Wedding weekend

At the beginning of November we attended my younger sister's beautiful hill country wedding in Austin. This was the first time in 15 years that all 8 siblings have been together. We rented a gorgeous home that was large enough to accommodate all of us. We spent the weekend hiking, exploring, eating fabulous BBQ at the Salt Lick and doing lots of dancing and eating at the wedding. Unfortunately it was rainy, cloudy and chilly on Saturday, the day of the wedding. But the rain did let up for the wedding ceremony, thankfully. Cameron's cousin was the main photographer of the ceremony and reception, but I did get a few right before the wedding started.

the ceremony was at the lovely Chapel Dulcinea, high on a hill

Evan and his cousin Colby, who lives all the way in Minnesota. We were so happy they made it down for the wedding! Wish they lived closer!

My brother Andy and his wife Kaylynn and son Emmett (and baby girl on the way). They live in Utah and we don't get to see them very often. So fun to spend the weekend with them too!

all five of my younger brothers with dad

so nice to see Aunt Sharon and Bree!

we also took a few photos the day before at the Austin State Capitol building

Halloween

This Halloween was especially fun because of all the family in town for my sister Jessica's wedding. All 16 cousins were together for trick or treating! The only bad part was the horrible rainy weather, but that didn't stop any of us from going out.

Benjamin's costume was part of a group costume with his three baby cousins. They all dressed as characters from Wizard of Oz and Ben was the Tin Man

Elsa

army guy

ninja

fox. Kyla put her costume together all by herself and made the fox ears!

deer

the baby cousins in their wizard of oz costumes. i wish we could have taken some better photos of them when it was light out. they looked so cute!!

group shot of the cousins at grammy and grandpa's house right before trick or treating. sadly, Ava and Dahlia are missing from the photo :(

sneak peek

I am so behind on my blog! The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy with Halloween, lots of family in town, and my baby sister's wedding. I have a ton to post, after I get done cleaning up all the vomit and diarrhea from the kids. We have been hit hard with stomach viruses the past month. In the mean time here's a sneak peek of the bride and groom photos we took at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. My sister sure made a beautiful bride!

my princess is 4!

My sweet Lorelei turned 4 years old last week! One of her favorite presents is this princess puppet tent from Target. She spends hours and hours inside her tent playing with her dolls, doing puppet shows, and having little tea parties.

these are the puppets that came with the tent

she also loves these little Frozen finger puppets that my brother Philip's girlfriend made for her. They are so cute! She also made the princess crown.

and I had to share this cute photo of her. she came up with this pose on her own. and she is pretty much obsessed with her cowboy boots. wears them everywhere

love our sweet Lorelei

TWO!

My baby boy turned two years old last week! Where has the time gone?!

he did NOT want to stand still for a photo!

We just love this little guy so much! He will always be my sweet baby boy!

recent reads

Erik Larson is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of his books. My favorites are Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City. I also really enjoyed his latest book, Dead Wake. It's the tragic story of the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania. I most enjoyed the parts about the passengers and the actual sinking. The parts about submarines and politics got a little boring for me though.

This is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. It's the true story of a teenager from Africa who overcame unimaginable hardship and obstacles and taught himself how to generate electricity for his village. This was a very interesting, entertaining, and well told story. This book made me so grateful for all that I have, especially electricity and running water!

I read so many books this summer, I am having trouble remembering them all, but these two really stood out to me

1st day of school 2015

Yesterday was the 1st day of school! The kids all had a great day and love their teachers.

Evan 1st grade

Avery 4th grade

Kyla 6th grade

Elayna 10th grade

This year I have four kids in four different schools! It's going to be a busy school year!

end of summer

The summer has flown by! I can't believe school starts in a week. I am so sad to see the summer come to an end, but I am definitely looking forward to cooler weather! Here's a few photos from our last trip to the beach at the beginning of August. It was an absolutely beautiful day! The water was not as brown as it usually looks and the sand was free of seaweed. We had dinner on the beach and stayed until the sun went down.

Grammy and Grandpa joined us too!

my oldest baby holding my youngest baby

almost four!

my sweet baby girl is growing up too fast. She is so much fun and is always saying such cute, funny things.

Her big sister Kyla loves to fix her hair in beautiful braids. Kyla does such a good job at braiding. She is always trying new things on Lorelei's hair.