Addy's Party

We celebrated Addison's 2nd birthday today with family even though her birthday is still a few weeks away. It just works out better to have it now before things get crazy busy with the start of school and camping schedules. It was another hot day so we spent lots of the time indoors in the cool air conditioning. She had a JoJo party like Presley did for her 2nd birthday. This time we celebrated with an Blizzard ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and it was wonderful. Addy got lots of great presents and had fun running around. The party favor bags that Addy gave to her cousins were a big hit that included big clown ties, party hats, circus stuffed animals, blowers, bubbles, and little lizzards. We had to get a picture with the kids and their clown ties. So cute. I tried to find the big goofy looking sunglasses, but didn't have any luck. Thanks everyone for coming and for her presents. Here are a few pictures.

tryin' it out

We got a new camera and just ordered a new lens for it and Chad has been having lots of fun playing around with it these last few days. It's not looking good because both of the older girls run and hide when they see the camera come out now. ;) Think he might be over-doing it a bit? :) Here are a couple of cute ones...

county fair

Last night Chad, Hilary and I took the girls to the county fair. Chad wanted Hilary to go with us so we had a one-to-one ratio of adults to kids. It was a good thing she went. I told Chad it felt like it would be easy to lose a kid there with all the craziness and people. Lots of fun. We got there later than we were planning on, but it worked out ok. When we first got there it was super crowded, but it seemed to get better after we were done with the rides. The girls rode a few rides with Daddy and Aunt Hildy. And then we made Aunt Hildy take both girls with her on the spinning one. Daddy gets sick on that kind of ride, and I was wearing Reese. Thankfully she didn't mind. ;) After rides we set off to find the animals. Ran into some friends and then found the cows, goats, bunnies, alpacas, pigs, and tigers.... Not sure why there were tigers at a fair, but we saw them. After the animals we had a few yummy snacks and then loaded up in the car to come back home. Thanks Aunt Hildy for going with us. We had lots of fun.

Christmas in July?

Where do I even start? It's been hard for me to keep up with this blogging thing this summer. Not sure if it's because I have a new little one or I am busier or what. I thought for sure I would do more blogging when I wasn't working, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I keep thinking of things I want to blog about and even take pictures to post, but then don't seem to find the time to get on the computer. I guess that's a good thing. We have been keeping busy with lots of camping, playing, swimming, and eating ice cream. :)

Last weekend we went camping again with Chad's family at Yogi's place. We were lucky to celebrate Christmas in July with the Bears. This was probably the most rainy weekend we have had. It was HOT on Friday when we got there so I took the two older girls to the splash pad while Chad set up the camper while Reese took a nap. Saturday brought rain and it rained on and off ALL DAY LONG. We did make it to get pictures with the bears and Ranger before the rain and it stopped raining when the bears (Yogi and Boo Boo) came to visit Addy and bring her a gift for her birthday. Saturday night we had our gift exchange at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's cabin. We got some pretty good gifts, especially considering we set a $5 limit. Thankfully Sunday it only rained a bit in the morning and then it was nice. The girls got a chance to go to the pool while daddy packed up and of course we stopped for ice cream before heading back home. All in all it was a good weekend. We had fun camping with family and the rain didn't stop that. Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Hard to believe we only have one more camping weekend planned before we start back at school.... But we do have a few already scheduled for the fall, so we aren't done yet.

i survived

Well, I survived my first night away from the girls. I hear Addison only woke up once and Presley didn't get to sleep until around midnight... Not sure if it was a little weird for her not being in her bed or just too would up. But we all survived. I kept looking at their room this morning when I was getting ready thinking how weird it was that they weren't there. I only went in their room once to "smell" them. ;) I was actually thinking I would sleep good last night once I got to sleep but I was wrong. I think Reese must have been missing her sisters because last night she didn't sleep well, which meant I didn't sleep well. This is her first night waking up (twice) during the night since she was 6 weeks old. She has been sleeping through the night since we went on our first camping trip. Oh well, we were all able to sleep in this morning which was nice. Planning on picking up the girls and doing a little swimming later this afternoon. Can't wait to see them. I'm sure they will crash tonight.

5 years

This past Saturday, July 12 Chad and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. 5 years - 3 kids not too bad. ;) On our actual anniversary we spent the day with the girls. We went swimming and got pizza from one of our favorite places. We decided to wait and celebrate until today. The girls got an invitation from Mawmaw to have a sleep-over with cousin Gabi. (Their first, I'll go into that later.) So we dropped the girls off around 11 and actually stayed awhile so we could watch them swim. From there we went to lunch and ran lots of errands. We kept Reese with us since she's such an easy baby - and because I'm not ready to leave her yet. :) We ended the evening with a wonderful dinner . Then on home to watch a movie and try not to think about missing the girls. You see, this is the first time we have not had them with me at night. They have never spent the night away from us except when I was in the hospital having Addison and Reese. I know it's probably a little bit overboard. But it's weird for me. I can't imagine waking up in the morning and them not being there. I know they are having a blast which helps. I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow. Here's the story of Chad and I just in case you wanted a to take a walk down memory lane.

So to Chad, Happy Anniverary. Thanks for your patience, your humor, and your love. Here's to many, many more! I love you.

And just because I spent too much time looking at pictures of my girls tonight because I missed them...here's a few pictures for you to enjoy too.

swim lessons

Presley and Addison have been taking swimming lessons for two weeks now at Mawmaw's pool with their daycare friends.(This picture taken inside of house. We can't go outside while Addy has lessons or we will make it even worse for Addy.)

Addison has had private lessons for the most part so it's just her and her teacher, Jake. Today (and tomorrow too) she shared a lesson with her cousin Briella. We thought that maybe she would be a little more calmed down with a friend there. Addison has cried/whined almost the entire time but does everything that Jake asks her to do. She wants to do it, just isn't so sure about Jake. Presley has been taking it with her friends - Grayden, Konnor, and Caedon.So she's had a great time. (Yes, it's Presley with all boys!) They are both definitely getting more brave in the water. Addison doesn't have any fear when she is swimming with us, but is more cautious with Jake. Presley is cautious with us and maybe a little more brave with Jake. After swim lessons, everyone gets a popsicle. Sounds like a great deal to me.

(from left to right - Grayden, Briella, Addy, Pres, Karson, Caedon, and Konner)And this is what Reese does during lessons. Gets passed around from person to person, mom to mom. It usually starts with Presley first and then she's off to play with her friends. I think she likes to show Reese off and then she's off. :) Here are a few more pictures of the kids today.

(I told the other mom's I would put these on here for them too - so there's pictures of all the kids.)

playin'

Playing around a little with the look of the blog...getting kind of bored with the old ...what do you think? It's a little simple, but that's what I like.

4th of July

Lucky for us we had another camping trip this past weekend. This was our first trip camping by ourselves - with our family of 4. I was a little nervous about how we would handle it, but it was GREAT! The kids were so well behaved it seemed easy. We left Thursday after lunch hoping the kids would sleep a little in the car. Addison slept about 40 minutes, but Presley didn't sleep at all. We got set up really fast and went off to pick our our golf cart that we had rented for the weekend. The campground was really big so to get around anywhere you really needed a golf cart, plus we thought it would help entertain the girls since we were by ourselves. We had a great weekend weather-wise. Our first camping trip this season where it hasn't rained at all. On Friday Chad's parents and sister, nephew and niece came to visit. We had a great day swimming in the pool, playing, having a cook-out, taking lots of golf cart rides and going out on a pontoon boat. The fireworks at the park were great, but I couldn't really enjoy them. I was so afraid that our girls would wake up and be scared, but somehow they managed to sleep through the crazy loud booms. Saturday we woke up early and decided to go to the zoo since we weren't far away. We didn't get many pictures because we didn't have hardly any extra hands, but we had a good time. Sunday we had lots more rides on the golf cart, a trip to the playground and even another dip in the pool before packing up and coming home. Another great weekend.... more pictures here.