Thanksgiving Family Reunion

This year, we hosted Thanksgiving for all of Dan's family. His mom and all five siblings, along with spouses and children, stayed at our home for a week. It was a crazy and fun week with lots of family time, food, games, and trips to the beach, Alligator Park, and NASA. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with highs in the mid to upper 70s, so we spent a lot of time outdoors. We even did a family turkey trot around our neighborhood lake on Thanksgiving morning. It was so nice to finally have all the cousins together. It had been many years since our kids had seen their Zalit cousins. We took some casual family photos in our backyard on Thanksgiving day to document our time together. We sure loved having everyone spend Thanksgiving with us down in Texas!

grandma with all her grandkids

Dan and his brothers and sisters

Dave and Kelly's family

sweet girls!

Andy and Loya's family

Grace and Travis' family

Pete and Carrie's family

Tracy and Jerel

Lorelei and Zoe became fast friends. It was so cute to watch them play together

a few from our fun day at the beach...

and i can't forget to include a photo of one of the fried turkeys. they turned out delicious!

Such a fun week. Wish we lived closer, so we could see everyone more often!

Recent Reads

I read this book about three years ago, and just recently reread it. This is a beautifully written book, but very heart wrenching. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a wonderful family saga with great historical background. It has been fun watching the PBS series after reading the book.

Halloween 2016

Hard to believe Halloween has come and gone! It seems like once Halloween is over, the rest of the year flies by. We had a great Halloween at Grammy and Grandpa's house. After our traditional Halloween dinner, we took the kids trick-or-treating with Uncle Philip, who was in town for a few days. The kids got way too much candy, especially the older ones who were out longer!

Lorelei dressed up as Minnie Mouse. The teddy bear wasn't part of her costume. It's just something she carries around everywhere :)

Evan was a zombie. We just ripped up some old clothes and painted his face. I love cheap, easy costumes!

This is his "zombie face."

Avery was a huntress. We forgot her bow and arrow for the photo :(

Kyla and Elayna were Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (from SpongeBob). They put these costumes together on their own and I just love how fun and creative these two are!

Ben was a grumpy skeleton. He was not in the mood for photos and was so ready to go trick-or-treating! He had such a fun time that night going door to door collecting candy. He got so excited each time a new candy was dropped into his pumpkin bucket!

Five!

my sweet baby girl turned five years old last week! She had a special birthday date with Grammy at the library and Chick-Fil-A (two of Lorelei's favorite places). Then, we had a small family party in the evening. I will miss her when she goes to kindergarten next year! We have so much fun playing, reading, and doing art/crafts during the day.

Officially a Teenager!

Kyla turned 13 at the end of September. She is now officially a teenager!

One of her favorite things to do is sing and play the piano. She spends many hours in her room playing this electronic keyboard that we got from Dan's father after he passed away. She pretty much taught herself to play, with a little help from me.

yes, I made her pose with the microphone. haha. She has taken over Elayna's karaoke machine.

she has a beautiful voice and we love to hear her sing!

Happy birthday sweet Kyla!

Three years old!

My baby boy turned three years old last week! Where has the time gone? I took a few photos before church on Sunday right after his bath.

With four girls in the family, we only had pink candles on hand. Haha! He didn't seem to mind though with all the dinosaurs on top of his cake. Love our baby Ben so much!! Can't imagine life without this sweet boy. He will always be my baby :)