August 2025

August began with Meet the Teacher night. Tyler sat in the corner and was only recognized as Santa, like twice. 

I have been helping with our school's PTA. It's been the best way to insert myself into the kids' school. I've had some great experiences with these great women and I'm looking forward to a great school year! I also started something new this year! One of the women in the photo below is a director of a preschool She needed a music class teacher and thought of me. It's only two days a month, but I'm so excited and I feel like this is going to be a great experience for me! 

This year all the kids are in "upper" grades. Nolan and Lyla are both upstairs at the school as they are in 3rd and 5th grade. Nolan and all his friends were separated into different classes, but he seems to have a really capable and excited teacher! Lyla has to same teacher as she had in Kinder and will take her first STARR tests this year! 

Grayson is still alone at the middle school, but starting 7th grade. They let them do a lot more things. He's looking forward to Tennis and putting up with band. But, I mean look at him! Where did this legit teenager come from? It was discovered that he is now taller than Tyler.

I put these together, just to see and couldn't believe how much these people changed in 12 months! So much change and so many good things happening! Here's to a great school year! 

Nolan and Lyla are doing fall baseball and softball. After Nolan's first practice, I remembered why we were hesitant to sign them up. It's hot here, people. It's been a VERY mild summer, I'm afraid of how much worse it could be. Thankfully, it keeps cooling down, just enough for Nolan and Lyla to not die each practice. No pictures of Lyla, yet. whoops. 

A friend of Tyler's as work, offered him tickets to a Cowboys game! She has season tickets and wasn't going to the last pre-season game. She generously offered them to Tyler. They were really great seats! seats that would cost $400+, EACH in a regular season game. We had such a great time! We paid for great parking and got there early enough to see all the things. I saw the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, IN PERSON! We were close enough to see and enjoy the pregame show.

The big players don't usually play the pre-season games, but I found Dak Prescott all by myself!

The picture doesn't begin to showcase how HUGE that flag really it! 

 

We were in great viewing position for the 1st two touchdowns of the game. This was a great bucket list night!

We stayed the night in a hotel and the kids stayed with Teresa and Kenney. The next day we had our yearly Rangers game! We got there early to partake in the give away. It was a cool Adrian Beltre statue, to match the new one in the park. It was a cool pre-game moment to watch! Kenney of course picked a great game to take us to. Playing the Guardians, the Rangers scored 3 home runs, which means 3 rounds of fireworks and we saw some solid pitching from Leiter. The game moved along and was very enjoyable! 

Tyler enjoyed a 2ft long chili dog. 

We recreated some photos to show how much has changed in 4 years. We love this family tradition!

The puppies were picked up and are safely back where they belong, with their people. 

The rain really is warm here, sometimes. Lyla was enjoying the sudden down pour until she had to get in the car with AC. 

After church as we were unloading the car, Nolan rounded the corner with a baby bird. Again! I joked that I married a Disney Princess. Birds keep showing up and he loves it! It was safely returned to it's tree and was gone the next day. Tyler's family had a meeting and took this cute picture together.

Baseball games start in September. Games are ONLY on Saturday's and we are seeing that fall is a bit more chill and enjoyable. More pictures to come!

Until next time...

July 2025

 Nolan's birthday starts off the month of July. Before we celebrate him, we MUST give a much deserved shoutout to Tyler. He received a little piece of paper saying he's a Master. This kind of flew by for me; not so much for him. It's crazy to see how much has happened to our family during our years here in Texas! I'm grateful for every one of them! 

Nolan learned how to connect with his friends on the VR. They have been playing quite a bit of Gorilla Tag. He's always SUPER sweaty afterwards! If you know, I'm sorry, my condolences. If you don't, maybe keep it that way! He begged for a Gorilla tag cake and somehow, I pulled it off! He is good at keeping Tyler and I strong in our logic skills for he constantly challenges our decision making skills. He's so athletic and he makes many things look so easy. We recently discovered he missed 1 question on his Mat STAAR test, testing in the 99th percentile of all 4th graders in the state of Texas. It's a good thing he likes math, because he is good at it! His brain works different with numbers. I love watching the strategies he uses to solve problems. We are letting him play fall baseball and are looking forward to the fall season! 

I convinced Tyler to stop at a local firework stand. We got a very simple kit and some giant sparklers. Fun was had by all. They make giant poppers now and they are super loud. Haha, we enjoyed those. We kept it simple with a BBQ in Grand Prairie with Kenney and Teresa, then fireworks later at home. 

Tyler and Grayson attended our Stake YM camp. It was somewhere in Oklahoma. It was Grayson first overnight camp. I'll never be grateful enough that Tyler has been able to attend many of these big experiences with him. My momma heart has a hard time with the idea of sending him alone. 

It was a lot. One of the days Tyler did more than 10000 steps. I comparatively did like, 700. Haha. Nolan, Lyla and I rotted for 3 days. We ordered in dinner one night and spent the day with some friends at KidMania for a couple hours. All the leaders from our ward are super great people. They and Tyler all think pretty similarly, so lots of laughs and hard work are usually going on. 

 

One of the stations was Hatchet throwing. Grayson's team won out of all the other teams in the Stake. He was so pivotal to his team winning that they gave him the trophy they won. Tyler gave a very Tyler-esque fireside in front of a huge bonfire. 

It was all fun and games until some very tired boys had to pack up camp in the rain. Grayson was also very upset that he had to go to a fireside within 24 hours of being home. The audacity.  

Tyler found a fun photo-op to try. We were surprised how well they turned out. They work best when you can jump high enough. I'm sure it was the photographers fault. 

Lyla fell in love with our neighbors chicken. They kids taught her how to pick it up. She was so chill and had the coolest mop of feathers on her head. Lyla talked about it for days. Grayson's one true wish came true. He's finally taller than me. 

The end of July brought around Grayson's birthday. He's officially a teenager. It's CRAZY to watch in grow over just the last two months. It's been quick and large and very noticeable. And totally the weirdest thing ever. He loves Wings of Fire. I broke down and bought a sugar print as he requested. He's also grown a love of steak. Tyler bought and cooked some good steak. He loves to read and has recently been listening to a LOT of music on Spotify (Thanks, Cass and Reagan!) He's signed up to try tennis this year adn I'm sure 7th grade is going to be interesting! He got 50th percentile in all his STARR tests! Right in the middle! Such a good place to be! He had no accommodations or help this school year and we couldn't be more proud of him for working hard to do his best! I don't know what happened in the last photo, but it looks like it was funny. 

The battery in the car died. We took Tyler's smaller car and promised lunch as Costco for kids who tagged along. 

How did July have the AUDACITY to end. We start school like, tomorrow. We're not ready, but we're ready for school routine to get back into swing. 

Until next time....