Splish, Splash

We had a super fun day at Roaring Springs last Monday! Sheila and I recruited some help (Both our Moms and Kristen!) so that we could take all our kiddos to play in the water. We had a blast, for the most part... :)

Cameron has decided this summer he HATES the water. Whines and cries anytime he has to get near it. Last year he was my fish, not sure what happened. By the end of the day he finally would step in the water, all on his own. The rest of the day he was happy to sit in a chair in the shade and watch everyone have fun. Silly guy.
Madison had the love/hate relationship. One minute she loved it the next she didn't. I think her anxiety stemmed more from the amount of people there more than the water. She refused to get in an innertube. The first time I tried to let her float on one you would have thought I was torturing her. So I just let her lead, walk where she wanted and just explore on her terms. She was much happier with that!

Blake was the swimming man! He had SO much fun! He played and played and played! He was not sure at first but once he warmed up he loved it. He did not want to do the slides - they were too fast and splashed in the face. But other than that the kid loved it. I think I will take him back sometime just me and him.

Brogan was the real water kid. He had no fear and LOVED every second. It was pretty impressive. He was going down the little kid slides by himself.

Ahhh, isn't she cute? We could not have had this fun day without the help of Auntie Kristen and Grammy. They are the best! I am so thankful I have such special people to help me do fun things with the kiddos.

Go Blake!

Blake peed on the potty today! We have been very loosely working on potty training. So far the kids have not seemed interested in it. But the last few days have been asking to sit on the potty. So we do and nothing ever comes of it. But today, Blake said he wanted to sit on the potty, and I almost said no because it's so much work and I have been sick and was SO tired (oh poor me). I did say yes however and it's a good thing I did! He did and was SO excited about it! His face just lit up and started screaming "I peed mommy, I peed!" Haha..I would ask him if he was done and he very animatedly threw up his hands and said "Not yet, almost, not yet" Oh, these silly kids! Love them!

Keeps me smiling...

This keep us laughing! Last night at dinner he was talking about shooting his (play) gun. He loves his gun and to go out shooting. He had been telling me that he wanted to go to the zoo to shoot the animals. Now, before you get too upset let me give you his reasoning. We have been drilling into his head that you never, ever shoot people - only animals. SO, where are there a lot of animals? The zoo. We kindly explained that we shouldn't shoot those animals, just look at them. So Jason and Cam were talking about pretending to shoot the squirls in the backyard and Cam pipes up "Dad, you better let me shoot, I am the best shooter."

Well, isn't he confident!

Camping!!

We FINALLY got to go camping! I have been dying to go all summer - but our area forgot to start summer until July! :) The kids had been asking to go for weeks too. While camping the only thing that the kids wanted was to see a deer! They had been asking allll weekend if we would find one for them to see. There had even been 2 times that one waltzed through our camp but our kids were never around! We ended up staying an extra night - just for fun :) - and right as we were taking the kids into bed this deer came through camp again. It was so cool! The kids LOVED it, totally made the camp trip!
It.Was.BEAUTIFUL up there! Loved it and these three munchkins!

The big boys, aka Braden and Nathan, are a favorite with my kids! They are great older cousins too!

Chilling at the campfire with some of my favorite people!

Our home away from home! :)

Brogan and Madison

We found an awesome spot to throw rocks in the water. Gorgeous and enteraining for the kids!

Love

Katie and Baby James

Most of the kids - we were missing 4 I think! They were enjoying the first campfire of the trip. It was a little scary to me to have that many kids by a fire...but they did great!

Ahhhh...first camping trip!

Miss Megan

Who are these cute kids???

They were each telling me that they "Are SO excited Mommy!" And that is after a 3 hour drive and wandering around way past bedtime trying to find a campsite. Which brings me to the most exciting part of our trip. The area we were camping in did not have a lot of big sites for the amount of people in our group. It was getting dark, cold and late and we had to do something just for the night. So we pulled into a spot that had a guy - nope it was a lady - we just thought it was a man already camping there. A mountain man actually. But she was a mountain lady. Who apparently did not want us to stay in with her in the 20 spot campsite. Seriously, there was a lot of room. We were not going to stay more than the night because there was a scary fast river about 5 feet away. TOO many toddlers for that nonsense! So the first thing she started doing was shooting her gun. Thankfully not at any of us...That lasted for an hour or so. Then she let her 2 rotwiellers and 1 german shepherd roam around in our camp area and TERRIFY our kids! Thankfully they were fairly friendly dogs. Next she tried smoking us out! I don't know what she did to creat the amount of smoke that she made but it was a lot. I have to say I was a little scared to go to sleep that night. But between all the guys that were there we had plenty of guns for protection if needed. :) But it wasn't. When we packed up to leave the next morning Max asked her if we could drive through her spot. She replied with "Sure, if I had known you were leaving last night I would not have been such an _____" Yep. She really admitted that. All we could do was laugh.

After we found a new campsite - that was AMAZING - and free of crazy, shooting, mountain ladies we had a wonderful time! The kids slept great and were very good! Jason made some delicious food in all his newly acquired toys and lots of good friends to talk with! Can't wait until our next trip!

Cams excited!

And Blake too!

A couple funny things

I bought Madison her first pair of jelly shoes! Blast fromt the past right??? I LOVED jelly shoes when I was little. So I found a pair for $3.50 and decided Madison needed a pair. She thinks they are pretty cool too. Anyway, Cam saw them and said "Ohhh, new shoes!!" I said "Yep, these are sissys new jelly shoes." Cam - "Ahhhh, Sissy gets jello shoes, I want some jello shoes mommy!" He continues to call them jello shoes. I love it. I hope they don't ever grow up!

They have all three started to love brushing my hair. I know, free pampering and it keeps them happy. SCORE! Anyway, Madison has been the most in to it. She asks to get a brush and then comes and does my hair for me. The cutest part is when she brushes and brushes. Then she leans around me with a big grin on her face and says "Its pitty mommy!!" She is so very proud of herself when she makes it "pitty!"

Isn't funny to listen to your kids talk and realize the words you must use to much??? Apparently some of mine or probably and in a minute. Madison throws in a minute into almost every sentence, makes for some interesting conversations. Cam uses "proably" probably in every sentence. These kids sure are funny to listen to especially when they start conversing with each other. Sometimes it's understandable to an adult, sometimes not. They are getting pretty cute about talking abd deciding what to play together. With more playing together there is also a lot more fighting and learning to push each others buttons. {Sigh} But they are learning! They WILL love each other! :)

Love my Dad!

I love this guys so much! I am so blessed to have him has my Dad! I honestly could not have asked for a more fun, loving or hands on Dad growing up!! (Or even now!) He is a wonderful Grandpa too which makes him even more special! I could write all day talking about the things I am grateful for in my Dad! He was at every sporting event that I had, always took down my stats and went over them with me after the game, always had time to sit with me in the recliner, was my wedding planner (and he is good!), he fills in when Jason is gone and the list goes on and on! I love you Dad!

We had a delicious bbq with all Jasons new toys. Almost the whole family was able to make it which is always so nice. We are still missing Sage but are counting down the days until he gets to rejoin his little family in September! Jake even has a new addition - his girlfriend Suzanna. Can you believe that???

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to pretty much my favorite guy ever! He is an amazing father - I love that he so hands on! He is just as much apart of every aspect of our kids life as I am. How awesome is that??? Pretty awesome - let me tell you! I am so proud of him and the man he is!

Jason loves to fish and does not get to very often. So he requested that we go fishing as a family. Brian and Sheila tagged along as well. We did not have much luck but lots of fun anyway. The kids LOVED throwing the rocks in the water. Who cares about fish if you can throw rocks???

Jason has also become obessed with cooking. He is smoking, bbqing, slow cooking, charcoal briquettes and doing the dutch oven on any kind of meat he can get his hands on. He bought a charcoal grill and my Dad gave him his really nice dutch oven. This guy set - and he has been making some delicious stuff! The kids and I got him some nice cookbooks for each of his new bbqs.

Happy Fathers Day Babe!!