All work and no play :)

After a recent episode of the Berenstain Bears, my kids decided that they had to have a lemonade stand. I held them off for a few weeks, but finally gave in because I knew they wouldn't be able to once school started. Alyssa, our neighbor, joined in on the fun. They started around 11, came in for lunch around 1, and were back out there for another hour or so. (Alyssa made it until lunch.) They ended up making about 6 dollars each by the end of the day, which was pretty exciting! Ava wants to spend her money on toys, and Carter wants to put his in the bank for college. (Yep, still young enough to be easily persuaded my mom!) They had a great time, and I think that this might be an annual event. Thanks to everyone for stopping by and supporting their efforts. :)

Why??? He's such a weirdo!

Surprise!!!

Nick and Ryan surprised me and Megan with a Martina McBride concert at the Chateau St. Michelle Winery in Woodinville. We had such a great night, and it was nice to get away for a little while! I'm pretty sure that security told us NOT to bring cameras in, but my camera accidentally ended up in a bag with Megan's blanket, and that's the one that happened to not be searched. Oops. :) Since I had it, I thought I should probably use it a little bit! (For your viewing pleasure, of course!) Did I mention that Martina touched me?? Not only did she touch me, she held onto me and sang to me while looking in my eyes! I was pretty star struck after that!

I have no idea what they were doing on our 1/2 mile trek to the winery, I just remember them telling me not to put it on the blog or facebook. Well, I didn't put it on facebook at least!

Not clear pictures, but pretty good considering it was dark and she was really far away.
Oh yeah, it was her birthday that day, so we all sang to her and her husband was there to lead the song.

Isn't she tiny?!!

Me and Megan...I love this girl!

This guy is pretty awesome too. :)

Ryan and Megan

This is as close as we got to a group pic...I didn't want to ask anyone to handle the contraband. :)

Thanks Nick, Ryan, Megan and Martina for an awesome night! Love you guys!

What's New with the Crew

Summer is about to end, and I'm not quite sure where the time went. We have kept pretty busy, but it still shouldn't have gone that fast! School starts in a little over a week. I'm half-way dreading it, but also looking forward to it because I think Ava and Carter are ready for a break from each other! I just thought I would give everyone a little update on our family. :)

Ava- She's heading off to second grade and is so excited for it! Many of her friends from the last 2 years are in different classes, so it will be nice for her to make some new friends and branch out a little bit. We went school shopping today and got all of her school supplies, which is always fun. We even managed to find some adorable iCarly tennis shoes, which is a pretty big deal to a 2nd grader!

Carter- He's going to be doing another year of preschool. He has been working hard at home learning his numbers and letters.(Not by choice!) This is our last year having him home and then he will be a big kindergartner. I just realized that Ava already had a loose tooth at his age, and it's just hard to believe that he's almost to that stage already.

Weston- He is still recovering from his broken collar bone, but he barely notices it now. He's been quite a trooper through the whole thing. Weston loved going to the fair and seeing all of the animals! He is really into animal noises and saying the names of them all. At his 2 year check-up he weighed 29 pounds (50%) and was in the 75% for height. He's still my little mama's boy and just melts my heart!

Coleson- This boy is BUSY! He never stops, and just when you think he might, he keeps on going. He has such a kind little heart and loves helping. Taking letters out to the mailbox with me is pretty darn exciting these days. He is a little goof ball and we just love him to pieces. This little butter ball weighed in at 31.5 pounds (95%) and was in the 90% for height. His head was also in the 90%. There's nothing small about him. :)

Nick- He is now a tech 4 at work, which means more responsiblilites. He is done with the learning phase, and now will start to work at earning points to become a tech 5. This means he will be "stepping up" for the foreman when he's gone, and will be doing special projects in the refinery. He just got assigned to a project, which means he will be working days for the rest of the year!!! It will be nice to get a taste of how normal family life is again! (Not that I'm complaining, because his schedule works really great for us.)

Me- I have been busy with life in general. For some reason I thought summer was going to be laid back and relaxing, but it never seems to work out that way. We have done a lot of fun little day trips and activities and have had a really great summer. I also have been keeping pretty busy with my photography. I had 4 weddings and quite a few other shoots this summer. It was so much fun, but I'm also excited to use the fall and winter to catch up on my scrapbooking!

Well, there you have it. Just a little piece of our world. Thanks for reading! :)

Broken

Sweet little Weston broke his collar bone on Friday night. My parents had the twins while we were at a wedding and took them for a walk. While parked on a hill, the breaks weren't completely locked and the stroller swiveled sideways and tipped with the boys in it. Coleson only got a scratch on his forehead, but Weston didn't get so lucky. My mom thought he was fine and put them to bed, but she called early the next morning and told me that he wasn't using his right arm at all. Nick brought him to the doctor, where they confirmed that his collar bone was broken. They suggested that we keep his arm wrapped against his chest for about 10 days to keep him from using it. He's been pretty uncomfortable, but he has been a trooper. For some reason, getting to sleep is really hard for him, so I've been rocking him to sleep every night. He also gets to keep his blankie and binkie all day for comfort. (Hopefully these things won't become habits!) Today we didn't need pain medicine until bedtime, so we are making some progress!

---All wrapped up right when he got back from the doctor---

Entering the Terrible Two's with a bang

Happy Birthday to the twins today....they're two. Yay! Now let me tell you the terrible part of it. While babysitting my nephew today, I was taking pictures of him and Carter playing in the sprinkler while the twins played nicely in the living room. When I noticed the twins had moved to the kitchen, I stopped what I was doing to check on them. This, my friends, is what I walked into. AHHH!

Yep....terrible. My poor sister in law walked in seconds later, and after some giggling and scolding, we set out to clean this goopy mess up. She kept the boys out while I mopped, and mopped, and mopped. Judging by the 2 empty egg cartons on the floor, I'm thinking there were about 18-24 smashed, organic, free range, farm fresh eggs on my kitchen floor. SAD!

Why is it that when I turn my back for 2 seconds, these guys try to destroy our house? Is it because there are two? I'm thinking it's time to "crack" down on these guys! (No pun intended!)

The Terrible Two-some:

Ava and I were cracking up at these guys in the tub, and she insisted that I take a picture of this. We were laughing pretty hard. You never know when you might need a little protection!

We're going to have to come up with another name...

...because "the babies" doesn't really apply anymore. They are BIG boys now. :( No more baby. We still have the diapers, the binky, the thumb, the blankies, the cribs and the high chairs, but those babies are long gone. It makes me so sad, but they are so much fun at this age! Here are some current words/sayings that I don't want to forget:

Weston's latest words- "tickle", "mine", "all gone", "milk", "snack", "bye-bye car", "buddy",
"bath", "stop it", "jumpa jumpa" (trampoline), "poo poo". His favorite word- "NO!"


Coleson's latest words- "all gone, no more", "more please", "more milk", "uh oh, broke it", "yeah", "open please", "excuse me", "buddy", "hug", "blankie", "all wet", "get you", "drink".

Grandpa said WHAT???

"Mom, grandpa said we are going to get chickens in our backyard and then we can play with them every day!!!" Yep, straight out of the mouth of Ava. He has also told her that someday he will buy her a dog and a hamster. He knows mommy will put them on the curb, but he gets their little hopes up anyways.
The kids had a sleepover at grandpa Rick and grandma Natalie's the other night (they live right next to the fairgrounds and keep their chickens in the chicken barn) and spent all of their time in the chicken barn playing with their new friends. When I came to pick them up, they were grinning from ear to ear and talked about it like it was Disneyland or something. I'm glad that something as simple as chickens can make these two so happy!

Our Busy and Crazy Summer Adventures

WOODLAND PARK ZOO

We had such a great day at the zoo! Our Texan cousins came with us, and we picked another cousin up in Kirkland. (She got came home with us for the weekend!) The kids were so into all of the animals and didn't mind all of the walking at all.

The Bears were only about 10 feet away from us. Most of the kids agreed that this was the best part of the day!

The boys did really well sitting in the stroller. They got out and ran around for awhile, but it was pretty hard keeping track of so many kids!

The boys loved seeing the bears!

The lions didn't ever move, but it was still pretty cool!

5 little monkeys

The Jaguars were fighting right by the glass...we watched them for quite awhile

Taking a break by the penguins- what a fun day!!!

BIRCH BAY

We spent a lazy day by the beach last week. A bunch of Nick's family came along, and the kids played and played. Ava and Carter were captivated by all of the little creatures everywhere. They were out digging for 2 hours and never came away from the water. The twins did really well too...daddy walked them out into the water. It was really sweet. :)

There were buckets, shovels and rakes everywhere!

Little critters

Little Man taking it all in

Ava and her best buddy/cousin Johanna (They had such a fun weekend together!)

Cousin Kausten wondering what all of these crazy kids are doing! We brought this one home, of course! Ava had about 20 things that she wanted to take, but I made them narrow it down to 2. :)

Cornwall Water Park

We decided to take advantage of this amazing weather we've been having with a trip to the sprinklers! We went with our cousins from Texas. The kids all played so well (even the twins!) and the mommys got to sit and relax!

----My four silly kids having a blast!----

Brrrrr!

Miss Bella

She is such a great big sister! Weston wasn't as brave as Coleson, but she took his hand and went through with him.

Buds

Cookie Monster (Carter was feeding him a cookie and Coleson bit Carter's finger accidentally...Carter was pretty mad about that.)

Oh my

That's better. :)

Carter's poor bloody finger...he took about 5 minutes to feel sorry for himself, and then started running around again! Naughty Cole Man!

Summer is just getting started, and so are we! I can't wait for all of the adventure that the rest of the summer has in store for us!