Playing Outside

It's been gorgeous for a WEEK, so we've been playing outside like crazy.

eating oranges

hanging around  - this horse has incredible upper body strength.

the giant baby is right in there with the boys - look out!

This smile is sporting 5 teeth

New NB tennis shoes with a wider toe box and added high arch supports.  I'm always embarrassed to try on new shoes.  My feet are one of my many "unchangeables."  While I preach to my children about being fashioned by God, I still feel embarrassed by my wide feet and unsightly toes that are so NOT feminine.  Anyways, these shoes will hopefully keep my toes from going to sleep during cardio.  Speaking of cardio, I took my first ever Zumba class at the Y with my sister and a friend.  For those who don't know, it's a Latin dance exercise class - lots of hip shaking going on.  And for those who don't know me well, let me just tell you, I'm not a hip shaker.  Seriously, my cheeks were red and it was not from exertion.  I was also next to some serious and very unforgiving hip-shakers.  They weren't into humoring beginners.  Needless to say, I most likely will not be back.

Kid's Fishing Day

Our little family ventured out on our first camping trip to the Roaring River in Missouri.  It was INCREDIBLE!  The kids had so much fun.  David and I did sacrifice one sleepless night of storms and rain and a baby in an unfamiliar environment - but it was so worth all the fun and memories made.  The picture above is the boys playing in the cool clear river and throwing rocks (that's really the only thing they wanted to do the whole time).

Alayna was the happy baby she is.  The crawling camper can be a challenge.  Someday she'll be a hiker ;)

I was going to show Hudson it was okay to touch the fish.  Papa held it out to me and said, "Just put your finger in its mouth."  Okay, no big deal.  I'm not squirmy around slimy fish mouths.  Then he yelled and made the mouth clamp down over my finger.  I, of course, screamed.  Hudson was the only brave fish-petter after that.

Cousin fun - what's better than this?  Seriously it was 24 hours of pure delight.  Our kids had so much fun hiking and fishing and playing in creation.  No other entertainment - just hard core fun and serious sleep when it was all said and done ;)

The ants go marching one by one ...

My mother and I on Mother's Day - isn't she lovely?!

Well, we had a little ant issue.  David found their entry point behind the cabinets somewhere.  So he sprayed all through the cabinets ... with the dishes still in there.  I have done SIX loads in the dishwasher today.  Just call me super woman ;)

These are my chacos.  I've been anti-athletic sandal for a while, but my poor feet needed some better support than flip-flops.  

These boys are crazy.

This girl is precious.  David & I are taking them all camping and fishing this weekend.  We're a little crazy too ;)  Wish me luck!

A Little Craziness

 I should be doing a hundred other things.  But I'm not.  I am sweating.  Our AC unit went out at the end of last summer.  We sweat it out then and figured we'd get one installed sometime before this summer.  Well, it's not in yet and I am literally dripping with sweat.  Grateful for the breeze and the coming rain to cool my house again.

We're all going camping this weekend.  It's Kid's Fishing Day and the Roaring River in Missouri.  Hudson went with daddy & papa last year.  This year the WHOLE family is going - Papa & Mimi, Uncle Nate & Aunt Manda and their girls, Aunt Ange and her friend, Alisha and all of us.  I'm counting on getting little to no sleep with Alayna, but I can hack it for one night.  We went to Wally World this morning and got new Batman sunglasses, and crocs, bug spray, etc.  We cleaned out the van and now the boys are packing lots of unnecessary things in their bags that I'll have to weed out while they're asleep.  

Pierce is totally potty trained.  It's a miraculous turn of events.  He stays dry at night, he poops & pees in the toilet.  He wears Spiderman underwear everywhere we go and does great on public toilets too.  I'm so amazed at how fast he mastered the potty chair and so excited to only have to buy one box of diapers at time!  And no swimming diapers this year for him.  He's a free man :)

I was knocking the boys over a couple of days ago (I know that sounds weird, they love that game) and somehow Hudson's tooth caught on my finger nail.  His tooth was fine but my poor nail separated down to the middle of the pink and bled like crazy.  They both kissed it but it still hurts ;)

YouTube link

Click the THIS IS WHERE YOU CLICK GRANDMA!!! to watch Pierce & Hudson reciting their Go to the Ant passage.

Sorry for the copy and pasting. This should work better ;)