Camping...Take Two

We camped at Central Ferry park this past weekend with Justin's parents. We had a really great time. The weather was gorgeous! We rode bikes, sat by the fire, played t-ball, etc. It was really great. Looks like I am camping girl after all! :) There were of course moments of slight panic, like when Grace tried to keep the entire campground up at night and when Tyler drank shampoo, but ya know we all came out of it just fine. Enjoy all the pictures :)




Adam is quite the hitter let me tell you!


Sleeping beauty

My favorite part, coffee by the fire first thing in the morning! Morning is the most beautiful time of the day if you ask me, you just gotta love it! (and I might add that I make a mean pot of camp coffee!)


The only way to get a picture of Tyler, HOLD him still. :)

How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

Ruff Ruff. The one with the big adorable ears! :) We made doggies ears at story time today and I had three little puppies with me the rest of the day. I found them to mind much better than my children. I think I might try using dog commands all the time. Sit, stay, beg, LIE DOWN...STAY, NO BARK, seriously STOP licking me Tyler! (But mom that is what dogs DO!)You all think I'm kidding but I'm not. It was fun and probably the closest we'll ever get to having dogs:) LOL!Ruff Ruff!









On a side note I would just like to give my take on "Jon and Kate plus 8. I used to enjoy the show back when it actually showed how they managed raising a large family. It has turned into something very different and I refuse to watch it any longer. My opinion is that they need to QUIT the show and work on their marriage and save that poor family from falling apart. I don't think all their talk of the kids coming first matches up to their actions. But, that is just MY opinion. Any other's out there?

Camping 101

We had our first camping trip as a family this past weekend. We had a lot of fun! I apparently did camp as a very small child but never when I can remember so this was in a way my first camping experience and for sure my first one with 3 small children! We went with my brother Alex who has been wanting to take the boys fishing. We went up to Tucannon and fished at clear lake and stayed at spring lake camp ground. My folks joined us for the day. They were smart and drove home to sleep :-) We did all that we could to prepare and I really did feel prepared...but how do you prepare for poor weather? I don't think you can. We had so much fun all day Saturday the weather was off and on good then it would cloud up and it did rain for only for about 10 mins. We fished and bbq'd and hiked and played in the "tall grass", the dirt, the lake. It was really fun for everyone. We had a camp fire at night with s'mores of course. At bedtime we played with flashlights and made finger puppets. It really was great. The kids finally fell asleep around 10:30! :) Then real harsh weather hit around 11 pm. Super strong winds and rain! Our tent kept us dry but we didn't get much sleep. Impressively the children for the most part slept through the wind, the adults did not! The whole tent would shake and it was SO loud. The other bummer part was that it not only rained all night but into the morning so once everyone woke up we quickly packed up our soggy tent and came home. We did get everything dried out once we got home and we are all unpacked and ready for our next camping trip which is this coming weekend in Central Ferry with Justin's parents. Here's hoping we have better weather! :)



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Lunch time!

The kids playing in the "tall grass" around the campsite, who knew that would be so much fun!






Tyler enjyoing his s'more

grace thought fishing was a little boring!


My Dad caught the only fish, it was exciting!




The kids having a bite of breakfast while we packed up everything...in the RAIN.





I included this picture only because I loved it, here are the boys reading together the other day!

I also want to wish all the Dad's out there a very Happy Father's Day. I think Justin had the great weekend that he much deserved. We had a date Friday night and went shopping for him new work clothes (per HIS request, I promise). We had margaritas and nachos first and it was AWESOME, we really had so much fun. Then we camped Saturday and he got to take his boys fishing. It was great. Thank you to my wonderful husband for being the best dad anyone could ever ask for. You are seriously the most patient person I know and I am so grateful for you!

Good 'ol Summertime!

We have been really enjoying summer so far! We have been swimming lots and just spending lots of time outside. It makes the day go by so much quicker. Here are a few recent pics of the kiddos.


Ready for the POOL!


The many faces of Miss Grace...she has so much expression lately!





I had to take these while she was strapped in her chair eating her lunch, otherwise she is not still long enough! :-)


To end with I have to tell a funny Tyler story. While getting ready for bed one evening Tyler put on his boxer shorts that along the waist ban read "crazy 8" over and over. So Adam points this out and says, "Hey Tyler, your underwear say Crazy 8, Crazy 8, Crazy 8". Tyler looks at him confused and says, "well, I can't HEAR them". It was hilarious! :)

"There Were 4 in the Bed and the MOMMY Said...ROLL OVER!"

We have been having sleep issues around our house. With the ages of my children (5, 3 1/2 and 19 mo)we really shouldn't be, but we are. You see we do everything wrong when it comes to getting your kids to sleep at night and hence we have crummy sleepers. Now, usually once my kids hit the age of one, we are smooth sailing and all is well. The rules around here for the most part are, everyone starts in their own bed and if anyone wakes up then just come crawl in bed with mommy and daddy and we all go back to sleep the end. We tend to follow the advice I once heard, "only change what you resent" and up until now we honestly weren't really resenting things. WELL, lately somehow we have been ending up with not one but two kids in our bed too often!!! We both got to the resentment stage and something had to change. Friday night, we made Grace cry it out. I know, ME! the wimp of all wimps when it comes to that! So, it lasted less than an hour, she gave up went to sleep and has slept ALL night the past 3 nights! Dare I say that was it? If so, hallelujah that was SO worth it and honestly not as hard as I thought it would be she is 19 months old after all! So, I'll call that our success story. On to Tyler. It started out as an innocent, "Daddy I can't sleep" so he'd snuggle up with us and all was well, we both said, "oh its a phase, it won't last long". It quickly turned into EVERY night and it was just getting out of hand. So, again starting Friday we sat him down, told him it had to stop etc. For 3 nights he stayed in his own bed and we thought we were golden. Yea guess again! Last night was torture! He woke up at 1am, we brought him back to his bed kicking and screaming, the battle lasted almost an hour and the entire time we were praying he wouldn't wake the other kids(he didn't by the way). So, pray for us as we teach our kids how to sleep in their own beds so that they don't have cranky parents in the morning from being kicked all night. SIGH, parenthood is NOT easy! Seriously, is there just always something??!!!????