September!

 Dance Party!!!

 This happens at least once a day!!

 Pop came over for supper, and he got lots of kisses! :)

 Avaree had 20 straight days of blues and purples (the highest you can get on the behavior chart at school), so I took them all for baby chocolate shakes! Clearly, Brandt thought it was the best thing ever!!!!!!!

Don't worry, I messed up royally the next day! ;) I had the wrong date for the start of dance. This face was 30 minutes after we got home from the dance studio (a week before dance actually started)! Boo!!! 

 Meanwhile, the next day at school, Avaree's class enjoyed some time in one of their open learning areas! Her school is SO neat! (This photo is from her teacher's facebook page!)

 This was from her math class the next day!

 Daddy had been gone a lot, and Felicity had just gotten hurt, so when he got home, they were both in need of a good, long hug!

 After Daddy got home, I went to have lunch with my oldest at school!

 That means I also got to have lunch with these crazies! :)

 I have a feeling that we are going to need to recreate this picture in a few years!

 The professional pictures from the wedding that B and Ave were in in July came back! Look at that beautiful little girl with the bride!

 ...and look at this guy! ha!

 These sweet girls were super happy to wear their new dresses from Gigi!

 

I got to go to Avaree's school again the following Friday to help Ms. Bianco with a social studies project! We put old t-shirts on all of the kids, and then we gave them paint! ;)

The kids read a book about the flag, and then we made their own flags! They had a great time!

That afternoon, little sissy got to go on a date with her Daddy!

 She was super happy!

 These two!

 The next day was back to normal with these two! :) Felicity is building with the magna tiles, and Brandt is rolling around with a book before he tries to knock Felicity's castle over again! :)

 Wesley came to play, and we built train tracks all morning! :)

 Sister (shockingly) took a nap on the couch!

 Big sister came home from school and started working on her "art!" :)

 On Wednesday, September 21, I got up extra early to go clean the accounting office, so that I could have time to go get birthday donuts for someone!! :) I got home in time to wake her up on her birthday! :)

 We sang to her, and she blew out her candle in her donut!

 Blowing out her candle!!!!

 Her favorite part was the sprinkles!

 Someone else enjoyed the benefits of someone having a birthday! :)

 Brandt still doesn't like donuts!

 The birthday girl and her little sister!

 Pretty girl!

 My seven year old birthday girl!!!!!!!!!

 (My one year-old birthday girl!!! TIME FLIES!)

 Daddy had to work on Wednesday night and couldn't come home, so we celebrated a little differently this year! This is the highlight real of our morning! I'll do a separate birthday post for this girl! :)

 Somebody was SO happy to open her card from Mema and Paw Paw!

 Little brother got a "big jet!" :) Mama found it on buy/sale/trade for a few dollars! He was pumped!

 My reading boy!!!

 Avaree's party was on Saturday, so people started to arrive on Friday! Mom Mom and Pop Pop got here in time to have lunch with Ave at school!

 Then, they took the littles for YoBerry!

 This girl is always in her own world!

 That evening, we met Gigi/G-Pops, Pop, Aunt Tess/Uncle Tommy, Mom and Ken for dinner at Papasitos! It was so yummy! My favorite part of the night was watching Brandt and Pop interact!

 Aren't these just the sweetest pictures ever??

 Sooooo precious!!!

   

The End of August!

After I picked Avaree up from the first day of school, we went to have ice cream with friends! It ended in tears (for all of us), and Avaree learned a hard lesson on being grateful, but there were some smiles first! I am so thankful for sweet friends for my girls, and it's a precious bonus that I love their mamas, too! :)

Sweet, silly friends!

That weekend, the Moxon's had the staff kids over to their house for a couple of hours, and Mommy and Daddy got to go to a neat coffee shop in Fort Worth!

On Sunday, this little buddy looked like such a stud in these sweet overalls that were handed down from friends! :)

They were so excited to get to church early to see Daddy, but when I tried to take a picture, they all looked so forlorn!

Monday morning this sweet girl looked so grown up!

Monday afternoon there were three smiles in the back seat! This is picture-worthy!!! The pick up line is hard!

Wednesdays are hard. This guy was not a happy camper!

I've started doing "school" with Felicity two days a week, and she loves it! :) This was a few weeks ago, when we were working on the letter "C!"

The best part of "school" at home is getting to snuggle with these two after their naps!

Our big sister started DANCE!!!!

She was beyond excited!

She got to help Mrs. Katrina advertise Upward sports at her school during the community fair!

:) Life is busy, but surely I'll catch up soon!

     

Our Last Family Fun Friday of the Summer!

#BabyFelicity update! :) Sweet Miss Mallory gave the girls some of her American Girl doll clothes, and they have been changing Felicity's clothes three-four times per day! ;) She wears jammies and night, and she always sleeps with Felicity! :)

The girls dressed her up, and she came with us to THE CIRCUS!

Avaree won a free ticket to Six Flags for reading 350 minutes in a month back in February, and she was beyond excited to use her ticket this summer! Brandon and I had planned to get someone for the babies to stay with, an we were going to take just Avaree on the Friday after children's camp; however, we soon realized that even though Avaree had a free ticket, it would cost around $150 for just Brandon and I to go and for us to park. We didn't want to disappoint Avaree, but we didn't want to spend THAT much money on this. So, we talked to Avaree about it. We told her that if it really meant the world to her, we would take the money out of savings and go, but we explained that it was a lot of money to spend on just the three of us. We asked her if she would rather spend that money on something that all five of us could do, and we told her that we really wanted her to give us an honest answer, and whatever she decided would be okay. Bravely and with much maturity, she chose to do something that the whole family could enjoy, so the following Friday, we all FIVE went to the circus in Fort Worth, and we spent less than $100. We even all got to share popcorn and a drink! :) Here are the pictures!

We got there early to see the animals before the show! Brandt was going CRAZY over the tigers!

Sweetest boy!

He liked the llamas, too! ;)

We have been to the circus a couple of times before, but we have never gone on the floor for the pre-show! It was so fun!

Please notice Felicity's arm wrapped around her Daddy's... ;)

Daddy, Mommy, and Brandt!

Mommy and her girls!

Brandt was NOT a fan of ANY of the clowns!

...but Avaree wanted to be a clown! ;)

This clown was sooo funny! We had no idea that he was part of the show, too!

This ribbon dance was amazing!! I think I had inner ribbon dancer dreams somewhere because I got SO excited over this! The clown that was sitting right next to us joined her, too! It was so funny!

Mommy and her almost seven year old clown!

We had to have a little attitude adjustment because we just can't afford for everyone to have their own snack and drink, and, of course, the other two had to be in the middle of it! ;)

Everyone is happy again!

One of the best parts of this experience was that we had $10 nosebleed tickets, but Daddy (who talks to everyone and makes them feel loved and valued) visited with a lady attendant for the lower section, while I was taking the girls to the restroom, and she ended up telling us that we could go sit in the $50 per ticket section, since it was not full! We were so blessed by that!!!

These two.

I love this little guy so much!

Felicity had to go to the potty during the tigers, but this is what we came back to! Brandt was enthralled!!!

It was such a wonderful morning with my family!!! We needed that, and it was a great way to end our summer! And, don't worry, Avaree's ticket to Six Flags did not go to waste. She got to go with the Brown family, who had season tickets. She said it was the best day of her life. :)

That evening, I asked Felicity to pick up all her pups and princesses, and this is what she did. I didn't notice it until she went to bed, but I had to take a picture of it! This is so her!

After I put the kids to bed, I went to my friend, Kim's, house, and we made 400+ sandwiches for the teachers, staff, and volunteers that were moving into Avaree's school the next day (it was under construction all summer). We had lot of fun! :) I'm so thankful for these sweet mamas and their sweet girls, who are precious friends to my baby!

Saturday morning, Brandt was ready to work on his dinosaur book!

That afternoon, I had the privilege to watch one of my former students win gold with team USA for the women's 4x400 m relay!!!!! Courtney was in my sophomore Pre-AP English class, and she was a gem. I'm so proud to have been a tiny part of her story!

On Sunday, I got to take my big girl to get a leotard for DANCE!!!!! She was beyond excited, as you can tell! (Thank you, Papa and Niecey!!!)

:) More to come!