Here Comes Texas {2013}

It's always a lot of fun when my sister Becky and her family come to visit us all the way from Texas.  Today was no exception.  We started the morning off meeting (almost) the entire family for breakfast.  Jason had to work so, he couldn't join in on the fun. =(  While at breakfast, we celebrated Jessi and Katelyn's birthdays.

After breakfast, we headed to the aquarium.  We all broke off into small groups, which made it nice for us to all be able to catch up with each other.  Uncle Billy enjoyed spending time with the boys.  These guys talked some serious fish business.

Uncle Billy, Evan, & Stephen

Addi got a little special surprise from Nana and Aunt Ashley.  She got a seahorse of her very own when she was checking out the seahorse tank.  She was so happy!!!  I am so happy that I got a picture of her great big smile.  =)

Addi & Seahorse

Karsyn really enjoyed hanging out with everyone at the aquarium too.  She started to get a little tired, so I put her in her stroller and let her play The Shapes Game on the phone.  She seems like such a big girl doing it!

Karsyn

All of our little groups met back up and played a game of 'how many people can fit on one bench.'  Crazy, right?  And in case you are wondering, that's 8 people. ha!

Aunt Ashley, Natalie, Papa, Jessi, Addi, Katelyn, Aunt Becky, & Payton

We decided to do a sibling picture while we were at it.  I grew up in a little family of 6 that has the same make up as ours.  My brother Billy is 7 years and 2 months older than my sister Ashely.  Evan is 7 years and 3 months older than Karsyn.  I love how God worked it out that way for our family.  I've told my mom before that I feel like I got the play book. =)


Billy, Becky, Ashley, & Me

After the aquarium, we headed off to lunch. Aunt Ashley had to leave for a short while, but she let Jessi stay with us all.  We ate at a little local diner that has a 1950's theme.  These kiddos really enjoyed sitting at the counter.

Emily, Kyle, Katelyn, Jessi, & Payton

There weren't quite enough bar stools for all of the kids.  Evan and Stephen didn't seem to mind....too much.  I love that they are such buds!


Evan & Stephen

And here's a picture of the rest of the crew! 

Addi, Uncle Eugene, Aunt Becky, Nana, Karsyn, Papa, Uncle Billy, Aunt Kary, Natalie, & Kellie

When we were done eating lunch, Karsyn only wanted Stephen.  He even had to buckle her in her car seat. Stephen had an ear to ear grin while doing so.  I'm pretty sure it made his day. We took a short break and headed home to do a few chores.  I was really hoping that Karsyn would take a quick nap, but she didn't.  We met the rest of my family at my Grandma Shirley's house. The kids had a lot of fun playing together.

Katelyn & Karsyn

We left Grandma's house and went to my parents' house for a little while.  We enjoyed watching some of the girls' dance videos.  I loved that we are able to watch their performances!  Then, everyone started to get hungry again.  The little girls had no nap.  The big kids had slept over at Aunt Ashley's house the night before. (Evan's first sleepover, Payton's second.)  It seemed to be a good time to go home for the night.  We loved getting to see Eugene, Becky, Kellie, Kyle, and Katelyn.  It's always hard when you have to leave!  Love you guys!!!

One More Change....

If you had trouble viewing my blog in the last couple of days, I am so sorry.  I set it as private for a while, because I noticed that a Spam website was listed as one of my traffic sources.  Hopefully, that will take care of the problem. =)  If not, can someone tell me what to do? 

Anyways, in my last post, I talked about all of the changes going on with our family.  You can read all about it right here.  Yesterday, I changed my hair color.  I decided to go blond before we hit the beach!

So far, I really like it a lot!  The cut is super easy to style too!  Hope you all have a great weekend!!!!

Changes.............

I can't tell you how much I enjoy this time of year.  My kiddos are all getting sun kissed and I just love it!  We've already been to the splash pad twice this week with friends!  When we got home from the splash pad yesterday, I found a sleeping mermaid and a cutie dolphin in the back of my van. =)

Karsyn

Addi

So, what does this have to do with the title of this post you ask?  Well, nothing. =)  I'm sure that I could blog every time that we go to the splash pad or the park this summer, but I won't.  We do have 3 big changes going on with our little family of 6, so I thought I'd do one post to cover them all.

• Uncle Chad, Aunt Ashley, and Jessi are moving to MO! Yes, it's true.  The big move is next week!  Chad and Ashley are planting a church in a small town.  I'm super excited for them and a little sad too!  It's not too far of a drive, so we should still see them often. 
• Because of that and a few other reasons, we have been looking for a new church home.  I think that we've found the one!  I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Lord does on this journey.
• And lastly, for a long time, we've been praying about the kids' schooling. I honestly thought that the Lord was going to put us on the path to homeschooling. (I'm not sure why, but we get asked a lot if we are a homeschooling family.)  I was ready and fully surrendered to it, but Jason and I both felt like the Lord was telling us that it isn't the right time yet.  So, we looked into a private Christian school, but that didn't work out either.  After really looking into and praying over what we should do, it was enrollment time at Evan and Payton's elementary school.  Since we didn't have a new plan in place, we didn't make any changes.  Then, we decided to have Evan do proficiency based testing.  Evan did very well on the test and we've decided, with the approval of the school board, to allow Evan to do what is called a double promotion.  He's skipping the 4th grade.  It was a decision that we really had to pray over, but we feel like it's the best.  Through talking with the gifted and talented coordinator, we've decided also that it was in the best interest to move Evan and Payton into another school in our district.  We're really excited about this too!  Payton is also considered 'intellectually gifted' by the school district. We'll determine later if she should do testing. 

That's enough change for me for a while!  =)

Park, Splash Pad, & Friends

When we went to the splash pad on Addi's birthday, we ran into my friend Hannah and her two boys.  Hannah and I decided to get our kiddos together, along with our friend, Megan and her daughter.  Our favorite splash pad was closed due to a festival. So, we visited another super fun one that also has a big playground that the kiddos enjoyed.  In fact, the kids spent the first little bit playing there.  Evan had fun big brothering Little E.  I can't tell you how many times he asked for a little brother. =)



Little E & Evan

Karsyn LOVES the splash pad.  She is so funny!  She pretended to be an airplane and loved to tell me different things to look at.  Her vocabulary has been growing so much!!! 

Karsyn

We played for a little over 2 hours.  As we were leaving, the kiddos realized that we were right by a river.  They loved checking it out!

Karsyn, Payton, & Evan

The playground and splash pad were really big and really busy.  I didn't take too many pictures and was kind of sad when I got home to find that I didn't get a good picture of Payton or Addisyn. Boo!  We did really enjoy seeing our friends and stopping at Sonic for lunch on the way home.  I put sunscreen on the kids, but not on myself.  This sunburn mama needed a blue coconut slush. =) 

Wordless Wednesday

Karsyn got herself ready for the splash pad. Ha! (This is my first attempt at posting from my phone. I'm thinking it won't happen too often.)

5 on Friday

I'm linking up again for 5 on Friday.  To join in on the fun click here.

ONE

Addisyn turned 4 this week!  She is really growing up so fast!  We took our first trip of the summer to the Splash Pad on her birthday.  All of the kiddos had so much fun!  Happy Birthday Addi!!!

Our Birthday Girl - Addi

Karsyn

Evan & Jessi

TWO

We celebrated Payton's 8th birthday and Addi's 4th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.  It's the second year that we've had the girls' party there and they love it.  Thanks to all of our family and friends who came out to make the day so special!

Payton is 8!!!

Emily & Addi

Birthday crowing from Chuck E. Cheese

THREE

Wednesday afternoon, we went to our best friend family's house for lunch and water fun!  The kiddos all had so much fun playing on the slip and slide.  I loved watching them!

Evan

FOUR

I've been on the lookout for healthier new recipes. Pinterest was a great place to start.  When I read that Roasted Green Beans are as yummy as french fries, I had to make them!  I think we've found a new family favorite.  They are so easy to make!

Toss 3 cups of fresh green beans with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Salt.  Roast in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.  Enjoy!  The Rosemary Lemon Chicken I made to go along with the green beans wasn't that great. Jason asked if it was fish...that's NEVER a good sign! What are some of your family's favorite healthy recipes?

FIVE

We've started the count down to our trip to Destin, Florida.  A few weeks is all that separates us from the sun and the sand.  We can't wait!  I still need to find a new swim suit and a few new clothes. Have you ever been to Destin?  What are some of your favorite things to do there?

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!!

Slip Sliding Away

The beautiful weather that we had been having has been replaced by heat!  The kiddos and I were invited to our best friend family's house for an afternoon of playing in the water and lunch.  Who could say no to friends, pizza, and a slip and slide?  Kim, all 8 kiddos, and myself had a great time.  I love and I mean LOVE this picture of Evan!!!


Evan

And yes, I love this one of Payton too!  We have had a really hard time finding a swim suit for her this summer.  She's been growing so much and she's in between sizes.  We did find her this one and we both think it's really cute.

Payton

Here's a few more pictures of the fun!!!!

Levi, Emily, & Karsyn's goldie locks. =)

Levi & Karsyn

Jesse

Addi would only run down the slip and slide. =)  She did it a couple of times, but she had more fun jumping in and out of the little pool.

Addi

Karsyn

 Levi made it down the slip and slide on his belly! 

Levi



Katelyn

Karsyn wants to be a big girl so bad!  She tried very hard to slide down on her belly like the big kids, but just couldn't do it.  Payton was there to help!  This was the closest that she got, but I bet by the end of the summer, she'll make it down. =)

Karsyn & Payton

Things started to get pretty muddy, so Kim broke out the beach ball sprinkler in a dryer part of the yard. 

Levi, Emily, Jesse, & Payton

Jesse

Evan

 These kiddos wanted to stay in the pool.  Doesn't the water look refreshing?????



Karsyn, Addi, & Levi

We dried off and headed inside for lunch.  We had such a wonderful time!  Thank you Kim for having us over.

Addi is 4!!!!

Today, our sweet, silly, and sassy Addi is a big 4 year old.  The day Addi was born was the scariest day of my life.  It was also a day that I learned that God can take ANY situation and turn it all around.  I wrote about what happened  here.  We love our Addisyn Hope and feel so grateful that God chose us to be her parents.

This morning, Aunt Ashley dropped off a dozen donuts and Jessi.  Addi loved eating her chocolate birthday donut.

Yummy!!!

We asked Addi what she wanted to do for her special day.  She wanted to take a trip to the splash pad and to go out for snow cones. We got ready and made our first visit of the summer.  Funny story, we drove past our favorite splash pad to try out a new one.  When we pulled into the new to us splash pad, we noticed 3 daycare buses unloading.  With that many kids, Jason and I knew it would be very hard to keep an eye on all 4 of our kiddos plus Jessi.  We drove to the next closest splash pad and the water wasn't on.  The same thing happened at the next one too.  We started considering going to the lake. We pulled up to another splash pad and thought we were in luck.  Before we got out of the van, the water turned off.  An hour, 4 splash pads, 3 towns and who knows how much gas later, we ended up back at our favorite one. ha!  The kids were so excited to get out of the van and into the water! (Get ready for A LOT of pictures!!!)


Evan



Payton

Jessi - She is so funny!

Everytime Karsyn got to the sunflower, she had to say, "Addi look!  It's water!"  So cute!  She's getting so big!

Karsyn

The birthday girl - Addi

Karsyn

Silly sisters - Karsyn & Addi

One of my favorite pictures of the day - Evan & Jessi

Payton



Payton



Addi - Doesn't her face say it all?

Payton & Evan

Evan

Evan

Addi

Payton

Jumping Payton

Addi jumping too!  My favorite picture of her from the day!

Addi in her Seahorse Swimsuit!



Addi and Karsyn were trying to jump for me.  Karsyn just started jumping with both feet off of the ground this week.



Another jumping Addi

Jessi & Evan

Payton & Jessi

We had a blast!  My friend Hannah and her boys were at the Splash Pad too.  I enjoyed visiting with her.  We are planning a play date soon.  I am so happy that I got so many pictures of not only Addi's face, but her big smile!  That is NOT an easy feat. =)  After dinner, we'll go for snow cones.  Happy Birthday Addi!  We love you so much!!!