Happy Halloween 2021

This year we went to Grammy's house for Halloween. We had a fun dinner together and then the kids went trick or treating in her neighborhood. Avery's friend Victoria joined the kids for trick or treating and Kyla went to a friends house after dinner. Lorelei dressed up as a witch. Benny dressed up as grim reaper but didn't want any scary makeup, so he's a very cute little grim reaper. Evan dressed up as Han Solo from Star Wars. Avery was a leopard and Kyla was a black bunny. She put on some cute face makeup before going with her friends but i never got a photo of it. Next year I will get a little doggie costume for Nova!

It's great to be 8!

Can't believe our youngest is already 8 years old! Turning eight is a big milestone in our church. It marks the year children can be baptized. Benny was baptized on October 23rd by his daddy. We are so grateful that his Grammy, aunt, uncle, and cousins could join us for his special day!

Those two front teeth were so wiggly and holding on by a thread! They both came out shortly after the baptism.

He always insists on taking a "silly" picture :)

recent reads

This author also wrote All the Light We Cannot See, which I absolutely loved, so I was very excited to read his latest book. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a book that connects 5 characters over hundreds of years through their relationship with a book. This book is beautifully written! I loved every page and didn't want it to end!

I really enjoyed this book! The Midnight Library is a book about choices, regrets, and embracing life. It's a very thought provoking book and helped to remind me of all the things that I have to be grateful for.

I loved this book! The Girl with the Louding Voice is a powerful, unforgetable story about a 14 year old Nigerian girl who dreams of pursuing her education to become a teacher and help other girls. This was one of my top reads this year.

Back-to-School 2021

Can't believe the summer has come and gone, and another school has started. I'm always sad to see my kids go back to school and hate going back to an early morning schedule and all the busyness that comes with the school year. This year we have one in 2nd, 4th, 7th, 10, and a senior! Where has the time gone? Elayna is a senior at BYU, with one additional year to go in her electrical engineering program.

Our senior!!

Just for fun, here's a photo of Kyla on her first day of kindergarten! I've kept up with this blog since 2007 and it's so fun to go back and look at all the memories. This is from 2009. Feels like just the other day. Can't believe she's already a senior!

Beach trips!

Lots of weekends spent at the beach! Nova loves the beach just as much as we do. Its the perfect escape from the heat. So grateful to live so close to the beach, even if it isn't the prettiest.(Kyla missed out on most of our trips because of her lifeguarding job)

Utah trip

The highlight of our summer was our trip to Utah for a Zalit family reunion the week of July 4th! Sunmer in Utah is just magical! It was so nice to get a break from Houston humidity and enjoy the beautiful mountains. We had so much fun celebrating 4th of July with all the Zalits. We went to a small town parade, had lots of good food, went swimming in Dave's pool and had a front seat to an incredible fireworks display in Grace's backyard. Her new house is right behind the park where they shoot off the fireworks. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activities. We went to Bear Lake (so beautiful), Lagoon amusement park, and had a fun afternoon hike and picnic at Snow Basin ski resort. We also got to spend an afternoon with my brother Jeremy and his family at Tibble Fork and spent the evening at my brother Andy's house. We dont get to see all our Utah family very often so we try to squeeze in a little time with everyone. On the way home, we stopped in Moab to hike Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Despite the intense heat, the kids did awesome and the view of the arch at sunset was breathtaking! Can't wait for our next trip to Utah!

*Almost all of these photos were taken with my cell phone. It was just too dificult to lug my big camera around everywhere.

That's Dan and I standing under the arch!

We stopped at BYU so Elayna could give the kids a quick tour of her campus and bought way too much at the BYU bookstore!

Of course we had to grab some in-n-out before dropping Elayna off at her apartment! So glad we were able to spend some time with Elayna. We won't see her again until Christmas :(

here's a few group photos of all the Zalits. there are 20 grandkids!