Wordless Wednesday

I Am Blessed....

I am blessed...to have two happy and healthy children. Yes, that seems like a cliche blessing. But really it isn't. I am not planning a funeral for my 9 month old baby like this family is. It is a blessing that can get missed during the busy days of life. But one that is so very important to remember.

I am blessed...that Shane has such good friends like Lucas and Ellie. They made our camping trip full of so much fun and joy for Shane.

I am blessed....to have a good friend like Julie. We may not see each other or talk frequently. But we can come together for 24 hours and get right back into the groove of our friendship. We can be in a situation and so very smoothly make things happen.

I am blessed...to have a Husband that is happy to stay home with the Baby while Shane and I go off on our own adventures.

I am blessed...to have Parents that are willing to take Adalyn for parts of 10 days while Kenny and I get a much needed vacation in Hawaii. Along with special one-on-one time with Shane. They will lose some sleep for sure while they have her, but I am sure it will be a fun time for all of them to be together. Thirty-seven days and counting until the BIG trip!!

I am blessed...to be able to stay home with Shane and Adalyn. Though there are days that I would love to run off to work outside of the house, to just have a few minutes to think clearly or work on one thing at a time. I know this time together for all of us is priceless.

There are just so many blessings in our lives. Some days go without a moment to even think about them. Join me and others over at He Sows, She Sews and count your blessings.

A Little Boy's Dream Weekend

I think that if Shane had the ability to rate his weekends over his life span, this last one would rank up there in the top 5 for sure! May even #1. This is what Mr. Shane was up to for the last 3 days.

The weekend fun started out Friday afternoon with a Pool Party at Dahlia's house. The weather was beautiful (it actually felt like summer!) He tried out a slip and slide for the 1st time and was in and out of a couple different swimming pools. (This all took place after all the other guests left, but I still think he had fun).

Saturday arrived with lots of excitement from the Little Man. Shane and I were going camping with our friends Julie, Lucas and Ellie. He was boiling over with anticipation when he woke up. All morning long I heard when are they going to be here? When are we leaving?

We drove south past Olympia to Millersylvania State Park. Before we were able to check in we swung by the Mima Mounds. Which are "mysterious" mounds that are only found in Thurston County, China and Alaska. We took a little walk around the fields. Then head over to the camp ground.

Lucas, Ellie and Shane on a mound.

Bike riding was a huge hit. Shane even left twice with just Lucas and Ellie to go on a bike ride around the camp ground. That is HUGE for him. Lucas and Ellie were super patient with him. They played with him and made sure he was safe and happy. Thanks guys for being such great friends!

Building pools of water also was a fun activity for the kiddos. They would play in the sand then jump in the water for a swim then back to the sand. They spend a couple hours both days at the lake between the water and the sand, happy as can be.

Sunday morning before we left they hit the lake. Not a person in site for most of the time we were there.

Lots of soccer, hockey and Frisbee playing. Lucas made them hockey sticks from branches to play with.

Warming up after swimming.

Saturday afternoon there were people every where at the lake. Here they are stepping foot in the water for the first time.

Shane was so brave and went all the way out to the rope with Lucas and Ellie. He couldn't touch the ground, so he was "swimming". He has come a long way this summer in so many things. I was so proud of him this weekend.

When we woke up Sunday morning in the tent, Shane was just a ball of energy. He certainly loved the camping experience again this year. I told him before we left that Daddy had a surprise for him when we got home. After a quick 45 minutes at home to wash him up and get a splinter out of his foot that had him in tears. He was all ready to head to an Everett Aqua Sox's baseball game. It was a good think he took a nap in the car on the way home (which usually NEVER happens). He had a good time at the baseball game, but was very upset that he didn't come home with a foul ball. After a call to Papa (who has quite the stash of baseballs), who promised Shane his very own baseball. All was right again.

One pretty sweet weekend for a 4 year old boy!!

A Day In The Life

Adalyn turned 9 months today. I can't believe that puts us just 3 shorts months from her first birthday. Crazy!
Here is what a day in the life of Addie looks like at this point in her life.

6am: Wake up (this was super late for her. usually she is up between 5-5:45am). Daddy gets the morning shift for an hour or so while she plays. A top favorite still is the kitchen in Shane's room.

 7am: Breakfast. She LOVES her water. Last week I thought for sure she was even saying "wa-wa".

 For breakfast this morning she had a scrambled egg, kix, and applesauce.

7:30-9am Out of PJ's and into clothes for morning play time. Mommy thought she would give a dress another try. Nope. She can't crawl and move in them. As you can see she is super pissed off because she couldn't stand up quickly in the dress.

 Off with the dress. Ah, so much happier while she takes in some book time before her nap.

 9:15-10:30am: After we got the clothing situation figured out she was off to her morning nap. She slept for her typical 1 hour 10 minute morning nap. Today things were slightly later then normal since she "slept-in". Shane likes to be the first one to greet her when she wakes up. Addie just beams when she sees him.

 10:30am: Off to her 9 month well-baby appointment. Here she is sitting in the waiting room, checking everything out. She made it through her one shot and heel poke for an iron check. Addie is weighing in at 18lbs (25-50%) and 27 (50-75%)  inches long. Healthy and on track.

 12:15pm: Home for lunch. On the menu today was: garbanzo beans, rice noodles with butter and cheese, and warm apples with cinnamon on them. She is in the process of getting teeth #5 and #6. When she gets teeth she devours food.

 12:45pm: Play time after lunch before she heads into her 2nd nap of the day. Some water table fun. I just realized this week that she would be able to stand up and reach the water. She loves it!

 1:30-2:40pm: Nap #2. She normally sleeps a total of 2-3 hours of naps during the day. I just don't think she will ever be my sleeper.

 Visiting with Big Brother after nap time. She totally was trying to bite his hand here.

 1:45pm: Play time downstairs.

One of the many diaper/clothing changes during the day. About 75% of the time she HATES being changed right now. It is full on war with her to get her to lay still and get the diaper or clothes on or off of her. This shot was taken by Shane.

3:30pm: Off for a walk. I have yet to attempt two dogs and two kids. I rotate which dog I take with me. Today was Sadie's lucky day.

4pm: Back home for more play time before Daddy gets home. This is what the living room looks like by the end of the day.

4:15pm: Quick bottle check. Normally she takes a bottle most of the time before naps and bedtime. Sometimes though she just needs a quick drink here and there. Another shot by Mr. Shane.

5pm: Daddy is home!!! Best part of the day. Again, thanks Shane for your new found love of picture taking.

5pm: Dinner time for Adalyn (Today the boys were off at swimming lessons). This evening she had turkey, cheese and orange cherry tomatoes. She LOVED the tomatoes. When she is done eating generally she'll rub her eyes and head so much she gets food every where.

5:30pm: Naked Time! Her FAVORITE part of the day. Man, she loves being naked. It just makes her giggle and clap.

6pm: Bed time. All cuddled up with blanket and bunny. She didn't fall asleep tonight until 6:30pm. Which is late for her right now. We'll see how late she sleeps in, if at all?! With her teething and general poor sleeping she'll be up 5 times tonight most likely. Most will be just a "fix" where I have to give her bunny back and at least one will require food. Some day she'll sleep through the night, right!?!?!?!

UPDATE: She slept super well. Up at 8pm for a "fix". Up at 9:30pm for a poopy diaper (very weird) and a little bit of food. Up again at 2:40am for food. Then awake at 6am. That is amazing for this girl!!

Wordless Wednesday the Video Edition

Withdrawl

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. A few months ago I actually logged out of FB so that I couldn't just click the little button on the top of my computer every hour or so for a "quick" FB update. My computer turned into this magnet. The pull towards it to take a peek at FB was just too much for me. My few moments of down time or time I could accomplish something was being eaten up by checking in to see what all my "friends" were up to.

I can honestly say the first week or so of not looking at FB was torturous. I did sneak a peek here and there on my I-Pod. After a couple more weeks, checking into FB or putting up a status never even crossed my mind. I realized my habit had been completely broken when I was on vacation for a week with WiFi and I-Pod in hand. I didn't even think of checking FB with some down time I had until about day four!

I do miss it and now that I feel like I have gotten my FB habit under control I do check it every now and then. I miss seeing what my "friends" are up to. Who had a baby, who is pregnant, pictures of kids growing and just knowing a little bit more about what every one is doing on a daily basis. When you don't get to interact with adults during the day, seeing what others are doing out there is certainly nice. On the flip side though my feelings have been hurt more then once when I may feel left out when I see what others are doing or by a comment posted by someone.

Facebook has been a blessing in some ways and a curse in others. I love keeping in touch with friends that over time I would have lost touch with. But in other ways it doesn't make up for the true human contact of a friendship. It makes it easier to stay in touch with people a far, but most days I would pick to just have a friend right here in person to talk to and hang out with.

What are your thoughts on Facebook??

Menu Monday

We are back to a "normal" week. Shane has another session of swimming lessons. Dinner will be pushed back later. His lessons are from 5:35-6:05. We normally eat around 5ish. I don't think I'll be able to get to the store in the next few days. I am going to work from our full freezer, but we are short on fresh veggies and fruit.

Monday -- Crock pot peppercorn steak over rice

Tuesday -- leftovers

Wednesday -- I have some meat sauce in the freezer. I'll make something with that.

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- Something with chicken

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday -- ??

Donner Lake, Truckee, California

Definition of VACATION (source Merriam-Webster)

1: a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission

2: a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended b : a period of exemption from work granted to an employee

3: a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation vacation at the beach>

We returned home yesterday from our vacation. I needed to look up the actual definition of vacation to see if that was really what we had. It turns out we did. Though it may not have been a vacation that most people picture, we did have a "time of respite from something" (ie: the dogs, daily chores, etc). Kenny had a "period of exemption from work". We also had "a period spent away from home" (10 days to be exact). 

We were vacationing at Donner Lake with Kenny's family in celebration of his parents 40th wedding anniversary. We decided to drive there instead of fly. (It is still up in the air if this was a good idea or not). It took us two days/14 hours to get there and the same for coming back. Shane did very well in the car. He doesn't seem to mind just sitting there and looking out the window. Adalyn on the other hand wanted constant contact with me when she was awake. Meaning that I spent a LARGE portion of the time in the backseat. Her sleeping schedule went out the window and continued to be a problem the whole time we were gone. She was up often every hour or every two hours at night and napped very poorly during the day. She wouldn't let Kenny feed her or put her down for a nap. Making me the primary caregiver the WHOLE time for Baby Girl. Between the traveling, teething, missing her crib to roll around in and possibly even night terrors, Adalyn made our vacation seem very long and trying. 

Along with dealing with Addie all day long, I seemed to have a touch of bad luck while we were gone. One day I started off by getting pooped on, later in the day I was stung by a bee and had a minor reaction to it. The day was finished off by having Adalyn throw up on me. I woke up the next morning with a head cold. Awesome!

Okay, so that was the tough portion of our vacation. Here are some of the better highlights.

On the way there we stopped at a place called the Subway Cave. We only went in the front of it, but it was pretty cool, literally. Shane talked about it for days.

 We saw lots of these little guys on our stop.

Here we are at the lake. Adalyn and Shane both LOVED the water. Since I wasn't around most of the time they were at the beach I don't have very many pictures of Shane having fun in the water. But he did great. Even jumping off the little dock/swim float out in the water.

 All the cousins: Carolyn, Meredith, Shane, Grant and Adalyn

Shane and Kenny out in the Kayak together. They got to do this twice. Shane really loved it. I was so proud of him for going out with Kenny. He also went out on the sail boat, but I wasn't there for that either. (This is where the new camera lens I need comes into play!!)

Little Girl just loved the sand and water. Very happy to eat all of it and make a mess. She didn't like the clean up after wards so much.

 The WHOLE gang.

Two buddies. Turns out Shane will do anything Carolyn does. She seems to be one of the few people he doesn't care if Mommy or Daddy are around. He would run off with her, which is so unlike him. He usually has to have one of us in his sight. But Carolyn seemed to be like a make shift parent/play mate for him.

 Man, is it hard to get a good picture of us with two wiggly kiddos.

Overall, we all had a nice time on our vacation to the lake. Donner Lake is really pretty and has all the makings as a very relaxing place to be. We look forward to more summer trips there (probably by plane and with a much older Adalyn)! It was awesome to wake up to blue skies every morning and to have warm temperatures daily. It was also great to see the Cousins hang out and play together (big ones and little ones). Many memories were made by all.

Quote for the Day

Thanks, Money Saving Mom

Wordless Wednesday

Re-Staining the Deck

After the stain went on and what it looked like before (all in one picture).

I looked at our deck one afternoon and thought it sure is looking kinda sad. This thought then became another item on the house to do list. Re-stain the deck. We finally got a stretch of sunshine one weekend. We were able to get it completed in about 3 days. Sadly, it rained on the 4th day. Making us super nervous the rain would ruin the stain we had completed the day before. I think it ended up being okay. Re-staining a deck is a WHOLE lot of work. Are we ever glad that job is over with. The deck does look a whole of a lot nicer though. Worth the manual labor for sure. Now I just need to find that perfect bistro set for it.