Reading time

I know that this is more of a pictorial blog than anything else, but hey...what can I say, I love pictures of my family! Here is one of our latest...Peyton and Gavin were both reading to daddy. Peyton told him to "Go to sleep, I will read you a story." As you see, he pretended to do just that! Had she stayed still long enough, I think he really would have fallen asleep.

Oh and by the way...Gavin has really started cheesin'! Every time you get the camera out he starts hamming it up and saying CCCHHHEEESSSSEEE!

Our favorite twins!!!

This post is dedicated to our favorite twins, Kuper and Kaidan. Their mommy and daddy have been in our lives almost as long as James and I have known each other! We met Josh, a.k.a. Bubba while we were dating. He was a part of our college group at church. He was also James roommate for a semester before we got married! (Sorry for kicking you out buddy!) We met Bailey soon after her and Josh started dating and have loved her ever since. We had a few years of seperation while they lived in San Antonio. I am not complaning too much, it gave us a GREAT place to visit! We are, however incredibly happy that they are back! Kaidan and Kuper (a.k.a. Pooper if you ask Peyton) are exactly 2 months older than Gavin and the four of them get along so well! They have a big house and we have our own bedroom when we stay and play cards too late! We put all of the kids to bed and stay up playing cards, eating too much junk and just laughing together! It has been so great raising our kids together! We love you guys!

Kuper and Kaidan

Kuper

Kaidan

Kuper trying to kiss Kaidan!

Aren't they just adorable!!!!

GIRL'S NIGHT OUT!!!!!

Yes, you read that right. I had a Girl's Night Out last night with my dear friend Bailey. It was really a way to celebrate her birthday because she was out of town, but you know that moms will take any excuse to have a Girl's Night Out! This time, it wasn't too exciting but we enjoyed it just the same. We met up and went to a movie. No kids. No husbands. Just the 2 of us! Literally too!!! We met at the movie theater in Noblesville because I had an appt there earlier that evening. We went to see No Reservations with Catherine Zeta Jones, Abigail Breslin and Aaron Eckhart. Fantastic movie! We were literally the only ones in the theater! They started the movie for us when we got there so we didn't even miss any of the previews. We could laugh, make comments to each other about the movie, and didn't care or get embarrassed when one of our cell phones went off! It was great and oh so relaxing!

I had a chiropractic appt that afternoon, so my husband rearranged his schedule so that he would be home with the kids. I went straight from that to my appt in Noblesville and then to the movie. I had ALONE TIME from 4:15-11:00pm! It was absolutely wonderful and it wouldn't have happened if James hadn't rearranged his schedule just for me! How awesome is he!!!!

Anyway, if you get a chance, see that movie! Really, really great!

Peyton Reading

Today Peyton and I started off our morning reading story books to each other. Peyton brought about 15 of her Early Reader Phonics Books to me. Each book targets one specific letter and
has a story around that letter. I read most of them to her, but she read 3 of them to me. Here is an example of how she "read" her stories.

(Book in blue, Peyton's words are in red)

C c I Can See… (front picture is of a girl with a camera)
Mommy, she is taking a picture to me!
I can see a cat. I can see a cake. I can see a cowboy. I can see a cow. I can see a camel. I can see a car. What can you see?
What can you see? I see a cowboy, just like you. I see a cow, just like you. I see animals and a car. Mommy, she is taking a picture to me! Say cheese!

H h A Happy Hippo
I'm a Happy Hippo
I am a Happy Hippo. I like my house. I like my hat. I like my horn. I like my ham. I like my hand. I am a happy hippo.
I'm a Happy Hippo. I like my house. She likes her hat. She likes her song. She like her ham. Mommy, I like ham. She likes her hat. I'm a happy hippo!

This was so much fun this morning. It took everything I had to be serious while she read the books to me! I LOVE how she is just absorbing things so fast!

Who Am I Casting Crowns

This was e mailed to me by a friend and I just thought it was awesome!

Someone was tuckered out!

Friday I had bathed Gavin then dried, diapered and dressed him. It was then Peyton's turn. (She had been "busy" eating her breakfast and watching Dora, so they were bathing seperately that day.) So that I could get Peyton finished, I gave Gavin his bottled and turned on cartoons for him as well. Well here is what I found after Peyton was bathed and dressed...Enjoy!

The storm

I have been made aware that I didn't finish my camping stories...I left off the storm, the menu and our "next time" list! I will try and finish these up in the next few days.

I have told you that our site was perfect, well almost. We didn't have ANY grass. Our site was completely gravel and dirt. However, we had almost total tree coverage overhead. During the day this was wonderful. It was supposed to be blistering hot that weekend. They were predicting high 80's to low 90's that weekend and yes, for those of you that live in the south that is blistering hot for us in Indiana! So it was so great to have so much protection from the sun. It was nice and breezy on our site and it actually didn't get as hot as it was supposed to.

Well, our last night camping the kids were a lot easier to put to bed. So, we were acutally able to play cards and laugh and visit. About 10:30 or 11:00, a guy from the campsite across from us came over and told us that we had a huge storm heading our way. We had EVERYTHING just laying around. We started scrambling and putting everything in the truck, the van and under the screen tent. I do mean everything! We even unplugged the fan and the radio. We were worried how the kids were going to do through the storm.

Well, it started sprinkling...for other sites it was more than a sprinkle, but I already told you about our tree coverage. We went to bed a couple of hours later, awaiting the pour down. It did end up raining, a little bit. It was a soft pattering on the top of our tent. It was rather relaxing.

The funny part for all of us anyway, was that we prepared for this HUGE storm and we don't know if it just subsided or went the other way, or the people across the way just wanted to see how fast we could move! Hahaha I am sure this is one of those "you just had to be there", but it was hilarious, wasn't it Bailey!?!

Fly Lady

Okay, a while back I posted a blog on my myspace page regarding my lack of desire to clean and my 2 yr old daughter commenting on it. Her exact words were "Mommy's house is dirty" and left it at that.

Well my friend Kristen turned me on to a website called http://www.flylady.com/. The very first statement on this lady's website is "Are you living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)? I was immediately hooked! It was all about organization, planning and more organization. I have ALWAYS desired to be organized and to be a planner, it just isn't in my genes.

The very next day I had made out my very own routine...my daily plan. Unfortunately, I did what she said not to and I went overboard. You are supposed to do all of this in baby steps; set a morning routine and get good at that, then set the evening routine and once you are good at that, then set the evening routine and do them all together. I didn't care. I needed this organization so I planned out all of them. For the first 3 days, it worked too! I was less stressed, excited and James loved it! For once, he wasn't worried or embarrassed if someone just dropped by.

Well, like I said it worked for the first 3 days. Looking back at my file on my computer, I created this routine back in February. That is 6 months ago! So, needless to say, I am still in need of this organization so I am starting this back up again. I will just do one area at a time...hopefully it will stick this time.

If anyone is in need of some more organization in their lives, I definitely recommend this website. However, just go by my example and do this is baby steps!

Why did we bring the dogs again?

Okay, I told you in a previous post that we took our dogs camping with us. I also told you that Phoebe barked at every passerby and Harley barked at every dog. It was getting rather annoying. However, nothing was more annoying than Friday night. My kids were already not sleeping! I (and every other camper within 10 campsites, at least) was being woke up by a howling from Phoebe. Any time anyone walked past to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or any other noise she heard would spur on a serious of howls. She really should have been a beagle. Well due to this irritation and embarrassment for me, we decided to take the dogs to Bubba and Bailey's house on Saturday. Bubba's brother was staying at their house and taking care of their dogs for the weekend and the boys had decided to make a trip to the house to get the gate for the kids anyway.

Here are a couple of pics of the short lived camping trip for the dogs and also the "pen" we picked up for the kids! ;)

Friday night showers and bed time/Camping cont...

The first night...ah, this was an interesting one. Bailey and I decided to take the kids to the bath house. She washed them and I dried them, diapered them and dressed them. We would do one at a time and when I took one clean, dressed kid back to camp, I would get another one until they were all clean! This is where the interesting part came in. The water in the shower was SO hot and SO hard the kids were terrified. It really hurt! We did the best we could without scalding them and taking their skin off. Time for bed, right? Well, not exactly. The guys put Kaidan and Kuper to bed while we were showering my kids. Bailey was already finished with her shower so she took care of getting Peyton dried and dressed while I showered. To explain the events surrounding bed time, I will divide it up by time. Here is how the next few hours went.

9:15 Twins get put to bed

9:30 I got back to camp, the twins were out of bed. Surprisingly enough, Gavin went down without a fight, Peyton was laying on her pallet. I guess the twins had been crying since the minute they went to bed. It was really echoing through the campground, so Bubba and Bailey were rocking them to sleep.

9:35 Kaidan in bed, Kuper still rocking.

9:45 Kuper in bed

9:47 Bailey is back out of the tent, WITH Kuper

10:00 Gavin wakes up because his sister is "singing" very loudly, trying NOT to fall asleep. So Kuper and Gavin are now both being rocked to sleep.

10:15 Kuper in bed. Bailey is back out of the tent...VICTORY!!!!! She is by herself! I am still rocking Gavin. Peyton still "singing" in the tent.

10:45 James walks around the campground with Gavin, hoping it will relax him. I go in and lay with Peyton hoping to relax her a little.

11:00 No luck, they are back and he is wide awake. He sits with Bailey for a while.

11:20 I am rocking, once again. Peyton is still "singing".

11:45 I decide to take a drive with Gavin. Surely, he will go to sleep.

12:15 I arrive back at the camp site, Gavin is STILL awake. So I begin rocking him, again.

12:30 GAVIN IS ASLEEP!!! VICTORY, well sort of. Peyton still isn't quite asleep yet.

12:40 All of the children are finally asleep and we can play cards!

2 ish I can't quite remember what time we went to bed. I know that we didn't last too much longer after the kids this night!

4:30 Gavin wakes up. We give him a bottle and he goes back to sleep!

6:45 Both of my kids are awake. Good morning world! Kaidan and Kuper were soon to follow.

New Experiences

This past weekend we went camping at Summit Lake State Park with some friends of ours, Bubba and Bailey and their twins Kaidan and Kuper. They just moved back from San Antionio, TX in May and we have been wanting to do something like this with them for a while. I have to admit that we were all pretty nervous at the beginning of the trip. You see, this was the first camping experience for all 4 kids! Here are the ages; Peyton-2 1/2, Kaidan and Kuper-16 mos, and Gavin-14mos.

We really enjoyed the trip! We had a site that had full shade and it was 2 sites away from the bath house! It was perfect!!! The first night, I wasn't sure we were going to make it. The kids were constantly trying to wander off of our campsite, taking off their shoes (which was a huge problem because we were constantly picking up glass from beer bottles) and eating the rocks. We also made the mistake of taking our dogs! We used to take them camping with us before kids, we didn't think this would be very different. Well, it was! It was just one more irritation. Every time anyone walked by our campsite, Phoebe went crazy! Every time that a dog went by with its owner, Harley went crazy! When we couldn't chase the kids anymore due to cooking or setting up, the tents became the play area! They really loved it, at first! The mattresses were their trampolines. They all soon realized that they were being "caged" in though and therefore the enjoyment didn't last as long! They even learned to unzip it and escape!

All in all, it was a great trip! Here are some of the topics that I will be posting about in the days to come. There is too much to share just in this one post!

Friday night showers and bed time

Why did we bring the dogs again?

Saturday's decisions

Saturday night showers and bed time

Saturday night's storm

The weekend menu

The "next time" list

Until then, here are some pictures!

Gavin's 1st Haircut (7/03/07)

Okay, this post is a little late...but I wasn't blogging back then so it will be inserted right here!

My adorable little boy was growing thick hair. The problem was it was ONLY in the back! Where we live, there are too many mullets running around and I didn't want that for my family!

So, when we were at Aunt Amy's house we decided to do something about it! Amy cuts her son and husband's hair all of the time, so she was happy to take care of Gavin's as well! He thought it was interesting and kept trying to turn and see what was causing the vibration!

We love his new do!

Peyton's 1st Haircut!!! (7/30/07)

As most of you know, my sister is a cosmetologist. But as you also know, she moved South last year and now lives in Arkansas. It is a pretty far distance to take my kids, or myself for that matter to get a haircut now!

So, on that note, I took Peyton to Great Clips to get her hair cut on Monday. I am sorry for those of you that didn't want me to get it cut, but a mullet just doesn't look good on a 2 and a 1/2 yr old LITTLE GIRL!!!!

She was such a trooper! She did everything that the lady asked her to. She thought she was big stuff, and she was! For those of you that haven't seen Peyton in a while, her hair is extremely thin, white blonde and only grows in the back. The stylist trimmed the top and cut it so it would feather back easier. She cut the bottom across so that it was straight and would hopefully begin growing the same length.

It was a really simple cut and took a whole 5 minutes. She did tell me that she would discourage the use of pony tails of any kind because her hair is so thin. That is sad because she just looks so darn cute in those pigtails of hers! I will probably still do them, just now as often as I was.

But man, WHAT A GIRL!!!! She sure did enjoy herself!