Ashton turns 10

 Goll, this last year being Ashton's Mom has been the best. This kid is really growing up and coming into his own. He spends most of his time in the brown recliner in our loft reading. He goes through 3-4 books a week. I can barely keep up putting new library books on the kindle for him. He loves his robotics team at school, plays the piano and can tell you a million random facts. This year he also started his own "pooper scooper" business and I have to say that every time I drop that kid and his bike off at the farthest point in our neighborhood my heart swells with pride. He knocks on doors, talks to his clients, does a dirty job and then rides his bike to 3 more houses each time. I love that he has a work ethic, understands money, pays his tithing and stimulates our family economy with all the things he bribes his sister's to do for him. Sometimes Scotty needs someone to jump on the tramp with and whenever we remind Ashton "this is the brother you prayed for" he puts down his book and goes to play. His birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year so we celebrated a day late.

I adore this boy and so glad he's leading the pack. Flipflops for his piano recital was totally his style. I love it.

A Trip to the Dallas World Aquarium

On our October trip to Dallas I begged David to take the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium. We went once as newly weds with zero kids when we first moved to Dallas and I remembered it being amazing. The cost of admission is obscene so it took a fair amount of convincing David that it was a good idea to pay admission for all the kids. It was worth it!

Shout out to Nana and Papa in South Africa.

This was one of our big outings with 7 kids. I kept counting over and over to 7. 

The animals were so cute and so close to the glass.

Rachel was bolting to and from everywhere, so you catch the idea of why I kept counting.

These top 3 are so good and helpful.

One of the reasons I wanted to go the aquarium is because Scotty is in a huge shark phase. He has a shark book that he read every night and because of it he can name 12 different types of sharks.

This shark tunnel was the coolest. Don't you love the saw shark jumping in our family picture?

Sometimes when we line them all up for a picture like this I can't believe they are ours. It's not always easy to take them all one place and let them all see what they're hoping to see but they are incredible and make it worth it every time.

Son's Island One Last Time

We took the kids to Son's Island one last time in October. We knew we would move before the weather warmed up enough to go in the spring/summer 

The frog slide and rope swing were closed because the water levels were low so they gave us all wrist bands for the kayaks and paddle boards. 

We had never done kayaks before with the kids and they loved it.

These ifloats are basically the coolest invention ever.

We love this plus murky water and all!

Mallie kind of helped me paddle....

The other reason the kids love this place is because there is junk food galore.

Rachel is hilarious and fearless.

Hattie is such a trooper and sleeps everywhere. And she loves that blankey nuzzled against her cheek.

What a gem of a place that we found!!

Halloween 2017

This year I ordered our Christmas pajamas really early on clearance, like early enough they were in our house before October 1st. A couple weeks before Halloween the idea rolled into my brain that with the PJ tops and jeans we could pull off the perfect waldo costume. I told David the idea and said if we can get the beanies for cheap then it'd be worth doing. A family trip to Walmart resulted in 8 $1 hats and white duct tape and we were all set. 

David totally pulled off Waldo and I was so happy we had real binoculars from our Africa trip!

We also bought a bunch of dollar store reading glasses and punched out the lenses.

This was the only group shot I managed to get before the kids sprinted different directions at Trunk or Treat. I didn't realize what a perk it would be to able to spot all the kids the entire night. Definitely a bonus for the future if we ever do matching costumes again.