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!