Thanksgiving at the Ranch

This year, we spent the entire Thanksgiving break at the ranch. We had a great time getting to unplug for a few days hanging with family. We drove down Wednesday, with everyone else on the roads and actually stayed until Sunday. We rarely have the opportunity to stay for such an extended period of time.

The kids played nonstop and didn't get nearly enough sleep (we are paying for that this week with Megan), but it is such a joy seeing them play with their cousins. We are so thankful that our kids have cousins who are close in age to them on both sides of the family.

Throughout the weekend, we watched football, played football (another post all together), played games, went fishing, went on golf cart rides, read books, created presents for the kids' teachers, created manna bags, and so much more. We loved slowing down for a few days even though it has meant playing catch up a bit this week. We have so very much to be thankful for.


Our awesome niece, Alli, fishing with Megan and G'Daddy

Third Grade Bible

Tyler received his bible from the church in September. Since then, their Sunday School class has taken a break for the standard curriculum in order to focus on learning how to use their new bible. Before Thanksgiving, the class had a breakfast for the parents to show us all they have learned over the past couple of months.

Kevin and I were blown away with all that these kids had learned. What was perhaps most impressive was that when their teachers asked questions about the bible, almost all of them raised their hands to answer. This happened with every question! These kids amazed us. It was clear that they embraced learning about the bible.

Halloween Weekend

I am quite late getting this post out but wanted to at least chronicle our crazy halloween weekend. We had so much going on I think I probably missed something, but here are most of the highlights.

Saturday started with a flag football game for Tyler. His team, The Crush, finished up their season this past weekend as the 2nd place team in their division.

We went from the game to our elementary school carnival, which was a blast as always. Megan's daisy troop had a booth. She and her friend Thea are posing for one of the few pics of the day. They were moving too quick to stop for photo opps.

Sunday, we had all of our normal church activities. In addition to those, we had a halloween party with friends from school. One of Megan's friend's families has hosted a halloween party for a number of years. Last year, they invited Megan's entire class and families in addition to their normal attendees. This year they expanded the list yet again, which included some of our cousins. Kennedy and Megan enjoyed playing at the party.

As the party was winding down, we went to collect the girls and found that they had discarded their costumes for a new look.


We finally made it to halloween. Megan had a bit of a costume crisis. The costume we bought for her (minnie mouse) was very scratchy and uncomfortable so she called Gran Allie at 5:15 to see if we could come get the witch costume she has at her house (which was mine when I was about her age). We picked it up and eagerly awaited for the sun to go down. Here are our kids in their very "dark" halloween costumes - the witch and the dementor.



We were just about recovered from all the crazy activity and Monday halloween until daylight savings hit. For a family with kids who are always early risers, the fall time change is brutal. Hoping to not see the clock before 6:00 in the morning!

**In case you are wondering why there is such a discrepancy in the number of pictures of Megan and Tyler, it is because Tyler HATES getting his picture taken right now and usually dives out of the way before I can get pictures of him.

Remember When...

For years, pumpkin patch pictures were a tradition for our family. We would dress the kids and take them out to our church for pictures in the pumpkins. My how times have changed. In recent years, the process has gotten less formal. This year, while picking out far too many pumpkins (we always buy into the church fundraiser for the youth), I made Tyler and Megan sit for about a minute to pose for a picture taken with my iphone. They may not be great and definitely aren't up to our old tradition standards, but at least it is documented, crazy hair and all.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

I feel like we dodged a bullet when it comes to Tyler's eyesight. When he was a baby, my eye doctor said I needed to get his eyes checked before he turned 3 since my eyes are so bad. We got them checked and they were great. Since then it has become extremely obvious that his eyes are close to perfect. He can see things on the road or outside long before I can see them when I have my contacts or glasses on.

While I wasn't quite as quick getting Megan's checked, I did get them checked when she was 3. At that point, her eyes were not perfect but they were not bad enough to justify correcting them. Apparently, kids eyes can often correct themselves in the early years. This past year, I have noticed her doing a couple of the things I did before I got glasses (to compensate for not being able to see). She has always passed the school eye tests etc but I felt it was time to get her eyes checked again. Lo and behold, she needed glasses. Thankfully, her eyes aren't nearly as bad as mine are. So, a few weeks before school started we picked out frames and her glasses arrived just a few days before school started. She put them on and hasn't looked back.

What a World of Difference a Year Makes

Today is the sixth day of school (no I haven't gotten the first day pics uploaded here yet). As some of you might remember, Megan had quite a bit of separation anxiety going to kindergarten. She loved making new friends, her teachers, and so many things about her new school but the unknown and bigness of it all overwhelmed her a bit. So after a fabulous departure the first day of school last year, we had at least two or more weeks of crying and hanging on to me at drop off. Otherwise known as COMPLETE torture for mommy. She eventually settled in and had a wonderful year in spite of a couple bumps in the road. All that being said, she still wanted me to (and I gladly did) walk her to class every morning.

Fast forward to day 6 of first grade. We have been riding bikes to school every day. This morning, we arrived and I went to help Tyler get his bike locked. Megan comes over and says, "I am going to walk to my class now." And off she goes without a hug or a kiss. Um okay - this is a good thing, right? I know it is a great thing for her to be feeling so comfortable at school to be able to go in to her class by herself but it caught me a little off guard. I could see her the whole time and she looked over a gave me a big smile and a wave and was in class. Talk about conflicting emotions. I am excited for her to be willing to take a step on her own, but don't know how I feel about her not needing the extra hug before she goes to class. More than anything I am grateful that she leaves me each morning with a big smile excited to go to school because the first few weeks of school last year were brutal.

Colorado Pictures

With summer ending and school beginning, I haven't had a chance to finish our vacation posts. Instead of giving a detailed account of every activity I am just adding pictures of our vacation. It was a wonderful and relaxing vacation. The kids did great especially on all the long car rides. We look forward to more similar trips in the future.


Like we almost always do, we celebrated Megan's birthday while we were gone. She loved every minute of it as usual and requested that we could once again be on vacation next year during her birthday.




Since Tyler is so excited about geography, we decided we couldn't be so close and not go to Four Corners, USA. It was close to a 3 hour drive from Pagosa Springs. Kevin and I were ready to bail on the trip but knew the kids would be disappointed so we drove there and back one day. It was a long time in the car but the kids loved it! Now we have stood in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado at the exact same time.


We spent a few afternoons playing in the hot springs in the center of town.



We only have pictures of Kevin's parents but my parents were there too. The grandparents joined us for the beginning of our stay in Colorado and we had a blast with them. We were so glad they could come and that they were willing to play all sorts of energetic games with us.

More Vacay

At Vacation Bible School this year, one of the focuses was "God Sightings." We encouraged the kids to pay attention to where they saw God each day. The idea being that if you look you will see God in so many different ways.

Our second destination of vacation was Albuquerque, NM and we needed a God Sighting. We had planned our activities before we left Austin. However, we realized very quickly that we needed to revamp our plans. With the previously mentioned "hotel hyperactivity" as well as lots of drive time, spending an entire day at two museums, whether they were geared towards children or not, was NOT going to work. We went to the children's museum, which was great, but a mere hour and a half of fun. As we are driving away from the museum I said to Kevin, "I wonder if there is a zoo in Albuquerque." Not a minute later, there is a sign "ZOO" and an arrow pointing to the right. Talk about a God sighting! Not only is there a zoo in Albuquerque, it is a fabulous zoo. We had a blast and spent all afternoon there. We got to see a crocodile get fed which was quite exciting. We also got to see the polar bears get fed. It was a great zoo and we would highly recommend it!

Vacation, Installment 1

We just recently returned from an amazing vacation, our first official driving vacation. We drove through Texas to New Mexico, making our first stop Carlsbad Caverns. I remember going to Carlsbad as a child, but I don't remember being awed by the experience. Well, now that I have aged a bit and regularly discuss the weather with friends (although who doesn't these days), I am either more easily enthralled or just more aware of the miracles of nature. I choose the latter and am happy to report that my children have a much better appreciation of these things at 6 and 8 than I did when I was a kid. Carlsbad was a hit with everyone. We even hiked into the caverns, which is a 1.25 mile walk that descends approximately 800 feet down. We knew Tyler would handle the walk with ease, but we weren't sure how Megan would do but she was such a trooper. Not only did she make the walk without one complaint, once we got down into the caverns, we walked another 1.5 miles around. We are definitely entering a new phase where we are able to do many more fun family activities than we used to be able to do. Both of the kids loved Carlsbad as did Kevin and I. Being in the gigantic caverns knowing we were so far underground was truly amazing.

One thing we realized on this vacation was the we have not stayed in very many hotels with the kids. Since all of our family lives in Austin, and we often rent places to stay on vacation rather than stay in hotels, there have been very few times we have stayed in hotels as a family. Well, we decided to need to try and do it a little more often because the simple act of walking through the door of a hotel room causes our kids to lose all sense of control and totally spaz out. Ironically, this was more true with Tyler than Megan. It was funny to see him so hyper that he really couldn't control himself. Okay, so it was funny for a few minutes not a few days. After being in a very nice but very small hotel room in Carlsbad, we understood the draw of the suite.

Here we are as we begin to head down into the caverns. This is also where the millions of bats fly out of each night. And take note of the jackets - such a great feeling needing a jacket the farther down we went.

Megan's 6th Birthday Party

Megan is a girl who fully embraces her birthday. Usually, she starts planning her party in November or December (yes, that's right for her August birthday). You can never have too much time to plan when it comes to celebrating your big day. She can spend hours talking about ideas, invitations, what kind of party it will be, etc. The funny thing is, we usually have a very similarly themed party. After all, her birthday is in August. The logical party theme involves water. Regardless, it gives Megan a lot to think about during the year and she really enjoys it. This year, she even wrote out invitations (left over from a precious year). She wrote each one out with specific names. We didn't actually send out the invitations because we were in a time crunch and in the middle of a very busy VBS preparation week. However, she loved the process and was happy to send the invites electronically (as long as they get sent, right)!

This year, we had her friend party early because we were going to be out of town on her actual birthday. She loved every minute of it. It is so fun watching her at her parties because she enjoys them so much. You never know how it will work out with summer birthdays, but we were so lucky this year. Almost every single one of her favorite friends was able to come celebrate with her. She had a blast and we were so excited to celebrate the big 6!!! It is hard to believe our spunky, spirited, loving little girl is already 6!!! Happy birthday, Megs! We all love you so much!

4th of July Festivities

Since I was a teenager, my family has celebrated the 4th of July at our dear friends' house on Inks Lake. In all the years since this tradition started, I think only two years have been missed. Being there makes the 4th of July for our family and we were so excited to be there again this year. However, it was a unique year. One of the great things about this party, is a firework show put on by all the crazy pyro loving (mostly but not all) men in the group. Their goal each year is to have the best firework display on the lake and many years it has been. That being said, it is not always the safest show. There are burns, small fires, falls while running away from lighting the fireworks - you get the picture. However, in spite of the dangers, it is always a great show. It was a bit strange not seeing or even hearing one firework in our 4th celebration. We hope to be back in full force next year and I can only imagine that a year hiatus will just increase the need to outdo anyone else on the lake. Despite the lack of lights in the sky, we had a wonderful time as always.

The last pic is the kids on our float for our neighborhood 4th of July parade.

First and Last day

A comparison picture of the kids the first and last days of school this year. People are commenting all the time lately how much Megan's hair has grown. For not having hair for the first 4 years of her life, she has finally caught up and her hair is growing like crazy as is evidenced by the length of her pigtails in the pics. The side by side pictures also make it hard to deny that their features are changing as they are getting older. Definitely growing up....sniff, sniff!



The first day picture is above and the last day picture is below.

Gymkhana

Megan has been taking gymnastics all year. In January, her three closest friends joined her class. She has loved every minute of it and is a cute little gymnast. The class has an end of year performance that they prepare for parents and relatives. Each child gets to perform routines at each station. Megan was very excited to be on the spot for this event. She was also beyond thrilled to receive her first ever trophy.


Before the event, we all met for dinner. Here are Megan and her friends, so excited about their upcoming performance! I just love these precious girls!