Steve's Work

I cannot emphasize enough how awesome Steve's work situation is!  His office was built, I believe, the second week we were in Texas.  The electrical work was done a couple weeks later.  But the interior finish work was not done until about a week ago.  So this was our first week having him out in his office full time.  And we love it!  He has his own dedicated space to work and is left alone by kids and distractions.  And I don't need to keep the house quiet while he takes calls.  Yet he is still at home.  The backyard to be precise.  He has a nice setup.  He has a light, fan and A/C unit.  He even has a mini fridge!  We had some sound proofing done too to help eliminate noise like dogs barking and kids playing outside.  He is really happy with it.  

We don't miss his sometime hour long traffic commutes.  And the kids and I are so happy to get to see him more.  He eats breakfast lunch and dinner at home and I can run out and see him whenenver I am missing him.  It is so fantaistic!

 

Fab Five

I like this photo Anna posted on Facebook.  I am posting the screenshot of her post just because I liked her caption.  But I also wanted to put up the photo itself.  I sure love my siblings.

Snack Bargaining

We have boxes for each of the kids with their names on it and each week we divvy up all the purchased snacks evenly among their boxes. This way we are able to make our snacks last longer because the kids know that they only each get a certain amount of snacks and they must make them last the entire week or they go hungry.  It has worked quite well for us.  

When the Matsons arrived we decided we better get boxes for those kids as well.  Yesterday was our second snack box filling day and Emily and I got the best kick out of listening to the kids wheeling and deeling their snack trades.

Summer Memes

Memes that are spot on this Summer.

I saw this old photo on Facebook.  I think I was 13 or 14 here.  This was with the teen ballet company I was in.  I loved these girls.  I spent more time with them than my family for periods of time.  Many of us still keep in touch.

Last week one of my old ballet friends had a stroke and died.  She was my age.  We went to high school together and performed several shows together and were also on the school dance team together.  She left behind her 2 year old twin boys.  It really shook me up.  It is strange how people you care about could be there one day and you think nothing of it and the next day they are gone.  It makes me want to show my love even more to those around me.

Fun Times

Well, the Matsons are here and it is making our kid's lives so much more fun.

And I don't mind having my sister here too!

For Family Fun Day on Saturday, we went to the Nature Reserve and Center in Austin.

The kids enjoyed it.

We were to swim afterwards, so everyone had their swimsuits on.

I like this photo of Cessie and Jonah's silhouettes.  And she's wearing her swim goggles already.

The grounds were very pretty.

Afterwards we swam at Barton Springs.

We had a picnic lunch there.

I love when Sam looks goofy like this.

Hana and Nyah, soul sisters.

And despite the awkward height difference that has grown between Nate & Andy, they are still very much bonded buddies too.

Emily sun bathing.

After Barton Springs we went to Andy's basketball game.  

He played a great game scoring most of his team's points for the win.

And he definitely had the largest, loudest, cheering section.

Finally, we went to 7-Eleven for their free slurpees on 7/11.

I want to post this lovely photo of Eden that Sarah took.

First Day With Matsons

Late last night Emily and five of her kids arrived.  Today was our first together and it was a lot of fun.  First we swam at Emily's hotel.  Then had pizza for lunch at our house.  

After lunch we went to the river where the kids played in the water for three hours.

This sweet woman sat there for at least an hour helping Charity and Sam find shells.  She was so kind!