2 Years - WOW!!!

 Wow!  It's been over 2 years since I published a post.  It's been a crazy 2 years.  I've written a few drafts and didn't like them and then it just got busy!

2018: Uncle Charlie passed away in May 2018.  His first wife was Craig's aunt (his dad's sister) and Craig lived with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Jo while in high school.  Aunt Jo passed away while Craig was in college.  Uncle Charlie remarried several years later to a very dear Aunt Nola.  Uncle Charlie was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas where Craig's mom and his Aunt Cassie were buried too.

            

In June, we added a new family member.................................. Miss R

Here she is visiting with Ms Debbie and Mr Randy, the kids adopted grandparents

We also had a 17th birthday and some October fun with pumpkins.

 

December 2018 brought a 7th birthday and a car buying experience

 

 

2019 brought music school auditions, broken bones, another funeral (for our beloved adopted grandfather), birthday, graduation, and college!

In early February, we visited both Harding University in Arkansas and Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee.  We took a little time to be tourists and visited the USS Razorback in Little Rock.  This visit, N was old enough to go down into the submarine.

 

 

 

 

 

We also stopped for food at our favorite fast food restaurant Fazoli's and R decided she needed to try their drinks too.

The end of February brought a new experience for us - broken bones.  Z decided he needed to go big and broke both bones in his right arm.  He got an ambulance ride out of it though.

Spring brought with it visits to the aquarium in Grapevine.  We love the sea turtles!!

 

Spring also brought lots of fun with a baby and a completed observatory!! 

 

 

  

and a birthday for Mama.  It was delicious!

2019 was a great year for eye doctor visits.  N was the first to get new glasses.  His are for helping him recognize the difference in letters like l and t and f and i.

We also participated in the Creekside girl's night by giving speeches, leading songs, decorating tables, and painting fans.  

 

In April, it was once again time for Lads to Leaders in Grapevine.  Since we now had R and it's a long drive home, we decided to stay over to Sunday morning and had brunch with our friends from Katy and then visited Legoland.  Z had just had his cast removed so we couldn't do too much, but we still had fun building and looking at all the creations.

 

 

  

These are some border roses in our front yard.  They bloomed beautiful last year and this year too.

For 2019, our family trip was once again to the Texas Star Party.  Again this year, C had her birthday while on the trip.  She loves goats and received several goat items.

 

This year, we decided to venture a little away from the star party and traveled to New Mexico and visited Guadalupe Pass, Carlsbad Caverns, and White Sands.

 

This week trip also included college decision day and the much anticipated decision is..........

(Harding University in Arkansas)

We also had our annual visit to Fort Davis National Historic Site.

2019 was also a year of endings and new beginnings.  It started with graduation banquets and recitals.  For the banquet, each graduating senior from Creekside is given a table to display their achievements, interests, and things that mean a lot to them.  S's included observing pins, music awards, her favorite baby doll (which did go to college too), paintings she did, The Lord of the Rings books and movies, cotton bales to commemorate the Cotton Museum where she volunteers, and, of course, piano things.

 

 

 

For S's actual graduation, we had a recital where she performed piano solos, duet's and trio's with her siblings, voice solos, and accompanied herself while singing.

  

Summer was a time of acting out Bible stories, helping Dad with puzzles, and celebrating a 1st birthday with a new rocking horse from Papaw and the customary duck 1st birthday cake.

 

 

We watched July 4th fireworks from the grassy area behind Academy and discovered baby dolls made for me by my great-grandmother.

 

We also had another eye doctor visit and this time Z got his first pair of glasses.

We also had new student orientation where we won the prize for having the youngest sibling of an incoming freshman.  And then there was the day we had to say good-bye for the fall semester, after a quick birthday present for S, who turned 18 two weeks after starting college.

 

  

September 22 brought a birthday party for A...................

 

......................a concert by violinist Mairead

 

........... and a first car accident for S

Harding has an annual Bible Lectureship and we decided to attend in 2019 so we could visit with S.  Her music ensemble is Belle Canto and they had a performance in the Heritage Lobby during Lectureship.

 

 

  

And N made friends with the bison in the lobby of the Benson Auditorium

October weather was great for a trip to Alliance Airfield for their annual airshow.  

 

November brought us back again to Harding to help S move from one dorm room to another.  The student life office decided that they would like to get a jump start on their remodel of one dorm, so they moved all the girls in that dorm to another dorm.

 

Dress up is a favorite activity at our house.  This time, the goal was to put on as much jewelry and bling as could be found.

 

At Thanksgiving, we had one of S's friends visit and we showed her how to decorate gingerbread houses and took her to the aquarium.

 

Christmas!!!  It's always a fun time with little ones around.  This year, we also visited Harding for a Belle Canto concert and to see the front lawn decorated.