Spring 2016

 Taylor participated in UIL for the first time.  She placed 5th in Creative Writing.

 She placed 1st in Music Memory!

 Grady received a Clap-Out for being awesome!

 We got to run in our first ever Color Run.  It was a lot of fun!

Taylor being recognized at the school board meeting for winning the short story competition for 3rd grade in the Daughters of the American Revolution contest.

 Taylor at the DAR awards ceremony.  She ended up placing 1st in the whole state.

 Spring Break at the zoo.  

The kids had a fun day at the zoo.

 Probably the closest Grady will ever get to wearing football pads......hopefully...

 Easter Sunday in Gilmer.  We had fun spending the weekend with family.

 Grady's first time to participate in the Gallery of Magnificent Minds.  His project was fun and yummy!

 Taylor's project was all about the birds!

 

Taylor's soccer team at her first ever tournament in Longview.  They did really well, going 2-1.

 

Taylor qualified to represent her class in the school spelling bee.  She had to compete against the winners for the other 3rd grade classes, as well as, the winners for all of the 4th and 5th grade classes.  In the end, Taylor came in 3rd, losing to a 4th and 5th grader.

 Grady at his field day.

 

 Taylor at her field day.

 The kids at their first school dance.

 Taylor's first robotics competition.

 The finished product!

The kids and their fellow GT members raised over $500 for the Nacogdoches Humane Society.  They purchased lots of food and supplies, and then they got to spend the morning playing with all of the dogs and kitties.

 

Last field trip of the school year!  The GT group got to go to Moody Gardens.

Fall 2015

First day of school!!   

Third Grader!

First Grader!

Taylor's class got to go on a field trip to an old-timey village.  Here she is dressed up in what the students wore back then.

Taylor being inducted into her new Girl Scout troop.

The future leaders of tomorrow...

The kids participated in the Adjective Parade at their school.  Taylor was "stylish" and Grady was "patriotic."

 

The kids at our church's fall festival.  Taylor is a vampire and Grady is a ghost.

 Of course Dad has to add to the craziness on Halloween.  Everyone wanted to be scary this year.

 Taylor and Grady ran in their first race.  

 Taylor and her soccer team.  Taylor was the cutest goalie!

 Cousins!!  The only picture that we got where Hudson and Griffin were both looking at the camera at the same time!!

My beautiful kids!

This is just one shot of the craziness that was had trying to get this group's picture.

 And this one just about sums it all up!

Summer 2015

 First weekend of summer....Ben's birthday party!  Happy Birthday Ben!!

The two oldest cousins just might be the two silliest cousins!

 The kids on the last day of Grady's nature camp. This is his last year for Wonder Woods. Next summer he'll be with Taylor at the older kids' nature camp.  I somehow missed getting a picture of Taylor at her camp this year. :( 

 

Taylor and Grady in an intense corn hole game against Colson and Ellie at the Youngblood family reunion in Gilmer.  Lots of fun!

 Grady being silly...as usual.

 Taylor really liked playing badmitton.  She challenged just about everyone there.  Here she's playing with Aunt Patty.

Next challenger...Ellie!

 Tyson and Grady playing "ping pong" in Uncle Rex's barn.  

 Taylor and Bailey at the Word family reunion in Bandera.  Two of the cutest hockey players!

An action shot.

 Bailey, Taylor and Grady balancing on the famous alligator.

 Every kid is obsessed with this alligator at the family reunion.

 Four cute cousins hanging out in the bunkhouse.  

Pretty Taylor at Uncle Ryan's and Aunt Haley's "lake house."  

 Woo hoo!  Griffin is one!!  The only cousin that really dove into his cake!!

Poor Griffin looks like he was in some horrific accident!!  He really liked his cake with red icing!

 Three goofballs.  Explains why the kids act the way that they do!

 July 4th fun!  The kids really wanted to participate so we started them off slow. Smoke bombs led to everything else that night....I just didn't get pictures of them lighting anything else!

Tyson is the biggest kid of all when it comes to fireworks!

A little team work.

The crew.

Sometimes there are no words...

One of Taylor's favorite things to do is to draw in the air with sparklers.

We even got to sneak in a weekend to go to Poppa's house.  Since there isn't a pool the kids can play in, they had to swim in feed buckets.

Jack and Ben got to spend some time with the kids while they spent the week at Nana's house.  Here they're hanging out at the Kemah Boardwalk.

Nana's trying to show the kids how to feed the stingrays.

Taylor really enjoyed feeding the stingrays.

Grady was more comfortable taking a picture by them.

Nana and Doodah and their crew.

We made a quick trip to Galveston with Nana.  Taylor had to get in some beach time while we were there.

Grady showing a cool find that he found.

Even Grady enjoyed playing in the water.

We spent the day at Pleasure Pier.  We all had a blast.  This is their first time on bumper cars.

Ready to go!

Ahhh!  A squid ate Taylor!

Of course, the squid had to eat Grady, too!

Eating at the Rainforest Cafe was probably the kids' favorite part of our trip to Galveston.

Taylor had to order the largest dessert they had.  It was pretty cool...it even had a sparkler in it when they brought it out.

While we weren't traveling around, we spent the rest of our summer swimming at the SFA pool.