Camping #1

• This past weekend we had the honor of using my parents camper for the first time and hopefully many times to follow.  Our potluck groups got together this past saturday at the winamac state park and some of us who enjoy camping went on friday night.  Needless to say we absolutely loved every minute of it and dread ever going back into a tent like previous years.  In the picture below you can see my parents camper there to the left of the picture.  We had so much fun that we are actually heading out again this weekend so stay tunned for pictures for this coming weekend.

We are all getting ready to eat lunch together.

Here are some of the kids that camped on friday night.

I think Liam LOVED sleeping on the bunk bed.

Ellie did awesome and I think that was what made it so enjoyable!  Had she been a crank or slept poorly Id think twice before camping again.  She went to bed around 9pm, up to feed once and then back to bed she would sleep until like noon!!!  Several asked me where she was and were surprised by how good of a baby girl she is.  Unfortunently I found her sleeping like this though!!!  We must, we must break this habit soon!  I try and replace fingers with a paci as soon as I see it, but of course I snapped a picture first.

Eating breakfast.  I keep it pretty simple as we are NOT big breakfast eaters.  Cereal it was.

So the Cook girls were painting toenails and fingernails with the Leman girls and Kels Gutwein....and they asked if they could paint Ellie's toes.  I picked the lightest color of pink they had and let them paint away.  Nick was not so sure about it, and in fact said "I am not ready for this". 

On saturday we went to the YMCA in Winamac and took the kids swimming.  They had fun the 2 hours we were there.

And of course you can NOT CAMP WITHOUT a S'MORE!!!  Liam shoving in the mess but enjoying every ounce of the goodness.

3 months old!

Yesterday July 23rd, my sweet baby girl turned 3 months old.  I am so very blessed to have a calm natured baby.  She is so good, and she rarely cries.  She sleeps 10 hours at night, waking up at 7am for a feeding and immediately goes right back to sleep till at least 11am if not longer.  She is so content and I am so very thankful for that!!

 Absolutely love this picture of her.  This is her normal smiley self.  She was cooing at me here in this picture and I just love her long eye lashes:).

A visit!

What a great week....my sister and her hubby mark and 4 girls came home from Sarasota Florida for a week.  Fun time had by all.

 The kids came over one afternoon and used the pool.  Jayla isn't in this picture but she came too.

 Here are all the kids(minus Edyson and Ellie) at lunch time.  Thankfully mom has two large tables to seat us all!!  Its gonna be hard to keep squeezing kids around this table.

 Uncle AJ went out to play with the kids and the chalk.  What a mess they made.  Love kyra's nose in this picture....

 Liberty and Liam sitting and eating their snack at the piano.

 On Wednesday we drove to Leo and saw where Joy and Jason live at Gateway and then we ordered subway and took it to the park.  Sadly but yet thankfully they got a nice storm while we were there and had to seek shelter to stay dry.  Of course the ONE time we get any rain its when we least want it.  Glad God has a sense of humor:).

 Here are the kids checking out the chicken coop at Gateway.  Notice the faces and the plugging of the noses.  Its stunk!

Lots of good memories were made.  Always enjoy when tricia and mark come home in the summer.

Santa Claus, Indiana

This past monday and tuesday we took our family on a mini vacation to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.  It was a 4.5 hour drive but it was so much fun for the kids.  Here we are posing in front of the entrance.  Kids are really ready to go inside!!

We spent the night at a hotel on monday night after taking a detour and hitting the Edinburgh Outlet Mall first.  This is Tuesday morning getting ready to head out the door to the park.  Ellie sporting her swimsuit that her aunt joy found for her at a garage sale.

 The kids had so much fun on all the water park rides.  They had something for every age which made it great.  Even  Ellie put her feet in the water at one point.  (no picture)

 I sadly wasn't feeling the greatest, because I chose to go on ONE WOODEN rollar coaster at the beginning of the day and that was a big mistake!  It made me sick to my stomach and everytime I tried a water slide, that sick feeling came back, so I only went on 4 rides total.  Ellie and I hung out alot:).

 There were 2 large water slides in which Liam was able to go on so here he is in all his glory going on a water ride that allowed 5 people on.  Yes, alisha (my cousin) came with us.  We thought it would be fun for her, plus it gave us an extra set of hands incase both nick and I wanted to ride rides with our kids that were of age.

 They had two of these neat jungle gyms where there were slides, and water squirting everywhere.  They also had those big dump buckets on top.  This was so much fun for the kids as well!!!  You can sort of see a yellow awening at the top of the picture....Ellie stayed under this awening a good portion of the time and yet by the end of the day she had red little cheeks and a tiny little tan line from her swimsuit.  Wish you could put sunscreen on babies, but you shouldn't.  Not until at least 3 months of age.  Sorry ellie for the little sun you got.  I don't think she was in any pain though...it wasn't that bad of a burn. :)

 Ok, so here is the rollar coaster in which I went on....YUCK!!!!

They had many mini slides in which liam could go down....made it fun for him for sure!  Even Elijah and Caden enjoyed this part of the park too. (see the above picture where all three are going down a slide together...this was part of this section of the park).

Now we just REALLY wish it were closer to us, because I tell you what...this park is clean!!  It has nice places for the kids to play, if you are hot while walking around they have mister's going on to cool off, and you get all the FREE drinks you want.  Pepsi products and water.  You also can have all the sunscreen you want too....there are FREE sunscreen stations.  Also it has FREE parking too:).  Definitely a must if you ever have the chance.

Random

Little Miss Ellie is now aware of her mobile that hangs on her bouncer.  Its fun to watch her following the stars around and smile at them.  It won't be long and she will be trying to grab them!!

It all started the 2nd day of Summer vacation....when I told the boys to "use your imaginations this summer and don't tell me you are bored!"  I have had many times this summer where I tell them to either stop doing what they are doing, or quite playing with things they shouldn't play with and they always respond "mom, you told us to use our imaginations".  So I usually end up being quiet and letting them do their own thing to see what they come up with.  Well, this probably beats them all..........Elijah comes up looking like this and I busted a gut!!  I said "and what may you be?"  His response was not what I expected.....  "a dog catcher".  He proceeded to show me that the guns were tranquilizers, the remote control on his right side is his walkie talkie, and you can't see, but there are two nets hanging out the back of his pants, and those would be to catch the dogs once the tranquilizers put them down!!!   OH BOY!!!!! (no clue what the hat, apron or glasses are for:))

One very hot afternoon this is where I found my boys...outside on the frot porch reading books.  You can't see it well, but between E and C is a table filled with books!!  Yeah to reading this summer:)

This morning my mother brought over me a big bowl of green beans from her garden and E and I also picked my green beans from our garden and we got a big bowl as well.  I decided to freeze them.  I washed, trimmed(with the boys help), blanched and packaged 6 lbs of green beans this morning.  Now we will get to enjoy these yummy veggies this winter!!

July

                                             HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!