Happy Halloween!

Well, Rylan was the only one of the kids who was healthy enough to go trick-or-treating this year. All 3 of the girls are sick.

Ryan took the little handyman to the couple of houses we go to and he collected goodies for everyone.

After they got home Ryan had them come knock on different doors upstairs and he answered them - as different people - and gave them treats. They thought it was funny to watch their Daddy playacting his parts as different people. Here are two of the sickies in their ballerina costumes. . .

They perked up quite a bit when Daddy told them to put on their costumes and come trick-or-treating upstairs. The last shots are Emily and Lila playing dress-up with stuff from Grandma Far Away's dress-up box earlier this week.

Emily had fun with the wigs.

And Princess Lila . . .

Emily and Julia

The oldest and the youngest cousin . . .

so sweet!

Shopping in H-town

Raquel knows all the good places to shop in Houston. She took the girls (and James) out one day to the area in town where all the imports come in and are sold for cheap. We had fun looking at all the jewelry, purses, and dresses.

The kids all came home with fancy new duds.

Sharp dressers!

Sea World!!

We drove to San Antonio Sunday after church and the next morning got up and headed to Sea World. We had such a great day! There was no waiting in lines (I think mainly because it was a Monday and slightly overcast). The shows were great - we saw one with sea lions,

one with dolphins and beluga whales,

and of course Shamu had a show.We fed the dolphins . . .and the kids loved the poison dart frogs. They are so brightly colored!I didn't realize that Sea World had so many amusement park rides. I also didn't realize that Emily and Alaina would be so excited to ride them!The picture is probably too small to see, but that is Neil, Raquel, Emily and Alaina on the log ride. I think the girls rode it 4 times and would have rode it more if we let them. This next one is the Atlantis which drops a boat very steeply and thus very fast into the water - of course getting everyone in the boat wet.

We rode that one several times and thus got very wet.

Lila was tall enough to ride in the eggshell ride. Rylan was too, but he was too tired and falling asleep in the stroller by that time.

Lunch was at Rudy's - the best BBQ joint in Texas.

Fun times!

Picnic At the Park

One of the days we were in Houston we packed up some stuff and headed to the park for the afternoon.

We did some lounging around . . .lounged a little longer . . .bbq'ed some food and ate it . . .

got chased by some ducks . . .

played with playdough . . .

and pretty much had a relaxing time.

COUSINS!

One of the most exciting parts of the Houston trip was getting to see cousins! The kids had seen lots of pictures of their new cousin Julia but this was the first time we saw her in person.

If you can't tell from the pictures - she is adorable!

We were also delighted to see James who is always ready to talk and share his sweet smile with you.The kids had lots of fun playing with Grace and reading stories to her.

"Cousin to cousin we'll always be,

Special friends from the same family tree."

Houston Trip!

It seems that we waited so long for our trip to Houston and it flew by way too fast! Neil and Raquel (Rebecca's brother and sister-in-law) have lived in Texas for quite awhile (6 years?) and this was the first time we got over for a visit. That is one drawback to having many children - you have to pay for many plane tickets. These pics are all from our time at Houston Museum of Natural Science. Rylan was most impressed with the dinosaurs and I didn't even get a picture of that!

Lila was horrified by the half eaten zebra and lion display.

There was also a precious stones display that the girls especially loved.

We thought the one Emily is standing in front of looked like grapefruit!

This is just the beginning of our Houston pics . . . more to come . . .

Pumpkins on the Porch

What a beautiful fall its been so far! We picked our pumpkins (2 from our garden and 4 from the store) and put them on the porch. The other 2 don't always stay on the porch, but I got them to sit and say cheese so I could get some pictures.

Vacuum Boy

Back when Rylan was just a little guy I did a blog post about his love of cleaning - well, using a vacuum anyway. http://rrrealfrank.blogspot.com/2008/01/cleaning-and-cooking.html I am pleased to report that at age 3, Rylan still loves to vacuum! He pulled out the vacuum this evening and asked, "Mommy, can I vacuum?" My response was, "Anytime you want to vacuum in this house, you are welcome to!" He then went to work cleaning like a wild man.

I should have taken a video instead of still pictures and you would have seen just how hard he works at it. What a cool kid I have!