Hooray For Rain!

Its been a really dry and hot summer here in Texas, so we were all so very excited to get a short-lived downpour of rain. Gabe and Amaya were outside within seconds with their rainboots on....
Can't get enough of these two (Damien too, but apparently he was too cool to romp around in the rain ;))

Camping

Well here it is...our first camping trip with just our little family. What an adventure we had! After jam packing our land rover with all the gear, our kids, and the dog, we headed out on a two day camping trip to Mckinney falls state park. It took us about an hour to get there, so we had just enough time to put up the tent before the sun went down. The first night was the longest night of my life. Damien and Amaya fell asleep pretty fast, but it took awhile to get Gabe settled down. He woke up screaming several times during the night with no way to calm him down. We were the camping neighbors from hell. Riley took him out to the car so no one could hear him scream. During that time Telly (our dog) slipped out of the tent unknowingly. As soon as we realized it, I was in a panic. I was certain he was gone forever. At 3:00 in the morning Riley was out searching for him. Thankfully, he found him up the road not too far from our campsite. It was a very long night.The next morning we were all so tired, but so ready for a fun day ahead of us.

We ate breakfast burritos (Riley makes the best eggs ever!), and then we went exploringIt was such a beautiful place!

We swam for a bit, and then went back to camp for some lunchand then we swam some moreThe second night we all slept a little better with gabe waking up just a couple of times. The next day we we went on another hike, packed up camp, and then headed home.
Camping is a ton of work, but well worth it! I now appreciate my parents even more for taking all 7 of us kids on many camping adventures. I have so many wonderful memories and I hope to do the same for my own kids.

Next post coming soon...Camping at Bastrop state park (yep, we braved another camping trip).

Easter

Hope you all had a Happy Easter! Thought I better post some pictures before Christmas comes around... better late than never, right? This was one of the many egg hunts my kids went on. By the time Easter came they were all egg hunted out... Easter Saturday coloring eggs. Easter Morning Love these kiddos!Stay tuned for my next blog post...Camping!!! Coming soon...really, I promise

Halloween!!

This years Halloween was so much better than last years. Tons of Trick or Treaters, and fun with friends and neighbors. These were at Trunk or Treat...

Amaya with her "sister" Brooklyn.

Some of our neighbors and friends came over for pizza and then trick or treating with all the kids.

These boys crack me up. They are all so serious!

Amaya turns 6!

I'm going to miss my 5 year old... Amaya told me even though she is six, I can call her five forever. How very sweet of her. Time sure does fly... 3 years old For Amaya's birthday I took her out for a girl's day. It was such an exciting day for her. She got her ears pierced, which she has been waiting for since she turned five. She was such a tough girl!

We went to the cupcakery and then shopping. We had so much fun together. She now wants to have a girls day every Saturday.

Now for a little bragging... Amaya received the Most Exemplary Student award at school today. One student from each class gets this award every report card period. I am so very proud of her!

Utah Trip

Here are Tons of pictures from our trip to St. George. There were just too many to write about so here they are. As you can see, we had so much fun. Wish we could have seen everyone, but we did get to meet a couple of new family members...