Ok, so I will be the first to admit that I was a serious slacker over the summer with my blog. Summertime for our family is busy like everyone else’s, but ours also brings lots of travel and time away from home. A perfect excuse to not touch a blog:( 

Since we moved to Texas we’ve spent our summer breaks chilling in the pool (or trying to), exploring the wilds of Texas and having the kids enjoy local camps.  But we also use the time to head north to see family and friends. It’s been our ritual to pack up the Armada and take off for a month or so. Our time up north usually brings cooler temps (yeah!) and lots of activities. Both of my parents are the oldest of 6 children so we do not lack for cousins or reasons to have parties. For many years now it seems that we’ve been having a wedding (or two!) for one of my 23 younger cousins. These have been happily followed by new babies to join the clan. I think we are up to 21 first cousins-once-removed with 2 more on the way. Our family calendars of birthdays and anniversaries don’t have many free days. I write all this because this summer was no different. We celebrated Caitlin and Drew’s beautiful wedding in July, marked two 40th birthdays and a couple more for the wee ones, said goodbye to our sweet pooch Birdy, relaxed for a week on the lake, day-tripped around OH and IN, and most importantly welcomed 4 new cousins to the family.

I’m very happy to announce that after a great deal of work and patience, my sister and her husband have completed their family. They brought 4 wonderful children into their lives through the Foster to Adoption process in July. It seemed fitting that the kids came to their new home on July 4th, Independence Day. It was certainly a whirlwind to prepare for them and get them settled. Imagine going from 0 children to 4 children overnight! It brings four times the laughter, four times the tears, four times the clutter, four times the fears, four times the smiles, four times the worry, four times the food and four times the toilet paper! My kids are thrilled to have new cousins and the summer provided plenty of opportunities to get together to play. The new Zeigler kiddos settled in with a few bumps along the way, but they were such a good reminder to us about the important things in life. If you are lucky to have a family and a home and the basic necessities, you are definitely blessed. Like any family, we strive to buy the “newest and best” things, but we already have an abundance of what we need.  

I always think that pictures express so much more than words so here are some of the moments we captured this summer.