Sea World in December

We live in central Texas and most days in December still get up to 80 degrees but Sea World sure helps us pretend that it's cold and wintery outside. They have a serious set up! 

This was a giant snow globe the kids went in... and then Scotty decided he shouldn't have chickened out.

The abominable snow man and the little dentist elf who is a family favorite.

Some days in December we just go in our swimsuits.

This girl is a water baby through and through. She gets right in there with the big kids.

And the shows are so awesome with Christmas carolers. Scotty has seen the shamu show at least 20 times and he still gets into it every single time. Even Rachel claps along now with the music.

November Happenings

 These are just some pictures I don't want to lose. When we got home from Africa I was so happy that Rachel came right to me without even hesitating. Then we opened out suitcases to get out some souvenirs for Lucy and Scotty and they went straight for our bag of seashells and lined them up all over the living room. It was so cute.

 Also, during the month of November I took the girls to the free art classes downtown at the art school. They loved it!

They made ceramics, weaved, painted, made corn husk dolls and had the best time.

Also on one random Sunday after church Ashton came downstairs wearing his suit jacket which he begs never to wear. I asked him what in the world what they were doing. I went upstairs to find they were holding their own election.

 No kidding, there were campaign signs and a voting box and they had built a podium and were having a debate and promising glow in the dark parties for whomever voted for them.

 This was Hannah's sign "Vote for me President Hannah I was made to win." Is this so Trumpesque or what? I dyed laughing.

Sometimes kids are sheer genius when left up to their own devices. Sometimes they make crazy messes and sometimes they make me so proud. Gotta love an election year!

2016 Family Pictures

 My friend Kelley is amazing. This is the third year she's done our family pictures and she just takes our crazy amount of kids in stride.

This one is probably my favorite of the bunch. Scotty had seen a bird and wouldn't focus and we just cracked up and I quit trying to pose them.

I love these people.

Africa

We've been home from Africa less than a month and I feel like we already reference it as "Remember that one time we went to Africa and had the best vacation of our lives?"
We had anticipated and planned for this trip for a long time but when it finally came down to a few days before I started to get nervous about leaving the kids and flying to the other side of the world. I knew the "Nanas" were going to be fine, I just didn't know if I was going to be fine. I'm so grateful to say I was better than fine and David and I had a blast!! I made a video of all of our pictures but here are some of my faves.

We spent the first day and a half in the MTC and getting to see Johannesburg. These parents of mine are amazing. The first morning we stopped by a local pharmacy so I could grab some eye drops and to get some local currency from the ATM and I about had a heart attack thinking we were going to get robbed at any minute. My parents on the other hand are so acclimated they don't even think twice. Well, I am here to tell you that even though they are over their culture shock I was not. They are amazing and are truly consecrating everything to the Lord for these couple of years and I love them for it.

David and I were giddy about being on vacation and getting to spend 24/7 with each other for 10 days.

We went to see a beautiful botanical gardens in Johannesburg. Then the next morning we flew down to Capetown. After being in a very industrial Joburg the beauty of Capetown was especially breathtaking. Which it would have been anyway but it seemed that we appreciated it a million times more.

This was the view from our B&B just a little 3 minute walk down to the beach. It was GORGEOUS.

The first day in Capetown David and I hopped on a shuttle and went to a safari and then got to hang out with this Cheetah for 45 minutes. This has been a dream of David's for a long time and my introverted husband was more talkative and expressive in front of strangers than I've ever seen him. He took advantage of every moment and even was the only one who got to let the Cheetah drink water out of his hand.

It was about this time of the trip when I decided to start taking videos instead of pictures so I could put a video together. We spent the next few days driving the coast lines, seeing all the sites, eating wonderfully cheap food (because of the currency exchange) and playing games with my parents each night.

Here we are on a little boat. We saw dolphins, sea lions and a whale in just a couple of hours. That's famous table top mountain behind us. The clouds settle perfectly on it a lot of times and they call it the table cloth.

If you look behind David's reaction when I told him to smile for another picture you can see just how windy it is. While we were in Cape Town we experience some of the windiest days of the year. We thought it would put a damper on our fun but we hardly even noticed. We just got used to walking at a slant everywhere we went.

Words can't describe how much fun we had with these two and what a great trip they gave us. We will always, always be grateful for it. We LOVED every minute we got to spend with them. Thank you Mom and Dad we are SO proud of what you are doing down in Africa. Those missionaries are so lucky to have you!!

While we were out...

The only reason I didn't have a melt down after a few days in Africa is because the kids were home with Nana Jake and Nana Rain (Great Grandma). The kids were especially lucky to get undivided time with Nana Rain who has a serious amount of grandchildren and great grandchildren all over the country. We are so grateful they were both willing to come and watch the kids. They didn't just survive but they completely spoiled our kids.

I wasn't too sad to miss out on piano practicing...

I love this one!

Nana Rain made all the girls skirts.

AND all the kids new jammies. The girls wear these nightgowns every night until I convince them they have to be washed!

Scotty weaseled his way out of bed a couple of times and hopped in with Nana Jake.

We couldn't be more grateful that these amazing Nanas were willing to give us the opportunity to go visit my parents and have a once in a life time trip. Our kids still talk about how much fun they had with them. We love you both, thank you for coming!!

Rachel Turns 1

I could write pages about this girl and how complacent she's been in a million different situations. The Lord blessed us with this little girl and her mellow demeanor knowing that we were going to be busy for the first part of her life. I was pregnant with her when I was called to be the YW president. She came on her first camp out before she had hit the one month mark. At 5 months I left her with David for 3.5 days while I went to girls camp and pumped like crazy. I came back home nursed her once and she never skipped a beat. Every Sunday for the first year of her life she's been passed around from good friends and all the young women in the ward. She's been to countless mutuals, ward councils, school lunches and school parties and through it all she has a smile on her face. The big kids love to carry her around, tickle her. play with her and she laughs or crawls away from them as fast as she can. She is just the best. 

I took these pictures outside because she loves to be outside, not walking has not deterred her from the backyard. Whenever the backdoor is open she crawls outside as fast as she can. She plays in the grass, under the tramp or on the plastic playset. 

She LOVED her birthday cake.

She hangs with the big kids and refuses to be left out of fun things. On movie night she'll steal their popcorn when they go to the bathroom and climb up and watch the movie. She's hilarious.

She is a content little baby but she loves her Momma. She loves to snuggle and lay her head on my shoulder when I hold her even when she's not tired. If you can't tell she is LOVED. Happy Birthday Rachel Grace!

The South Texas Maze

On military weekend we drove an hour southwest of San Antonio to the South Texas Maze. It was enormous in true Texas style. It was 90 degrees and sunny all day and were sweating most of the time but the kids had a blast.

. Instead of a map they had certain checkpoints in the maze where if you answered your questions it would tell you the correct way based on your answer. They had options like history, movie trivia etc. We chose the "Bible" one for the kids. It was impressive they knew all the answers like "Which prophet got swallowed by a big fish?" and "Who defeated Goliath?" I do love Texas...

There were hay bales to jump (and pose) on.

The popper jumpy thing. It was really cool.

One more in the maze.

"Mom,  Mom, Mom take a picture when I'm in mid air okay?" then he landed harder than he expected looked up at me and asked me if I got the picture as he limped toward me. I wish I had it on video.

Rachel is so darn compliant. We drag her everywhere and she is just happy to be here. I was trying to hard to get a picture of her first little pony tail when...

Scotty fell off the picnic table we were sitting at face first into the dirt. I looked at the sweet young woman sitting next to me asked if she would hold Rachel and scooped up Scotty. It was a nasty fall and he had a scab across his nose for a week. I would say it's a parenting fail but he probably still would have done it if I was watching...

And he's darling and recovered quickly.

And there is the whole fam bam on the giant rocking chair. On the way home we were all starving so we decided to stop at In n Out. It is a rare occasion on other than long road trips we bring all the kids inside a fast food place that doesn't have a playplace. We usually bring the food home or feed them in the car but David and I decided to brave it and we all went in. And guess what? The kids were so well behaved (note famished) that they gobbled up food and didn't make us look like complete vagabonds with their dusty clothes and messy hair. We were so grateful walking out of the restaurant that night... it's the simple things in life.