Taryn's 13!

Taryn turned 13 and all though she's wanted to be a teenager for like 5 years we held her off until today. Its official in all its beauty...we have a second teenage girl under our roof and honestly its a good gig. Taryn is really fun and enjoys life. She loves people and being social and we love her! We're so lucky she's part of our family!

Family party

Friend party

1st grade=fun field trips

Creed's first grade class has had some awesome field trips. I got to go on the one to the children's museum.

Bday bash....

My 41st day was spent mostly at home with the kids. Brent had to be up north helping his Dad. By late afternoon my mom took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I was a good sport and rode the bull. We then went back to her house for fancy cupcakes. Another year older and hopefully another year wiser. And yet again I'm thankful my mom didn't stop at 7 kids....

Madi's marathon cheer squad that missed the race...

We went to the marathon finish line to cheer for cousin Madison. She ran so fast that we missed her actually finishing. But we did wait with her in the message line. She is such a rock star. She's almost throwing down Boston qualifying times when she is just recreationally running. Its so great to have such a good example for my kids.  

President of NJHS

So as an 8th grader Cami was voted the vice president of the Junior National Honor Society. The vice president then becomes the president the next year (9th grade). The president holds the meetings and organizes the service projects. They have to make sure they keep grades up....and the other thing is they have to give a speech during the induction ceremony for the new members...which is tricky if  you REALLY don't like being the center of attention. But good news! Cami did great! 

Being a good part of a community...

Jocelyn's third grade teacher is very community minded. She rides her bike to school everyday. She has a class garden. She recycles and has her own chickens...

Anyway she wanted to teach her class how each student was an important part of a bigger community where our actions improve or detract for everyone else. So Jocelyn decided that she wanted to walk neighborhood dogs to raise money for toys for the animal shelter. She walked lots of dogs and loved every minute of it....even the ones where she had to collect their poop. We then took her to the store to use her dog walking money on snacks and toys. It was fun to watch her spend money that she worked hard for because it seemed to have so much more value to her. After getting all the animal treats Brent took her to the animal shelter where she donated all her purchases and took time to play with the animals. It was a big project but she really enjoyed it and learned from it. 

Fall Soccer...Jocelyn and Creed

Jocelyn and Creed both chose to do fall soccer. It was super fun to watch. Creed's team was crazy strict and the boys seemed to respond. They all played positions well and killed it every single game. Jocelyn's team had a more relaxed approach, not winning any games, but all had fun. They both improved their games and despite the heat during most games they worked hard.

September 4 1999-current....Happy Anniversary

19 years in and still having fun! Thanks  to Brent Weight for hanging with me and making sure there's never a dull moment!I didn't think there was anyway we would be able to celebrate our anniversary on our anniversary between all the kids activities on Tuesdays. The universe conspired in our favor! Cami wasn't feeling up to her x country meet and Jocelyn's soccer coach had a fever. So we were down two activities ..one of the three piano lessons needed to be rescheduled and boom we booked it to a restaurant! And thanks to a nice mom who will come hang out with the kids on the fly....and yes we need to work on our selfie skills.....

Navajo Lake on Labor Day...yes it was really cold but fun...

The kids were out of school on labor day so we wanted to have a cool adventure. We borrowed our friends kayaks and drove up to Navajo Lake. It was really cloudy and slightly rainy but we went for it anyway. We had a picnic and turned the kids lose on the lake. They are getting to be good enough swimmers that I don't worry too much if they dump out in the middle of a lake. They won't drowned and they will be able to get back in. They loved it....especially Cami loves kayaking...After an hour or two the rain/lighting kicked up and we decided we better bolt.  Certain younger children may have gotten bums really wet and ridden home without clothes on their bottom halves....but everyone survived and had fun. We did have a good drive around the lake and surrounding areas. The girls showed us where they went to camp during the summer with the church youth group. Anyway, it was a fun way to spend the day even if it was pretty chilly.