Rin's 10th birthday

It was Rin's year for a birthday party and she went back and forth with lots of different ideas.  She finally decided on a Movie & Make-over party theme.  She invited her 2 closest friends, Penny & Faith.  The girls came over on a Saturday afternoon and Jess, a make up artist, came over to give make-overs to the girls.  The plan was for the four girls (R, E, P & F) to get make overs and then we would eat dinner before going to watch a movie.  The girls were very excited and their make overs were done really well.  Being all made up made them want to get dressed up for the movie, they borrowed Rin's dress up clothes and got all fancy for the movie.  We saw Christopher Robin at 8 pm (I maybe slept a little haha) and stopped at the Dollar Tree for snacks before the movie started.

R and F

Jess had a lot of make up!

R's turn

R's actually birthday

birthday girl

My New Role

I've always been a teacher.  Sure a wife and mother, but my calling and occupation has been a teacher.  I love teaching and love middle school students especially.  My role these days is quite different.  I've transitioned to being a caregiver and I'm really honored I have the chance to do that.  B's parents live with us now and I take care of them full time.  I could list the things I do, but really I just love and care for them.  I really do love them.  They are our family.  I no longer think about my family of 6, rather my family of 8.  It's nice being a multigenerational family (most of the time) and of course we have our ups and downs just like any family.  

My FIL has Alzheimer's and my MIL has some physical restrictions and not much strength.  Bryce and I made the decision to move them in with us around Christmas time and I began looking at houses.  We finally found the perfect house for us in March and moved in April.  P/V sold their house in Texas and flew to NC April 22.  We've lived together in this new house for 9 months!  Our house is great.  There's enough room for all 8 of us and we have a bonus room upstairs so the kids can have some space away from adults.  We have so many funny stories and I wish I would have written them all down, so maybe I'll try to document them here.  

Let me try and play catch up LOL  

Bryce got a job at The College at Southeastern (SEBTS) and we moved to NC in August 2021.  Rin is in 9th grade at Franklinton High School.  She participated in the Marching Band and right now she's on the high school swim team.  Abe is in 7th grade at Cedar Creek Middle School.  He made the school football team and is on the wrestling team.  Wes is in 6th grade also at CCMS.  Wes was the manager of the football team because he was too young to play and he's also on the wrestling team.  Ell is in 4th grade at Youngsville Elementary.  She's on the Battle of the Books team at school.  Her school is year round so every 9 weeks, she has 3 weeks off that she gets to stay home with me!  Paul and Vicki come with us to school events and sporting events too.  I take them to all their doctor appointments, nail appointments, hair appointments etc...  We call them our adult children :) 

Basketball Team

 I can't even begin to try and go back and catch up.  Not today anyways...maybe one day I will lol.  

Rin is in 7th grade and tried out for the Reading Jr. High Volleyball team in August.  She did not make the team (tear) but we weren't that surprised because she has never played volleyball in her life.  She's on the taller side but she still didn't have much of the knowledge and skill to make the team.  

After Christmas R tried out for the basketball team and she made it!  We are so excited for her.  This feels different than all other other sports she has played because for the first time, she has earned it on her own hustle and skill, not our registration money.  She has worked hard and we are very proud of her.  Yesterday she found out that she made the A team, for the first week at least.  I am extremely proud of her humility and desire to get better each day.  I've heard many coaches say they can teach skill but they can't teach heart and hustle.  R's practices are before school at 6:30.  She wakes herself up at 5:30 and gets everything ready to go.  We just drive her there.  She's very motivated and pretty independent. 

Because of Covid-19, only one parent can attend games.  B and I have not talked about how we will decide who will go.  I'm hopeful that maybe they will allow 2 parents to attend games, but he says that won't happen.  Stupid Covid-19.  

I don't have any pictures of her in her uniform but here's a picture of the first day of try-outs when we dropped her off at 6:15 am.  

Rin's 9th Birthday

I love birthdays and making people feel special on their special day.  R was born on August 7th and this year that fell on a Monday.

Before B left for work, she opened her gifts and we sang HBTY.  She received a knitting kit, head band kit, scrapbook, money, new bedding set, new shoes and a target gift card.  Since it was our last day of "summer break" the kids played at the house and then we went to UHD to meet B for lunch.  I picked up a dominoes pizza and we drove all the way to UH-Downtown.  We met some of the people B works with and at lunch with him in the school cafeteria. It was nice seeing his work, and meeting some co-workers. 

We left lunch and drove to Katy to meet Aunt Mo and the cousins for some jumping time.  Aunt Mo had some passes to the trampoline park so we had an hour of free jumping with the exception of snacks. It was raining on this Monday morning and it was actually the last day of summer I would.  After jumping, we drove home but stopped at HEB so R could pick out her birthday cake. Rin got to pick dinner for the night and she wanted me to cook Taco Salad.  So for dinner we had Taco salad and cake for dessert.

After dessert, we played Rin's game of choice and it was a long game of Telestrations.  She loves that game and it's fun but just takes a while.  Rin is such a blessing to our family.  She's the best big sister anyone could ask for and she's kind and loving.  She loves being on stage and is very intelligent.  I'm so proud of her and excited to see what 4th grade has in store for her. 

Rin's talent show

My oldest daughter is definitely half of B (maybe even a little more) and I know this because she has this gene, this performing gene inside her naturally.  When R heard of her school's talent show, she immediately signed up and thought about what she wanted to sing for days.  She finally landed on "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and so she practiced everyday.  We found a karaoke version on youtube and downloaded it to a CD so we all practiced while driving in the van.  She printed the words and even re-wrote them to help her memorize the song.  I'm so proud of all the hard work she put into this performance.   Her talent show was during the day at Williams Elementary.  Gran and Papaw were actually in town (for the what reason I don't remember) so they got to see her perform also.  B even took a day off of work and surprised her by showing up too.  I pulled A out of lunch because the cafeteria is right beside the gym so he could watch her, and then he quickly returned.  It was a lot of fun and she did great. 

The video is too long to upload but here's the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkANyskSA28

Rin's 8th Birthday & Wicked

R's birthday was on a Sunday this year and since it wasn't a multiple of 5, we knew that we were not going to do anything big.  I heard that Wicked was going to be performed over the summer and I looked up the dates.  There was a showing on Sunday, the 7th, and so we asked her if she'd like us to take her to see Wicked for her birthday.  Sure, tickets for 3 people would be more than we would spend on any other gift, but B and I wanted to see it as well.  Gram & Granddad were in town and we had all the cousins for a sleepover on Saturday August 6th, so R was well loved by family.  After church and lunch, the cousins went home and then we got ready to travel to down town Houston to see Wicked. The show started at 7 and R's choice of dinner was Wendy's....how great is that!  The three of us ate at Wendy's and then saw a great performance together.  She loved it and it was a great 

birthday with our oldest child.

  This video is of all the cousin's swimming together on August 6th.  They didn't come over for R's birthday, it just happened to fall on the weekend, but it made for a great pre-birthday celebration.

checking in all the cousins at church

on our way to see Wicked 8/7/16

The birthday girl is 8 years old!

We are so excited!

Cousin love on Rin's birthday

First Day of School 2016

August 22, 2016 was the first day of school for public school.  I made R, A, & W dress the same because of pictures.  The traffic was bad as expected, but we parked and walked them into the school.  I had already been working for a couple of weeks, so after bringing them to school I had to rush off to work.  We actually sent E to Aunt Mo's house on Sunday because her preschool hadn't started yet either.  Everyone was excited and we knew that they would LOVE it.

Together after school 8/22/16

Ell started Pre-School at Sugar Creek Baptist Church on August 31, 2016.  We took pictures of her just like the other kids and she was excited and read to be there.