Because it’s Valentine’s week and these two have been married for over 50 years… I just had to post these of my grandparents (Mimi and Papa) at their ranch (along with a few of their GREAT granddaughter). They have been such an example to our whole family on how to live life joyfully and thankfully. Papa is the one who taught me to pick up a camera and take pictures constantly! Also, Cow Creek is one of the most beautiful places on the earth!

Happy Birthday Dave! Thank you for always making life fun and adventurous for our family.

And thanks for always being older than me…..I love it :)

I think my whole family would agree when I say that the ranch is a GREAT place for our little kiddos! There is something so awesome about getting out in God’s country and letting the kids explore, feed the fish, dig in the dirt, get stuck (or fall) in the muddy water, “hunt” for hippos and alligators, shoot sling shots, go for tractor rides, throw rocks in the tank or sit by a campfire. I hope they grow to really appreciate it and see what a blessing it truly is. One of my favorite things is to watch my dad interact with the kids here. This past trip he decided to load up the four oldest (two 4 year-olds and two 2 year-olds, I might add) in the truck for a drive. I need to probably mention that he has NEVER taken them on his own. We all watched in shock as he slowly drove off and all you could hear was the sound of four chatty kiddos just yack-in it up.  After the initial shock, parents quickly loaded up to follow…just in case. It was an ambitious attempt on his part, but the kids thought it was awesome! Good job, Tiger ;).
With all of this said, here are a few pictures of the adventures that we had. I promise that Stewart and Seely were there too….oops.

I can hardly believe that Gray is 6+ months old! I actually took these pictures of him a month ago when we turned 6 months and now he is already 7 months! How is that possible? I really think that with each child it goes faster and faster….or maybe I’m just in a constant state of disillusionment. Either way, I do love this new stage! He is so much fun and such a happy little guy. So, here’s to a great weekend…we’ll be back on Monday! Now for a little Gray Michael…..

What a trip.  Dave surprised me for my 30th birthday with an amazing 4 days in Jackson hole.  He had some of my close friends pretend to surprise me with a girls’ weekend at the lake (which I fell for and put on my calendar)…..only to find out when that weekend got closer that I wasn’t really going to Lake McQueeney.  I love my friends and I love the lake, but I can’t deny I was excited to hear where I was really going.

I am continually amazed by God’s creation…..the place, all the animals, the weather……Fall perfection.  It was incredible and peaceful, and very much needed.  Thank you, Dave, for not only throwing me a surprise party (!!) but also taking me on this trip.  He knows I LOVE surprises, and it is so hard to pull it off without me figuring everything out :)  So a huge thanks to him (& Sarah Halbach) for making it all happen!

Here are a “few” of my photos (with some iPhone shots at the end).  We even took some videos of a few animals or other random things specifically for our kids (which I won’t bore y’all with here).  But we would see something and say “Oh Trav/Hallie would LOVE this…” and then video it to show them later.  Yes, we are dorks like that.  But we can’t WAIT to take them on fun trips like this.  We’re going to be all over the family road trips some day soon.  But for now, I can’t complain about spending some quality time with my favorite guy…

I debated for awhile what to write for Cat’s birthday post. I was going to make it funny and embarrass her, but I think I want to take a different route this time. Cat’s a pretty great person and there are more than a few reasons why. In fact, I can give you thirty….

1. Cat’s a very loyal person. She has some of the same friends from when she was little and she will have those same friends until the day she dies.

2. Cat is a great wife, I’m just going to take Dave’s word for it.

3. Cat’s funny. She can joke around like the best of them. She’s also been perfecting the art of movie quoting.

4. Cat loves people well. If you ever have a problem, she will be there to support you and to try to help you figure it out.

5. Cat expects the best out of people. She doesn’t want you to settle for anything less.

6. Cat loves animals! Most of you might know of her two great danes and cat. However, I doubt you know that she had such a big heart for animals when she was a kid that she would buy/rescue feeder mice so that they wouldn’t be fed to snakes.

7. Cat loves brownies and I love brownies, so I think this is a great quality.

8. Cat would do ANYTHING for family. Seriously, it’s one of her strongest qualities. This brings me to number 9….

9. Cat would do anything for her kids. She’s like a Mama Bear….you don’t get between her and her cubs.

10. Cat’s a great mom. I honestly have been so impressed and proud of how great of a mom that she is.  You can see it in the eyes of her kiddos, Travis, Hallie and Seely.  They look at her like she is the greatest, funniest, smartest and most awesome person in the whole world.  It’s pretty cool.

11. Cat’s driven. If she puts her mind to it, she will do it.

12. Cat’s passionate about several things in life. She’s passionate about Jesus, Dave, her kids, family…..

13. Cat’s a beautiful person inside and out. If you’ve seen her, you know about the outside beauty. If you know her, you know about the inside beauty as well.

14. Cat is a very hard worker. She will bust her tail to make sure that the job that needs to be done is done well.

15. Cat is athletic. Just ask her where her nickname ‘Cat’ originated from.

16. Cat has many talents, refer here.

17. Cat has started, run and expanded a business into something great all before even turning thirty.

18. Cat is careful and precise.  She won’t settle for less than the best something can be.

19. Cat is smart.  She might have some “blond moments” but she is very bright.

20. Cat is tough.  She puts up with a lot of stuff that would get most people down.

21. Cat is faithful.  Jesus has always been the foundation in her life.

22. Cat is a great photographer.  She definitely has a talent and she has put it to some great use.  I’m constantly amazed at how talented she is and still manages to get better and better.

23. Cat loves to figure out surprises.  She actually prides herself on being able to figure them out.  In fact, I think the only time she has been truly surprised is when Dave proposed to her.

24. Cat loves to be in pj pants.  She comes in from being out either on a date, working a wedding, or just going out with friends and the first thing she does is go change into comfy clothes.

25. Cat is professional.  She knows how to keep great relationships with her clients and vendors and makes sure that they are treated well.

26. Cat has super hero sleeping powers that she inherited from Dave.  It’s impressive, really.

27. Cat makes sacrifices for her family.

28. Cat always wants people to feel accepted.  She doesn’t like for anyone to feel left out.

29.  Cat is a peace-keeper.

30. Cat is a great sister.  Growing up I picked on her and basically used her as my personal slave.  It was awesome, I mean awful.  Cat let me act like that probably because she wanted to hang out with me and looked up to me.  I took advantage of this but deep down the reason I treated her this way is because I loved hanging out with her.  It was a way to insure that she would be there.  As we grew up, we actually became friends. Cat is a person that I know I can call when I need to talk to someone or go to if ever in trouble.  She may be my little sister but sometimes I feel like she could give me more advice than I could give her.  She has really grown into an amazing person these past thirty years.  She may be sad leaving her twenties, but I personally feel like thirties are where the fun happens.  So Cat, welcome to your thirties.  You’ll love them.

So, it’s the end of summer…. always a very sad time for me! But, I did just relive one of my favorite times of summer recently through these photos. At the beginning of August all my mom’s side of the family goes to these quant little cabins in Leakey, Texas for a few days to regroup. So thankful for this time and for my family. The trip is filled with catching minnows, reading by the water for hours, coffee mornings, dinners on the porch, hair cuts by my mom, card games, theological discussions that end with throwing rocks at each other or random tree stumps, and lots of laughs. We truly are one the weirdest families I know (if you have ever been to a wedding with all of us you know what I mean– strangest dance parties ever), but also extremely blessed to have each other.

Seely is making a special appearance on the blog today.  I am committing to taking more photos of this child.  We had an impromptu photo shoot yesterday that resulted in these shots….both equally adorable in different ways.  Don’t you just want to pick her up and squeeze her?

Happy Friday y’all!

I’m not sure who was more ready for school to start.  They didn’t even hesitate as they walked in this year.  Hallie started a new school with her big bro, and Travis is now in a “big kid” class where he will be the youngest.  It was so fun seeing his proud face as he walked past us to chapel as we were leaving.  He is getting so old……it’s freaking me out.  Then I had to call Hallie’s name a few times just to get her attention to say “bye”.  She was on to better things and didn’t need me at all.  It’s so fun seeing them grow up but kinda sad.  But I just can’t go there.

My munchkins on their first day….

Here are photos from when I spent a week in the mountains. I got a text from my good friend Lucy the week before asking me if I would join her and her college Young Life girls on a backpacking trip and of course I said OK. All the scrambling to get things done the week before was totally worth the spontaneous drop everything and go feeling. It’s seriously  so hard to find words to describe how amazed I was at God’s beauty and spending the week surrounded by Him. From every little daisy I picked (made all the girls daisy chains obviously) and every boulder we climbed up and every chilly night and rain storm and every blue mountain peak we saw and all the sunsets and sunrises and the textures of the trees and leaves and all the blisters from hiking and nalgenes filled with stream water (and iodine, duh) and every conversation and laugh it was covered with true joy and true beauty. So thankful that I have a job that allows me the flexibility to take these opportunities. I also didn’t take my camera so I could be really really present. So enjoy all these instagrams :).