Thanksgiving

We had a great, filling, exhausting, fun Thanksgiving here in Texas! We had our two favorite new friends, Elder Lemon & Elder Rogers, over to feast. (they wrote our names down on their dinner list & then told us)

We made dinner for 2 days! We made turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, broccoli, pumpkin pie, sweet potato dessert. In fact we were cooking so much that we forgot to take any pictures! So here's a picture of
Jessie's placemats & Tyler making rolls.

Jessie made one for everyone with each name written on them. Even the missionaries got their own personal Jessie work of art with "missionary" written in her special spelling style. They took them home so I don't have a photo. Ty helped make everything he could! What a helper! Matthew & Annie did dishes & then more dishes & yet we still have more to do! Ahhh! Cameron & Jack played football & more football.

Now we are all too stuffed to move! Ash's turkey was amazing again. He's an amazing cook & he wonders why I don't want to cook. I did make pies & stuffing. Our favorite new dish is a recipe my visiting teaching companion gave me. Sweet potato casserole! YUMMMMM!!! It is more of a dessert to me with a praline type crust on top & filled with a sweet vanilla sweet potato filling. It's our new Texas Thanksgiving tradition. I'll try to remember to post the recipe because it's worth a try & easy to make.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Oviatts in Texas!!!!

P.S. I just took this picture of what Tyler is doing now. :)

Flat Stanley

A friend of ours in Utah sent us Flat Stanley for a school project. We took him around with us to some spots we like in Round Rock. I thought it was a great way to share some of our experiences here. Here is what we did:

We went to Tyler's football game. Football is a big deal down here. Ty plays for his middle school, the Walsh Wildcats. They won the game & Ty had a great game. We go to at least 2 football games each week. Matthew's team was off this week so we only went to 1 game. It was a slow week.

We went to Round Rock High School where Annie & Matthew go to school. They are the dragons. Matthew plays football there & Annie plays tennis & is on the yearbook staff. RRHS is 99 years old this year! It seems more like a Jr college than a high school with its layout and the way it's run. They have a lot of history & traditions. Next week is Homecoming and they have a parade and some other traditions we have yet to understand. Of course they have a big homecoming football game. Go Dragons!

We also went to Jack, Jessie & Cameron's school, Old Town Elementary. We live in the Old Town part of the city. In fact we live really close to THE round rock! It's a rock that's round in the middle of Brushy Creek. When the cattle drives & settlers travelled through this area they found that the safest and easiest way to cross the creek was at the round rock. So the area became known as Round Rock. Back to the school, the playground is nestled in the trees. It's really fun! Of course there is a football/soccer field out of the trees. Jack spends his recess playing football. They are the Old Town Texans.

We went grocery shopping at our new favorite grocery store, HEB plus. H.E.B. you say each letter. It is a Texas grocery store that was started long ago, not too far from Austin, by a man name Harold E. Butts. Aka Harry Butts. No joking!!! It's a great store and the plus is their super store. We visit HEB several time a week.

We wanted to show Stanley some of our favorite food here in Texas. BBQ is our favorite but unfortunately we didn't get BBQ this week. But we did get Bush's chicken! Our family loves Bush's chicken & Popeye's chicken. We took Stanley to Bush's for Happy Hour where we get chicken tender rolls for $1. I wish we could share the flavor of this awesome chicken! Bush's is a local business started in a town located about an hour north of here.

Our favorite treat here are Round Rock doughnuts! A local business that is huge here. I can't explain them but they are yummy! A Round Rock tradition. There is only one location but it's big! They have a drive thru & are open from 6am until 8pm. There are always cars in the drive thru. Yum!

There are water towers all over Texas. Most of them are a lot taller than the one we took Stanley to in downtown Round Rock. Most water towers hold the water we use here, this one is older and is used as a decoration not for water. We can see it from miles around and we really love it. We don't see mountains here, we see water towers.

We played with Stanley in our yard that is full of trees. We live in a neighborhood called "The Woods" & it fits! We have a lot of tall oak trees that are really old. In our front yard we have a crepe myrtle tree that has flowers on it all summer & still has flowers on it now. It's taller than our 2 story house! We let Stanley climb up it since that is what Jack & Tyler love to do.

Texas has a lot of the same things as Utah. We have Wal-Mart, Lowe's, McDonald's, Sam's Club, and more. The people here are really nice & love Texas. The Texas flag is everywhere! The weather is warm down here. It was 84 degrees yesterday, Jack & Ty went swimming. There are a lot of things to see & do here, we didn't even go to Austin. Austin is 30 miles south of us and it's a great city to visit. Maybe next time we'll get down there. The biggest difference here is that there are no mountains! You can see for miles with no mountains in site! There are some hills here but they aren't very big. It's been strange to not have the beautiful mountains to look at. But we love exploring new places & meeting new people! We really love it here!

Fast offerings in Texas

Fast offerings here are a family duty. It's Tyler's duty but Matthew is his partner & mom or dad are the chauffeurs. If they walked the route it could take several hours. Today it was Mom. I really enjoyed spending time with my boys as they did their priesthood duties. Several people told them that they paid already and they didn't need to come to them. What they don't realize is that collecting fast offerings teaches my sons to serve the Lord and their fellow men. And makes their Mom proud!

Matthew at the Palace

Last night Matthew played his fifth game overall but his first game at the 'Palace' also known as Kelly Reeves stadium.

The stadium situation here:
The Palace is a high school football stadium owned by Round Rock school district. It's amazing! It seats 11,000! It is the home field for 4 of the 5 teams in the district. Our high school is the only high school with a its own stadium - Dragon Stadium. Dragon stadium is also used by the other 4 teams as a home field. Dragon stadium isn't nearly as amazing as the Palace but it's still pretty big. All of the high schools have smaller stadiums and nice synthetic turf fields. They are their practice fields & where the middle school teams play. Ty plays there! But he will play in the palace in the playoffs.

Back to Matthew
Anyway, Matthew's been playing on the Round Rock HS freshman A team. Here they keep all the Freshman on the Freshman team & don't move them up to JV or Varsity. He's playing right tackle on the offensive line. At first he wasn't very happy about playing O line. He loves defense! But he's done a great job and seems to be enjoying it. He protects the QB and blocks for the running backs. He has never met a defensive lineman he couldn't block or knock down. He dominates! He's getting faster, stronger, and more confident. When I watch him I'm amazed that this is the same kid who laughed every time he made a tackle or scored a basket. He's focused & serious.

His team won 46-7. They dominated. They had lost the previous 2 games. This was a great win! They are now 3-2 on the season and 1-0 in district play. Go Rock! (that's what they yell here, we keep saying "go eagles", whoops!) #73 OVIATT

Guess what Jessie lost!

She's so excited! The tooth fairy brought her money and she doesn't pass up a chance to show off her new smile!

Tyler's first football game in Texas

Down here in Texas the 7th graders play on the middle school football team. There is a 7th grade A & B team and a 8th grade A & B team. They run the teams a lot like the high school football teams. His first period class is football. Ty goes to school at 6:30 every morning to start practice & they practice until the end of 1st period.

Tonight was his first game. Ty is playing nose guard on the A team. He's not very happy about it. He also played weak side D end. He still played great tonight! He was through the line in the QB's face all night. He hurried the QB and was in on at least 5 tackles. His team won 34-0! Go Wildcats! Go Tyler!!! #86

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the kids to go with the last blog post.

New Experiences

So many things have been happening down here that it's been hard to find a moment to blog, but now I have so many things to share that I don't know where to start.

All of the kids are doing great!  We are so proud of the way they've made this move and trusted us and Heavenly Father.  This hasn't been easy for any of us to do, but they have made the best of if.  They all miss Utah but are enjoying seeing the adventures Texas brings to us. Here's a short run down of what each kid is up to these days.

New Schools and New Friends

One of the biggest changes for us all down here is the early mornings!  Yes the oldest 2 have early morning seminary at 6am but the rest of us are learning to be early risers as well.  Tyler's fb practice starts at 6:30am every day.  Matthew's practice is at 7:30am most days.  Jack, Jessie and Cameron start school at 7:45am.  The high school starts at 9:10am.  So most mornings at 8am the only people home are me, Ash & Annie and we're all awake.  They go to school longer each day here as well.  The first ones home are the youngest 3 who are home at 3pm.  Ty gets off the bus around 4pm, and the high schoolers turn up around 4:40.  The best part of this schedule is that all of school and practices are done by 5pm.  We are home for dinner every night.  Last fall we were never home for dinner.  We always had practices, games, etc and I was always in the car.

Annie started her senior year of high school at Round Rock High School.  They require more history classes here so she has 3 history-type classes this year to catch up.  But she will have no problem graduating.  The RRHS is like a little college campus covered in trees.  This year's graduating class will be its 99th!  There are old buildings with new ones popping up each year.  In fact, the newest building houses the gyms, cafeteria, library & coffee shop.  Yes, coffee shop!  The cafeteria looks like a lodge in Deer Valley and the kids love the food.  It's more of a food court than a cafeteria and they even have Chic-Fil-A on Tuesdays.  

Annie was nervous to start a new school and not very happy about figuring out where to go when she knew MMHS so well. But she knew kids from the RRHS tennis team, both boys & girls- it's co-ed- and she knew kids from church.  That helped a lot!  In fact a few boys from the ward took her around for the first 2 days and watched out for her, walking her to class and eating lunch with her.  They still are watching out for her 2 weeks later. On Saturday the 15th, Annie and Ash went on a campus tour at the University of Texas. It was very interesting and they both thought it would be a good fit for Annie if she decides to stay in Texas instead of going to BYU in the fall. She is most interested in the college of communications because they will be the best way to get into sports marketing and the athletic department loves the communications department and she would be able to work with them a lot. She also is thinking about working with the sports education department, managing one of the sports teams. If that team wins a championship, they also give rings to the trainers and managers, so that made her very excited as well.

Matthew also started at Round Rock High school.  He's a freshman!  The biggest freshman ever! People think he's the senior and Annie is the freshman.  He's starting on the offensive line on the Freshman A team.  Here if you are a freshman you play on the Freshman team you don't move up to JV.  He's playing the best he's ever played!  He actually looks quick and gets down field quickly.  We found out the coaches were arguing about where to put him.  The defensive coach really wanted him but the offensive line coach won that battle.  He's the only Mormon on the team and the only boy in our ward playing high school football this year.  He's making friends with the guys on the team and the kids in his church & seminary class. He still loves playing the guitar, teasing everyone, eating, eating, eating, and texting girls.  He's enjoying the stake dances down here as well. Ashley has been doing write ups on the game and will put a link here to read them when they are available.

Ty started 7th grade at Walsh middle school.  It was an adjustment the first day changing teachers and classrooms but he picked it up quickly.  Knowing the kids in our ward helped a lot.  They all watch out for each other and he knew someone in each of his classes on the first day.  He's playing football at the middle school.  He has a football class 1st period each day.  They have 2 teams for the 7th graders and Ty is on the A team.  He's really having fun!  We aren't sure yet which position he'll play but his first game is in a week.  Saturday morning he got up at 6am to go boating with the deacons.  Came home at 10:30am and slept on the couch til 1pm.  He's a teenage boy already! 

Jack started 5th grade at Old Town Elementary.  6th graders go to the middle school here so Jack is the oldest in the school.  He says he's the cool kid because he's cool, or new.  He is really doing well here.  He's calmer and more thoughtful.  Jack is a great big brother!  He walks Jessie & Cameron to school every day and picks them up every afternoon.  He takes his responsibility seriously and watches out for the little ones.  He's making friends quickly at school and at church.  He misses his friends in Utah and loves checking his email to hear from his friends.  

Jessie started 1st grade. She loves eating lunch at school and making new friends.  She lost her first tooth last week.  That was a happy day!  She loves sharing a room with her big sister Annie.  She loves picking out new outfits and styling her own hair.  She offered to wake up at 5am to pick out Tyler's clothes for him.  Oh boy do we have a princess!  

Cameron is in Kindergarten!  My baby is growing up too fast!  They have all-day kindergarten here so I'm home without kids all day.  He has been a bit of a stinker since we've moved here.  He's sharing a room with Jack & the older kids are teaching him too much teasing.  He loves to tease all of us and he's really good at it.  He's liking school but is still adjusting to all of it.  Some days he just needs to cuddle with Mommy.  He's got a great teacher who knows what she's doing and loves teaching kindergarten. He loves watching the squirrels in our trees in our backyard and chasing lizards around the yard.  

Texas - We've arrived!

We arrived in Round Rock, Texas on late Monday night.  (Round Rock is just north of Austin, Texas.) We are staying in a hotel while we are looking for a house to rent.  8 people in one hotel room!  It's getting old fast!!!  We have been driving around exploring the schools and neighborhoods to find which ones fit our family.  We've narrowed the high schools down to Round Rock HS, Rouse HS, Vista Ridge HS, & Cedar Park HS.  There are a lot of great neighborhoods and schools here.  Rental homes are snatched up quickly here so we are looking for the best deal in the best place for us. We've walked through a couple today.  Tomorrow we'll see a few more.  It's overwhelming but we have faith that it will work out and we will get settled in here.  We can't wait!!!

Football & tennis tryouts start the beginning of August.  School starts at the end of August.  We have a lot to do in the next month. I have 6 kids to register for school once we know which schools they'll go to. 6 sets of school supplies to buy and 6 sets of school clothes to start the year off.  It's a big school year for us with  a Kindergartener, Senior, Freshman, 1st grader, 5th grader and new middle schooler. We've got all the schools covered-elementary, middle & high school.  Big changes for everyone! Especially me, I'll be home alone for the first time in 12 years!  Well except for Ash, who works from home.

The weather here has been in the high 90's with about 50% humidity.  Annie says it feels stuffy outside.  We are getting used to it and know it's part of the deal here.  We are looking forward to January when we can play outside without the snow and cold. :) But it really hasn't been too bad.

There are a lot of trees and green here.  I'll post some pictures soon.  There are places in the middle of Round Rock and where you feel like you are out in the middle of no where, then you turn a corner and there's a grocery store, restaurant, doctor's office, etc.  We really like it, but it is strange not having the mountains to guide us.  Which way is north around here?

Annie is already missing Utah.  The fry sauce to be exact.  She asked for it a Chic-fil-A and the lady was very confused and looked at us like we were crazy.  We explained it to her and told her it was a Utah thing. We really are having fun exploring a new place and seeing what new things they have here.  She is loving all of the University of Texas stuff she finds everywhere here.  On the way down she convinced me to stop in Fort Worth to drive around the TCU campus.  She wants to see all of the college football stadiums she can in Texas.  I'm sure it won't  be long until we are at Texas A&M.

Ash took the kids over the Chuck E. Cheese to play and I got to stay in the hotel for a much needed rest.  I've been feeling pretty good considering we just drove for 3 days and have been moving for the past month. I am not in as much pain as I normally am after this much stress on my body.  We are all tired.  The kids are doing really well all things considered.  I am very proud of them for the way they have dealt with this move.  It hasn't always been easy for them or any of us but they have trusted us and embraced this new adventure in Texas.