It's about time!

Although I do like summer vacation for the time we get to spend together as a family, I am thrilled that school is back in session! (at least for today, possibility of a strike but whatever). I can get the house back to a routine and a rhythm going in our lives. I am down to 2 kids instead of 3 to pick up after (love you Jer!) so maybe I'll be able to keep the house a smidge more picked up than it has been over the last few months. Summer was fun but I'm totally over it, bring on fall!!!!!

Bubble Boy!

Trey devotes at least 45 minutes of every day to his beloved bubble mower. They have traveled far and wide, from the backyard to the front, from the living room to the family room, from the backyard to the front....he loves his mower.

In the sun

and in the shade,

on the porch

and in the house

not just pushing but also pulling,

while wearing a bowl cover as a hat

or manliest of all in a girls headband

Oh mower how we love thee!!!

234

That would be the number of pictures I have taken since I last blogged. Yikes! Not much of a routine around here lately and August is drafting time for Fantasy Football so once again I have not gotten around to posting anything. Since I'm too lazy to figure out how to post stuff under a different date I'm just going to start from where I left off and hope that one day soon I'll be back to the present!

A few weeks ago we, well Jerry, made some more progress on the kids' swingset by pressure washing it. I was in a mood to rearrange furniture and so I'd put the kids tents outside which they were thrilled about since they could watch Jerry work without feeling like they were too close to the action. Neither of my kids likes loud things, the vacuum, the garbage disposal, the lawn mower and especially the pressure washer. With the tent behind "bars" on the porch it suddenly became fun to watch and "Not scary at all" as Abby said. A couple drinks and snacks and they were both out there for a while. Now we, again not really "we", just need to get the thing stained and a few pieces of new wood put on the bottom and then put in the backyard....maybe it will happen this year??? Stay tuned!!

Abby eating her snack

Sharing personal space and her snack

Work Daddy, Work!

Ta-da!

Wondering when he'll be allowed to use big-boy toys. Stuck with just the bubble mower for now.

Desert Canyon

The Holmes' family graciously invited us to come to spend the weekend with them at Desert Canyon (between Wenatchee and Chelan) and we jumped at the chance to get one more family trip in before the start of the school year. We packed up the car Friday morning and headed out. We stopped in Leavenworth as the kids were getting a little restless in their carseats. We drove through town and found it too packed to try and find parking so we drove to the McDonald's at the edge of town. Ice Cream for the big people and apple slices for the littles, yum. A quick trip to the little store next door and we were off again. Just outside of Wenatchee Abby started giving out the "I'm about to chunk" signals and I managed to catch most of the apple pulp that she threw up and the rest landed on her shirt and pants. Not too bad since it hadn't even really been digested yet. We cleaned off the car seat straps, changed Abby's clothes and wiped her down and prayed that the chunking was over. I don't think she felt super great the rest of the way but we only had about 15 miles ahead of us and she managed to hold her food inside.

The resort was gorgeous and we ate dinner and let the kids play together for a bit and then it was bedtime. Jerry and I don't believe in letting our kids sleep with us at night and we've only done it maybe 2-3 times when they were newborns so our kids are super used to sleeping in rooms by themselves, especially Trey. Our room was a 1 bedroom unit and since Trey goes to bed before everyone else I thought that he could sleep in his play yard in that room and the rest of us could enjoy the living room still and then Abby and I would sleep on the pull-out bed and Jerry could go sleep in the bedroom (Jerry and Trey both sleep in while Abby and I are up early...seemed to make sense), but alas, all good plans fall apart!! Trey was fine until Jerry tried to go to bed and then he couldn't go back to sleep so I ended up in there with him and Jerry went to go sleep with Abby. Trey didn't fall back asleep until almost 3:30 and Abby was up before 5...made for a long sleepless night!! And now I remember why I don't sleep with my kids!

The next day we went to a nearby fruit stand/general store where they make fresh apple cider among many other things. They have a counter you can sit at that has windows looking out into the bay where they make apple juice. It was pretty neat to watch the whole process. It even held the kids' attention for quite awhile. We got to sample fresh cider and had a round of apple doughnuts....soooooooo goooooooood!!!!! With bellies full we drove on to Beebe Bridge state park to let the littles play at the playground. Abby was her usual delightful self, she liked climbing up to the top of the slide but then put up a stubborn fight about going down the slide. Battle of wills winner?? US! She finally went down the slide, crying the whole way, then stood up, said "That was fun!" and spent the next 15 minutes going down the slides over and over again...girl is ridiculous! After that we took a quick trip into Chelan and since both kids fell asleep right after getting in the car we didn't stop anywhere - just drove around dreaming about how we'd like to spend the money we'll never have! After that it was back to the resort for an afternoon in the pool. The kids all played their little hearts out and were so tired by dinner time. After another delicious meal it was bedtime for our kids. After the disastrous first night we got a little smarter. We put Trey in the bedroom again and this time we took the cushions from the couch and made Abby a special bed all her own against the wall. That left the pull out for Jerry and I. Everyone slept all night!

Sunday we packed up the car and were gone by 11. Abby, thank goodness, fell asleep early on and stayed asleep until we were near Goldbar. No chunking this time!!! We stopped in Monroe and had a bite to eat and were home by 3:30. A super fun trip for us, I'm so glad we got to do it. Jerry and I kept saying how fun we think it will be next summer when we don't have to pack anymore baby stuff.

Abby and Trey enjoying a delicious pancake breakfast!

The press squeezing out the juice from the apples

Hard to get a picture of them all smiling AND looking at the camera...I voted for the smiling one

The Gardner and Holmes families!

Drinking cider and eating apple doughnuts...doesn't get much better!

Look at his little cheeks!

It's even fun to eat your doughnut outside

My kiddos love being outside!

My loves!

At Beebe Bridge....she even went down backwards once she decided that sliding was fun

We let our kid eat random peoples garbage.

Abby checking out the beach

In her special new bed that she loved!

View from the deck

Abby watching a little early morning golf

Her first ride in a golf cart!

PS. No, of course I do not let my child pick up nasty garbage and eat it! That was our cup from earlier.

3 going on 16!

Jerry forgot something at the station the other day and sensing that I needed a small break from her (okay, maybe I threw out a hint or two) he took Abby back down with him. First off, she was so excited to get to ride in Daddy's truck. He only has 1 carseat in it and rarely does one child go somewhere without the other...and if they do it's almost always in my car. Then she got to try out EVERY truck in the station. Talk about exciting!!! She is very much into pretending right now and a lot of her imagination revolves around firefighting (equally caused by Jerry's job AND the movie Bolt - if you've seen it you know the ending), so being able to "drive" the trucks was a blast for her.
already using her mirrors to back up

cutest firefighter in town!
She was also the lucky winner of a trip to the doctor last Wednesday. We were awfully busy around her birthday and then her doctor was on vacation so it was a month after her birthday before we got in for her 3 year well-child. I had talked a lot about what was going to happen the day before and the day of her appointment. Jerry has a stethoscope and I showed her how that worked and then let her play with it. She seemed okay with the idea of going but she's a typical 3-year-old and her moods change every 12 seconds so I was hoping that she'd still be alright once we got to the office. Our PA was the girl who house-sat for us while we were in Ocean Shores so Abby had previously met her and she's also the cutest, sweetest thing ever so there were no tears. Abby got weighed, measured and her blood pressure taken. She's 39.5 inches tall and 35 pounds (90+% in height and just under 90% in weight)! While we waited for the doctor to come in we found a Cinderella book (how did they know that's her favorite princess???) and I was pleasantly surprised that once the doctor showed up and examined her there was absolutely no fussing/crying/fit-throwing. Whew! Compared to last year's screaming disaster, this year was great...maybe that was due to not getting shots, or to the fact that I bribed her with a trip to the park of her choice if she behaved herself. Whatever the case, it was nice!

doing the "electric slide" at her favorite park in Mount Vernon!

Whew!

I think I'm finally caught up on all my blogging now. I used up every minute of naptime to do it, dishes will wait till later I guess! There have been a lot of blog-worthy moments over the past month but with two needy, super clingy kids I haven't had much time to sit down and put my thoughts down in writing. I'm hoping to be a little better about blogging this month and when school starts and we once again have a routine in our house it should improve more. And maybe when I am finally no longer world's strongest magnet for my kids I'll have an extra minute or two to spare. *sigh* one can hope!

Oh yeah, and I did not come home looking like either picture the other night...but I did hold down 4, that's right 4, margeritas. We even closed down the restaurant...I'm such a party animal. Who knows, I may do it again in another 7 months because it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

Bauthues Family Picnic

Yesterday was our annual family picnic in Bellingham. Jerry was on duty for the fire department so I took the kids up there. Thank goodness for relatives! My kids were all over the place. Abby spent the majority of the 4 hours we were up there at the playground. It's right next to the picnic area so she could go by herself but honestly, what kids doesn't want some adult nearby to respond to the endless "watch me!"s. My mom and my Uncle Mark did a lot of the "watching", bless them! Trey was in and out of the playground a bunch, chased a poor dog all over, mingled a bit and even found a couple folks to play ball with. It was a fun day, as usual, lots of good food and fun folks. Can't wait for next year! Maybe if I'm not chasing kids around as much I'll be able to get a few more pictures.

Trey on a mission

Grammy and her babies!

Abby headed for the playground again.
4 hours of solid play makes for some VERY TIRED KIDS!!! (and one happy mom!)

We're going to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until we.....

are full!!! Trey has been such a great eater lately. He started off very slowly on the whole food thing but now he's eating like a teenage boy....anything and everything. He was liking blue and blackberries but decided that one day those weren't any good anymore but other than that he's liking most everything.

He loved enchilada night!

He has perfected the art of eating with a fork so we're working on spoons now. He has a tendency to try and fling food off his spoon, which entertains Trey and Rusty both but does not make mama happy! I got a burst of energy Saturday and decided to clean the stovetop so into his high chair he went with a spoon and some yogurt. I parked him right next to me and he was quiet for a long time and I'm not sure if it was the change of scenery or the fact that I was right next to him but he ate it all without flinging it all over the kitchen. Yay Trey!!!

Annual SWFD Officer's Picnic

On the last Monday in July we went to the annual picnic for the fire department. What a change from last year to this year for Trey. He went from being stuck in his car seat....

to playing in the bouncy house. What a difference a year makes! Abby headed straight for the bouncy house and stayed in there until I MADE her get out to eat.

BBQ'd salmon, dogs, burgers...yummy
Abby decided to try cutting up her own hot dog, and she was so serious about it.

Trey stole my fork the second we sat down and started helping himself to what was on my plate. He's getting less picky as the days go by.

Our neighbor "Auntie Erin" (the fire chief's better half too!) was there, she's one of Abby's very, very favorite people!

Jerry helped the kids put the "fire" out on the playhouse.

FFA - Future Firefighters of America!!

Trey liked sticking his hand in the spray and Abby was thrilled that I allowed her to play with a sucker in her mouth. I know, living dangerously right?!

Abby did decide to try out the slip-n-slide. As you can see, I was sure she wouldn't want to so I didn't bring her swimsuit. Undies are fine when you're 3 though. The soap was all gone so she didn't slide down, she scooted down inch by inch on her butt which I'm pretty sure was fine with her. The last time I put her on it, I set her where all the other kids had gone and she flew down, then sat in the puddle at the bottom bawling her eyes out....and then we went home.