Brinley Boo, Casen Buddy, and Marlee Jane: Houston

We finally headed to Houston the middle of August and settled right in. We were instantly welcomed by neighbors and already love it here!

A couple weeks after getting here Ryan and I went on a date night to the Houston LDS temple. It was beautiful and so nice to be in the Lord's House.

Marlee was so excited to finally have toys again! She had so much fun dressing up and playing with her babies. She ran laps around the house over and over :)

Daddy's first day of work at Credit Suisse! Here goes nothing :)

We headed down to the beach the last weekend before school started. We all had so much fun playing in the waves together. Marlee wanted to spend most of the day on shore so I stayed with her most the time.

Brinley and Ryan made these turtles together. The water was so so warm, it was awesome :)

We got giant shave ice before heading home from the beach... Brinley is smiling here, but didn't even like it!

First day of Second Grade! Don't know if I'm ready for this :) She will be attending Silvercrest Elementary with Mrs. Stephanie Williams as her teacher.

We found this fun little park at the back of our neighborhood. We love being able to ride our bikes along the stream and ponds!

Sayme Peterson from our new ward invited us to their neighborhood pool. The kids all had so much fun! Casen was such a good sport and kept helping Marlee go down the waterslide.

Mindy, Rosanna, and I - Rosanna is the previous owner of our home and her and Mindy married cousins... Mindy is my current neighbor. So Mindy threw a goodbye to Rosanna's family/welcome to our family Block Party at her home. She rented a GIANT bouncy slide and had a bunch of treats... well a HUGE storm blew in out of no where! Everyone went running home in the rain, the power went out for 5 hrs, and the bouncy slide blew into the neighbors yard. It was pretty crazy :) Our three families still had a great time, it was fun to meet Rosanna after talking to her many times on the phone. And Mindy is so sweet and welcoming. Feel so lucky to be in this great neighborhood!

Playdate with some new friends from church - Sage & Summer Ekman. Balloon sword fights!

Casen LOVES all the fun little boys he has to play with on our street. I found them in the back yard driving the Jeep up the roller coaster. I had to take a pic before making them take it down :)

Brinley and her new friend McKenzie. Mindy set up a playdate for them and they became instant friends. They couldn't have been happier when they found out they were in the same 2nd grade class! Out of 6 teachers! I really felt it was an answer to prayer after how hard of a start Brinley had in first grade and how nervous she was to start at a new school.

We have been going on bike rides to the park for my exercise every Thursday instead of the gym, the kids are loving it - and honestly so am I! :)

First day of school ICECREAM! We went to 31 Flavors which never happens, they all loved it :)

After school snack! It's fun to have all the kids sit down for a snack when Brinley gets home, I want to make it something they look forward to :)

Spent a ton of time organizing these legos with this cute boy! He really has started to love legos and has become quite the little builder!

Marlee was so happy to have toys to play with again! She brought these upstairs to pay with while I organized the foodstorage.

Yay! After seeing Brinley do this many times Casen was pretty proud of his accomplishment :)

First day of gymnastics! Marlee and I do a Mommy and Me class while Casen is in the class next to us, so it's fun to be able to watch them both. We are excited to be at an actual gym now and not just the rec. center.

Brinley had to fill this bag with items to share with the class and tell about herself. Here is what she choose: She loves owls, crafts, Hawaii, rock climbing, and soccer :)

Marlee loves this little kitchen and has had so much fun playing with it since we moved in! She was making me food over and over and was just too cute so I grabbed a quick picture :)