Dylan turned 37 this week.  He is aging like a fine wine.  He dunked at the gym this morning just to prove he still has it in his old age.  😜  Man, do I love this guy.

Elena was sick today so I got an unexpected day home with these guys.  All errands (and hair appointment 😫 ) put to the side and just some QT time with my oldest (Carmen) and youngest (Luke). 

This is what you get when it's Western Day at school and ...

1. Your son refuses to wear boots (which is ok because he doesn't have any that fit.)

2. You ask them to say Yee-Haw while taking a picture

3. You're son is so much like his father, he can't take a normal picture for the life of him.😂

Saturday afternoon was beautiful so we decided to head out to the Stock Show and Rodeo, however...after spending way too much money on rides, we left without seeing any animals.  Oops!  The kids had a blast on the rides though.  

65 degrees in January?  I'll take it.  We headed out to the park to burn some energy and get some fresh air!  The littles had fun swinging and Druz flew his plane/car...he also got it stuck in a tree but we managed to wiggle it out with the help of a 10 foot stick we found.

Tatum scored 4 goals in her first basketball game of the season.  She was so proud. She absolutely loves that her Daddy coaches her.  She is so determined in everything she does.  I love her heart for always wanting to do her best and never giving up, even if it seems an unlikely feat!

Druz had his very first basketball game this past weekend.  He scored his first goal on the first play of the game.  His team made two great passes and then Druz sunk his shot.  It was great!!!

It was Tatums turn to say the prayer Sunday morning at breakfast but she wasn't feeling well so Camdyn said it instead.  That night at dinner Camdyn was so sweet and said it was Tatums turn to say the prayer since she didn't get to for breakfast.  Saying the prayer at our meals is a big highlight and privilege in our house.  They used to fight over who got to say it so we rotate now.  I hate to say I love that my kids fight but when they are fighting over something like this, I feel like I have done something right along the way. 

Luke is starting to be funny with people he doesn't know as well.  He LOVES his Daddy, for sure.  He opens every cabinet and drawer that he comes across.  He doesn't really get in to much, just loves opening and closing.  I'm sure its only a matter of time before everything is taken out and on the floor!

Memory Making Monday

Just a few little kid bits from our last week...

These bad boys arrived for Tatum, which means its the start of BASKETBALL SEASON...or as Dylan calls it, "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

These 4.  They can drive me completely crazy and fill my heart all within a matter of seconds.  Luke turned 10 months this week and, as I joked on Instagram...my kids all got along for .5 seconds to celebrate...I wonder what they will gift for month 11. 😑

Druz got new basketball shoes too.  They had their first practices (both Tatum and Druz) on Thursday.  Since Daddy is the coach they are required to not only play the part but LOOK the part too!

I'm training for a 15k right now, so I've been carving out some time in my week to go for some runs.  This little guy was right up on the fence as I ran by so I figure he just wanted a picture with me, I obliged.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!  Tatum has been a GirlScout for 3 years now.  Our troop always chose to not sell cookies.  They were so young and we just decided to wait.  Well, this is the year for the girls to start selling and Tatum couldn't have been more excited.  I will admit I was a little excited too.  We pre-ordered some cookies but they weren't to arrived until after the first day of official selling so I drove out to Fort Worth to pick up these cases of cookies, just so my girl could get out and sell on day 1!

On a side note, I had also spent the entire morning in CareNow because I thought I had strep (negative).  After getting a steroid shot, antibiotics, and prescription cough meds, I took off to the zoo.  I have no idea where our kids get their competitive spirit, with parent like us.  😂😜😁

My girl, making her first sale!

Druz got a huge StarWars Leo set for Christmas.  He has been begging to get it started.  Dylan FINALLY gave in and decided to start this dude endeavor.  It will likely take weeks to assemble, but they sat together just the two of them and worked on it for an hour this week.  Druz couldn't be more excited to get to have some special one on one time with his Dad!

Tatum didn't have school Monday because it was MLK Day.  My Aunt Gina, bought 3 boxes of cookies from her over the weekend and asked that we donate them to the homeless.  With an extra day off, the whole family home and no plans, we set out to make her wish our command.  Tatum picked out three boxes of cookies and off we went.

Admittedly we drove up and down a known street in a bad area of Fort Worth and kind of scoped out the best place to hand these cookies out.  We decided this lady sitting outside this convenience store would be a good start.  She actually declined the cookies, but thats ok.  We tried.  We headed up the street a little ways and found some others who gladly took our cookies.  Tatum was a little timid at first but was happy with the end results!

To reward ourselves for our morning good deed, we had lunch at Fred's...an old favorite from when we lived in Fort Worth.

Then popsicles at Steel City Pops...a new favorite!

While eating our popsicles this huge dog came by and Camdyn's eyes lit up like the 4th of July!  She just HAD to pet it.  He was bigger than her!

Tatum is one determined little girl.  I wasn't sure how the GirlScout sales thing would go and thought maybe it would just be me selling but she has such determination and excitement about selling.  She has lugged her wagon around the neighborhood, calculated how much money people owe her, practiced her sales schpeel and has had fun while doing it.

Druz absolutely LOVES spending time with his Daddy right now.  He was so happy to start putting those legos together and to just sit and spend time with him.  

Camdyn is such an animal lover, she wants to pet and care for every animal she sees.  I hope I always remember the look on her face when she saw the Great Dane.

Luke never ceases to amaze me.  He has been my first kid who just isn't a huge eater.  He rarely finished a bottle and is starting to push away baby food.  He prefers food he can show on.  He is DYING to walk and wants down to move around almost everywhere.  It can be a little challenging when he gets squirmy but I know once he is walking...gone are the days of my baby cuddles and sitting on my lap for long periods.  

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I wanted to post a quote fly MLK Jr. to commemorate the day, but I couldn't just pick one.  Right now in our world, we need love more than ever before.

Amazon Fresh

I'm trying out Amazon Fresh for the first time... I did the Walmart online pick up and it worked well, but if I can have them delivered to my door...this may just be my new thing.  I will say they didn't have some items I usually get so I would have to still make a trip to the store but I'd rather just run in and out instead of dealing with the masses and taking an hour of my precious time.

All my groceries, delivered to my door and neatly packaged.  I love Amazon!!!😍

Memory Maker Monday

One of my goals for 2017 is to keep up with this thing!  Man, since baby #3, I just haven't done a very good job and it makes me sad since this will be a big part of how I remember my babies growing up.  Let's be honest...this season of life can be rough and I forget A LOT...which is probably for the best. I mean, I wouldn't have had more than one kid if I remembered a lot of what we go through as a mom of littles!  #canigetanamen???

Just a quick reflection for myself and a new year...

I've recently felt overwhelmed.  I even posted a marathon length post on IG about it, which is very unlike me, but hey, new year, new me, right?  It's all completed created by me.  Dylan is so great at doing his share around here and helping with the kids and being at all our events and well, just being him.  Making us laugh and providing whatever we need.

I can't help but have this feeling that we need to SIMPLIFY our lives.  Over the last few years, Dylan and I have really grown in our faith and while I know God answers our prayers, this week I feel like He was straight up talking to me, shaking me, even.  He has been trying to tell me for a while now to SLOW DOWN, GET RID OF THE EXTRA.  I'm finally listening and so far it's felt GREAT!  We had a very slow Sunday, for reasons you will read below...and it was so nice to get a few things picked up around the house.  Just something as simple as that!

I find myself doing lots of little things and never actually completing one whole task or project, so at the end of the day, I feel in complete chaos because I see all these things that need to get done and can not for the life of me figure out how I didn't get ANYTHING done that day.  One of the things I'm committing to doing is completing one thing at a time!  Even if I have 100 things to do, I need to focus on one single thing then move on to the next.  Multitasking just wasn't working anymore so I'm trying something new!

We took a family bike ride to the soccer fields...it was about 5 miles round trip and the kids did great! Dylan ended up with a flat tire and I borrowed a bike from a friend that lived along our route but other than that we had a great time and laughed about it because in this house, there is NEVER a dull moment!

I decided Memory Maker Monday would be a good time to reflect on the last week.  I also want to make a point to remember one special thing or memory for each of my little munchkins...

So here goes:

Tatum had a great indoor soccer game on Thursday.  She was super aggressive (in a good way) and really put her all into the game.  I absolutely LOVE watching all the kids play sports and when I can tel they are putting their whole heart into it, it makes mine want to explode!

I couldn't decide which to use, so you get both! Neither are great of me, but I love the girls in them.  Even, the blurry one!

Camdyn had a super rough weekend which ended in a trip to the ER late Saturday night.  She woke up Saturday morning with a high fever so we laid around in hopes she would recover, but no such luck.  We let her sleep in the guest room that night, which is downstairs so that we could hear her if she needed anything through the night.  Sure enough she did.  I'm not exactly sure how it happened (bc I had the bed lined with pillows) but she fell off the bed in the middle of the night and smacked her face on the hardwood floor.  She was screaming, which woke me and I made a mad dash for her.  When I opened the door to the room, she was just standing there screaming and very disoriented, then she vomits and when she looks up I see she has a bloody nose.  My Poor Baby!!!  I quickly took her to the rest room where she had a hard time making sense of anything.  She was stumbling and off balance and still throwing up.  She manages to explain how she fell off the bed and then I make the decision to take her to the ER.  She fever was 103+ the whole day and then with this possible concussion, I wasn't taking any chances.

In the end she tested positive for strep, which was completed a shock since she didn't have ANY strep symptoms, so we left with a couple prescriptions and a few hours of sleep to catch up on.  It took us another day and lots of drugs to get her fever down.  It was scary.  Uncontrollable shakes and nothing was helping with the fever, she wouldn't eat, etc.  Glad we are through the tough part of this one.  She won't be going to school tomorrow.  She still needs another day to get over this and some time with her mama should do the trick!

In just about any other case, I would be bitter or just annoyed that the kids were sick after already feel so overwhelmed, but I didn't.  I felt CAPABLE!  I was already feeling over my limits and then the kids got sick, so there were sleepless nights (at least 3 in a row so far) and extra time needing to be spent loving on my babies...but at the end of the day, when they were all tucked into bed, I felt CAPABLE.  I can do this.  Even after I felt stretched to my limits, I some how powered through and we all survived (successfully, might I add) another day!  No bitterness, just a little extra love for everyone and who doesn't want that?!?!?!?!

This was after a dose of her meds

Luke woke up with a little cold, I'm hoping thats all it is and doesn't get much worse but who knows. He is pulling up on everything these days and will try to stand on his own for a few seconds before falling on his behind.  He is still just the happiest little thing and we love how chill this kid is in all situations.

Druz had a slow week.  All the kids went back to school on Tuesday.  Druz usually has some activity after school but this week, he only had soccer on Friday.  I took him by myself (which is rare since we usually divide and conquer) but this time it was just me and him so I got to watch him on the field without distraction.  He was just happy to be out there playing.  It was great to watch him smiling and running around with his friends.

Today, we usually take Camdyn to dance but since she was under the weather, we stayed home.  Druz and I get some one on one time in the car while she dances and the baby usually naps in his seat, so Druz and I get to read and talk and just do a little catching up.  Today was a little different but I still made sure we got to catch up.  We had a mean game of Checkers, where he won, fair and square.

Happy New Year, Friends!

Snow in Texas

Laugh if you will, but the kids were thrilled to see snow this morning!

Trying to get some over due projects done this week.  Whatever will this be??? EEK!

Colorado

We set off for Colorado to spend New Years.  Since we were so close to the mountains we decided to take advantage of the time there and go ski for a day.  The big kids have never been so it was time to see if they are in or out on the cold weather sports!

We stayed at a condo in Winter Park for 2 nights and left the little kids with Aunt Lulu, Gammie, G-Pop and the cousins.  I was feeling pretty guilt leaving the littles but after it was all said and done, there was no way we could have lugged all the kids and their equipment through the resort and kept our sanity.  Even with childcare it would have been tough.  We are so very thankful we have family willing to love on our babies while we are away!  

While Winter Park was a really nice place, it was a big frustrating with all the crowds!  I've never been skiing with so many people.  It took over an hour just to get on the first lift...but once we got on the mountain it was beautiful views and great skiing.

All of us had so much fun, skiing, playing with cousins, and just hanging out with our family.  The kids traveled amazingly well!  We usually drive at night so the kids can sleep and we can get wherever we are going a little faster, but we decided to go during the day.  4 kids and 12 hours in the car could have been detrimental to our health but they did GREAT, which means, WE did great! 😜

Our happy campers in the car...we only stopped twice!

Our snow bunnies all suited up and ready for ski school!

The grown-ups getting some kid free ski time!

Showing us all they learned at the end of the day.  We took them up the mountain after ski school was over.  Tatum did so good and will be able to ski like a pro after another lesson or two.  Druz did amazing too!  He needs a little more practice on stopping 😁 but other than that he is a ski king!  They can't wait to go back!

The little kids got to go to the park with the rest of the crew while we skied.

Once we headed back to Lu's house we had some fun day trips planned.  We headed out to the Butterfly Pavillion for a few hours and got to see lots of critters and butterflies.

These girls have no fear!  They were so excited to hold a tarantula!

There was a room that was set up like a rain forest and had tons of different types of butterflies, flying around.  It was really cool to hear about them and see how beautiful they are.

The next day we went ice skating.  Tatum said, this was what she REALLY wanted to do while we were in Colorado.  Uncle Matt found a rink close by and off we went.

Dylan and G-Pop got a good work out in pulling the kids around the ice on their sleds.

Everyone got involved in the fun!

Tatum took a little spill and hit her head on the railing pretty hard.  After taking a little break, she through a hat on and off we went for some more fun.

These girls.  Violet got make-up for Christmas so this was a big hit for their New Years celebration!

Every since Druz has taken over dog feeding duties, we have noticed a few (or more) pieces of dog food laying around in the garage floor, next to the bin where the dog food is kept.  About a month ago, I pulled out the bin to refill it and noticed quite a bit of, what looked like, mouse poop.  Dylan, decided to set a couple traps and see what turned up.  If you look closely you will notice this is not a mouse, it is in fact a RAT!  One down, a million more to go, I'm sure.

Its mid November and almost 90 degrees outside.  I'll admit, I love it.  I don't care if it ever gets cold. Some people say its hard to get into the holiday spirit when it stays so warm, but not me.  I'll take it!  

I took the kids to the park while Tatum was at dance, then went back after I picked up Tatum so we could enjoy the last couple hours of short and t-shirt weather!