Multnomah Falls

We went to Multnomah Falls a few weeks back and since I had pictures I wanted to to get them on here. We weren't exactly planning to hike up, but we had most everything we needed.

The thing we lacked was a mom who could actually make it the whole way. I was carrying Smiley, the Husband was carrying Sticky and Lulu was walking. We made it to the 6th turn and I couldn't go any further. Next time I want to try going up the whole way. Lulu was amazing! She walked as far as we walked up and then the Husband put her in the pack and carried Sticky in his arms about half of the way down.

A very nice lady saw me take the above picture and told me to get in it so we could get the whole family. I didn't have the heart ask her to take another one because this one was blurry.

Smiley totally fell asleep on the way down.

Dentist

A week ago, Lulu was being her usual rambunctious self and ended up face planting on the living room floor. After a bit of freaking out, a bloody nose and a split and bloody upper lip three times it's normal size, we realized that her upper right tooth was just a bit loose. She said that it hurt when she ate. I was hoping that it would tighten back up. After some advice from parents, dentist and dental hygienist friends and a little more blood from her tooth, I decided to take her into the dentist. It was actually her first trip to the dentist, so it was a bit overdue, seeing as she is four.

 The first pair of sunglasses they gave her were too big and she didn't want to wear them. The light was really bright, but she wouldn't close her eyes. So they gave her this pair that was a bit smaller.

She did so well! I was very happy with how comfortable she was and how well behaved. She got at least four x-rays and she held still for all of them. She let the hygienist clean her teeth, floss her teeth and do the whole squirt and suck procedure. She did such a great job holding open her mouth that we had to tell her multiple times that she could close it because she kept opening it. Even though we waited until she was four, she had no cavities! Yea! When we got home, she wanted a snack, but then she didn't want to eat it because she didn't want to get her teeth all dirty. (She is over that now.)

Her loose tooth is just loose. It may or may not get looser. It may or may not get even looser if she hits it again. If we really want to save it she is going to need to limit using it to bite into hard things. I don't really want to stress about it. I told her she should probably not use it to chew much and that is all I am going to do with it. If she does loose it the dentist isn't worried, as long as it comes out cleanly. She will just have a minus one tooth smile for a few year until her adult tooth comes in. With how active she is, I am almost expecting her to loose it prematurely.

New Purse

You aren't going to find me posting about many fashion type things. I do not have confidence in my choice of fashion. I like some looks and I like some looks on me. I wish I had an eye for funky, somewhat, but not too, trendy clothing and accessories. I know I could do it on a budget, but I have a very hard time shopping for clothes for myself. First, I often can not even justify getting clothes for myself when it is a really good deal and I need it and can afford it. Second, I rarely have an opportunity to try anything on and I almost never get something for myself without trying it on. Third, I still haven't lost all of my baby weight and I am not at all pleased with how I look in anything, most of the time, so why buy cute clothes to put on a funny body. Ok, so that is a slight insight to the workings of my strange mind.

Which brings me to my purse. Isn't that what you were thinking of next?

It took me until my very late teens to even start carrying a purse. Even then I would try to find something very neutral and non girly. I think my favorite one was a grey camera bag. I even took it on my mission. It carried 2 paperback Books of Mormon, my flip chart and discussions book perfectly. I have been trying to get more girly and more fashionable purses as the years progress. I am not the type of person to have more than one purse at a time. I get used to one, use it until it falls apart and then look for months to find a replacement. Besides having to have all the right features and being able to see myself carrying the purse, it has to be inexpensive. I prefer to find one that is on sale so that I know it was at least made half decently, but I don't have to pay that price.

                              For the last 2-3 years I have been using this purse

I got it on sale for either $3 or $5

I actually still really like it and it isn't falling apart at all. However it holds everything perfectly, which means there is no room for anything extra. So when we go somewhere and the Husband needs to stash his wallet and phone, it doesn't work. Plus it is starting to do this

I admit to the possibility of having bad fashion sense, but I am positive that this looks trashy. I love a good deal and I am all for using things until they fall apart, but I really like things not to look like they are falling apart.

Here is my new replacement

It was on sale for $12

It is pink.

The Husband is on the fence. He knows I am not a pink person. I have been trying to be more girly, ever since we got married. I think I can do it. I like the style and the size and the features. I would have been more comfortable with green. Oh well, it is good for me to get out of my comfort zone.

I think it is good for me to have pink. I am not sure why. 

Shots

I took Sticky and Smiley in to the pediatrician for their next round of immunizations on the 28th of September. Lulu got to stay home with daddy. Sticky is 33" tall and weighs 24.9 lbs.  Smiley is 26" and 14.9 lbs. They both did rather well. They cried when they got poked, but calmed down quick afterwards. The Dr. is happy with how each of them are growing and developing. Sticky is talking really well, for her age. Smiley has a bit of a tied tongue, but it isn't interfering with eating, so it will most likely be something we will deal with in the future only if it bothers him. I had a friend in high school whose tongue was tied. Poor kid couldn't stick it out of his mouth. I think he got it clipped later on in life.


       Our attempt at a baby mohawk

I always thought mohawks on baby boys were so silly and slightly white trash. I repent. I love being being able to show that the poor kid isn't completely bald. I haven't done it in public yet, but my guess is that I will. It's okay, I have embraced the fact that I had thought one way before children and now think a different way after children.

Old Friends

On September 24th I got to go to a wedding reception. The Husband had to work, so I took the kids by myself. I probably wouldn't have attempted it, except the bride was a girl that I knew while on my mission.  It has been about 10 years since I served in that area of Vancouver.

When I was on my mission, the bride was around 9ish. She was the cutest girl, then and now. My clearest memory of her was of her and her best friend (who just happens to be getting married in a few months herself) doing cartwheels on the front lawn as my companion and I were doing yard work. She was actually our next door neighbor. We lived in the basement of the house of a sweet older lady who actually was not a member of the church. I got to see this lady again at the reception along with about 3 families that I remembered and that remembered me.

It was so much fun and the kidlets actually did a pretty decent job. I only lost Lulu once for about 30 seconds and both Lulu and Sticky only founds treats at the the refreshment table about 2 or 3 times by themselves. The kids looked way cute in their church clothes and of course I wasn't able to get a picture. I was concentrating so much on remembering people and keeping my kidlets in order, that I didn't get a picture at the reception either. Oh, well, at least I got it down here.

Uninspired

I have been trying to think of noteworthy things to post and haven't come up with many, thus the lack of posts lately. I have also been terrible at taking pictures lately, so no pictures for this post. Feel free to stop reading now. I prefer pictures too.

We have been benefitting a lot from a few deal websites lately. Our first deal was getting a two for one pass to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We used that a month or so ago and I am assuming we totally forgot to take pictures, because I haven't found any on our phones or our camera.
Next we got a family membership to OMSI at half the usual price. A steal of a deal! We have already gone twice and saved ourselves $6 by buying the membership. For the next year, every time we go it will be like going for free. We are pretty sure we will use it more than the Zoo membership we bought last year. We got our monies worth on that, but just barely.
Next we got half off a certificate for Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I have been wanting to go to a Ben & Jerry's ever since I fell in love with Phish Food in college. I was even in Vermont for a spell, a long time ago, and never went! I really could kick myself for that one. We enjoyed a trip to OMSI and ice cream last Friday. (Once again, no pictures. Yes we are that lame.)
Our latest deal was pay $10 and spend $20 at Whole Foods Market. I am very excited to use this one. I told the Husband that when we are rich and famous, minus the famous, I want to shop here on a regular basis.
It has been fun finding deals on things that we have wanted to do anyways.

The Fair!

We love the fair! When we lived in southeast Idaho, we tried to make it a point to attend the Blackfoot Fair every summer. Last year we moved to Oregon right before the fair. We were super bummed. Then we realized that the Oregon State Fair was almost as good. (Ginormous compared with the Blackfoot Fair!) We had so much fun last year.

This year we got to go with Cousin M & Cousin D. We were there for 7 hours. It was a bit intense considering it was in the 90's the entire time. We were a bit hot. They had a misting thing that you could walk under and get wet, so we had the kids do that. And by kids I mean Lulu, Sticky, the Husband and Cousin M.

Sticky had a great scowl on her face, but she did enjoy being wet.

I think they were all dry a few minutes later.

I feel kind of lame, because we didn't get the best pictures. We forgot the camera and I put my phone in the diaper bag all day, so we relied on the Husband. He usually does get some great pictures, but we just weren't on top of it.

Lulu got to try her hand at fishing with Cousin M. When she was holding the pole she kept jabbing it in the water trying to poke the fish. (We still haven't replaced her birthday fishing pole and given her a lesson yet.)

We saw the coolest tent that attaches to the roof of your car. We want one, but would rather not pay the price tag, so will be accepting donations anytime.

The girls even got to go on a ride. Sticky barely hit the height limit for this one. It was a little canoe that floated around a tube. A little too mild for both of them, I think. Lulu was so good at holding Sticky and keeping her safe. And Sticky was so good at letting Lulu Hold her.

I think we will be spending more time at the rides next year. Lulu wanted to go on all of the other kiddie rides.

As fun as all that was, it wasn't the main reason we went to the fair. We go for the food! The Husband was commenting on the way to the fair, how happy he was that he married a woman who enjoyed food. He may not be so happy when I weigh 800 pounds, but for now we are happy. We got to the fair just in time for lunch. Our family shared a plate of nachos with everything on them. We then got a 16 inch corn-dog. I really wish I had gotten pictures. I had about 3 inches and the girls polished off the rest. Later we got a snow cone icy thing. Then when that was totally un-sastisfying the Husband found a refillable Slurpie cup. We got that twice. We were peckish by then and got a flowering onion. I next got apple pie fries. Amazing! Then the Husband got a chicken fried steak with sauerkraut in a pretzel bun. It was tasty, but we were all pretty full by then. We washed that down with one more Slurpie. Besides the corn-dog, the girls helped with the snow cone, Slurpie and apple pie fries. Lulu also helped Cousin M with his giant turkey leg. Sticky mostly ate snacks we brought from home for them. I think I will bring PB & J for them next time, because they so do not appreciate fair food and I have a really hard time spending 4 dollars a piece for them each to have their own corn-dog. I still have yet to try a deep fried Twinkie and a deep friend Oreo. They continue to be on my list of fair foods to try next time.

All in all we had a great time. Despite the sun and heat, no one got sunburnt and no one got terribly dehydrated. Although the Husband was totally sick that night and all day Sunday. He will tell you it was all worth it though!

What Smiley Has Been Up To

Smiley has been enjoying his toys lately.

He has also rolled over 6 times in the last month. Mostly back to front, but he did front to back today. He will be 4 months old on the 9th. I think he is too young to be doing this, but it really seems like he just wants to get up and play with his sisters.

He has also been rinding in his front pack carrier a lot lately. I am pretty much guaranteed a happy baby and often a napping one.

Smiley got to sit in a cool seat at a friend's house the other day. I think we are going to have to get one of these.

Berry Picking

The kids and I have been trying to go on walks around the neighborhood while the weather has been so nice. We try to incorporate a bit of blackberry picking during these walks. We scoped out a potentially good picking spot that we could come back to with the Husband, when he had some time off. Two Saturdays ago, he finally had some time off so we could go! The cool thing is that the patch is within walking distance of our home and nobody has touched it, so I do not feel at all bad about getting free blackberries. It would be terrible to let them all go to waste ;)

Lulu did a great job of picking! She picked more than I did and only ate a few. We let her get the low berries.

Sticky did enough picking to accomplish this and a few more stains on her hands and clothes.

We picked enough berries for me to make this:

It was YUMMY!

This past Friday we were able to pick raspberries, my personal favorite. We went to a u-pick farm and picked 4 pounds! I told the Husband we needed enough to be able to eat as many as we wanted for a few days and make a pie. I guess we should have picked more, because we did not have enough for a pie. We might need to go back and remedy that.

Once again, Lulu did a great job picking. 

I picked a few more than her this time, with the help of Smiley.

Sticky did a lot of this

At one point I had to rescue her empty bucket from in between the rows. It must have been holding her back.

We also were able to pick a few tomatoes and some corn. YUM! Sticky picked a nice green tomato and carried it around with her the rest of the morning. I'd like to try fried green tomatoes. We'll see if it seems worth it for one tomato. 

The girls had so much fun. We are definitely going to try it again before the season is over.  

Moving

Admit it,

you are worried,

or excited

or just plain curious.

I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

It isn't us. The Husband's sushi loving cousin M and wife are moving to our neck of the woods at the beginning of September. (Actually only about 3 blocks away from us.) We are very excited! Cousin M came and stayed with us last week so he could find just the right place to live. It was fun having him. The girls loved Cousin M and Smiley enjoyed being held by someone, when I couldn't hold him.

Now the Husband won't have to drive forever away to get his sushi fix with his sushi buddy. We will also have another couple to do game night with. (We recently had a game night with our newish next door neighbors and realized that we have really missed having game nights.) It will be so nice having a bit of family so close. I just hope we don't terrify them with our kidlets, they don't have kids themselves yet. We'll have to let them see the kids in small doses until we are sure they won't decide never to have children. Because I am pretty sure my three kidlets, for an extended period of time, is a great form of birth control.

Growing Up

My Smiley is no longer a newborn :( 

He is a full grown baby now.

Smiley 3 months old
Look what he can do

He is finding his hands a lot now

He also rolled from his back to his stomach last week. He was arching his back and trying to push his face into the floor, because he was upset. He hasn't done it again thank goodness. My baby is already growing up. Sigh.

Lulu's 4th Birthday!

Lulu made it to her 4th birthday on the 10th. I know it has taken me a few weeks to get it posted, but we have been doing stuff. I actually remembered to take a picture of her with her haul. I like to be able to look back and remember when she got stuff and who it came from. We got her 2 pair of shorts, a t-shirt, a zip up hoodie, a dress and a fishing pole. Her grandma K got her the letter, number toy. She was so excited about the "fishing cole" so she can go fishing with daddy. Unfortunately it was already broken, so we gave it to her and then promptly took it away, so we can return it and get her a different one. She was less than impressed, but able to distract herself with her letters and numbers toy.

I tried something new for her cake.

I found a really fun rainbow cupcake recipe and instead of doing 24 cupcakes, i did 12 cupcakes and a double layer cake the size of a loaf of bread. The colors were so vibrant and it was pretty darn tasty. I even made real frosting which was extremely yummy too.

My attempt at photography

I have a new found respect for food bloggers

and their awesome food photography skills.

(I am also hungry for these cupcakes again)

Since their birthdays are only 10 days apart I got them both

in their birthday outfits and tired to get them to smile at me.

Sticky 2      Lulu 4

Chopsticks

During the family reunion the Husband gave me a much needed break by taking the girls for a few hours so I could hang out with the family and just Smiley. He and cousin M took the girls into town to check it out and of course go to a sushi restaurant.
Isn't that the thing to do when you go camping? If you know the Husband and cousin M, then this is actually extremely normal. The Husband once drove 8 hours round trip, just so he could go out to sushi with cousin M at a particular restaurant.
I do not like sushi, so the Husband has to get his fix when he can.
At the restaurant, Lulu grabbed a set of chopsticks, picked up a roll of sushi with them, and popped it in her mouth. (I think it came right back out as she wasn't impressed with it.) What was impressive was that fact that it was the first time she had ever held a pair of chopsticks. The Husband and cousin M were both shocked and told me about it the minute they came back. I was impressed, but figured it was a fluke.
Well, we went out for thai food recently, (by the way we have found a thai food buffet that is totally nifty) and I gave her some chopsticks to see if she could do it again. To my amazement, she did, multiple times. She uses them a bit odd. She uses both hands on the chopsticks to pick the item up and then transfers them into one hand and pops it in her mouth. She did it way fast, so I had a hard time getting pictures. The kid just barely turned 4!

Just for posterity I will mention that we went to this restaurant a second time and she would only use the chopsticks as drumsticks and hitting implements and they were promptly taken away from her. She is talented, but still four.

Smiles and Naps

I realized that I never actually set my goal for how often I was going to write on here. I feel slightly pathetic that I failed my first goal, to set a goal. That probably says something about me, but I am going to choose to ignore it. Unless I find myself having huge issues again, I think I am just going to wing it and write as often as I have something I want to record. Don't you love how I feel the need to justify myself, to myself. Really that is who I am writing to on this blog. The Husband doesn't read it. In fact someday I will make him sit down and read it all and he will be so happy and slightly embarrassed that I decided to record our lives like this. He'll have to start his own blog to get his side of the story down.

Smiles :)
I think I nick-named Smiley appropriately. The child is extremely smiley, often. Especially in the morning when he first wakes up. He is so much fun to interact with then. He has a new trick too. When he is laying on his back, I lift his arms up over his head and he laughs a lot. It is so cute! In fact, I need to get the Husband to help me record it on video, it is that cute. Fun how even though this is our third child, the baby cuteness is just as fun as the first time. Lately he has also been smiling at me while he is nursing. It makes me laugh. Here he is eating away and all of a sudden he is smiling at me with his food source still in his mouth. It is good to know that with the craziness and chaos that his two sisters exude, he still has reason to be happy.

Naps
Please don't hate me for the following statement. Lulu, Sticky, Smiley and myself take a 2-3 hour nap almost everyday. How is this possible you may ask? Later on in my life I know I will be asking myself this, so I will answer myself now. The girls still need their naps and I am reminded of that every time they miss them. Just today, we spent the afternoon with some great friends and the girls were so busy playing that they did not even think of naps. We got home, ate dinner and I worked on Lulu's birthday cake for tomorrow. The girls were okay watching me and stayed fairly out of trouble. Then Smiley didn't want me to finish the cake, because he felt the need to eat and be put to bed, so I helped him get to bed while the girls then decided to go crazy. They were goofy and loud and rambunctious and just plain loopy. I then tried putting them to bed and Lulu lost it. She was hysterical about the fact that she did not want to go to bed. Sticky joined in as I shut their bedroom door and counted myself lucky that I was not sharing their room with them. This is what happens when they miss a nap. This is how I know they still need naps.
The logistics:
I put Sticky down by herself and take Lulu and Smiley with me. Lulu complains sometimes and sometimes she complains a lot, but almost always, within 10 minutes, she falls asleep. We all end up waking up 2-3 hours later. This is the other reason I know they still need naps. I know I am so blessed to be able to get 3 kids to nap all at the same time. I also know that I should most likely be doing something a bit more productive then napping, but I am pretty sure Lulu would not take a nap if I was still up, so I make the sacrifice. I think we will try to forgo her nap when we start working on preschool, but we will have to see how she reacts to all that. Right now I am enjoying nap-time immensely, especially since Smiley still wakes up 2-3 times every night to nurse and I can't seem to get myself to bed very early, because I am enjoying my alone time that I don't get in the day, because I am taking a nap. It is a vicious cycle.
Yes, I just realized that it would have been better organizational skills to do this post as 3 separate posts, but it is getting late and I am tired and I just thought of it and am not going to change things now. I'll get better as I do it more. I'm so glad I could have this talk with myself. I am sure I will be glad in the future that I explained all this to me. Then I will laugh at myself for being a wackadoo. I am now off to wrap birthday presents for my first born child. She will be four tomorrow. Not quite sure how that happened, but it did so I had better figure out how to cope with that.

Grounded

I've grounded myself, which unfortunately means the kids are grounded too. After a week living outside and having to keep track of the girls while keeping Smiley happy, the thought of taking the three of them outside by myself almost makes me nauseous. I hope I get over this soon because I am going stir crazy with the girls not getting to run their wiggles off outside. I am going to attempt to take them to playgroup this week.

I love the ward that we are in right now. There are many reasons why I love it, but one reason is that they do a playgroup every week on the same day, at the same time, at a local park if it is nice or at the church if it isn't. Similar people come each week, but sometimes different people come. I love being able to chat with the other moms and let the girls play in a pretty safe environment. Playgroup is the most social interaction I get all week long. I know that seems pretty pathetic, at least it does to me. I am having a hard time finding a balance between being a mom and being a real person. Being a mom totally trumps doing anything I used to do before I was a mom. To be totally honest, I can't remember much of what I did in my leisure time before I had kids. It makes it pretty hard to find time to do things for myself, when I don't even know what I would do. Unfortunately I fall back on watching shows, checking Facebook and blog stalking. I need a hobby that makes me feel like a real person, but doesn't encourage me to neglect my motherly duties. I love being a mom, but I feel I would be a better mom if I took a little time for myself to enjoy something. I have a desire to do something for myself, but feel guilty even thinking about it doing something. As Lulu would say, "I am having issues."

Happy Birthday Sticky!

My Sticky turned 2 on Saturday.  We got back from our reunion late Friday night and practically fell into bed like dirty, tired lumps. Saturday morning Smiley woke me up before anyone else had woken up, so we went shopping for birthday food for the day and presents. I hadn't done a thing before the trip in preparation for Sticky's birthday. I am cool like that. We basically ate meals that she would like, hung out, took a nap and then sang Happy Birthday, ate cake (which she didn't really eat) and opened presents.

I realized that I completely forgot to take pictures after she opened the presents. So we got her the birthday outfit she is wearing, which you can't see too clearly, another shorts and t-shirt outfit, a skirt and a Dr's kit. Grandma (the Wife's mom) sent a caterpillar that you push down and it rolls across the floor, summer pajamas and another cute outfit. We spent to rest of the evening trying to keep Lulu from stealing Sticky's new toys and trying to explain to her that it was not her birthday yet and she had to let Sticky play with her own toys. Lulu had a rough evening.

I suppose this would be a good time to say a bit about my Sticky, second child.

-Her hair is finally starting to grow so that I can do some ponytail things besides the Pebbles look from the Flintstones.

-She weighs about 23 lbs.

-She has the cutest smile and teeth on the face of the planet.

-She is very strong willed.

-If it is not her idea, she usually doesn't go for it.

-When she answers yes, she usually just nods her head up and down, instead of saying yes.

-She is incredibly sensitive. Usually a stern voice will send her to tears. Sometimes when we are disciplining Lulu, Sticky thinks we are disciplining her, and falls apart.

-She likes to fall to the ground and throw back her head, when she is throwing a fit.

-She can put on her own shirt, pants and shoes.

-She can be very sweet and often asks me what is wrong if I am crying.

-She loves playing with Lulu and she loves teasing Lulu.

-Some of her words are extremely clear and other times we have no clue what she is trying to tell us. She gets frustrated when this happens.

-She loves her baby brother and likes to give him kisses. If I leave him in bed in the morning, and I get her up first, she always asks me where he is.

-She almost always loves corn, hot dogs and cheese as well as any fruit.

-She has a piercing scream that she utilizes when Lulu does something she doesn't like.

-I think she might try to get Lulu in trouble on purpose, sometimes.

-She is a monkey and I rarely get worried about her climbing on things, because she is so good at it.

-She loves nursery and has only had issues with me leaving her there twice and that was a few weeks ago.

-She doesn't really have a favorite toy, but she enjoys dumping the big blocks out on the floor.

-She is only kind of, sometimes attached to her yellow blanket.

-She used to love a stuffed doggie, that we lost, but has recently started hanging out with a small stuffed, beanbag ducky.

-She loves to brush her teeth.

-She was born on her Uncle N's birthday.

That's all I can think of right now, but I might add more if I think of something.

We love our Sticky!

Family Reunion

Gottcha! You totally thought I fell apart again and wasn't really going to keep up this whole blog thing. The truth is that I was out of town for a week. It was the Husband's family reunion time, the one that is planned almost a year in advance, the one that we finally decided to go to, one week before it actually happened. Don't worry, camping for a week is so easy to prepare for with only a few days notice. NOT! 

Many months ago we had decided not to go based on many different reasons, one of which was camping with an infant for a week was not on my top 10 things to do list. Then one day the Husband comes home and says that we can go now because he got the time off at work. I, having the emotional stability of a jelly fish, burst into tears trying to figure out how to camp with a baby, toddler and young child not to mention the fact that this would mean not making it back to our old stomping grounds in Idaho this year, because there is no way we can do two big trips. He was kind of confused as to why I was so upset and we dropped the subject for a few months. He finally realized it would probably be better if we just plan a trip to Idaho Falls in September instead of the reunion.  About a week before the reunion he also realized that he could not undo getting the time off. So we had a choice, to either sit around home for a week or go to the reunion.

Now I truly do love my husband and he does so much for us, but I am completely serious when I say that I single handedly shopped for, prepared for and packed for this trip myself.  He came home from work on Friday, threw a few things in a bag for himself, completely forgetting underclothes and socks, which luckily I mentioned and he grabbed last minute and we left.

We got to spend a few days with my mother and grandmother before the reunion started.

Grandma
Lulu, Smiley, Sticky
I think it is kind of funny that Sticky is the only one
looking at the camera, yet everyone is smiling.

Great Grandma
Lulu, Smiley, Sticky
Here they are all looking, but only 2 out of 4 smiles

Great Grandma, the Wife
Lulu, Grandma
A not so professional 4 generation picture
(The cool thing is that we are all the first born
in our respective families and all have the
same middle name, which was my great
grandmother's first name.)

We got to go to the park with grandma and then we had a small birthday party for the girls, because their birthdays are both coming up in the next few weeks.  Lulu wanted us to put up the Christmas tree so she could get her presents properly.  I guess she associates all presents with Christmas. We really did get her presents for her birthday last year with no tree.  We went to the first part of church with grandma and great grandma, headed back to their home for lunch and then set off for the reunion.

Within the first few minutes of getting to the campground, Lulu had picked up a stick that had been in a fire pit and was almost completely covered in black ash. Within the first hour Lulu had already gone missing.  Luckily a kind lady brought her back to us. I tried to talk to her about being where we could see her and being scared when we didn't know where she was. I asked her if she had been scared and she said no, she was just sad that she couldn't find her grandma (the Husband's aunt, whom the girls call grandma because they hang out with their second cousin whose grandma it really is) but not our family. She was adamant that she had not been looking for us. I sure felt the love. Luckily there were no more missing children the rest of the week. There were ridiculously dirty children though. There were also ridiculously cute children. The girls got to hang out with their one cousin on the Husband's side. They loved it!

Sticky, Lulu, Cousin F

Cousin F, Lulu, Sticky

They got to play in the water at the lake.

Lulu, Sticky

Smiley loved being held almost all week. This made it kind of hard for me to do much although the Husband and Grandpa (Husband's dad) helped out for a few minutes here and there.

The Husband and Smiley

Grandpa and Smiley

Smiley

Smiley concentrated on being held and being cute.













Sticky got her hair done by Aunt R.

Sticky

She was known
as
Cindy Lou Who
for
the
rest
of
the
week.












The Husband got to go fishing twice, play on inner-tubes pulled behind the boat twice and stay up late a couple nights playing games with the cousins and hanging out with his brothers. He had a blast! I got to take the girls out on the inner-tube pulled behind the boat once and play Phase 10 while only taking care of Smiley, once. The rest of of the time I was nursing Smiley and making sure 2 little girls were behaving themselves and not getting lost or hurt. I kind of had to give up on the staying clean concept. I sure love my Husband and I would do it over again for him, but I'm hoping that next year will be a bit easier.

Blessing Day

Smiley is just a bit over two months old and he finally received his blessing in church on Sunday. We had to wait until The Husband had an entire Sunday off. We tried to wake up early so we could get ready calmly and leave for church a half hour before it started, so we wouldn't feel rushed. It was a good thing we shot for 30 minutes early, because if we had only shot for 15 minutes, we would have been late. It is so hard getting out the door with children! The Husband's aunt, cousin and her two kidlets, were able to make it as well as an aunt and uncle of mine and an old college roommate of mine that lives in the area. Since we didn't have any of the kids grandparents there, it was so nice to have other family members there to show their love and support.

The blessing was given by The Husband and was very sweet.  I took notes the best I could and since this is basically our family journal, I would like to preserve them here. Smiley was told that as he matured and developed, his mind and body would grow. He has been given a good character and personality. He will choose a study that will profit him.  He will use his hands for good and be able to befriend people. He will be able to choose good friends.  Someday he will choose a righteous woman to marry.  He will look to his family and Heavenly Father for direction.  After The Husband was finished he sat down by me and told me how nervous he had been and how he felt he had not said things very well. I was able to assure him that some wonderful things were said and as long as Heavenly Father had been directing him everything was perfect. 

Smiley looked so handsome in his little white dress shirt, white pants, white socks and white bow tie. I loved the bow tie especially! I have a friend that has a business making little girls hair bows and has recently branched out to little boys ties, as well as lots of other accessories too. If you hit this link and go to her Facebook page you can get to all of her cute ties.

This was most likely the most peaceful sacrament meeting we have had in a long time. You would probably think that was because of the wonderful blessing, and you would be partially right. The main reason was because the girls insisted on sitting behind us with The Husband's aunt, cousin and her kidlets. Although we still kept an eye on them, they behaved much better than they do for us, thus mostly peaceful. It was kind of fun pretending that Smiley was our only child for about 45 minutes. Every child should feel like an only child for some moments in their life. 

Had to show off the cute picture of The Husband and the girls!
(Sticky was cooperating enough to sit still,
but she couldn't be bothered to smile at the right time :)