Sunday, November 6, 2016

October 2016

THE MAYBORN MUSEUM

One of our favorite things about living in Waco is the amazing Mayborn Museum on Baylor campus.  Here is Abby enjoying some flowers in the garden that is part of the historic village.  I love how pretty her red hair is in the sunlight.

Audrey found a flower she liked.
Her favorite part is the playroom where she can climb on the bus and sing her favorite song: "The Wheels on the Bus."
She likes driving the firetruck as well.
Maddy all dressed up to put on a play.
Audrey shopping for some food.
Nathan repairing a brick wall.

The kids love one of the new rooms that allows them to design and build all sorts of fun things.

Audrey mailing a letter.

AUDREY BEAR










It's been super hot this October, so the kids were excited when it finally rained and cooled off a bit.  When Audrey woke up she asked for her coat and wanted to go outside.  I thought she just wanted to watch the rain from our covered back porch.  Instead she went and stood out in it so she could feel it fall on her.  

I've started taking Audrey to storytime every week and she absolutely loves it.  The older kids love it too since they can go check out new books every week.

When Jared gets home he often takes his shoes off and puts his feet up since he is tired from being on his feet all day.  Audrey thinks this is great since she likes wearing "Daddy's BIG shoes!"

Audrey loves popcorn, so she was super excited to have a popcorn & movie night with cousins.

RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 

In desperation to find a fun family outing in Texas, we drove down south to one of the biggest renaissance festivals in the country.  It wasn't quite what we expected (more the other festival goers rather than the craftspeople and performers--think the biggest gathering of weird, overweight, biker chick meets nerdy cosplay-types in super immodest chain mail underwear, and you get the idea) but we still managed to have some fun despite the 90 degree weather.



The kids had fun jumping super high on these bungee enhanced trampolines.





The best part of the festival was probably the jousting tournament in the big arena.

There were some musicians performing some traditional music, and we enjoyed watching glass blowing too.

HALLOWEEN
The kids were super cute in their matching skeleton PJs from Grandma.  The bones on their jammies glow in the dark, so they did a fun skeleton dance for us in the dark.
Jared helped Maddy carve this pretty mermaid pumpkin.
We did a homeschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.
Welcome y'all!
Picking out pumpkins to decorate.



Audrey enjoyed the hayride.
Probably the older kids' favorite part was jumping and climbing on the giant hay bales.

Bowling

Maddy with the pumpkin she decorated
Nathan with his pumpkin






We did family costumes for the first time.  We couldn't fine a cute Hedwig costume for Audrey, so Jared used his sewing and design skills to make this super cute one for Audrey.



Our friends invited us over for a super fun Halloween party.  The kids had fun making haunted gingerbread houses.


Harry Potter and the Pumpkin Pinata


Audrey loves her owl costume and insists on her owl hat everyday.

TRICK OR TREATING




Ready to go trick or treating with cousins.
The kids got tons of candy.  I was hoping that Audrey would forget about it after she went to sleep.  The next morning she woke up and the first thing she said was, "Audrey bucket, LOTS of candy!"


Sunday, October 9, 2016

Our Caboose


Due to a difficult pregnancy and recovery we thought we were done having kids after Audrey, but we felt that despite the risks, we wanted to try for one last baby. 


 Our baby's first pictures.  11 Weeks old!



Audrey helped us out with our pregnancy announcement.  She is excited to be a big sister.

Due to my "advance maternal age" we were offered genetic testing and we found out that the baby looks healthy so far and that we are having a girl!  Nathan was really upset and burst into tears because he wanted "a brother that's alive."  I think he was really looking forward to having a brother to share his room with.  We think we may have to get him a dog and live close to some of his boy cousins to make up for it.  We haven't decided on a name for sure, but our current top choice is Brooklyn Grace.  We are excited to welcome this last addition to our family.


September 2016

NEW HOMESCHOOL YEAR BEGINS

2nd Day of School (I forgot to take pictures on the first day)


Audrey wanted a picture with her jingle bells.

THE ZOO
This year we decided to have Wonderful Wednesday instead of Fun Friday as our easy homeschool/field trip day.  It is nice because we usually get the zoo and the children's museum to ourselves (Fridays often are busy with school field trip groups).
Enjoying the zoo with cousins.

FAMILY FUN
We took a big family trip up to the temple and Costco & Winco.  Jared took the kids to the American Girl Store and the Lego Store while I did a session, and I took the kids out to lunch while Jared took a turn.  Audrey has been obsessed with the temple ever since.  She really likes the grounds and the flower gardens.
Audrey really likes the dog statue at Old Navy.  She is getting to the point where I can't take her with me to shop for clothes because she has an opinion of what she likes and insists on trying on pink coats and shiny shoes.

The girls all dressed up for a tea party at Activity Days.

At the Mayborn.
Tea Party
Audrey dressed up
Don't you know you should stick out your tongue when you pose for the camera?
Our little pioneer girl

Maddy is now able to do two pull ups.  We are proud of her hard work at gymnastics.  Getting stronger!

End of September and we are still having temperatures in the mid 90s.   It is nice being able to swim with cousins every week.
Maddy made a diving bell for one of her LEGO figures as part of our science lesson.

THOMAS' 4th BIRTHDAY

The kids blowing out the candles on Thomas' cake.  We also looked at his save box, and it was nice to revisit happy memories and to help Audrey get to know her big brother.  When she prays she says every family member's name to pray for them, and ever since Thomas' birthday, she has started including "baby Thomas" in her prayer list.