Party Favors

I wanted to forewarn my friends whose children will be coming to our birthday parties this year. Jason came up with a great idea the other night, we are going to give our our children's 'favorite' toys as party favors. So here's what your children will receive...rubber bands, twist ties, plastic and paper bags, scissors, glue, coupons, computer paper, bag clips, pennies, the tops to milk cartons, and any empty boxes of food or containers.
Obviously, this is a joke and please don't turn us in to DSS for allowing our children to play with all of the above items. But, does anyone else seriously wonder why they bother to buy their children so many toys when most of the time they'd rather play with the above items. Why did we buy a house with not one place for them to play inside but two rooms plus their own room when they rather sit at the kitchen island and play and/or ask for food all day? We were just curious if this was unique to our home or par for the course...I guessing the latter of the two.

1st week solo

I survived my first week at home with three kiddos. I can't say it was easy or uneventful but I made it. We spent a few hours at the ER one night when Holt got a super high fever and then spent the rest of the night up with him throwing up at home. However, God showed us in a small way that he won't give us more than we can handle..as Camden slept from 9:30 to 5:30 that night. This was the first time she had ever gone more than 5 hours..and I'm still waiting for it to happen again so I can enjoy it this time :) However, I didn't have to worry about nursing her and getting her back down and could be with Holt when he was so sick. We did make it to the pool one day and even stayed 3 hours, I did have a mommy's helper half of the time who was a saint and made this possible. Pierce got a fever this weekend but thank goodness the throw up part didn't follow. I also realized that I have created these two boys who go crazy if we are in the house all day. As much as I love being a stay at home mommy I have always had to get out of the house and do something with them each day, even if this meant a simple trip to a store or the park. But it backfires on me when one of them is sick and we are stuck at home for the day. We ALL go crazy! So at the end of the week, I appreciated the time Jason had with us even more, was once again very thankful I have parents in town, and proud of myself that I can handle three children.

Happy Father's Day!

I am truly blessed to have such a great daddy and husband. Jason has been home with us for six weeks. To those of you who know Jason well you know what a huge deal it was for him to take this much time off and I am so appreciative. He has been amazing with the boys, taking them on so many fun outings and just helping get them out of the house. He has also pulled his share of night duty with Camden as she is not the best of sleepers yet. He got off easy at night with the boys as they always went back down after nursing, but it usually takes an hour or more to get her back down after nursing and he helps me almost every time.

I was trying to give him some time to himself today and was up in the playroom with the boys and Camden. I thought he was down stairs watching t.v. or relaxing until Pierce looked out the window and saw him drawing planes and army artillery for them to throw water balloons at. He had them all filled up and ladders for them to launch them from.
Thank your for being so wonderful, Happy Father’s Day Jason!

1 month

Camden had her one month checkup this week. She'll be 6 weeks on Monday. She weighed 9 lbs and was 21 1/2 inches. She's doing great..well other than sleeping, but hopefully we'll make some progress there soon. She starting to smile a little and make some noises. This dress was mine when I was a little girl.

Transportation Museum

Taking a ride on the turn table.

Riding the train

On Thursday we went to Spencer to go to the transporation museum. We've talked about going forever and finally made it on daddy's last week home. The boys enjoyed looking the train ride and our walk through the round house.

Fireflies

The boys discovered fireflies this past week. How fun that kids can find so much joy in something so small. We got them bug catchers a couple weeks ago and they have provided hours of entertainment. We have hundreds of small frogs in our backyard so before they discovered fireflies they were catching frogs. We are really proud of Pierce because for the longest time he wasn't too fond of bugs and was scared of them. Now he's catching them. And then there is Holt, instead of catching the frogs, he tries to squish them.

Zoo

The seals and sea lions were one of our favorties.

On Friday we made a trip to the Asheboro zoo. I was telling a friend today that many times I come up with ideas that I think will be great for our family to do but a lot of times we end up frusterated at the end and the kids don't really appreciate what we thought would be a fun family outing. However, Friday was thankfully not of of these times. We had a really great day and the boys loved the zoo. They were great in the car, Camden slept the whole day (which after this day and night I am a strong believer that sleep does not lead to sleep!) and we loved the Asheboro zoo. It is a lot of walking but we took our double stroller for the boys and daddy got a good workout pushing them.

Dinosaur Man

Aunt Patricia this post is for you..wanted you to see how cute Holt was in his new rain coat and boots! Thanks!!

More beach pictures

OIB

Pop wanted a picture of Camden on the boat, I don't think she is as fond of it as the boys are.

Mimi holding her great granddaughter.

Pierce went fishing with Pop, daddy, and Uncle Bob and was the only one that came back with a catch. I think Pop was more pround than Pierce of his flounder catch.

We made our first trip to Ocean Isle as a family of five. My parents graciously took the boys down with them as I came down with mastitis the Wednesday before we left and was running a 103 fever on our trip. We made the trip back with all three and they did great! I think it was the quietest 4 hours we had the entire week so we were definately grateful for good behavior and sleep from all of them. We had a great week at the beach, had beautiful weather and definately enjoyed the extra hands and help from my parents. Jason and I even got a date night out one night which was wonderful. Camden also got to meet her great grandmother, great aunt, and 2nd and 3rd cousins who came up for the day.

Babies

Two of my dearest friends were due within weeks of my due date. We were all due within 2 weeks of each other with Sara being first. We also all had two boys and were expecting our third child. Sarah found out at her ultrasound she was having a boy and Lindsay waited along with me for the surprise. Lindsay also welcomed her third boy and Camden arrived 10 days later. So now in our three families there is 8 boys and 1 girl, Camden definitely has her pick! Here is a picture of us pregnant and then our little ones last week when we got together for a girls night before Linds heads to camp for the summer. It was been so fun to walk along side you guys during our pregnancies and births and look forward to watching these little ones grow up together. Lindsay, we will miss you this summer!!

Cousins

Camden got to meet her 2nd cousins last Sunday. Tricia was in town for the Penguins game and Alexis and Steve came up to visit with her. Thanks for coming to see us and loving on our new baby girl!

Baseball

Jason took Pierce to his first baseball game, I don't know if he enjoyed the food or the game more :)

Whitewater Park

What is this picture of? Pierce’s feet after standing in mud under our makeshift cover during a torrential down pour at the whitewater park. We went to the whitewater park on Saturday and only had a couple mishaps. We weren't too smart about checking the weather before we went or turning around on our walk when it started misting. It started raining when we were pretty far out from cover, the only thing we could find was a bridge to stand under. By the time we got there we were all pretty soaked and we had to wait for 15 minutes under the bridge with gaps in a torrential downpour. After it stopped we were able to enjoy our time and ate a great lunch at the restaurant and the boys got to climb on the rocks and watch some rafts and kayaks. The other mishap came when we were about to leave. Jason had ran into a buddy from college and was talking down below while the rest of us were up top. Holt was looking down at Jason and peered his head through a crack. His head got stuck between an iron bar and concrete block as he was looking down. It scared him and us to death but thankfully he got it out after just a second.

More posts to come and pictures..I'm finally trying to catch up!