Happy Birthday Carson

My sweet angel boy turned 6. 6 whole years old, I can hardly believe it. I love this boy so much it hurts. He has been the absolute perfect 5 year old and I was sad to see him turn 6. He is the kindest big brother and so thoughtful of his sisters. He is so obedient and well behaved, I never have to worry about him. He love to swim and especially dive and he loves to run and jump on the trampoline and eat popsicles. His favorite tv show is Team Umizoomi and his favorite movie is... who knows, probably Counting on Lemonade. He still loves the color blue and also gold and he loves to play with his friends. He also loves to play the wii and can most often be found playing the piano. He is such a talented, smart boy. We feel so grateful to have him in our family and I am especially grateful for what a good example he is to his younger sisters. 

Oh how I love my C man. 

Friday night he got to go to Chuck E. Cheese with his Dad. He was nice enough to invite Millie to come along. They filled up on tokens and played games for a couple of hours. 

Carson insisted riding this train even though he was a bit too big for it. 

Just a little guitar hero. He also loved the football game and playing by himself. 

On Saturday we had a party for him at a swimming pool in Plugerville with slides. Carson barely and I mean barely made the cut off to ride the slides by himself. At his check up he was 48 inches which is the cut off for all these slides, it is a close call each time. Well the kids swam and swam and rode down slides and swam some more. 

They also took breaks to eat pizza and fruit and not many veggies were consumed. :) 

We also sang and did cupcakes. 

Carson and Simon. Love these two. 

Carson loved all his presents. 

It was a very fun day. On his actual birthday we made more cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday and watched American Ninja Warrior. It was a good few days for our boy. He deserves it, he works very hard and helps me so much while his Dad is out of town. 

Happy 6th Birthday Carson!!! 

We bought a house!!

We closed on this gem last week and we are in love. After stalking this house for weeks before it went on the market, sending them a letter with a picture, putting in an early offer and putting a time deadline on it, this house - the house we wanted so very badly, exactly where we wanted to be- is ours. We love it. It is an older home but has been kept up so well. We plan to do some work on it before we move in and then we will update as the years go on. We don't move for 2 months because they are leasing back. So it still doesn't feel totally real - except in our bank account. :) We are very, very excited. 

Father's Day 2015 - Amazing Race Style

Okay so Father's Day was amazing this year. I got together with a few of my friends and we planned an Amazing Race Father's Day for our hubbies. Aaron had NO idea, he was completely surprised on Saturday morning. I woke him up at 7 with a clue that he needed to be ready at 7:30. He was asking all kinds of questions. I told him he didn't need anything, he just needed to get dressed and eat a good breakfast. He seemed excited but nervous. Right on time his ride showed up and they went to pick up the other members of their team. 

They first hit a road block after that, they had to sell an item at a nearby garage sale (Petersons were having a garage sale on Saturday). 

After that they had to find a few murals in down town. 

Love this man. 

Then their next clue landed them at this wake board cable park in southwest Austin. We had all their stuff packed in the trunk and we had gotten them a 4 hour groupon to enjoy. They were stoked. 

All ready to go. 

Aaron may or may not have ripped his board shorts. :) 

They were exhausted by the end.  

Their final clue sent them to a pizza place in Mueller. There was one last envelope waiting for them with cards in it from their families. 

It was a special day and no one deserves it more than Aaron. He is seriously the best father in the world. I mean that and I say that with complete confidence. No kids are luckier than mine!! 

Just some cute ones

My kids are loving bubble baths lately. 

Yes I still bathe all 3 of my kids together and they still love it. 

Adorable kiddos going to church. I curled Millie's hair (its kinda hard to tell in this picture)

I have been giving the kids more responsibility to get themselves ready in the morning. 

Carson doing Camilla's hair. :)

And some days you just gotta ditch the grocery store, eat smoothies for dinner and head to the pool for a couple of hours. 

We had a birthday party for one of my favorites, Jeana, at the pool. It was a fabulous time. 

We did trampoline jumping in the rain. 

We bought a bunch of books this week (I have been meaning to go to the library for weeks and we haven't made it). Well we have been doing a whole lot of reading. 

I was thinking today while we were at the pool, I LOVE summer. I just love it. 

Arkansas Part 2

Wednesday morning we were lucky enough to welcome home Jayce. The oldest Pierson grandchild and such a great example for all these kids.  We sure are grateful for Jayce and happy he is home. 

Then we went straight to the water park. Oh man we had such a great time at the water park. We stayed there all day long. We took Brooke and Camilla to Aaron's parents house in the late afternoon to nap (or not really nap). And we just went on ride after ride after wave pool after ride after lazy river after wave pool after ride. We were worn out by the end. We were in charge of dinner and we made it simple with pizza, salad, fruit and dessert. 

Taking a break. 

Thursday was more of the same, lots of swimming and playing in the sand box. 

Then thursday night we all put on our shirts and head to a Traveler's game. Brooke's shirt was very big but oh so cute. 

Our family at the game. 

My heart could burst I love this picture so much. 

We met at the park to play with cousins. 

Early Friday morning was kick ball and water balloon fights and donuts. 

Friday night was singing and family night. Poor Millie was completely worn out. 

Saturday morning we snuck in one last swim before we head off. Brooke was a swimming rock star. 

Then we made the drive home. The kids did great in the car and we were very happy to get home and sleep in our own beds again but we were sad to not see a full cookie jar sitting on the counter. We are grateful to Aaron's parents for putting these together each year. 

Pierson Family Reunion Part 1

So last week we had the Pierson Family Reunion in Arkansas. All 6 of Aaron's siblings were in attendance and we had a blast. We drove up on Saturday morning and had a great drive, the kids did really well. We arrived Saturday night and immediately the kids were in the pool. We had a BBQ and swam and just talked and laughed. The kids were already excited. We were lucky enough to stay at the Gustafson's house this reunion. Our kids loved that. 

Sunday morning we went to church and it was great. Then Sunday night everyone came over to the Gustafson's to eat dinner and play games. 

We had a lot of fun with this kid!

Reverse charades. 

This morphed into Jedd telling the kids an animal and they would act it out. 

It was so funny. 

So the shirts! This year our reunion shirts all had numbers on them in the order you became a Pierson. So Aaron's Dad is one, Aaron was 8, I was 25, Carson was 30, Millie is 34, and Brooke is 39. There are 41 Piersons now. :) 

Then Monday morning we set off to hike Pinnacle. Holy hot and hard!! I carried Brooke sans the ergo baby (which we left in Austin) a lot of the way. Millie was not in her best spirits but we made it! 

Me and Brooke enjoying snacks at the top. 

The kids climbed a tree at the top to get an even better view. 

Our family at the top. Millie was not interested in taking a picture.  

After the hike down the kids found a small pond with some animals in it they were interested in exploring. 

Later that day included lots of swimming and corn dogs at Grandma's house. 

Monday night was the family talent show and games at the church. The kids all had a chance to do talents. Carson decided he wanted to "run fast", Camilla did a few dance moves and Brooke tried to do everything. Afterwards we played basketball and spike ball and stayed up entirely too late. 

Tuesday was a lot more of the same, swimming, food, family and fun. 

Brooke was such a big girl and LOVED the slide. She went down over and over and over again, all by herself. 

Pure joy. 

Tuesday night was Alyssa's shower for baby Henry. Oh sweet baby Henry, he was so beautiful and it was so fun to see Alyssa with a baby! He was perfect the whole shower and it was fun to celebrate Alyssa.