Meet in the Middle

October was a busy month! I think we missed 5 out of 6 weeks of church because we were out of town or I was running races so often. Glad things have calmed down a tad since then. Anyway, we were super grateful to some friends who let us crash their house while they were away in Abilene for ACU homecoming. My siblings and mom took advantage of their beautiful home and the location in Ft. Worth which made it an excellent meeting point - in the middle of all of us! 

It was fun to get together with everyone. We had some delicious meals, the kids loved jumping on the trampoline with Granny Rae, eating our favorite Dr. Pendergrass cupcakes and a fun time watching my sister do her latest talent - professional organizing. She organized our friend's pantry for them!  Does this make anyone else want to open up their home to us for next year's family reunion -haha, just kidding! 

Apparently, we didn't take any group pictures, except for my mom with the grandkids. 

However, I did try to do a birthday photo shoot with Tatum that pretty much failed miserably. She was super tired and apparently wasn't a big fan of cake (she must take after her father). 

She wouldn't dig into the cake and got really fussy and crawled away. Then she got even madder because she didn't like the feel of the grass on her bare legs! 

We tried to throw her in some bath water, but that was the final straw. 

Poor birthday girl!

Thanks to the Hejls for opening up their home to us. It totally beat cramming into a hotel room with 3 small kids for the weekend!! We are thankful for friends like you guys. And thankful for family that is willing to drive to spend time with us and our crazy kids. Love you all! 

October Science Experiment

I was reading a blog from a homeschooling mom about watching pumpkins decay as a way of teaching some science to her kids. I thought that could be fun, so we bought and carved a pumpkin. We sat it on our back porch and began to watch it. 

What do you know, it actually starts to rain in Austin, which enhances the decomposition of the pumpkin. It was REALLY cool to watch because each hour we would check on the pumpkin and could easily see many changes. 

The boys wanted to touch the mold, so I gave them straws. They enjoyed sticking them through the soft pumpkin skin. 

Tatum, meanwhile, was exploring the slide. This quickly became her new favorite toy.

Here is the pumpkin the last day I allowed it to sit in the back yard. A pretty scary sight, don't ya think? Maybe I should have sat it on our front porch for Halloween!

And what do you know, Tatum found her way back to the slide. 

 She's busy with a discovery of her own - the velocity, angles and techniques needed to S

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                                                                          I

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                                                                                    E.

Swimming in September

Here's a little bit about what we've been up to this summer. Lots of afternoon snacks on the back porch...

Swimming on the back porch...

and afternoon naps in our cozy beds..

Tatum's 10 month shoot

I entered an online contest and actually won (unbelievable I know)! One of the things in my prize pack was this cute little pillbox hat from Monkey Shine Designs! I couldn't help but take some beautiful pictures of my daughter as the model.

Love this face :)

The boys tagged along for the photoshoot also. They enjoyed watching the trains that went by as we were at the train station in Abilene. 

Here we are on the drive home. Cramped quarters on a road trip with 3 kids! (You can kinda see the top of Tatum's head in the bottom right corner.) Since then we've rearranged the carseats and turned Tatum around/forward-facing and have them all on the same row. Fun times in the Dishmobile. 

Rent-a-boat

Despite the fact that Ty HATES WITH A PASSION Groupon, I bought a Groupon for a boat rental on Lady Bird Lake with dinner for 2. I was thinking we could have a romantic date on the lake, just the two of us hanging out in peace and quiet, basking in the glow of the sunset. 

Then, I thought about our sons who without fail notice the boats on the river every time we cross the bridge. I thought of our boys who would love watching the bats fly out from under the Congress bridge at sunset. And, as you can tell by the pictures, we decided to make this once romantic affair into a family affair. (To be accurate, we did leave Tatum at home with a babysitter. She goes to bed at 6:30pm, so a fussy baby on a boat would definitely be no fun!)

O Captain, our Captain

Hmm... probably should've photoshopped this one a bit more, but am too tired to do that now :(

The Groupon provided 2 dinner plates (fajitas from the Hyatt hotel) which were delicious. We brought some dinner and a dessert for the boys and a bottle of wine for us and were good to go on food for the evening. The boys loved the chips and queso. 

We had such a fun night as a family on the lake. I will say that it was a bit stressful to navigate the boat as there are several areas of shallow water we had to steer around and we didn't want to break the rental boat. I would definitely plan to buy this Groupon again, but next time maybe go with some friends and hire a captain so we could just relax! And while Ty may not be anymore pro Groupon after this experience, he would hopefully agree this one was worth it. 

September

I took some pictures of Colt recently that I really like. This is Colt at age 4.

He loves our dog, who doesn't love the camera this particular day.

Someone else wanted in on the camera action too.

This is the dress Tatum wore to my brother's wedding this summer. We realized she didn't get any good pictures in it, so I took a few in our backyard for my mom (she bought the outfit - Thanks!)

First Day of Pre-school!! 

The boys are back at Noah's Ark this year. We love the kid's teachers, but I'll post more on them later. Levi even has the same teachers that Colt had when he was in the 2s class!

Showing their ages

Levi LOVED his first week of school (they go Tues/Thurs). But, after the first week, he has been throwing a fit at every drop off ever since. Colt also continues to resist drop off time but they both do well a few minutes after I leave. They both love the playground and Levi is usually really proud of his art projects. Colt enjoys show and tell and telling on the little boys in his class who get in trouble :/