More catching up...

Reagan. Nine years strong and getting more high maintenance by the day. Poor dog!

cute Lainey feet :)

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We had my college friends over for dinner on Sunday, and while it was totally bonkers with all the kids, it was such a fun night!

little Ella

Paxton

We have officially moved from trains to cars…

Queen Lainey

Princess Alise

Ashlyn

18 years of friendship!

Ella! :)

Taking pictures with nine kids is always an adventure!

LOVE the people in this picture. :) Here's to 18 more years!

Eeeek…it's been awhile!

We've had a never-ending winter. It is just cold and damp…and staying that way. And if it's warm-ish one day, it'll be frigid the next! This Texas weather is keeping us on our toes, as always. :) Anyway, we walked to school in the "snow" the other day. A first for us! And yes, this girl still loves to eat snow…wherever she may find it…no surface is off-limits in her mind. A little gross. ;)

Walker had "Donuts with Dad" last Friday. :) His answers are so funny!!

Walker and his daddy…and Brayden and his daddy in the background. :)

Olympics Opening Ceremony party…we had fun with friends! Eva, Lainey, Kohen, and Allyson. :) I love these sweet kids! (Not sure where the other FIVE kids were at this point…)

Walker has been doing a lot of "colorin'" lately. He also insists on doing "homework" when Lainey does her homework. So this is a typical assignment for Walker. We trace a Hot Wheels car, color the car according to its actual markings/designs, and then he adds a few other elements to complete the picture. Usually some fire, sometimes a sun, a road or a hill…and this particular picture has fireworks! :)

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That's it for now. I have lots of pictures to edit and then post!! I'll get to those soon, I hope! :)

Another Track

This one is not quite as cool, but we still had fun making it. I am not sure who gets more excited about the track - me or Walker. :)

Cool Race Track

We were SO proud of ourselves! And below is the video showing off our cool track! :)

Walker's original plan was for his track to have "Ten cars, one pair of pants, some colors for the cars to do coloring, paper boxes for ramps, a ramp, a garbage truck, and a fire truck." (We substituted a pair of [clean] underwear for the pair of pants. They are tucked in the Cinderella carriage, supporting the paper tube. And we didn't use the paper boxes, nor did we have the colors. But we did okay without those necessary components.) ;)

The FLU

It hit our house. Thankfully, given that we've all been vaccinated in some form or fashion, it didn't hit us too hard. Walker got it Friday, Lainey got it Sunday, and Ben and I barely scathed by…thanks to Tamiflu. 

Lainey's latest obsession: The Phantom of the Opera. She has a love/hate relationship with that mask. She's fascinated by it, yet a bit scared of it, also.

A boy's mind…

It's a machine. Of some kind. :)

We went a bit overboard on the bubbles. A great way to end a sick day spent at home. :)

Total crazies!

Perot Museum

I finally took the kids to the Perot Museum. What an adventure! It was so fun!

Walker and Evan, mesmerized by the show about planets and outer space

Eva

Walker was this happy the whole time. He laughed and raced around and giggled and smiled and just loved the whole experience. I've truly never seen him so happy for such an extended period of time. He loved everything about the museum!

very excited girls: Lainey, Allyson, Anna

Blake. Happy, happy, happy ALL the time.

a simulated earthquake

watching a tornado

the tornado

weather forecasters

group picture :)

They were so funny. :) They thought so, too!

Happy boy! (He has gotten a haircut since this picture was taken…yay!)

examining crystals

Blake pointed at all the tanks, hoping that an animal was inside. He also did a lot of growling on the dinosaur floor. So funny!

the art center

grocery shopping

Water and boats!

Trying to leave the museum…it kept sucking us back in… :)

AND I'm including this picture to illustrate what a day in the life of Lainey is like. She is a mess! After we got home from the museum, she created this disaster in about an hour. No lie. The bright side? She plays very well independently and knows how to entertain herself with her dollies. (And we are not allowed to witness her playing with her dollies - she makes me leave the room so she can play.) It actually didn't take all that long to clean up. Most everything has a home, so we just had to spend a bit of time making sure that everything returned to its proper spot!