Winter Happened! And Spring... lol

I’ve had a long hiatus from posting an update. I’ve actually had a long hiatus from editing my photos. Lightroom somehow got deleted off my machine last November, and it took me about 6 months to talk myself into paying Adobe monthly for something I used to own outright…I’m still a little salty about it. “/ At least I have access to Photoshop as well now, but I have no clue how to use it. Maybe I’ll take a class someday.

Well, anyway, rather than split this up into a bunch of small posts, I’ll just get caught with one super long one here. :)

A lot’s happened since November.

Meredith was in her school kindergarten holiday musical. She was a bear.

She was a bit jelly that she didn’t get to be the gingerbread man or Mrs. Claus, but she got over it pretty quickly. She’s my third child to do this same musical, and she’s the only one who actually rehearsed the music in front of me at home. :)

Josh and I literally left the Gingerbread Man Play and went home to load up the Suburban to leave for the ski trip. This year we drove to Utah and planned a few stops along the way for the kids.

I think this first stop might have actually been for Josh. It was a jail/courthouse that Billy the Kid had escaped from. Here’s a bullet hole that they think Billy the Kid actually shot in the wall while escaping.

And we stopped at the Smokey the Bear memorial as well. Wallace had really gotten into Smokey right before the trip, so this stop was exciting for him. :)

And we finally made it to Utah. I think we took the drive getting there a little too slow… Josh started getting super frustrated by the 3rd day and pretty much just sped through all of the beautiful countryside of Utah without talking or stopping. lol. Lesson learned. We need to make the cross country trips in just two days from now on..which I think is possible since we basically live in the middle of the country.

We celebrated Christmas in Utah as well. This was a Christmas of slime…So much slime.

And legos. It’s pretty much always a lego Christmas with this kid though.

We decorated Christmas cookies!

And Josh helped to judge the cookie contest again. He randomly chose the OU cookie…

We had the whole group over for the Aggie game, and they got to witness Josh watching an Aggie game firsthand. lol. They might never come back.

It snowed a LOT while we were in Utah. So the landscape was a lot whiter on the way home. Moab was even covered in snow, and all of the beautiful desert monuments were as well. It was really neat to see.

The only place Anna wanted to stop was Four Corners, so we ran by there on the way home. It’s not just a little place to stop on the side of the road anymore…you have to pay to get in now, and there are hours of operation, so it was challenging to time it. She really wanted this particular photo, even though it was a little muddy that day. haha.

Then once we were back in school we got Anna’s FFA chickens! Those chickens pretty much ran our lives from January 10th until we showed them 7 weeks later in late February. In hindsight, we were so lucky to get to show them at all. My niece’s county fair was cancelled, and she didn’t get to show hers this year. :(

They were pretty much the cutest thing we’d ever seen for about 3 days.

OMG! How adorable!!!

Cuteness overload!!!!

Then they just turned into these ugly teenagers within about 2 weeks. “/

Anna ended up doing great at the fair! She got 3rd place with her cockerels and was 5th place in the sale. She worked so hard with those birds, and I was so proud of her. It was a nice family project too. Although I had my camera with me at the fair, I was such a bundle of nerves the whole time I literally never pulled it out to take a photo. The fair we show at holds their chicken show in the middle of the day on a Wednesday, so since there aren’t a lot of extra school aged kids wandering the fair grounds because they’re all in school, they allow parents to help their kids show, so I wasn’t a spectator… It was nice because Josh and I could help coach Anna on when to hold the birds up, and how high to hold them, but the one draw back was I didn’t get any fancy pants photos of the show. Also, when I was in high school and showing my chicks, it was customary for just two people to show the three birds…one person would just hold up 2 birds (one in each hand). I guess with the way we feed them now a days Anna’s birds must just have gotten much bigger than they used to when I was a kid…it seems like it would have been impossible to hold up one of these chickens with just one hand. You literally now need one person per bird. Times have changed!

Anyway, the weekend after the fair Jen and Matt brought their family to come help us slaughter the birds (Jen did a great FB post about that weekend since I didn’t get any photos that day either), and then the weekend after that was Spring Break. Josh took the kids up to Washington DC that week for a trip with his family, and apparently it was great and not packed at all…and then the shut down happened the week after that…. “/ So, there really hasn’t been much to photograph other than birthdays and stuff. So, that’s what I’ve got.

Meredith turned 6!

We hung onto a few chickens…because Josh has a big heart and just couldn’t bear to break the kids’ spirit I guess. They’ve actually started laying eggs! I honestly wasn’t even sure these meat birds were capable of doing that. I’m not sure how much longer they’re going to make it, they weren’t really cut out to live this long, and it’s getting very hot, but we are pampering the crap out of them and enjoying the time we have with them. They’ve been a nice distraction during this crazy time.

The kids took over my camera occasionally for “art” class, and sometimes they got some really great photos! I think Anna took this one.

Wallace got this one!

Somehow she managed to take a selfie…. That’s nearly impossible to do with the fancy camera…especially with her short little arms.

We decided to stay home for Easter.

The kids chose the most random things for Easter baskets. lol

He was a little bummed he was the only one who didn’t find a money egg…but one of the money eggs was missing, and he found it like 2 weeks later on his birthday! So, delayed gratification!

We had a little camp out in the yard before the weather got hot. It was Josh’s idea. He even made a fire and roasted hot dogs and smores. The kids loved it!

Wallace turned 8! All I had were pink candles, so we tried to make these skewers work for candles, but they wouldn’t really light with the breeze outside. So, he just pretended to blow them out. lol. The birthday cake train is still getting used! He was bummed we couldn’t go to the train museum this year. :(

Meredith has taken a special liking to the birds.

Perhaps the biggest news is all the stuff that’s happened with Anna… She was supposed to get braces the week the shutdown started, and then they had to cancel the appointment. She was so upset she just bawled that day. But, we were so excited when the orthodontist was able to reopen and called us to set up her appointment. She’s only got braces on to top front 6 teeth to straighten out her lateral incisor on one side and pull her front two middle teeth together to close that gap. It’s supposed to just take 6 months…

Well, the very next day homegirl tripped while racing Wallace and Meredith and fell in a ditch and broke her arm… sigh

She broke both of her forearm bones, and because one of them is healing at an imperfect angle, the doctor was hesitant to remove the hospital cast to replace it with a wet cast, so she’s been unable to swim. Which is why we just sit her in the pool while everyone else gets to swim. I’m really proud of her that she’s not gotten too bummed out about all of this. She gets it off on Wednesday, and she’s literally counting down the days! We all are.

I also was finally able to get her into the ophthalmologist (another appointment we’d long awaited that was cancelled due to the shutdown…) to see what we can do about all of her squinting. He was very careful to keep her from squinting the entire time he was working with her, so fingers crossed we’ve managed to get a good Rx. It was kind of a funny appointment. She had to wear a mask, and the mask kept fogging up the phoropter like it does our glasses and sunglasses, so he kept pulling it away from her face and patiently fanning it to get the condensation to go away. I guess he’s been dealing with it now for a month or so. It just took forever.

Well…that’s pretty much it. We’re all caught up now. And now that I can edit photos again, hopefully I won’t get so far behind.

Fall Update!

I went to take some photos of a friend recently, and when I was clearing off my SD card I noticed I hadn’t even gone through the first day of school photos I took of the kids… “/ So, it’s time for a catch up!

It’s just super dark when it’s time to leave for school for our elementary, so the pics are all in the house. I decided to take before and after pics of them from when they woke up compared to when they were ready to walk out the door.

They were sleepy, but excited! Meredith is never this excited to wake up these days. She’s a bear in the mornings just like Josh. I pretty much just creep into her room and quietly give her her breakfast, and then try to slip off to work silently for Josh to handle her when she’s ready to get rolling. She loves kinder, but misses being able to sleep in.

Anna finally lost this one particular tooth that had been hanging on for dear life. I literally yanked on it with all my might and couldn’t get it one night, and it was super loose. She finally managed to pluck it out one evening while she was watching the Simpsons. And Wallace looked so dapper in his collared shirt and glasses. :) I will have 2 magical years with all three of them in the same school…and then it will be a crazy rat race after that.

We had another fun season of soccer. lol

On this particular day she was annoyed because her legs were itchy under her socks…

“It’s SOOO itchy!!!”

On the whole though, Meredith did much better this season. She still likes to unexpectedly run off the field when she decides she’s done though. :)

Wallace had a pretty darn good season too! He didn’t insist on playing goalie the whole entire time, so it was nice getting to see him actually take part in the game more.

And Anna’s games were just about all at noon on the hottest days, but she hung in there and did great.

Then it was Halloween! We did the inflatable thing this year, and the kids had so much fun with it!

The girls were so cute. They did this little pose all on their own. lol

Fall was pretty nice around here. Hot, but nice. And busy. So glad it’s finally cooled off!

Bolivar 2019

We got home from Costa Rica around 1:00am on the 28th, and then turned around and left for Bolivar around 9:00am on the 29th. Lol. I was worried I’d be all vacationed out before we got to Bolivar, but that wasn’t the case at all. We got a lot of rest on the 28th and were all ready to go the next morning.

When we got there, Jen had prepped a little birthday party for me and Jenny. :) I managed to not get a single photo of the adorable beach-themed b-day cake she made with my fancy camera…. but she made it a tropical birthday, and we got quite a few different uses out of the leis.

We spent a lot of time around the table making jewelry and paracord bracelets. :)

We also went crabbing again! Meredith caught the first keeper this year!

And everyone had fun! This year it was Ruthie’s turn to come and hang out with us. :) She was so super helpful, it was awesome. I hope she enjoyed her time with us as much as we enjoyed having her!

Since Jen and her family have returned to Texas, they were back with us as well!

Crabbing day is hot, but it’s also fun and productive. We caught around 11 again, and that seems to be a good amount for Granny’s stuffed crab. I think she sorely missed having Maddison there this year to help with picking them, but Jenny stepped in and assisted. Jen and I had to boil them since Dallas wasn’t there. I’d rather not have to do that ever again. There was a lot of screaming and jumping around the kitchen.

Look at those double piercings! Such a grown up 9 year old! Oh, and poor Anna…every air mattress we put her on deflated overnight until I finally went and just bought her a new one. lol.

It seems similar to fishing where we’ll catch like 3 crabs all at once, and then proceed to sit there and catch nothing for 30 minutes. Glad I brought along my crossword puzzle book! (Ruthie played photographer for a while. Man I’m getting lazy!) Oh, and this photo had me convinced my sensor was dusty, but I think those are just birds flying around!

A bestie pic! :)

He loves to pose with little crabs!

Back to the Big Slide!

I’m happy to report that Jen’s boys LOVED it this time around. They actually outlasted my kids.

We tried like 4 times to get this picture!

Bird feeding on the ferry ride to Galveston. We saw porpoises on every single ferry ride this year!

Beach days. And another crab photo op.

I spent waaaaay too much on a few nice boogie boards. I probably could have gotten away with just buying 1 or 2. Oh well. They were big enough that even I could ride waves in!

I told Jen that she has great photographer form. :) Looks so professional!

Didn’t want his chest buried this year.

And then there was the golf cart parade again! We figured out that it’s just this one weekend! Thank goodness we didn’t miss it! We all would have been so bummed!

Oh my gosh! I LOVE Thomas’ face in this picture!

They ended up with a TON of beads, but at first there were some color preference wars. lol

So many beads!

The rest of the big girls showed up! Jen made them some amazing virgin pina coladas. I think I’m going to have to alter my recipe and just use frozen pineapples rather than ice from now on. They were soooo yummy!

And water balloons!

Haha! They look like a bunch of old ladies with all those beads on!

She worked for a while to get this balloon to pop! lol.

What an awesome, relaxing week. Thank you for putting it together again, Mom. I love you, and I love our Bolivar trip!

Costa Rica

Josh’s family did a big family vacation to Costa Rica this summer! I’ve heard a lot about the last trip they’d made there almost 20 years ago, so it obviously left a lasting impression on everyone. Josh talked about the fishing especially. So when we were getting down to the wire on his passport arrival, and it didn’t make it in time, he was incredibly bummed. I was super worried that he might miss out of the fishing this year. But, alas…Josh’s luck came through for him. He was only 2 days late for the vacation, and arrived the night before the deep sea fishing trip.

The trip overall was nothing short of amazing. We stayed in a beautiful villa unlike any place I’ve ever been, and there were people to take care of all the little things so we could all just 100% relax and enjoy our time. I’ve never been on a trip like that before; it was fantastic. The food was awesome, the company was awesome. I can’t thank Joe-Joe and Big Momma enough for putting it all together and creating a trip that we’ll all remember and be talking about for the rest of our lives.

It is pretty warm there, so we all spent a lot of time in the beautiful water.

So many little hermit crabs and fish to find in these pools!

The deep sea fishing was really cool! I’ve never been before, but I’ve heard in most places you have to ride out on the boat for hours before you get to the deep water, but here, it was just a 30 minute ride! And you could see the coast the entire time.

The first thing we hooked happened to be a shark. We got it close to the boat, but didn’t haul it up out of the water. Josh and Hayden fought with it for a while to get it that close, and then we cut it loose.

She held a fish! Anna loved the fishing so much! I honestly didn’t think she would, but she’s ready to go back for more.

The kids caught some amazing fish that we got to eat on for 2 days!

Meredith slept for a lot of it, but she got to reel in a skipjack.

And eat a brownie. So, pretty much a success in her book. Lol.

Look how close the shore is!

It rained a little, so we watched some movies. Like I said, the house was amazing. You were pretty much outdoors, but not really outdoors most of the time.

So many cousins. :)

We got an updated family photo with a few new kids in it!

The bigger kids all got to take a couple of surfing lessons. Anna did so awesome!!

Anna won the talent show with her performance of an original song. :)

The kids got to take a lot of pictures on this trip, so I made it into a few. :)

We did a fire on the beach the last night and decided we should have been doing that all along. Lol.

Thanks so much for the trip Big Momma and Joe-Joe. The kids are still talking about it daily, and quite frankly, so am I! :) What a great trip to have been a part of.

4th of July

Well…at least I’m getting this posted before August. :)

This year for the 4th my good buddies, all of our kiddos, my sister, my niece, my Mom, and I all got together at my house! I didn’t take a ton of photos, but in going through them just now, it brought back all the feels of what an awesome day it was. There was a lot of food, a lot of time in the pool, and a spectacular fireworks display. Oh…and an overstuffed pinata that was a bit hard to crack but provided a ton of entertainment!

I’m so glad we got to get together this year. I’d like to make this a new annual thing now that everyone is back in Texas. It’s really nice seeing all the kids play and go crazy and getting to hang out and catch up. This was one of the most fun days I’ve had in a while. :)