{Perot Museum:: Dallas}

The Perot Museum was HUGE and has so many cool thing for Adults, big kids, and the little kids. We spent a good chunk of the day here and only saw/did a fraction of it.

 

 Grayson is such a wild man that we got a backpack leash for this trip and thank goodness he really likes it once its on. And Ryker is even a super big helper and loves to "walk" Gray. The funny part about putting one of my kids in these is when I was in 6th grade and went to Disneyland for the first time with my friend Laura "kid leashes" were just becoming a big thing and I remember saying to Laura "who would actually put their kid on a leash like a dog?" and some lady over heard me {shocker I know with my super quiet voice and all} and her response to some dumb 11 year old was "You just wait until you have kids and try and take them to a busy place like Disneyland and not lose them" Well YEP I now have one for my kid and I am happy to say I didn't lose him because of it and I have eaten my words again when it comes to "things I will NEVER do". Story of my life!  

 I love that the whole week before this vacation Ryker kept saying "I love that silly Lilly" and "Mom Lilly is just SOOOO SILLY!!" We love you sweet little LJ {you still look just like a mini Jon}

 Driving this truck was Grayson's favorite part.

 Well I am glad we got at least a few photos of almost all of us but for some reason we don't know how to look at the camera when posing for a photo. Ha oh well.

I feel bad that I didn't manage to get one photo of my parents surprise 40th wedding anniversary party that we had. It was so fun to surprise them with a fun little party. Shellie had this great idea to try and recreate some parts of their wedding reception and it was my job to talk to Nana and find out more about their wedding without her know what I was doing. I loved learning more about my parents wedding and I glad we were able to pull it off. They had like everything strawberry at their reception. Strawberry frappe, éclairs with strawberry puree drizzled on top, strawberry short cake, and yellow daisy's and their colors were bright purple, blue, yellow, and pink. We also learned that my mom wanted my dad to wear a powder blue tux but he said no and now looking back he totally regrets not just wearing it for her- even though she didn't throw a fit about it. Way to make it to 40 years Nana and Papa!! We sure love ya'll and were happy to be able to celebrate with ya'll!! 

{Chilling with the Family:: Dallas}

Sunday was a nice fun relaxing day where we all just chilled and made fun memories. Joey was a little rockstar and took over my camera for me. Thanks for capturing the day Joey. You did an awesome job!

 

 Little Miss Samantha is such a good baby and I feel bad that we came out for her special day and I didn't even manage to snap a photo of her in her beautiful blessing dress. Oops! She looks so much like Arabella to me. Such pretty little girls Pete and Shellie make. They are such awesome parents and we love spending time with them.

 I love Ryker's face in the one.

 Just a little photo bombing going on.

 We were all so happy that Julio was able to make it!! It has been a long time since we have seen him. We sure love you Julio!!

 I was able to get a glimpse at what life with a newborn and Grayson will be like.... He LOVES babies A LOT!!! His new brother is going to have a hard time surviving all of his love and affection I think. We are for sure going to have to keep a much closer eye on him that what we had to with Ryker and Grayson. But his sweetness to babies does melt my heart into goo. Its so sweet when he is not trying to "share" things they will choke on.

 A large number of us play the piano and we had a little concert where everyone got to perform. The kids all loved it. And WOW Nana and Shellie are REALLY good. I was impressed that I remembered a few songs.

Jon is the "baby whisper" He sure loves his baby sister and did not want ANY help calming her down.

 dance party

Cute Pete. He is such a hard working father husband, scout master, brother and so much more. I am so thankful for all of my siblings many different skills and knowledge in so many different fields. It seems like whenever I need to speak to a specialist we have someone in the family that can help share/use their skills for us. We have a pretty amazing family and we love them all so much even though we are full of drama. It is who we are and we will always love one another and be there when we need each other. I am happy to call them My Family!

{Fancy tea party & Jamming out}

Ryker getting ready for the cousins "fancy tea party".

Fancy tea party.

They all got dressed up and had veggies, tea, and cookies. It was sure sweet.

 "The Band" rocking out. We even had to turn the lights on and off for their performance. Cute kids.

 

{Dallas Arboretum}

The boys and I flew out to Dallas for our newest niece Samantha's blessing. It was such a blast spending 5 days with family. Ryker LOVED playing with his cousins. Our first adventure was to the Dallas Arboretum. It was HOT but oh my stars this place was beautiful! We have been to a lot of botanical gardens in different places and this was by far the most beautiful and had a million fun things to do with kids on top of the beautiful flowers. My latest motto with my camera is "do your best to capture the moment but don't miss out on the moment because you are stuck behind the camera instead of enjoying it with my little's"

 

These kids all played so well with each other all week. It was so fun to see them together like no time has past and they have not all been together for a year. I hope they always remember each other and stay friends their whole lives.

 



 Jon was the BEST with Grayson. Such a cute helpful boy!

 Finally finding the splash pad to cool off some before exploring more.

 This little guy thought he was one of the big kids all week.

And I thought I wouldn't need the double other than for getting in and out of the airport by myself. SOOOO glad we had it this day. We did SOOO much walking and the kids were troopers but by the end they were all beat and we learned that the BOB works as a triple stroller pretty well. 

{My Favorite Part of Motherhood}

Calling all super hero's! 

I would have to say that my most favorite part of motherhood is planning my kids birthday parties. I love planning parties and I LOVE how much Ryker is like me and how he gets into it all. Since we like to move right close to Ryker's birthday 2 years in a row this year I decided we needed to do his party early before our move. It was been a blast having something other than house hunting to occupy my mind the past few days. I cant wait for everything to get put together for this party. It will be fun to have one last big event before we leave these good friends. 

What is your favorite part of motherhood?

{Sheriff's Rodeo}

Me being the "want to be cowgirl" that I am was THRILLED to have found a rodeo close to us. The one thing our summers have been missing since moving to the south was a night out at the rodeo. I have always LOVED going!! I was so excited to take my boys to their first one that I even splurged and bought them matching cowboy boots. They were too cute to pass up and my boys LOVE them! Now we just need to get Brady a pair and the whole family will be set for this moving to the country business. 

Phoebe and Ryker are best little preschool buddies. 

It was a bit crazy for us driving to the rodeo because it was in Athens AL where the tornado's tore threw a few weeks before this. All down the highway there were HUGE piles of trees cut up on the side of the road and stumps half way out of the ground. What a blessing that most of the trees fell away from the houses but still scary evidence of what these storms can do. 

This wild monkey ended up going to the the rodeo in his jammies because he had a massive blowout right when we got here and we luckily had some jammies in the car to put on him. He looked pretty cute with jammies and his boots on.  We all had a blast and we were thrilled with how well the boys did considering it didn't even start until past their normal bedtime. It was a super fun night at the rodeo for us all. I cant wait to go to more with my cute family.