To Texas and Back

I can't believe how long it takes me to get a post done these days! Life is soooo busy :-) I enjoyed my weekend off last weekend and my visit with my sweet cousin Heather. She and I both needed some time away to catch up and encourage one another. I thought while we were away that I would get caught up on things like the blog, but we just got caught up with each other :-)

These are pics from our trip to Houston. We went down a few weeks ago for Brent's sister's wedding. We were ALL in it and I was really anxious about making the trip. It was the first trip we have made since bringing R & J home and it was a BIG one. We had enough free tickets for all of us to fly down, but not to fly home. That proved to be a great way to do it; only having to drive one way. The kids had an absolute blast and want to know when we are going back. I have another post coming after this one that has all the wedding pics. The wedding was SO fun and my in-laws and sister-in-law are to be commended for a job well done. Everything looked beautiful and went off without a hitch!

Above: We stayed at my cousin's house and she has a 3 mo old and an 18 mo old. Rachel loves babies and took to them right away. They loved her too!

Below: Rachel and my grandmother, her great-grandmother, meeting for the first time.

Above: Ryan taking his turn holding baby Knox. He was a novelty for the weekend!

Since we used to live in the Houston area we know LOTS of people there: friends and family. They all wanted to stop by and meet our new kiddos. I think we counted at one time we had almost 20 kids there. Below is a pic of a bunch of them...

Above: We met these guys in college. Brent and Kelvin were roommates and Kelvin and Elizabeth started dating about the same time Brent and I did. We were all in each other's wedding and have stayed close over the years. Elizabeth and I both have large extended families and it has been fun to get to know her large family over the years. They have decided to adopt from Ethiopia as well and are almost finished with their paperwork.

Below: Two of my cousins closest in age to me. I have a total of 13 and we all grew up VERY close. They all have sisters. I am the only one of the bunch that does not so I consider them the closest thing I have to a sister ;-).

Above: Whitney swinging with her cousins. My kids do not have 1st cousins since Brent and I's siblings are so much younger so we consider my cousin's kids their cousins :-)

Above: This is my sweet friend Tania. She was one of my first friends when we moved to Spring in 2000. She is a great encouragement and prayer warrior!

Below: Since we flew down, we had to rent a car to drive home. Brent went to pick up our mini van and came back with this 15 passenger van. He thought the bigger the better for our 14 drive home! The kids called it our bus and thought it was super cool :-)

Hopefully, I will have time to get the wedding pics posted soon. Until then, have a great, fun, fall weekend!

Happy Birthday Whitney!

Whitney's birthday this year was the birthday that never ended! We had Ryan's party a few weeks late and Whitney's a few weeks early so the parties ended up being 2 Sundays in a row. Whit and I had planned to travel to TX on her actual birthday so we could help get ready for Kelly's wedding. Sooo, we celebrated her actual b-day with the immediate family a day early. The pic below is of her sucking her lollipop as we took off on the plane to go to TX. Of course the grandparents were excited to have her on her actual birthday and had a cake & presents waiting. Then at the rehearsal dinner we had cake again in honor of Whit.

Whit with our waitress at Logan's on her "birthday" a day early with the family

Her new pink pillow pet which has now replaced her regular pillow :-)

Whit with our neighbors who we carpool with for school on her "day early birthday"

The birthday child always gets to eat on the "You are Special Today" plate

Whit with her cake at her Cheerleader party

We had two cheerleaders from a local high school come and teach the girls some cheers. They stayed and played with them and the girls loved them!

Mommies standing by watching the girlies

Doing the cheers...

Whit and Lizzie

Whitney started asking last October when her birthday would happen again. She has been anxiously awaiting this day for a whole year! We have a break from birthdays until December. Stay tuned for our wedding celebration and fun fall pics...

Happy Birthday Ryan!

OK..so I have been really quiet here because life has just been busy. Since we have been home with R & J we have celebrated 5 birthdays (all living with us) and Brent's sister got married in Houston last weekend. I think after the holidays are over our kids may go into a depression through the winter as will not have anything to celebrate :-)

I am going to do my best to get caught up on all the happenings around here. We celebrated Ryan's birthday a few weeks ago and since I left my other camera in TX the pics below are all I have.

Since I am spotlighting him, I thought I would brag on him a little. He is a star athlete and is having great fun playing tackle football for the Franklin Cowboys. It is great fun to his parents to hear his name over the loudspeaker..."Ryan Rutland on the touchdown."

Baseball is still his first love and he tried out for a new travel team recently. It is being coached by a good friend of ours from church and their season will be OVER by July 4th. Even better than that, many of his practices will be right here in our neighborhood. Ryan was one of 9 chosen out of about 40...woo hoo! We are so excited for him!

Ryan in the Franklin Cowboys Homecoming parade

Ryan and his friends playing dodgeball at his party. Yes, even his birthday party was sports!

Ryan with his friends at his party.

If you notice, Ryan is wearing an Alabama football jersey to his party. He does own an Aggie one, but for some reason he has decided he loves Alabama...slightly disturbing! At least it is not burnt orange....then we would have a real problem!