Meredith's 5th Grade Photos

It’s finally Meredith’s turn to graduate from elementary school. In preparation, the school has asked everyone to send in a newborn photo alongside an up-to-date photo for their slideshow. After quite a bit of back and forth with Meredith, we agreed on a vision for her photoshoot. This evening when we got home, she and I went out back and got it done! With just about no time to spare. The photos are due this week!

The most important thing to Meredith was that these photos were a representation of her. I think we pulled it off.

Next time we involve a chicken, I’m bringing blueberries along.

And just so we don’t forget how far we’ve come.

Ruthie's Last County Fair

It was a bittersweet weekend. I have loved taking my kids back to the old county fair every year to see my niece show her chickens and turkeys and let them ride the carnival rides, enjoy the petting zoo, and selfishly force them to attend the rodeo. It makes for a long and eventful day. And this weekend was, sadly, our last. I asked Ruthie if she’d be up for a quick photoshoot to commemorate it, and she was game! :) This girl was busy on Saturday, so by quick, I mean quick. She really had to squeeze this in.

There’s an outfit on my hometown that appears to be specializing in these types of county fair photos, and I have just been so inspired by what they are doing. Just such an adorable concept! I think I took about 200 photos of Ruthie blowing into shavings to get just a few keepers. :)

We walked over to the rodeo arena thinking we’d have to sneak in there, but they were kind enough to let us walk on in and do what we wanted!

These photos were so much fun to take! Congratulations on all your successes at the Fair this year Ruthie! We’ll sure miss going back every year.

Prom 2024

Sarah’s girls’ prom was this past weekend, and I went to take pictures. I was so bummed that Hannah had a UIL competition on the other side of Houston, and so she was getting ready at her hotel. I didn’t get to take photos of her. But I did get to photograph Ruthie, Carson, and Ben. I also got to be a part of all the drama when they realized that Hannah took most of the hair tools and all of the hair spray with her!!! The horror!

More Fence Building

We are finally working on our front and back fences. It’s been taking us forever since it’s pretty much only Josh, myself, and Wallace as a 3-person crew, but we’ve just about finished up the front and are now working on the back.

Starting up the generator.

Teaching Wallace how to weld.

Tacking on the panels.

I almost forgot that Hoss is part of our fence building crew. :)

Summer!

It’s been a busy summer, at least for the kids, but I took a couple of weeks off and took them to the Frio and the beach.

Although Wallace claims his favorite place is the beach, I think he might have found a special place in his heart for the river as well this year. :)

I spent several days just relaxing in the river for hours and hours. It was fabulous!

And Meredith spent quite a bit of her time catching tiny fish.

And that pretty much sums up the river. :) I think the best part was that we took the kids’ bikes, and I’m pretty sure that Meredith was so motivated by seeing Leah’s kids riding her bike that she was finally able to put it all together and start riding her bike! Thank you so much for making this vacation possible Big Momma!

Then we went home, did a little laundry, and headed straight for Bolivar.

I had a couple of commissioned photo shoots while we were there this year! :)

And these were my favorites from each shoot.

We took a day trip to Galveston.

And everyone got VERY worn out!

But Wallace finally found the Zippo lighter he’s been wanting for so long at a smoke shop on the Strand. lol. I felt like such a responsible parent. I also never realized how cool Zippo lighters are!

Thanks for having us Granny. I needed the trip more than ever this year, and it did not disappoint.