First Day of School

 These pictures are super fuzzy because it was pouring rain when we left for school on the first day. Since it was just as close for us to walk than it was to brave the packed parking lot we got out our umbrellas and ran to school in the rain.

 3rd

 2nd

1st

PreK

I was so glad David stayed home the first day so I could take the kids all the way into their classrooms. The three girls all got teachers we've already had and we are thrilled. I may or may not have written a long letter to the counselor exaggerating Hannah's emotions and begging for Ashton's wonderful British teacher. Mallie's teacher for 1st was Ashton's and that was pure luck and we are so grateful!! There is only one PreK class at the school so Lucy has Mallie's old PreK teacher and we couldn't be happier. We are a week in and so far all the kids are still loving it!!

Lucy Turns 4

 We were in Park City at the Jacobson family reunion for Lucy's 4th birthday. It just so worked out that we were at Alpine slides that day.

She cried when it came time to put the slide on the track and begged to go back down. That was not an option so crying I put her on and by 20 seconds into the slide down she was loving it and begging me to go faster!

 While everyone headed up for the second trip I stayed at the bottom with Rachel and Lucy decided to stay with me. I think she knew I would spoil her. And I did, she got an entire large cup of dip and dots to herself.

Lucy is my little shadow and minime. She doesn't love playing by herself she just follows me around and wants to help me with whatever I am doing. I truly think Lucy still believes she is the "baby" of the family. Whenever I am giving any of her siblings some one on one time she'll come and check in and say "Do you still love me Mom?" after I say "yes" she moves on and is okay with the situation. It is a huge challenge not to spoil her rotten when she uses her best manners. She started preK last week for a few hours in the afternoon. So far she isn't crying for my every day. That is a win!! Happy Birthday Lulu!!

Traveling with the flu

August came and went in a blur. A Jacobson family reunion was planned for the weekend before school started. We had quite the time trying to plan cheap plane tickets all the while getting back in time for school. We ended up booking tickets out of Dallas because it was so much cheaper than San Antonio. When you times any number by 7 (!) all the sudden $150 makes an enormous difference. We had Jeffrey and Debbie come and stay with us for a 4 days before the Jacobson reunion in Utah. We played hard and took them to all of our favorite spots.

One day Jeffrey and David pulled out all their ninja turtle toys from childhood and played. And no, I don't mean they played with their sons. They played and divided up their toys while the little boys watched. It was hilarious. Then on Saturday night Ashton threw up twice.. and we had at Tuesday morning flight. It seemed like an isolated event and Sunday everyone else was fine. Monday afternoon we headed up to Allen to stay with David's parents and Jeffrey and Debbie were there too with a plan to fly up to SLC Weds. Well, Monday night Ashton and Mallie both threw up a couple of times. And we knew we had just infected the family right before the Jacobson family reunion. 

I was about to type don't judge me for what's coming next... but I'm pretty sure my parents are the only regular readers of this blog. So it doesn't matter that this information is being read in Africa. By the next morning (Tuesday) everyone seemed fine so we left for the airport at 7:30am in traffic. David and I were working on only a few hours of sleep. Wouldn't you know, 30 minutes into our drive downtown Lucy threw up in the backseat, thankfully into a bag. It was at that point we realized we were pressing our luck. We pushed our plane flights back a day (thank you Southwest and military fares) and headed back to Allen to make sure everyone was seriously contaminated.... I don't know what we were thinking.

We had a lot of discussions about what our options were. Go home to San Antonio and fly David up. Bail all together. Wait it out another day in the sick house? We didn't know what to do we just knew we didn't want to miss the reunion. Lucy only threw up once more at 11am and by 3pm she looked fine. We started to think this was a two and done type of flu. So I hopped on the phone last minute and asked for the 5pm flight out of Dallas which was another free change and I looked at David who was starting to complain of rocky stomach and asked him if he could make it on a direct flight to SLC. He said, "yes" and 8 of us were packed up and in the car in less than 10 minutes from that decision.

And then this happened on the way to the airport. He still doesn't know I took a picture of him on the side of the road. But it's a classic. For the record he didn't actually get sick he just felt like it. So after a few minutes we pressed forward.

This is how Lucy looked at the airport. She had zero food in her tummy and was starting to get nervous about flying.

Ashton doesn't get enough press on this blog for how amazing he is. David was feeling super sick so we relied on him to help pull suitcases around and help corral Scotty. He is an awesome helper. So we mosied our way through security and to our gate thinking we had plenty of time. I don't know why I didn't even think to look at the time. So I sauntered up to our gate casually and asked for a tag for the stroller and the worker looked at me and said, "Are you the Jacobson family?" I replied in the affirmative and she let me know that, they were waiting on us and that the plane had finished boarding 

We laughed it off and were grateful to see that a few people were still finding their seats. So the minute we started boarding the flight attendant up front had to call to the back so the second flight attendant could start arranging open seats for the family of 8. By the time we got back there, sure enough, we had three rows to ourselves. The kids were amazing and their $35 kindle fires were worth their weight in gold. David felt sick the entire flight and actually threw up near the end and perked right up. So yes, I am sure we spread the flu to the entire flight to SLC. We have received our fare share of plane illnesses so I only feel mildly bad.

Miranda's mom graciously let us borrow her suburban and we finally dropped her back at home and made it to Springville at 9:30ish/ Ben and Emily were brave enough to still let us come and vacation with them for a couple of days before the reunion!

 We went to Cafe Rio and then to the Provo City Center temple. Which was gorgeous!

 We had a photo op. Aw Hannah and Anna still love each other as much as always.

Rachel even got her own photo.

I know we have a lot of kids but they are all mine and I know each of their individual personalities. So I don't see them as a big group of kids very often. But dang, I looked at this picture that day and it finally struck me. That is a LOT of kids. But they were healthy and so well behaved and we were all smiling into the sun. It was a good day! 

 We left Ben and Emily's early Thursday and headed to "This Is The Place" monument with Cody and Miranda. The pioneer homes were so cool. We rode on trains, horses and panned for gold.

Here we all were on the train ride.

Hannah experienced what getting a shave at the barber was like in the olden days. He sang to her the entire time and had us rolling.

Here is Mallie on the pony ride.

With the kids running on very little sleep we left This is the place and headed up to Park City to join the Jacobson family reunion.

Mallie Turns 6

Usually we do friend birthdays at 5 years old but all of Mallie's friends were out of town last year so she decided to hang on for her 6th birthday. We bought all the little girls the foam water guns and filled up buckets of water around the backyard. Mallie asked for two things for her party; a pinata and to play musical chairs so that's what we did!

After opening each present she walked over to each friend and caught them in a huge hug.

 Here are all her friends that came.

Mallie is still our most organized helpful little person. She loves things neat and tidy and is already a little bit OCD. She is usually brave enough to try anything once and then will make up her mind that she did it, didn't like it, and has no desire to do it again. She will color and draw for hours every day. We love how thoughtful she is with Lucy and Scotty and think she is a great middle child! 

The Hafens do Texas

Mandy and I have been planning their ultimate Texas road trip for almost a year now. The Hafens came into town for 12 full days and the kids were in Heaven. 12 days with 12 kids 8 and younger under one roof sounds pretty chaotic for most people but it went off without a hitch!

 We celebrated with Texas sheet cake after our first Sunday dinner.

 The Hafen kids were disappointed it was just a big cake and not in the shape of Texas.

The Hafens bought 7 day passes to Sea World. The first day we went while David was at work. Here's Mandy with the boys on Rio Loco.

 And Jason with the girls.

I stayed behind with the 5 younger ones who weren't tall enough for this ride. We watched the others go by and this is how Grayson screamed every time he saw his parents. Cracked me up. We decided not to watch after that.

Here is the line up of the kiddos watching the penguins.

 Here we are at the Pet's ahoy show.

We went again on Thursday and closed down the park. We didn't get home til 10:30 and on Friday morning we were up bright and early heading to Son's Island.

This picture is kind of special. Mallie and Tod both kept getting jealous that Jack and Ashton paired up and Hannah and Kimball had each other. Finally, by the end of the first week they had figured out that they were each other's age match. They kept calling each other bestie, it was pretty darling.

 Here is Mandy and Addie.

We went to Sea World one last time before their tickets expired.

We took them to Big Lou's pizza place to eat a giant pizza.

It really is delicious pizza.

And Rachel got in on the action this time. She ate almost half of slice.

 And then the last night in between eating Blue Bell Ice Cream we took pictures on a timer.

This was the morning they left with all of the kids minus Rachel.

And just like that, they were off with a cooler full of dry ice and blue bell ice cream and the house felt empty for the next couple of days. Thanks for coming Hafens!!

June in Pictures

June flew by. We went to Sea World and the kids played in splash park while we sweated to death. Don't let Rachel fool you. She was having a great time crawling around the water area but she we tearing up her knees so she wasn't thrilled we picked her up for a few minutes.

 Here are the girls having a blast.

 Lucy and Scotty also played their little hearts out.

 I think this was on the way home from a Dallas trip. We had been in the car for less than 15 minutes and both of the older girls looked like this.

 This was FHE at the zoo. Another night where it was 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity but our pass was about to expire and by golly we were going to go one more time. David and I were exhausted and sweaty by the time we left.

I'm pretty sure after this picture Hannah slid down that top lion's back and landed smack on her behind. Good thing this was on our way out.

Also in June I helped chaperone Youth Conference which was a giant Game of Life. It was pretty awesome and I was the permortal life counselor. I got to pick out the eternal companions which I thought was the best thing ever.

 One more Monday FHE night we took the kids to the splash park.

 It was so hot the kids wouldn't leave the shady area we were. So we ate some snacks and headed home.

 Every time I play catch with Scotty one of the other kids wants to join in. So we make a triangle and then as more kids join it becomes a square and and then a hexagon. 

Right after we took this picture we made a huge circle and all of us played while Rachel crawled around. These kids will never know what it's like to be lonely or have no one to play with and that's just the way we like it!