A Quick Trip to the Safari Park

Every Wednesday my kids have a minimum day so last week I picked them up, we got In & Out for lunch and we headed up to the Safari Park.  It was probably our last trip there before we move because our passes expire at the end of February.  Estelle has been begging to feet the Lorikeets in this big aviary.  Every time we go they say that they aren't eating because they're too full or last time there was construction around them so they were to afraid to eat.  So this was her time.  Anyone who knows me well, knows I don't care for birds much, but I usually pretend like I'm fine just so I don't pass my fear of birds on to my kids!  So she was feeding one and it was sitting on her arm and she was over it.  So she asked if I could take the little cup of food from her.  Oh my.  They were all over me!  I had a slight terror inside of me that one would try to peck my face off, but I stayed calm.  We also got to watch the cheetah run which we had never seen.  And the highlight of the day was seeing a gorilla eat it's own poop.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I could hardly handle it.  Ingrid was the first the first to notice it and yelled "EWWWWWW."  Estelle didn't realize what was going on until we were in the car driving home!  These kids!

Seriously.... All over me!!  Can you see the one on my back.  I had like 5 or 6 on me at once.  Deep breathing I tell ya!

She was so cute holding that little baby in her arms and then she had to eat her own poop.

Love these three!

Our Annual Summer Trip to WA: 2015 Edition

I took the kids by myself to Washington this summer.  The flying was tiring, but it went smoothly.  Ingrid for the most part was good, busy, but atleast she didn't scream.  Our time there was packed full of events.  One of Reese's cousins got married in Seattle, my Grandma's 80th birthday party, and we headed over to Moses Lake for 3 nights too.

Girls picking blackberries at Grandpa Jim's

Before we went to the wedding we met Kelly and family at Chuck E. Cheese.  Good times!  Those two boys have been friends since preschool and I'm so thankful that I got a great friend in his mama out of that deal!  Kelly loves my girls and my girls love her too!

 Ingrid is the selfie queen, we totally practice at home.

 Later on that day we headed to the wedding.  I am so happy that my kids have so many cousins on both sides!  Grandma and Grandma (aka Mop and Poopa, aka Papa and Mimi) loved having those kid there I'm sure!

 Abby, Estelle, and Raylan

 My Grandma's 80th birthday!  She is amazing!  What a wonderful example she has been to us all.  So thankful for her!

 Those boys... 12, 11 and 10 what in the world?  And where did that 9 year old Will run off to?  They have so much fun together!

 I got a good one of these two!

 Daniel, Lane, Merit and Will (there he is)!  Kelly's family also met us in Moses Lake!  Hanging out at the arcade and in Vance and Michele's yard was a fun time!

 The water park the next day!

 The cousins!!  Kinda hard to get all 10 of them to cooperate.  But a great picture none the less!

 My three munchkins!

 During our down time, which wasn't much, we enjoyed hanging out in Grandpa's yard.  After Ingrid would go to bed we would sometimes take an evening golf cart ride around the 40 acres I grew up on.  Good times.

One of the last days we met Mop and Amanda and kids out at Beachwood to swim.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Ingrid in the water.  She loves it!  I also wish I would've taken more picture of my girlfriends and their kids!!!  Anya, Lindsey, Kyrsten and Joelle.... we didn't take any "usies"!!!!  What in the world were we thinking!  I think every year this trip gets a little harder to accomplish, especially when Reese doesn't come.  But the memories we make are worth it!  Someday we will look back and think we were crazy for taking a million kids to an arcade or waterpark, etc.  But it was some good times anyway!

Estelle turns 4!

 Oh this girl!  These last 4 years have been entertaining to say the least!  Can't believe she is 4.  She is all about Frozen, dancing, ballet, singing.  She really likes "making" in her kitchen and helping me "make" in my kitchen.  In fact, while I was making the frosting for her cake on her birthday she leaned forward and got her hair stuck in the mixer and I had to unwind it as it was pulling it out of her head.  OH my she was traumatized, and it ripped a good chunk out.  But she's got lots of hair so you can't even tell.

 We didn't have a party for her.  We don't really have any little friends her age to invite over, so I made it special by decorating for her.  It was a frozen theme, we sprayed fake snow on the windows (doesn't come off to well though...) and hung up "snowballs."  She loved it.

I have figured out that I really like making cakes for my kids birthdays.  It's a little challenge for me.  I made rock candy out of sugar and corn syrup and broke it into shards for ice.  It was really fun and Estelle loved it.

Last year I asked Estelle these questions so I decided to do it again this year:

Favorite Color: blue (frozen...)
Favorite food: Mac O Cheese
Favorite drink: milk
Favorite animal: sheep (because they're bootiful)
Best friend: Little Emmy (as opposed to big Emmy) and Lucy (Leah we've been looking at pictures)
Favorite activity: painting
Favorite breakfast: cinnamon toast crunch
Favorite snack: 'nola bar
Favorite song: Elsa (let it go)
Favorite toy: Frozen barbie
Favorite book: Dora
Favorite Game: Frozen (?) She is Elsa and Daddy is Anna :)
What do you want to be when you grow up: A grown up :)
Favorite Dinner: Banana

Halloween 2014

 Our annual pumpkin carving.  Lane does his own now, which I love.  Estelle chose a Tiana pumpkin.

 My dork and the lovely queen Elsa.  This is right before we went trick or treating, it snowed earlier in the day and then it poured, it was wonderful...

 A sweet little chili pepper.  I had another chili pepper once too (Link to Case the chili pepper)

 Reese's work had the Halloween party again the weekend before.  The kids had fun and Elsa even had her sister Anna there!!

Ingrid 1 month and the First Day's of School

 I was looking at videos from when Lane was little last night after the kids went to bed.  I thought, when did this happen?  How is this kid almost 10?!  I feel like he went from 6 to 10 instantly.  He is such a nice kid and that's proven to me each year when all the kids in his class ask to have him over etc.  He's a fun kid to be around, what can I say!  He's busy with football right now,  just a few more weeks of that.  I think he really likes his teacher and his class, 4th grade will be an awesome year!

 Estelle is really a hands on kinda big sister!  Oh my, she loves to just swoop Ingrid up and walk around with her etc.  It drives me crazy!  But she's only fallen with her in her arms once, could be worse.... AHHHH!

 Ingrid is now almost 8 weeks old, but these are her one month pictures that I sooo professionally took.  She is such a sweet baby!  Doesn't cry much, sleeps a lot, and is really starting to smile.  I think she has quite a sweet personality and man do I love her snuggles!  She looks a lot like Case to us.  I think it's really sweet that she looks like her big brother.  Her hair is quite dark too, darker than the other kids was.

 A little grin as mommy is trying to figure out the poses :)

 Estelle started preschool a couple weeks ago.  She is having fun, some tears in the mornings when I drop her off though.  I think a lot of that has to do with going to bed too late and getting up too early.  This kid is a night owl and she doesn't require as much sleep as your average (almost) 4 year old.  She'll be in her room at 10:00 pm just talking away, reading books, doing her "work!"  As everyone else's eyes can't stay open she is wide awake!  She always talks about her teachers and her friends at Sunshine school.  And... I love that she is also learning about Jesus as she learns her ABC's!

Silver Lake

 While we were in Washington we rented a house for a month of that time.  Some friends of ours own a house up in the hills of Whatcom County and let us use it... and their boat :)  It was a really nice, peaceful place for us to stay and wait for Ingrid to be born.

Lots of time spent on the lake, kayaking, boating, fishing, swimming.  Lane had a blast!

Lane caught a crawdad in the lake, cooked it up and ate it :)  If you click on this picture of Lane you can see some pretty gnarly stitches in his finger.  The second night we were there he mangled up his finger on a dirt bike chain.  He broke it and got 8 stitches in it.

 This log provided a lot of entertainment!

 Gorgeous views!

 Lane and Will had lots of fun jumping off the dock.

So thankful we had a place like this to stay and take Ingrid back to!  I wasn't able to keep up much on facebook, instagram or blogging while I was there because there was no cell service or internet, but that was actually pretty nice! Minus some people not knowing for a few weeks that I actually had Ingrid :)