Orlando

David and I had been trying to plan a cruise or some sort of vacation for 2015. When I tell people we went to Harry Potter world without kids some think we're nuts. But the truth is I'm still the Mom that misses the kids a lot and I didn't want all the down time of the cruise this trip. So we found $51 one way tickets to Orlando called David's mom and we were ready to go! I'm on the cusp of getting too old for roller coasters and David still loves them so it was the perfect treat to get to do all the fun rides without worrying about who is staying back with the kids.

At the Austin airport, ready to go!

Our first glimpse at Hogwarts. I totally geeked out just like I thought I would.

No explanation needed. We do have videos of us walking through the wall! 

Us in the Gringotts line.

We had been walking on all the rides so when Gringotts still said it was a 60 minute wait David said "no way!" I convinced him we should just do it and then determine if it was worth the wait for the next day. An hour into the wait when we were nearing the front the ride shut down. We waited for another 25 minutes hopped on the ride and then the ride closed and never opened again while we were there. David finally determined it was worth the wait!

 Diagon Alley

 The Hogwarts Express is the monorail between the two parks and it was crazy cool with so many special features going on while you were riding. The best part is every time we would board there were British people in our compartment (that looked exactly like the movie). There were British people EVERYWHERE which made the experience all the more real.

 The Sorting Hat. Crazy life like.

The rest of Universal Studios was pretty awesome. By the second day we slept in, started to leave the park to see movies and go out to eat. 3 days was perfect!

 On the 4th day we rented a car because we had an afternoon flight and headed to the Orlando temple. We love going to out of town temples! It was the perfect way to end our vacation as just the two of us. We kept laughing at how much we could hold hands because we weren't occupied with holding all the kids hands all the time. It was a perfect vacation!!

Playing Tourists

There is an old fort down on post at Ft. Sam called the quadrangle. Inside they let deer and birds roam free. We hadn't been to post since we stayed in temp lodging for 3 days when we first moved here so we decided to head downtown after school one evening. We met David at work and headed in with a bag full of goldfish crackers to feed the birds. Oh boy did they swarm us! I started to panic when we had 30 birds surrounding us and some of them were huge! Mallie was so brave and started chasing them around which was hilarious.

The peacocks must have been underfed because they came right up to all of us.

Lucy was in a panic most of the time.

Here's Mallie again scaring off the birds after we ran out of crackers.

 Then I realized Ashton and Mallie were totally matching the peacocks.

While we were downtown we decided to grab dinner on the Riverwalk. Sometimes I worry that because we have so many young kids we don't do enough normal things. I had this brilliant idea that we would be brave and take the kids to the Riverwalk on a Thursday night. I'm sure with only 2-3 kids I probably would still consider taking them to the Riverwalk crazy but by golly I wanted to just pretend like having a lot of kids was no big deal.

So we headed downtown and quickly realized a large group of children (even if half of them are great swimmers) next to a large open river was not a great idea. They thought the river was awesome but it was stressing me out because it was busier than I thought!

We stopped and ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant where the Mariachi guys came and played for us and the kids fed an entire bowl of tortilla chips to the birds.

So I documented that we made made it down to the Riverwalk with the kids. It probably wont happen again while we're here! Next time David and I are heading down solo!

Updating

It's therapuetic to get pictures off my phone and backed up on the desktop. Here are some of the happenings of the last 6 weeks.

Hannah had a wiggly tooth and begged David to take it out for tooth fairy money.

Mallie got up on two wheels after spending a week on a balance bike. I never had to run behind her and hold the seat. I call that a win!

We had a few awesome warm rain storms and the kids bounced and got soaked!

Lots of time is spent on our front porch swinging while we wait! Waiting for the bus, waiting for the kids to get home, waiting for Daddy to get home. We love that swing!

We love love love our friends here in San Antonio. Here are the girls on an early release day at a park in New Braunfels.

This is Jessica's little guy drew. Jess has been a life saver since living here. I moved in across the street just two weeks after she moved here. We have kids the same ages and they all LOVE each other. The kids will walk in and out of each other's houses like the own the palce.

I took Hannah on a fancy date. She picked out our clothes and kept saying "This is SO fancy!"

It's February and this is the best time for outdoor living in San Antonio. Since we decided against a playscape I bought two chair hammocks for $30 and the kids swing their little hearts out on the back porch. I also have gotten serious reading done out there!

Scotty turns 1!

This guy is as cute as he looks. He is pretty happy and loves his parents. The big kids pick him up and take him all around the house. The novelty of a little brother hasn't really worn off. He is super cautious but masters what's important. He can climb onto the couch, he mastered the stairs at 11 months, and he'll grab food right out of your hand but he will not even stand up on his own. If he is up during movie night he'll knock over everyone's bowl of popcorn so he can eat it off the floor. He's quick! His bedroom is still my closet (thank goodness we have two master closets) and he loves his bottle.

 It always amazes me at 1 they figure out that a birthday is all about them.

He hammed it up while everyone sang to him. This isn't his first rodeo with cake. He's been enjoying birthday cakes for the last 6 months. Perks of being #5.

He finished two entire cupcakes and hardly left a crumb!

He hangs with Lucy and I all day and is pretty great!

He's 52% for weight and 96% for height. He already wears a size 6 shoe and has the most bizarre teething patterns ever. He grew all 4 bottom teeth at one time. They all came in within a 4 day period. Just this past week he cut all 4 top teeth at the same time. He's an all or nothing kind of kid! He loves pizza. I mean LOVES pizza. He can finish an entire slice on his own. He also doesn't love veggies. Probably my fault but whatever...

We lovingly call him "Boy!" always with the exclamation mark and Lucy is convinced his name is Scottyboy. Happy Birthday little man!

On Being Happy

Yesterday I was hormonal and had a blah day. It was overcast and rainy, I was stuck inside and lonely and San Antonio just wasn't feeling like home. I let it get to me. Usually at night, if I'm not sleepy (and on my A game), I have a period of reflection on what I should have done better that day and ask for forgiveness. Last night my spirits were low and as I was reflecting on what I could have done better. I started to think "I could have done every thing better." It was really one of those days. But then, I had images come to my mind, quick snapshots of the day. Of Lucy laughing about something with me and sitting next to Ashton as he practiced the piano. Of coloring next to Mallie and scratching Hannah's back. I saw my calm reaction when Mallie knocked her smoothie off the table and left berry marks on the ceiling! I saw Scotty's little gummy smile in my mind as I tickled him after changing him. It was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that I had done more than okay and that tomorrow was a new day. "Tomorrow!" I promised myself I was going to be cheerful! So today, I chose to be happy. And I was! And these guys all ended up on my bed for storytime so we took a family selfie. I think it was our first as a family of 7. I may be cheerful but I'm still self-conscious about the braces (one step at a time), so you get the funny face one!

Family Prayer

4 year olds say the best prayers. They are old enough to articulate their thoughts but not old enough to filter themselves. The other night we were kneeling down to prayer and it was Lucy's turn. She and Mallie have been buddies lately so she told me she wanted Mallie to help her. She started the prayer and Lucy repeated everything she said. In the middle she said, "Please bless Jesus because he died on the cross for us." Lucy mumbled "for us.." and Mallie continued, "and please bless Daddy because he hurt his foot on a screw." to which Ashton said in the middle of the prayer, "No he didn't!" and Mallie responded with, "YES HE DID! On your booby trap!" and Bug conceded. Then Mallie and Lucy closed the prayer and said Amen. David and I were almost in tears laughing by the end of it.

Over Christmas break we let the kids watch Home Alone for the first time. Since then Ashton has taken a particular interest in setting booby traps around the house. Well, one day over the break David walked inside the front door and stepped right on a screw facing up. It didn't puncture him or anything but he said it hurt. When he tried to tell Ashton why he couldn't set traps I just laughed and laughed. We had been had. Kids = 1 Parents = 0

Sometimes I still feel like we're not old enough to be put in charge.

New Years

We have been so spoiled with visitors since we've been here. We've only been here for 5 months and we've had 5 different sets of visitors. We love it!! My parents have come down twice. David's parents have come down once. We've had David's little brother and sister come down for a weekend and Ben and Emily came down for New Years. We have missed them like crazy since we've left FLW and they braved a supposed 12 hour drive (+2 because of traffic) to reunite the kids and come play with us. It meant the world to us to have them here!

They were hoping to escape freezing cold Missouri and enjoy some 60 degree temps down here. Instead it was cold and rainy!! We went to Sea World and I severely under dressed every single one of my kids; the forecast said 49 but a storm rolled in. They were were wearing fleece hoodies and it was 33 degrees outside with some serious wind. I felt so bad. Just walking through the parking lot all their teeth were chattering so I walked right in the park and I had to buy 3 fleece blankets to wrap the kids up in at the first souvenir stand. We didn't think we would survive till the night shows but we did it and it was so fun! The bonus was that no one caught pneumonia.

Here we are hiding out in the penguin exhibit with hot chocolate for 30 minutes. David met up with us after work and we sent him right on a roller coaster with Ben. Emily and I had it totally under control in a busy theme park but just looking at this picture reminds me how many kids we have between the two of us!

Oh how the kids love the Azul show! It is always amazing!

Night time Shamu show!

The girls kept playing hide and seek behind the lit up trees. Oh how they love each other! I told Emily once that they're going to need a mini van just to hang out as teenagers once you add in Lucy and Ellie.

This is proof that the Ashton kids owe me for their first Chuck E Cheese experience! Mallie and Anna got a free turn in the ticket blaster because we ordered so many pizzas. Emily didn't have a panic attack because of the germs, so I consider that a win!

This is hugely blurry but the next couple of days we were stuck inside because it was freezing so we busted out just dance. It was a big hit! Until the girls started singing the Spice Girls around the house later that day. Hearing a 4 and 5 year old sing, "So tell me what you want..." was hilarious and simultaneously horrifying. Since then we have purchased the Disney version of Just Dance.

But at night the adults played Just Dance and during a dance off with Ben to "Eye of The Tiger" I broke the lampshade. He was winning at the end and I wanted to make sure I nailed my last few moves. I had no idea that my arm extended with the added length of the wiimote made me that tall. Oops. I never liked those shades anyway.

And this is what it looked like when we told the kiddos to say goodbye. It was so sad!

Here all 9 kids! We LOVE and miss them already! They even completely my house the night before they left, vacuumed, swept and wiped up. It was probably cleaner than when they arrived and I love them for it. Thanks for coming Bemily!! We are coming to you next time!