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Cameron, CSI Texas

Dylan, Pre-K graduati

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Cameron, Matt, Kristy and Dylan horseback riding on the beach

The Epic Saga of Matt, Kristy, Cameron, Dylan, Shea & Tori 2014
It was an exciting year for the Samuels family in 2014, lled
with fun milestones and big losses. Kristy began settling
into her new job, Cameron earned various accolades, Dylan
started kindergarten and Matt ended the year with a big loss
- 45 pounds to be exact.1

Cameron at Lego Robotics

Dylan, 6, started kindergarten in August and enjoys going to

a big school with his brother. He loves all of the new friends
he has made, but is still getting used to the fact school is not
just fun and games.2 He has learned to read and write and
uses his imagination to put on skits.

Dylan at Flag Football

He continues to be quite the athlete, playing

soccer and ag football. He led both his soccer
team in goals and his football team in touchdowns
and ags pulled.3 He also plays tennis regularly in
the neighborhood and will give basketball a try for
the rst time in January.4
Cameron, 11, is in fth grade and continues to get
smarter by the minute.5 He has created several
websites, does computer programming and
developed his rst mobile app that he published in
the google play store earlier this year.6 His grades at
school remain straight As.
Cameron the Cub Scout

Cameron the Computer Programmer

Dylans first day of Kindergarten

Kristy and Matt

Dylan holds serve in tennis

1 - The three Cs of weight loss: Lots of Carrots, Cardio and Consistency; 2 - His favorite things in school are morning recess, afternoon recess and snack; 3 - Not that we are
keeping count!; 4 - We expect nothing less than a double-double every game in his rst season; 5 - We comprehend almost half of what he is talking about; 6 - They say if you
dont publish your rst app by age 10, you may never publish one.

Tori

Shea

Cameron will earn Cub Scouts

top honor - the Arrow of Light in January and move on to Boy
Scouts in the spring.7 He also
won a robotics competition at
the Houston Museum of Natural
Science8, joined a Comic Book
Club at school and has spent the
fall learning Hebrew.9

and social-media outlets.14 Matt

won several statewide awards
for sports writing and graphic
design, and has also continued
his writing for The Advocate.15

Dylan, Kristy, Cameron and Matt on Halloween

Shea, 13, and Tori, 8, are

still keeping the house
secure during the day.10
They have also kept a
close eye on the barn
swallow family, which
gave birth to eight more
babies on our porch.11
Kristy has absolutely
loved her new job at
Texas Teachers, working
a great schedule with fun
and energetic people. She
has branched off from
Microsoft
programming
weight loss
tools and learned Python
Kristy and Matt after
12
and Django as she helps
lead a team of developers at a cutting-edge company.
In her free time, she has continued her painting and digital
scrapbooking. Kristy has also spent time working on our yard
and garden, adding many plants and privacy shrubs.13
Matt has led the charge of bringing the JHV into the digital age,
launching an e-edition on top of the newspapers other digital

Cameron and Dylan firs

t day

Matts time as a Cub Scout

leader will end in January, after
ve years of leading his scouts
to the Arrow of Light award.16
He also helped coach
Dylans soccer and ag
football teams.17
As
a
family,
we
vacationed in Galveston,
where we visited Moody
Gardens
and
went
horseback riding on the
beach.18 The family also
went to Mardi Gras in
New Orleans, the Art Car
Parade in Houston and
many Astros, Rockets,
Dynamo and Skeeters
sports games.
of school

We also spent lots of time

outside walking, biking, rollerblading and swimming around the
neighborhood, or zoo and museum hopping in Houston. We
also hosted our annual Halloween party, while Matt and Kristy
continued to enjoy lots of music concerts and broadway shows.
Our plans for 2015 include new adventures into Boy Scouts,
basketball and a possible ski vacation in Colorado. We hope
everyone had a great 2014 and we will see you soon!

Love to all, (in order of appearance) Matt, Kristy, Shea, Cameron, Tori & Dylan

Dylan and Cameron at Cub Scout boat race

Brother Selfie

Beach boys

7 - Shh, we havent told him he will have to cook his own food and scrub the pots; 8 - If only he could program his robot to clean his room and brush his teeth; 9 - It does throw his teachers off at school when he writes his name in Hebrew, which they probably think is Chinese; 10 - Secure = make sure no one eats their food, messes up their blankets or moves their litter
box; 11 - You would be amazed by the amount of bird poop eight babies can produce in one month; 12 - She realizes that only 3.14159 percent of Epic Saga readers know what she is
talking about; 13 - She didnt like Matts idea of letting the weeds naturally grow themselves into privacy plants; 14 - He actually gets paid to be on facebook, twitter and youtube during
work hours; 15 - You can say he is the always-expanding Advocates one-man Houston bureau; 16 - Its amazing Matt survived with all of the pocket knives, camp res and poisonous
snakes; 17 - He even nished with a better winning percentage than Les Miles and Sean Payton combined; 18 - You can lead a horse to water, but we got to gallop with them in the gulf.