May Memories

Rangers' Game

Max acted as a math tutor and
also came up with a creative way to
do his own math scratch work.

We celebrated Clay's 8th birthday!

Jeff and I got to have a series of dates
in McKinney while the kids were
doing end-of-year teasting.

Jeff was officially invited to join the
199th training class of U.S. diplomats!

Clay and I got take a little trip to
my sister's to visit with family.

Mother's Day

We had some fun playing around
with our new ice cream maker.

Clay loved getting to launch rockets
with the Cub Scouts.

Ruth had a fun swim party with her
 friends to celebrate her birthday.

The last Scout meeting of the year
was a big one. Weston received a
couple of merit badges and was elected
SPL (leader of whole troop), even though he
  wasn't even running for the position.
Max received his Scout status and
was elected as Patrol Leader for his patrol.

Clay's last Scout meeting was also
fun, and he got to go through the face
painting ceremony recognizing that
he completed all the Wolf requirements
and is ready to start down the Bear path.

Our little baker was busy all month
making cookies, monkey bread,
and a birthday cake for his cousin.

We were thankful to have family
in town to kick off the Memorial Day weekend.

We had so much fun hiking and
hanging out on the Katy Trail.

A fun evening at Pokey O's

We were delighted to discover Earl's.

We had a blast celebrating Weston's
half-birthday at Main Event.

Ruth turned 17, and we celebrated in style.

We got to spend some quality
time in the closet waiting out a tornado.

After a busy month, we were
glad to begin our vacation in Florida.

December

Weston's birthday party at Top Golf

Hiking at Eagle Mountain Lake

Master Singer's Concert
(Max and Clay are trying to spot Nana)

Medieval celebration at Arrow

Packing and delivering boxes for Lovepacs

Dungeons and Dragons is a new
favorite game at our house.

Fun at Northpark Center

The Twelve Days of Christmas at
the Dallas Arboretum

Weston achieved the rank of Life Scout.

Winter Breakfast

Homestead Heritage in Waco

Mayborn Museum at Baylor

Holiday family fun

Weston spent Christmas Eve
researching stocks and investing
in the stock market.

Weston attended Twin Arrows
Scout leadership training at Camp Tahuaya

Ruth attended a CAP leadership training
at Lackland Air Force Base

Carnival Cruise as a family of four

Cozumel

New Year's Eve

August

It is simply shocking that August is already over! We definitely made the most of it, and here are the highlights. Not represented in the pictures: a trip to the revolving sushi restaurant to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday, my first visit to a chiropractor because of a very sore back, a couple of visits from the plumber to install a new kitchen faucet, Jeff joined every conversational Spanish group in the DFW metro, Clay started his Ninja Warrior class, Max started his yoga class, Arrow Academy orientation, my mom came to stay with the kids for a week, Weston got to work with the Scouts at the Highland Village Balloon Festival, Ruth and Weston's first cross country meet, Weston attended Boy Scout leadership training, and Ruth started college classes at the local community college.

I took a beaded bracelet class at the library and produced this lovely piece.

We had a better-than-average time at Walmart.

Jeff finished up his bartending class and
got to do an externship at The Magnolia Hotel in Dallas.

 

We visited the Giant Eyeball in Dallas.

Max got to go to Lego Mindstorms camp while at Nana Camp.

We spent several lovely days out in the Davis Mountains.

I had an essay featured on the Art of Simple blog.

The younger boys and I got to spend a day with Granny.

We had a barn/playroom built in our backyard.

We attended a back-to-school party with Arrow Academy at a super cool splashpad.

I turned 41 and received sweet cards and drawings from the kids and
gardening supplies, including these awesome Sloggers, from Jeff.
We also ordered dessert using Door Dash and had brunch at Nico's.

Jeff and I became locally famous by making it into the Flower Mound
activities catalog, which featured a picture from the dance class we took a while back.

We successfully shopped for new school clothes.

Jeff took a motorcycle class at Harley and became a licensed motorcycle rider.

I cooked enough food to feed an army in preparation for being out of town.

The boys started their classes at Arrow, which include
things like History, Science, Art, Robotics, P.E.,
Speech and Debate, Dance, and Guitar.
Clay has been belting out Bubba Shot the Jukebox all week,
even though the only thing they are supposed to be
practicing is tuning the instrument. Such an overachiever!

Jeff and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Costa Rica.

We started school, and I can hardly believe we have kids in each of these grades.

Max started saxophone lessons.

The entire family supported the Aggies for the first game of the football season.