Camping

Jayden really, really, really wanted to go camping for his birthday.  We pulled him out of school a little early on Friday to make it that much more exciting for him.  This is sad to admit, but this was our first family camping trip.  Not being from the south, every year we thought about going, it was either too hot in the summer for us north blooded folk, or I was sick and pregnant, or we had a baby, or the excuses just kept coming.  Josh and I both love camping, but whatever, we just never went.  So we couldn't pass up 75 degrees on a November weekend.  It ended up being a lot of fun, and we were freezing at night, but we got to enjoy our first hot chocolate of the season. So much fun, we can't wait to go again.  It was really hard to come back to reality.  Jayden's only requirement for where we went was that we had to go fishing.  We had a place picked out with a waterfall and a 500 year old tree, but the day before we were supposed to go, it down poured and left the park under 5 feet of water.  So we found another place.  The kids looooved fishing.  We didn't catch anything, but they loved it anyway, and can't wait to go again. All pictures of fishing are on Josh's phone. They loved campfires, making s'mores, bedtime stories in the tent, and exploring the forest. Tanner was a champ.  He loves the outdoors.

Jayden called this the Mario stump, and was spinning around down into it. 

8 Years Old!

Jayden turned 8 last week.  Eight is a big deal.  He'll be baptized soon.  It's still weird to think about.  I'm pretty sure I say every year how crazy it is the kids are one year older, but it always is.  A little older, a little further away from being the babies they were; I can't help but get nostalgic. I have every intention of taking some nice photos of him for this special age, we'll just see when it will actually happen.  So for now, here are birthday pictures.

 He wanted to go to Rainforest Café for dinner. This picture is him looking up during one of the animal stampedes.

 He wanted an Angry Birds cake again this year.  It was the perfect low key, family birthday.

10 Months

At 10 months, Tanner can stand for several seconds.

No new teeth to report.

His baby chub is melting off, it's a sad day.

Being the 3rd child, he has learned to go with the flow pretty well.  I wake him up at 7:00 a.m. to take Jayden to school.  He doesn't complain, but sits patiently in the car, waiting for breakfast. I can wake him up from a nap if needed to go somewhere, which I prefer not to, but if I have to, he is normally ok with it.  That is definitely a first for my kids.

He is learning to dislike getting into the car seat.  He usually fights it, but once he's in, he's fine.



Brazos Bend State Park

There is a state park that is full of gators around here.  We didn't know that prime season is in the spring, so we only saw one.  But the park was really pretty (for Texas standards). We went in the evening, and the weather was great, we enjoyed the sunset, and being able to let the kids run wild.

 

We found a really cool climbing tree.

We can always count on Sidney for something like this.



Blessington Farms

One of my favorite things about Fall.  The pumpkin patch!  Muddy, wonderful fun!

 

This ride was a blast.  It was super bumpy, and it lasted a really long time, even Josh and I couldn't stop smiling.  The kids sat behind us, and they couldn't stop laughing.