sweet Ellee

Last month I got to meet my cousin's beautiful baby girl and take a few photos of her. She was the sweetest baby during her photo shoot and hardly made a peep.

Happy Halloween 2017!

This year Benny dressed up as Spiderman. He is obsessed with Spiderman!

Poor Lorelei was sick on Halloween. She dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast and wore the dress grammy and grandpa gave her for her birthday. She only made it to two streets for trick-or-treating before she had to go home because she wasn't feeling well. She ended up misssing three days of school:(

Evan dressed up as Dracula, but he didn't want to do any face/hair makeup. He checked out a bunch of books about Dracula at his school's library the months leading up to Halloween.

Avery was a crazy scarecrow. This has been a family favorite! I think both Kyla and Elayna have been a scarecrow past Halloweens.

Kyla did a group costume with friends from school. They all dressed as Houston Astros players/fans. We are so proud of our Astros! So amazing that they won the World Series!

Elayna was a skeleton. I attempted some face makeup that I saw on Instagram but it looks nothing like it! I should just leave the Halloween face makeup to Dan. He's the expert! This is the first year Elayna did not want to trick-or-treat, so she passed out candy.

Birthday Girl

Lorelei's favorite gift from her birthday is her beautiful Belle dress that she got from grammy and grandpa. She pretty much wears it everyday when she gets home from school. She also loves her matching Belle doll. Can't believe she is already 6!

Recycled Raingutter Regatta

Evan competed in his first cub scout raingutter regatta last month. The boys were supposed to build their boats out of recycled materials. Evan used a pool noodle and some junk mail. He won every race he was in except for one!

First Tooth!

This sweet girl turns six years old in a few days and just lost her first tooth! And the tooth next to it is really loose!

She was so excited to put her tooth in the tooth pillow for the tooth fairy. We have had this pillow since Elayna lost her first tooth. She got it as a gift from a friend at one of her birthday parties. We love it!

recent read

This is a beautifully written book about the woman who inspired Andrew Wyeth's painting "Christina's World." I've always been fascinated by that painting and wondered the story behind it. I enjoyed this story very much.

4!

my sweet, silly, baby boy turned four years old a few weeks ago. these are the faces he gives me when I try to take a photo of him!

Two of his favorite things are Minecraft and dress up. He's always the cowboy! I don't know what I'll do when my best little buddy leaves me to go to school in a couple of years. Love this time I have to spend with just him.

Hurricane Harvey

After just one week of school, our schedule was interrupted by Hurricane Harvey, which dumped torrential rains and caused catastophic flooding for most of the Houston and Beaumont area. Thankfully, our home did not flood and the water came no higher than the sidewalks. It was quite an adventure for the kids, especially the little ones, who enjoyed exploring the neighborhood and playing in the rain.

Dan took the little ones for a ride in our inflatable boat. They had so much fun.(Photos taken with my cell phone.)

Other parts of our small town did not do so well. This video is just minutes from our home. So sad.

School was cancelled for a full week and the kids just went back yesterday. It was like the first day of school all over again! Grateful to be back to a normal schedule.

Back to School

The kids had their first day of school on the 16th. This is the earliest we have ever started, but at least we will be out before June. They also have extra vacation days added to Thanksgiving and Spring Break. All of the kids were bummed about going back to school except for Lorelei, who was so excited to start Kindergarten!

she wanted a photo with her new backpack she picked out at Target.

The next two photos were taken with Dan's cell phone in the classroom.

Evan is now a big 3rd grader and is going to the intermediate school with 4th and 5th graders. He told me his new school is "really cool."

Avery is in 6th grade and joins her big sister at the junior high.

Kyla is in 8th grade. Can't believe she'll be in high school next year.

And last but not least is our SENIOR! How is it possible that Elayna is a senior in high school!? Where has the time gone?

Destin!

On our way home from Disney World, we stopped in Destin! We spent the afternoon at Henderson Beach State Park, which was absolutely beautiful and not crowded at all. This was our first time in Destin and we couldn't get over how incredibly white the sand was! I did a little bit of research and the sand is actually shimmering quartz crystal that was sheared off ancient Appalachian Mountains by glaciers during the last great Ice Age. They washed into the gulf and were ground down by waves into a white powder that's so fine it squeaks when you rub your feet on the surface of the beach. The sand also gives the water a beautiful emerald cast. We would love to spend a whole week in Destin. Beach vacations are my favorite!

After the sun went down, we went to Fudpuckers for a late dinner. It was right across the street from Henderson Beach State Park. This restaurant was so fun! They have a big pond in the middle of the restaurant with live alligators that the kids can feed. The food was really good too!