first day of school

again, it just occurred to me that i never posted first day of school photos! i put them on facebook, so i imagine most of you have seen them, but for the rest of our adoring fans, here's to the first day of school!

afton, kindergarten, and full of spunk ;)



and the backpack shot



i wouldn't let her ride the bus on the first day of school... i'm old fashioned that way, but this is the second day, and she's been doing great ever since, though the ride home is L--O--N--G!!!



and rayna's first day of preK, she goes afternoons, so she wasn't quite ready yet when afton left to pose together.



and her backpack shot, she's such a sweet girl! love this one :)



and i have to include this one, because it always makes me laugh! i have no idea what she was doing or saying, but i love it just the same!



and one more, with malachi who had his backpack all ready to go, and was very upset when he realized he still had to come home with mom and take a nap.



and one of rayna at school with her new teacher in the background...

Rayna wasn't too sure she wanted to stay at school, and she still regularly insists that three hours is a LONG time to be away from home, she'd rather watch a show while malachi naps, but she loves it just the same. she comes home almost every day and proudly announces that she's green or purple (they use a color system for behavor, green is where you start and you can go down to yellow or red, but if you have an exceptional day you can go up to purple) and can sometimes talk for an hour about all the fun things they did that day. i think she'll get used to it soon.
Afton started out from day one excited for school, and it's only gotten better! she has an AMAZING teacher that i already love, and she's pushing at all her boundaries in reading and math! (though her favorite is science). i'm really excited for both girls this year, i think having a great teacher is the key to making great students, so my girls are in good hands.

fourth of july

so i always post about the allen celebration for the fourth of july (remember last year, and previous years?) this year it was our big party with paul included just before we left for colorado, so we made him play with the kids a lot--i don't think he minded ;)

some big hits this year include: the firetrucks (as ALWAYS a huge hit), 

afton in the fire truck, she loves to pose!

the RVs, which we didn't get a picture of, there were 2 big RVs on display trying to get people to want to rent them for their summer trips, and they were NICE!

Fishing:

lots of fishing:



rayna was the only one to actually catch anything, and she may have had some help, but it was still pretty cute!



chi tried some fishing too, but it was mostly for daddy

we also loved free slurpees, we got multiples, jumping on the springless trampoline, and of course, more firetrucks!

we did stay for the fireworks, and afton's getting big enough now that she's not scared of them, and rayna did fine as long as she sat with me and kept her earplugs in and covered with her hands, and my hands... malachi actually did great, he called them pretty flowers, though he wasn't a fan of the loud noises either. i'd have to say this years was the best fireworks show i've EVER seen :) i was really impressed, and it fit with the music really well. all in all, i'm calling it a success!

family reunion

so i'm WAY behind with blogging, but since we had a relatively slow summer, i think that's okay :) and i'm catching up! now enough disclaimer, here's the pictures:

this summer i decided it was time to break out of texas for a little while, it was a hard decision because i knew paul wouldn't have the time to break away with us, but thanks to a little help from my family,

we made it all the way to colorado! my mom's amazing family planned a big family reunion near mesa verde state park, and we loved visiting with everyone, hiking, swimming, eating, playing, eating and visiting!

and of course we posed for a bunch of family pictures :)

probably the only big unplanned disapointment (cause really leaving paul home was the only major disappointment, but that was the plan...) was me forgetting my camera, so these are all gleaned from FB and others...
it was great to see so many cousins! and we LOVED going hiking in the mountains. we also thought the pueblo tours were pretty cool, but this little hike was one of our favorites, just getting out in the mountains was such a treat! thanks katharine's family for coming with us and letting me slip into lecture mode :)


miriam, katharine, vienna, malachi, me, afton, rayna, grace, jacob and seth

we also happened to be there over the fourth of july which means, FIREWORKS... which 2/3 of my kids hated... but they couldn't sleep through them either, so they sat with us out on the second floor porch/balcony of the hotel and watched them with us. it was a nice little show, though it was a little drizzly, and we weren't sure when it was actually ending... maybe you had to be close to hear the program that went with it? or maybe the rain was giving them trouble, either way, we were glad of the rain/drizzle, because there were numerous wildfires not too far from where we were, though it rained a little bit almost every day. 

wathcing hte fireworks, i know it's not a very flattering picture, but it struck me as funny... kodi (the dog) did great!

and last but certainly not least, this is one of my favorite pictures from picture day, 


THE AFTONs --anyone else see the family resemblance?

there are a surprising number of repeated names in my mom's family, my afton was not technically named for this cousin, but it's certainly a great name! and they're so cute! for the curious, some of the other repeats include : Joseph (3), Elise (2), Emma (3), Sara (2), Katie/Katharine (3), Nan/Nathane/Nicki (okay, technically they're all different, but named for the same person) (3), Andy (2), David (3--2+ a middle, + Uncle Dave, in memory), and i'm probably forgetting someone! but it was fun and there would have been even more repeats if everyone had been able to come :)