Robotics Team

Once upon a time at the beginning of 4th grade Ashton came home with an application to join the Robotics team at the elementary school. Several kids who were interested went to the initial meeting and they all had to send in their forms and wait for the try out date. Ashton wanted to be on the team so badly that he prayed nightly to do well at the try out. Try outs came and went and he felt pretty good about it and then the day came a couple weeks later that Ashton found out he made the team. I happened to be out front waiting for the kids after school when I saw him riding his bike around the corner with the biggest smile on his face. He made it!

Before the big competition day I had no idea what the team would actually be doing. It was so fun to see the months worth of hard work take place.

The first lego league is all about core values and teaching team work. They have a series of presentations and tasks to do behind closed doors with a juding panel. Then in between those they do the actual lego robot part. Ashton was one of the programmers so he and his partner would go in set up the robot and code it to perform tasks. Each task was judged and the teams were all cheering and chanting in the background.

Nana and Papa happened to be in town for the competition day which was an added bonus because David had to work. 

At the end of the day everyone waited patiently for the awards ceremony. They gave out at least a dozen awards for all sorts of things like best presentations, costumes, posters etc. All sorts of trivial stuff was being awarded and Sippel's team wasn't winning a single thing. It was so disheartening to watch as the kids nerves were getting to them. Then at the very end when they were doing the overall first place award for the district Ashton's team the Robothunder was called! It was such a happy moment watching their team run up front and be cheered on!

Ashton's team had become his best friends after so many practices after school together. It was so cool to see how this group of kids worked their tails off and were rewarded.

Not to mention their coaches were pretty incredible. The one in the red in the back was Ashton's 4th grade teacher and coach. He's the kind of teacher they make movies about and Ashton just adores him. What an awesome experience, we're hoping there are more lego robotics competitions in our future.

Surprising Mom and Dad

My parents were trying to avoid any fan fare coming home from their mission. So they decided while they were trying to readjust to the US time zone that they would tour the east coast and see North and South Carolina. Well, when Mandy and I heard about that we put our heads together and we decided we couldn't let them fly home from Africa after a 2 year mission and not have a single person they know at the airport in Atlanta. So we began to scheme and I even had to hack into my parents email account to get their flight plans from church travel. Well, would you believe we actually pulled it off??

We hung out in the airport for a couple of hours waiting for their plane to land and for them to clear customs.

My parents looked at us in shock when we ran to hug them. They were so tired from traveling that they couldn't even process what was going on. After a quick dinner at 10pm we sent them to bed.

The next day we woke up and my mom kept saying this was the best surprise ever. We got them set up with phones and then we set off for the four hour road trip to South Carolina. Road tripping with 3 of my favorite adults was the most fun thing ever. We talked and talked and talked and it was the best. 

Charleston was gorgeous and so fun to see in person. Mandy and I proceeded to take a million selfies of us with Mom and Dad in the background. We kept joking that we invited ourselves on Mom and Dad's vacation and we weren't sorry one bit.

David was so wonderful to encourage me to leave a nursing baby to go enjoy a few days with my sister and parents. Family is the best!

SNOW

So in November this is what we were doing on a particularly warm day...

And then in December not two weeks later I was hosting the first part of the Relief Society progressive dinner. As people started arriving the rain turned into light flurries. And then 20 minutes later as we were all gathering to head to the next house huge snowflakes began to fall and started sticking. I hopped in a friends car to go to the next house and then got right out and said I want to be with my kids for this. It was already 8pm but I knew for Texans this was a once in a blue moon kind of thing. So the kids suited up and we played for hours.

They didn't cancel school which was lame but the shots I got of the kids that morning were gorgeous.

Little did I know a couple of months later we would find out we were moving to MN and we would have more than enough snow in our lives... 

But I love this!! Down this green space are two sidewalks that lead us all the way down to the best park. We use those paths all the time and is one of our favorite things about our neighborhood.

Scotty and Rachel slept through the previous night's snow so once the big kids left for school they got me and the snow all to themselves before it melted!

And he did hit me with more than a few snowballs. What a fun memory this was!!

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!!