there is no such thing as a bad picture!

We finally found a Tae Kwon Do school for Morgan. She has already begun to work on completing her black belt testing. She is very excited and we are thinking about signing Ethan up for lessons as well. Brendan is at scout camp which really makes the house feel empty. And we helped my mom and dad move their things to storage. They are leaving this weekend for a 2 month vacation in Utah. We'll sure miss them.

Part 2 (Watch second)

This is my favorite song that Morgan's Honors Choir sang in NYC. "The Awakening" It gives me the chills every time I watch it. I couldn't get the whole song uploaded as one video stream so you have to watch both videos to get the full effect.

I dreamed a dream, a silent dream.
I dreamed a dream of a land not far away
Where no birds sang, no steeples rang
And teardrops fell like rain.

I dreamed a dream, a silent dream.
I dreamed a dream of a land so filled with pride
That every song, both weak and strong,
Withered, withered and died.

I dreamed a dream. No Alleluia, not one hosana.
No song of love, no lullaby.
And no choir sang to change the world.
No pipers played. No dancers twirled.

I dreamed a dream. A silent dream.
Silent dream.
Silent.
Silent.

Awake! Awake! Awake! Awake!
Soli Deo Gloria! Awake! Awake!
Awake. Awake, my soul and sing.
The time for praise has come!
The silence of the night has passed.
A new day has begun.

Let music never die in me.
Forever let my spirit sing.
Where ever emptiness is found,
Let there be joy and glorious sound.

Let music never die in me.
Forever let my spirit sing.
Let all our voices join as one
To praise the Giver of the song.

Awake! Awake! Let music live.
Let music live.
Let music live!

Part 1 (Watch first)

Here is Morgan playing the piano on Broadway and 42nd at Times Square.

June 22 we traveled to NYC with Morgan. She had been accepted to the National High School Honors Performance Choir that selected about 200 students from across the US and Canada. They practiced for 4 days then performed at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, June 26th. They performed 6 songs, plus and encore! Kendall and I enjoyed spending time together. We walked all over NYC and saw a couple of movies. It was a great experience!

Eve!

Eve Mackenzie Empey is growing up all too fast! I though I'd post some pictures before she grew anymore! She turned 7 months last monday and is quite a looker. Here's some pictures and videos!

She hasn't quite figured out how to go forward yet.

Eve's Halloween Outfit.

I love this picture. It looks like she's looking at the statue of Jesus.

Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We certainly did. The family was a little scattered over america this year, but we still had a great time! Lorin was in Utah and I was in Kentucky while the rest of the Empey's were in Texas having Thanksgiving with the missionaries! It was a little hard this year, being apart from the family but Kentucky was fun! We maintained a thanful spirit this year and hope to spread that same spirit to those who read this blog.
We are thankful for family and, though we couldn't be together this season, the memories and spirit kept us together. We are also thankul for the power of the priesthood that Dad holds and that he is worthy to hold it. We are thankful for the Gospel and the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness that they hold. We are thanful for Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us, that he not only died, but lived for us just so that we could live with our Heavenly Father again. The sacrifice he made is the greatest gift that man was given and should never be taken for granted. We are grateful for God and his blessings he pours on our family and we hope that he may continue to bless us with amazing friends.
May God bless us with peace in our homes and love in our hearts. May he help us keep our family together in spirit even though we may not be together in person.
We love you all and hope that God's spirit will be with you throughout the season!

I know I know, I don't post enough.

So, I know it's been a while, so I'll try to get everything in without writing a novel.
Erin is thriving at Paul Mitchell, doing excellent work! She's very excited with her work and is awaiting the day she can get a salon of her own! She's a very good mother to her almost 6 month old daughter, Eve, and is realizing the bitter sweet feeling of watching your baby grow.
Lorin is officially 19!!! Working hard at the office, and getting ready for college! She leaves January and she will be missed immensely! I'm gonna miss you bestest buddy in the whole wide world! Tear. Tear.
I'm a junior. Still in High school, but enjoying the year all the same. It's crazy of course but lots of study time and a whole lot of prayers keeps me going every day! I made our school musical of Beauty and the Beast! I'm one of the silly girls that run around and drool over Gaston for the whole musical! Should be fun:)
Brendan started middle school! A fish among sharks, but he's holding up very well. He's started band and is playing the Euphonium (I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it, but hey. I'm no English major) and loving it! He serenades us every day for a half hour as he practices his scales. He is the first in his class to memorize all of the notes so far this year! Way to go you over achiever!
Ethan and Brendan started playing Football this year, and are doing great! They get many bumps and bruises, but hey. What's football without a flesh wound? Ethan has been hitting up the arts and crafts, making creative little crowns for Eve, miniture towns for mice, and drawings for mom! He and Ray have become the best of friends. You hardly see one without the other nowadays.
Reagan is a 2nd grader and has adopted the diva position. Being very cute as she prances around, it is more than obvious that we've got a cheerleader in the family. Showing off the cheers she makes up and constantly displaying her new dances, Reagan will never cease to entertain!
Eve is growing up too fast for us! She entertains us with her constant smiles and it's a treat to hear her laugh every now and then. She enjoys her horsey bouncer and is always jumping! She's a strong baby, always grabbing on anything she can reach and immediately moving it to her mouth! She's definitely her mothers daughter in every aspect!
Mom and Dad are fabulous! As Halloween grows closer, they are attempting a halloween party. From the looks of things, it looks like a blast! And I get to go!!! Woot woot! Mom is of course as busy as ever with her 6 kids to tend to and now her grandaugther! Dad is working hard and doing an awesome job at being a dad. We'll never be able to thank them enough for the things they do for us!
Love you all and best of wishes!

Way to go Erin!!!

Everyone give a huge WOOT WOOT! to Erin as she scores a 105 out of 100 on her Paul Mitchell Written Exam! Not possible you might say. Ludricous says another. Highly unlikely! There isn't 105 numbers in 100!
Au contraire I say. She flew through that test in a breeze. Not one question stood in her way. Not even...

THE BONUS!!!!

That's right folks, she got every single question right including the bonus!

Let me say that again.

She got EVERY SINGLE QUESTION RIGHT!

Everyone congratulate Erin in her amazing success as she follows her passion to greatness.

Morgan sings! Again!

Hello everyone! Morgan had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at a Texas Roughriders baseball game on June 18! It was totally fun but extremely intense. Let me tell you the story. Like everything else, I will try to make it as dramatic as possible. believe it or not, I have to describe my Girls camp experience before I even touch on the baseball game.

So here we go. The week before, I went to Girls Camp! A very fun experience, it was my first year being a Youth Camp Leader (YCL)! Wednesday night, we were cooking our foil dinners when a leader came by and told us to pack up and take our stuff back to our cabins and then meet under the pavillion. We were expecting some pretty serious storms. Let me add that we were camping in Mt. Pleasant (not so pleasant ironically), the tornado capital of the world! Why they chose that camp, don't ask me. Anyway, so a lot of the girls were worried. but when we met under the pavillion, President Allomen said a very good prayer, praying that we would have faith that the storm would calm. Afterwards we were instructed to go to our cabins and stay there. When at the cabin, a lot of the YCL's were either scared or angry that they couldn't go with their wards or leave the cabin or contact their families. Anger was stirred up between the girls and the leaders and I could just see how Satan was affecting the situation. He knew that we would have faith and was fighting hard against us to prevent it. It was hard to see. A couple minutes later, the YCL's were told that ALL of the girls and leaders were coming to our cabin (it was very big) to take shelter from the growing storm. I, being the only YCL from my ward, waited earnestly for my girls to come so that we could wait out the storm together. I saw that a lot of the girls were crying and afraid. After getting my girls together around my bed, I felt impressed by the spirit that now was a time to use the gift God gave me and started singing hymns. Other girl joined in one by one until the whole cabin was singing praises to God. No one was crying, no one was angry. We were all singing. After another prayer, we continued to sing. Then the girls were cheerful and we started some camp cheers. Me and a friend of mine lead the girls in these cheers, being as loud as we could, attempting to drown out the sounds of the thunder. This resulted in losing our voices. But i wasn't worried. My voice usually comes back after a couple of days. Usually.

So I waited patiently for the first couple of days. But I began to be worried when it didn't come back. It was wednesday, the day before the game, and I finally went to our local chiropractor/nutritionist who tested me for any chemicals that might be in my body. During this test, we found out that there was Lead in my voice box. very scary i know. But after taking many supplements and such, my voice improved by 50 percent over night! Not all the way back, but by the time 7 o' clock rolled around my voice had come back completely. Doesn't mean i wasn't worried though.

I know I know. I look like I'm gonna be sick! But I had a good time. Here's the clip! (Sorry, it goes in and out of focus.)

I was so excited and very happy! I enjoyed the experience but it strengthened my testimony a ton! Both experiences actually. God's hand was definitely in all of that! Love you all and I hope I shared a little bit of the spirit I felt through both experiences!

Strange Fruit- Nina Simone

Here's an amazing song my mom and I found while working on homework. It's amazing and very touching. It's at the very bottom of the site! Enjoy!

Blessing Day!

Blessing day for Eve! Looking absolutely adorable, sporting her cute pink fluffy dress, Eve is blessed at the Frisco West Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints! A very special day for all of us! She is truly a special spirit to have in our lives and boy are we greatful to have it!

Eve Mackenzie Empey

Finally here and cuter than we could've dreamed, Eve Mackenzie Empey arrived at 9 lbs. and 5 oz. She's incredibly cute and NEVER cries! I can't describe how cute my niece is, i'll just have to post some pictures! But here's some news that no one can wrap their heads around. My mom and dad are GRANDPARENTS!!! Crazy huh? They can't believe it either. After hours of labor, Erin pulled through and delivered her darling daughter at 2:02 pm on Thursday April 23rd. The amazing part for me is that I had to leave for a choir trip a half hour later! Lorin and I left the school at 10 am so we wouldn't miss a thing! I was growing more and more nervous as the clock ticked closer to me having to leave. I was afraid I wouldn't get to see her before I left for the weekend. But the Lord provided and I was the first to hold her (after Erin of course)!!!

Say Hello to the newest member of the Empey Family! We love you Eve!

This one's for you Jessi!

As requisted by my sweet cousin, Jessi, I'll update the blog.

Next thursday is the day for little Eve Mackenzie Empey is born! We're all so excited and anxiously awaiting her arrival. Erin's baby shower was definitely rewarding for little Eve. She got TONS of clothes and lots of toys with three baby bouncers (one for Erin's apartment, one for GRANDMA!! and one for Grandma Gladys' apartment) a little seat, high chair, hoody towels, and tons of other stuff! Before birth, the baby is already being spoiled!

Lorin is still running in track! Though she was not able to run in district's, she was still a major help to the other members on the team. Are we surprised? Since birth Lorin has been a sure fire psycholagist. She has also been accepted for the winter track at BYU Idaho!!! Woo hoo Lorin! Though she will be greatly missed, we are so excited that she's doing well!

As for myself, choir is still making me crazy but in a fun lovin' sort of way. I'm preparing to audition for a summer musical. This year's production is The King and I! I'm totally excited and nervous of course! But absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to go more

public with my voice! I thank all of those who have supported me and helped me to get as far as I have! I'm also singing the National Anthem at a Texas Rough Riders Baseball Game! Yee hah! I'm jazzed of course. I've also got a summer job and am making bank with excessive babysitting. I work at a place called My Gym and will be helping to teach classes to small children and kids! My exact area of expertise, would you agree? My summer is totally crazy!

The boys are also going crazy this baseball season! Brendan's team is off to a rough start but played an awesome game on thursday! 10 to 9 was the final score and the hardworking team only lost by one! So close! They made an awesome come back in the last inning though, scoring 4 runs and preventing anymore runs from the other team! Brendan made awesome plays playing short stop and also hit the ball and ran to first, stole second and third! A totally awesome game! Ethan had his game on Tuesday and did a very good job! They won their first game 5 to 2! Ethan played both catcher and pitched the last half of the inning and recieved a baseball tattoo (that's a bruise for those of you who aren't baseball junkies like the Empey's) but stuck it out like the beast he is!

Reagan is driving us crazy in a fun lovin' sort a way with her girlish behavior and her new boombox. She has since turned 7 years old yet acts older than all of us put together with her huge vocabulary and wide mind. She got a pink Boombox and as repeated the Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat CD since March 11th!

We took an awesome vacation to Kentucky and had loads of fun there! We miss our friends like crazy and wished they could move to Texas with us. We saw our good friend Austin Woodbury in his school production of Oklahoma as he played the lead role of Curly. He did an awesome job as well as the others who participated. The kids spent time at their friends house, I stayed at Kaylin and Baylie's houses with their totally awesome families and played my arrangement of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in sacrament meeting. After the church meeting we left in the van to start our journey back to Texas. We love and miss everyone so much!

How's that for an update, Jess. Hope everyone's curiousity for the Empey's life has been quenched till the next update! Love you all!

Church Prom!!!

Hello everyone! I know it's been awhile, but with everything that's been going on, I barely have time to breath.

I thought I'd update everyone on a certain event that just makes me smile!! CHURCH PROM!!! This being the very first prom I went to and the last church prom for Lorin, I thought it would be worth posting for the world to see.

Dress shopping was first, and both me and Lorin were fortunate to find some fairly priced dresses! Modesty came next as we searched high and low for shrugs. Extremely nervous, but finally relieved, mom saved the day by finding the shrugs we needed to wear with our dresses just in time!

Looking gorgeous in her beautiful dress, Lorin left first to go with some kids from our ward.

After my mother and sister Erin, played dress up with me for an hour, I finally arrived better looking than I thought possible, if I do say so myself. Making my grand staircase entrance for my parents and date, Ian Rogers, my very own personal paparazzi was cued and flashed away.

We had a fabulous time!

What's been goin' on?

Hello everyone! Morgan here with the latest updates! There's tons to tell of course since it has been a while since I've posted.
Dad is doing fabulous at his job, loving every moment. Work is tough but I've never seen a better man to do the job than my Dad! He spends his free time at home, wipping the boys into shape for the new baseball season. Playing catch with Bren and Ethan, work and continually helping mom with some leftover chores leaves him exhausted at the end of the day.
Mom is at home tending to her amazing motherly duties. And they are many!! I don't know where we'd be without our mother, but organized is not one of them! She consantly keeps things in order even when there are six rabid children running around the house. She works so hard so that the rest of the family can return home to a house that's clean and happy. I can never say thank you enough for her constant care! I love you mom!
Erin is kept busy with her new job and making many preporations for her new baby that is soon to arive in April. She is constantly on her feet (poor Erin!!) and working hard to keep her little home clean and organized. For being out on her own, she sure is doing a fabulous job! We see her every now and then when she comes home to visit, moments we love and crave!
Lorin is starting up the new year with a season of Track. Constantly running, the girl is sore! But when she's not running or dancing or doing all of her fun athletic things, she is at home helping out our mom or out with her friends! She and I just finished up our first Semester at Wakeland High School and took our exams. She recieved two B's and the rest A's!!! Yeah for Lorin!! Her Senior year is prooving to be a little tough but she just squares her shoulders and runs at the obstacles head on. What can we say? She's a beast at life.
As for myself, I am sick at home with Mono. It stinks of course, and I wish that if I must stay home from school for a few weeks, I would like to at least help my mom out with the chores. But alas, I have barely enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. Headaches preceded the diagnosis with much fatigue and a weak body. Doctor said that we should get an MRI to clear out the scary yet slim chance of a brain tumor then go home and rest. After getting poked six or seven times in the arms for blood tests and IV's, I went home to sleep. The next day brought on a whole new set of needles after I passed out in the shower and my mom rushed me to the ER. More blood tests and IV's to pump me full of fluid as I sat in the ER for more than four hours. Not a fun experience. My arms are bruised and my head still hurts. But before the mono came happier times. I am now the official singer of the National Anthem at the Boys B-ball games at my high school! This has also lead to my audition in Febuary to sing the Anthem at a Texas Rough Riders Baseball Game! This'll be fun. Our choir performed the totally awesome Renaissance Festival where I played the Jester and made the crowd laugh. I'm sure we are all agreed when I say this was the perfect part for me.
Brendan and Ethan are getting into shape for the new baseball season! The boys are jazzed about the tryouts that are moving closer each day! But at the moment, Brendan is playing on a Basketball team with a bunch of his friends, having a grand ole time. Ethan plays with his friends and is getting even better at his skill for reading. The boys are continuously outside with their many friends having air soft wars and chasing bunnies. It is actually alot of fun!
And last but certainly not least, Reagan. She has been admitted into Pink Elementary's DAWG pound! (This is a life changing experience you know.) The DAWG Pound is for students who are especially nice and helpful to all of their classmates and respectful to their teachers. She is thrilled and constantly wears her DAWG tag around everwhere all the time! She is so excited and pumped full of energy everyday and is always with her friend Bella (I did not arrange that!). She loves to talk on the phone with her friends (That is not a good sign) and spend time outside playing.
There's the update on all of us Empey's! Hope you're still awake! We love you all and hope you have a fabulous day!

Morgan's birthday!

I am now officially 16!! For more info. and exclusive pictures, check out my blog at morganamazing.blogspot.com. Love you all!

Twilight!

I'm sure all are surprised I haven't brought this up sooner, but the Twilight movie was totally awesome! My mom, Lorin, and I had so much fun staying up until midnight and getting home at 3 in the morning! For a more detailed report of the night, visit my blog at morganamazing.blogspot.com.

The movie was amazing and is officially my favorite (are you surprised?)!

Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Even though it was yesterday, I felt that I needed to throw that out there, seeing as how we were all too busy stuffing our faces. Thanksgiving dinner was so much fun! We were able to have our Grandma and Grandpa Young over and our neighbors the Petersons. It was so much fun, and all of the people added up to be 16. Full house, too many kids running around, and yet we still had a fabulous time! You'd think we would eat most of the dinner with 16 people, but no. We only consumed less than half of what was provided! Amazing, I know! Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!