Family Photos 2016

Every fall I face the task of picking out coordinating clothes for our annual pictures--and it seems to get harder every year!  Granted, we didn't add any family members this past year, but it's still super difficult to coordinate clothes for 7 people- I don't know how larger families do it!

I went to Old Navy, and thankfully found clothes that would all coordinate together, though it did take me almost two hours to find everything!  It might be tempting to skip a year of pictures, because I might not think the kids have grown *that* much in one year, but after comparing last years' pics to this year, they really have!!  It's really important to us to remember these precious years, so I don't ever want to skip having them taken yearly!

Our dear friend, Amanda McQuade, took our photos this year, and I was blown away by what she was able to capture!

I'm going to post my favorites here below, but for family members who want to see *ALL* of the photos, here's the link to my shutterfly album where I uploaded them all.  :)    pix.sfly.com/fYOKi6GV

Lilly's 8th Birthday Party

I love Pinterest.  It makes parties so easy because I don't have to be creative.  Confession:  I can't get on Pinterest just to browse or else I'd be there for hours, so I have to only go when I'm looking for specific ideas!  This was such a fun party to plan because it was so sugar-filled :)

Memory Orb Treats- aka Trix/Cap'n Crunch All Berries marshmallow treats

Jack Martin- 3 Years Old

Our handsome, spunky, ball of energy is now 3 years old!  

Jack is such a blessing to our family.  We had always talked about wanting 4 children, and after having 3 early miscarriages before Jack, we thought our family might be finished at 3--the same way we thought we might not have any children at all after having 3 miscarriages before Sean.  Looking back on those periods of pain and sadness, I am in awe of how God decided to first give us even just 1 child to quickly 3...and then "just one more" for 'our plan' of 4 children--but then He decided to bless us with a 5th one as well-- to further our trust in Him in all circumstances.  God is good beyond our comprehension.

Who's Having More Fun?

Sean was surprised when he received the new Millenium Falcon Lego set from Nana and Papaw for his birthday.  He immediately wanted to start on it that night.

Jon limited him to 3 bags a day to help him enjoy the project longer.  That created lots of moaning when he flew through the bags every day.  He needed Jon's help on the last day, especially with the stickers, which he had been putting on slightly crooked.  Jon doesn't seem to mind helping does he?  ;)  It's fun having big boys with big boy toys ;)

Finished and proud!

 He was trying to tell Jack to get out of the picture with his mouth closed, lol

 He asked me to take pictures of it open and with the figures posed, then kept asking for more poses of him with it and where he was going to display it in his room, so sorry, but here's picture overload!

Ahh, also--speaking of fun--the kids got a zipline from Nana and Papaw as well and Jon installed it yesterday.  I took these videos of the kids trying it out.  He's planning to make a longer zipline in the future- this one is only 35 feet, but perfect for the smaller kids, so we can keep both of them up once he gets the other one planned out.   He built a small ramp with a platform at the top so Brilee and Jack can reach the handlebars all by themselves, but it was dark by that time and I didn't get any pictures.  But it's perfect for them and they are super excited!