THE WESTON FAMILY

Writing this post 7 months late, it's hard to remember too many details. But I can remember whatever I took a picture of! :)
The highlight of this month was the visit we got from Grandpa and Grandma Weston! We rented a big van and took a trip to Louisiana for a couple days. We stopped and saw the Baton Rouge Temple on the way to New Orleans. We went to the National WW2 Museum which was incredible! It was a really neat place. We went to the old capitol building, walked along the Mississippi River and saw the USS Kidd from a distance, Toured a plantation, and ate some gumbo and cajun food at lunch, and beignets from the famous Cafe du Monde while there. It was a fun, quick trip. It would've been great to have more time to see it all, but it was still a good trip. We also took the opportunity to have Kenny give Rebecca a name and a blessing while we had both sets of grandparents there. Our bishop came, and also Beth and Ricky and Savannah Westbrook. I made some soup, rolls and salad and we had a nice dinner chatting with them all afterwards. We're so blessed to have such great parents/grandparents in our lives and for our children to look up to as well.

We were so glad to have them there for Thanksgiving as well! We had a lovely feast!! They got to be there for the kids little Thanksgiving play they did with their CC group.

Poor baby was sick a lot

Tyler made some cute customized name cards for everyone's plates at Thanskgiving.

I look at this and see how the girls' hair didn't get done nicely, Brigham isn't wearing shoes, there's chalk on the brick wall behind us...everything and everyone is a bit out of order. But that is my life right now so I guess we'll just embrace it. It's chaotic and I rarely have anything in control like I would want. But we'll just keep chugging along and doing our best.

Grandpa liked playing fun duets with the kids.

Briggs LOVED pretending to drive the big van we rented.

Tyler got 2 pigs, Hubert and Sassy. Sassy ended up being Bryn's and they each took care of one. If only we knew what we were getting into... ;)

Riding horses at the Westbrooks. Our second home. We were there every day taking care of the pigs and enjoying their farm.

These silly girls made fun creations out of the mud/clay in the ditch in front of our house.

Brynlee got some reading glasses!

Took some pics of my beautiful kids one day.

So hard to pick only one pic for this adorable 2 year old.

It's been a good week. Or should I say month, since I haven't written in a while. I recently bought some new math-based board games to make learning a little more fun. I was getting pretty boring and only doing textbook work, and that's lame. So I looked up online and found some great recommendations. We've been playing them all a lot lately and it's great.

This past Monday we all went shopping together for Halloween costumes. We had to find a last minute one for Ty since he had planned on being Harry Potter (and we had even put off cutting his hair for a long time so he could look the part) but unfortunately we couldn't find one anywhere. So we got him a Batman costume. Tuesday we had to do our family presentation at CC, which is fun. We did another family rap like last year, but this is a new community so it was the first time they'd seen anything like that and it was well received. The kids think that's the best. Wednesday was our big ward trunk or treat. Everyone had a fun time and liked dressing up. The YM/YW were in charge so essentially a lot of it was on Kenny and they did a great job pulling it all off. Kenny even participated in the pie eating contest, which was the most spectacular pie eating contest I've ever seen. There were literally about 60 people in it, and it was insane. They take that thing very seriously here. I got it all on video because it was so crazy. Thursday we had the missionaries over for dinner, and Ty had soccer practice.

On Friday Kenny met me at the vision center and he and the 4 older kids all got eye check ups. We realized we needed to hurry and get it done since we've had insurance for it all year. Brynlee is the only one that needs glasses, and she only needs them when reading. It's not too bad yet. But I was 7 years old when I first got glasses, too. It's unfortunate that she seems to have inherited my bad eyesight. That night Kenny went to the temple in Houston, with Ricky. It was Ricky's first time going through a session, since the first time he ever went to the temple many, many years ago. He's recently become re-activated, so it was a really neat thing for Kenny to be able to be with him. I showed the kids the movie Hocus Pocus for a fun Halloween flick.

Yesterday, Saturday the 29th was an incredibly productive and fulfilling work day. We got up and hit the ground running early. I told Kenny that I had called a landscape guy to come and do our yard, because I just didn't think we'd ever get to it. Well the very thought of having to pay someone else to do something he could do lit a fire under him and he got to work! He took out all the seats in the van and loaded up all the boxes of crap we have leftover from when we moved here. Also all the junk on the side of the house that the previous owners so kindly left here for us to dispose of. He took it all to the dump and stopped and picked up 42 bags of mulch on his way home. I finished organizing and cleaning up the garage and it looks awesome now, thank you very much. Then when Kenny got back he laid another layer of tarp down on all the flower beds and spread the mulch and re-stacked the rocks around it. I did soccer game duty so he could keep working. OH soccer I wish you would END already. Seriously takes over our lives on Saturdays and it's so annoying sometimes. Anyway Kenny worked hard all day and it looks a million times better. Now I won't be so embarrassed when everyone comes trick or treating on Monday. And I don't have anxiety attacks whenever I walk into our garage. So huge things checked off our to-do lists.

Tyler broke my nice, big bowl and tried to hot glue it all back together for me...it didn't work. I feel like my kids do a lot of stupid things sometimes. Not usually intentional, but still just do dumb things. I'm learning that I need to have grace for them just as with anyone else. They're not really trying to mess up so much or break things or whatever the case is, but they do, and I have to be patient.

A fun lesson on phases of the moon using oreos.

We had to hurry and get all the kids in for an eye appointment before the year was up on our insurance. Brynlee ended up being the only one that needed glasses. And her eyes aren't that bad, it's just to help when reading.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a parade when we go on a family walk/bike ride.

More missing teeth!

Ricky's wife, Beth, just got baptized last week (Saturday the 22nd). The Westbrooks are our good friends and have just been so kind to us since we've been here. They are amazing people. I said the prayer at her baptism and she asked Kenny to confirm her the following Sunday. I wasn't able to be at church for that since we had sick kids, but I'm so glad he got to participate in doing that.

Becca recently had her 2 month appointment, even though she was 2 1/2 months old. But she weighed 14 pounds 12 ounces, and was 24 1/2 inches long. She's growing very well, obviously.

Chillin with dad watching General Conference

Beautiful sunsets at our house

Our CC director, Lori Glassey organized a lunch where we went as a CC group and ate at the new restaurant her husband is the chef for. It was super crazy and chaotic and the little ones were exhausted and it took like 12 years to get the food out, and then it was super expensive. So I sort of wish we hadn't gone, but oh well.

Above and below was when I took the kids to the Heritage Festival in Woodville, Texas. A fun way to step back in time and see how they lived and worked.

One Sunday we drove down to Houston after church to have dinner at my parents' house. My Uncle Jim and Aunt LaDawn and cousin Jenet and her family were there visiting on their way back home. the Allsops also came to join the party adn it was such a great night. I'm convinced I have THE BEST extended family in all the world. I love all my cousins and their great families. I'm so inspired by their good lives.

Also last week Steph drove down from San Antonio and stayed with us Friday night. The next morning we all went to Madison's 8 a.m. soccer game and brought donuts and kolaches for breakfast. My mom and dad drove over from Houston to be there too. It was so fun having them all there for the day. We hung out here until Tyler's game at 12. From there we got lunch at CiCi's pizza. They took my 3 oldest kids back to Grandma's to sleepover. Only my awesome children put their backpack of all their clothes for the weekend in OUR van, instead of Steph's car. So they actually had no clean underwear, no pajamas, and no clothes for church the next day. It ruined those plans and I ended up having to meet my mom way earlier to bring them back home.