Preschool, Pumpkins, and More

Here's Brenna at the cute farm-themes photo area at the library.

We went to the rodeo for the 2nd year in a row.

McKell enjoyed feeding the goats during her preschool field trip 

to the pumpkin patch.

My parents came to visit for a few days the end of October.

We went to the park, but it was too hot to play 

so the girls ended up at the splash pad instead.

Welcome to Autumn in Texas!

We split into 2 teams to carve pumpkins.

Team Ashlyn/McKell chose to do a princess.

And team Kaylee/Ashlyn picked a baseball player 

(in honor of the Cubs making it to the postseason!)

Happenings

It's time to play catch-up on my blog! Here are some happenings from Sept and Oct:

Russ had a birthday. Shout hooray!

Ashlyn ran for student council at school. It was a tight race and she didn't get elected, but it was a good experience for her. And she used her creativity to the fullest in designing her flyers and poster. (The poster says: I promise to SKOR you a super fun year, to work EXTRA hard to fill Bowen Elementary with MOUNDS of JOY. And to make this the best student council in the MILKY WAY!) 

Ashlyn and Russ went on a super date to Six Flags San Antonio and spent the day riding all the crazy roller coasters they could find

And we discovered that pulling out a fun puzzle is a great way to keep everyone in the room and out of trouble during General Conference. :)

Weekend Adventures

September turned out to be a pretty busy month (but I'm thinking that's just the normal for our life right now, especially since school started again).

We snuck in some super fun things amid all the normal busy-ness though.

We have good friends who moved to the Dallas area 1 1/2 years ago. In May the wife, Brittany, texted me to see if I was interested in going with her to a "Time Out for Women" event up there being held in September. I said yes, so we planned to take the whole family up so we could all visit our friends and hang out for the weekend.

I didn't take many pictures, partially because I was gone to the conference all day Saturday, but here are some I snapped of each of the girls with their friends (all our kids ages match up exactly except for Brenna, who is a year younger than their 3rd).

McKell and Parker

Brenna and Bella

Ashlyn and Loralai

Kaylee & Caleb

The following weekend we took a day trip out to the zoo in Waco. We had recently realized that McKell's previous (and only) visit to a zoo was more than 2 years ago, when she was like 18 months old. Definitely due for another one.

The girls remembered this life size Kimodo Dragon statue from our last visit.

Look how little they were then!

This is what McKell thought of many of the animals. :)

We spent some extra time in this building,
since we were greeted by a massive downpour when we opened the door to leave.

The gibbons were the very last animals we saw, and they were awesome. We could have watched them for hours.

We had a really fun day together. Hopefully it won't be 2 1/2 years before we make a return trip.

Back to School 2016

August 22nd was the first day of school for all 4 girls. We're 3 weeks into the school year now and life feels SO BUSY! The length of the school day was increased throughout the district, which means Ashlyn and Brenna are getting home later. And Kaylee is in middle school now, and riding a bus, so she gets home way later than she used to. We're adjusting to our new normal though.

McKell is in preschool 3 mornings per week. She enjoys school, especially recess. :) 

Brenna is a big 1st Grader now. She was pretty excited to find out she would have Mrs. Potts for a teacher, since Ashlyn had her previously and raved about how great she is. 

Ashlyn is in 4th grade, and since the district is doing some re-alignment next fall, this will be her last year at the elementary school. She has Ms. Endsley for homeroom, but gets to rotate between all 3 of the 4th grade teachers each day. She has had all good things to say about her teachers so far, and I'm crossing my fingers for a great year!

 And here's Kaylee, our grown-up 6th grader. She has felt somewhat overwhelmed with the number of classes and teachers to keep track of, and stressed by the longer school day which means less time for homework and studying. She's doing great though, and already got perfect scores on several of her exams.

McKell is FOUR!!!

Our adorable, spunky, little girl turned 4 on August 21st. She was SO excited about her birthday this year. She has recently become very interested in Dora the Explorer, so the gift she asked for was a Dora house, and she requested a Dora cake. 

For some reason she struggles with normal smiles for the camera.
This crazy face is pretty fun though.

All the sisters are excited when it's time to open presents. 

Saving the best for last - she had to search for her Dora house after opening everything else. 

I couldn't think of a feasible way to make a great Dora cake, so I did what I often do when the kids request some character cake: buy a toy and stick it on. :) McKell did get to choose all the candies to decorate her "Dora house" cake.

We had a fun day celebrating, and truthfully, every day with McKell is fun. She's such a bright and beloved part of our family.

Summer Vacation - Utah

We flew from Portland, OR to Las Vegas, NV, then rented a car and drove 2 hours to St. George, UT where my family had rented an awesome home for us to stay in for our reunion. We arrived Thursday and stayed until Tuesday.

Our reunion began with an outing to see a production of the musical "Peter Pan". We all wore our new neon green Walton shirts. :)

Cute cousins!

Ready for a fun afternoon at the local swimming pool.

The Summer Olympics began while we were together, so we had to plan an Olympics party of our own, complete with a torch relay, long jump competition, high jump event . . .

and a medals ceremony. Here are the older kids.

And the younger ones.

McKell was twinning with the Barbie she won.

Russ was the family puzzle master. He worked almost non-stop until all 1000 pieces were in place.

We had a sports themed baby shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Linda and Jared's baby boy. Here's Brenna taking a turn in the relay.

And this picture of Adam shows how much he loves being with us all. :)

Nate and Adam planned an "Amazing Race" where we split into 3 teams and competed in different events and challenges each day.

Rafe's amazing puzzle skills propelled the blue team to victory on this challenge!

The selection for our annual movie party was "The Lego Movie", so of course the meal of choice was Taco Tuesday.

Good looking bunch of Master Builders.

Ashlyn's tablet made her very popular among the cousins.

These cuties enjoyed the ice cream that was everyone's reward at the end of the Amazing Race.

And it wouldn't be a gathering of Waltons without game nights.

I sure love my fabulous family!!!