vacation 2012 {on the water}

I'm finally catching up on vacation pictures, about one month later.

Every other year our summer vacation is spent in Michigan, with all of Dave's family.

We made the 18 hour drive straight through, only stopping for throw up, and feeding children.

We've taken our kids on lots of long trips in the car.  Last year we drove 18 hours to Destin, Fl.  And never before have either of them gotten car sick.  But for some reason, this trip, we found out they both get car sick.  3 stops, and a round of Dramamine later (all in our first 3 hours), we were smooth sailing the rest of the trip.

And sweet Gavin, he was next to perfect.  Silent for 99.9% of the drive.  I think he's going to be an overachiever.

We made it to the lake, got settled in to the third floor room.

Gavin's little crib fit perfectly into the big walk-in closet.  So with the door shut and his white noise on, he slept like a charm the whole week.

Our vacation consisted of mostly living in a swim suit for 6 days, no makeup, no blow-dryers or straightners on my part.  It's definitely my kind of vacation.

We logged a whole lot of hours on this lake.

Kayaking

Jet Skiing

Lots of tubing

 Dave got to try out the helmet cam.

This little guy got quite brave on the tube.

First it was no hands.

And then on his knees.

And Taylor graduated from the tube that's virtually impossible to fall off of (the big red one in the pictures) to this tube, all by herself.

We had one day of rain and then a few other showers/storms at times that came and went.

 

And this sweet boy had a grand ole time just sitting and watching everyone.

I'm so glad he wasn't crawling yet this week (he decided to start the day after we left the lake), because it would have been a lot harder to keep him confined and happy if so.

(maybe someday you won't have yucky gunky red eyes all the time - it's either tear duct issues or allergies, it's still not certain)

We decided it was time to try Taylor on skis.

 I didn't get any pictures once we started moving because I was too nervous to have something at my face.  She didn't get all the way up, but definitely got a good start.  It's the one thing we wished we could have spent more time doing.  But when you have 7 kids all wanting to do different things, it's hard to spend too much time teaching one of them for too long.

And of course the skiing stud got up for just a bit too.  I beg and beg him to ski because it's so fun to watch him.  He usually says no and complains he's too old, and that it's not that fun, and it's too much work.

But he did it for me.

Stay tuned for more of our vacation.

while he was sleeping

I still haven't gotten to our vacation pictures.

But these are from vacation and I thought they deserved a post of their very own.

This sweet boy of ours keeps us on our toes.  There's nothing too predictable about him, other than the fact that he's unpredictable and we never know what we may get from him.

One minute he can be cuddling cozily on the couch with me or giving me sweet kisses,

and the next minute he can be stomping his little feet as hard as he can down the hallway.

One minute he can be singing sweet songs about Jesus in the cutest voice I have ever heard in my entire life,

and the next minute he can be screaming bloody murder to demand his way or let us know he is upset about something.

One minute he can be shooting baskets, playing legos, or drawing contently,

and the next minute he can be throwing his paper and marker across the room out of frustration.

But I can't tell you how many times he has humbled me, or made me realize that his choice behaviors are very similar to my own at times.

One minute he can be throwing a humongo fit and exhausting us to our wits end,

and the next he can be zonked out in the middle of the living room floor at the lakehouse,

with 15 other people coming in and out from the lake about 4 feet from him.

I knew he was exhausted.  His vacation was spent swimming, tubing, swimming, and swimming some more.

So I tried to calm him and have him just lay here and relax and breathe for a few minutes after a major meltdown.  Within minutes he was out....

...and then he turned towards the window.

And finally, it was the most perfect moment ever, one I was certain I'd never get.

I have wanted for so long to photograph those lashes.

But when does a child actually fall asleep in the middle of a room, facing the best natural light ever?

When he's sleeping, I just want to scoop him up and cuddle with him soooo badly.

For almost 4 years, every night when I headed to bed, I detoured into my boy's room.

I crawled onto his bed and would half way pick him up and hold him in my arms while he slept.

Sometimes just for a minute, sometimes 10. 

He's a sound sleeper and I knew he'd always stay asleep. When I laid him back down, sometimes he'd wake up just enought to whisper back "I love you" as I kissed his forehead.

I love this little guy to death all the time.

But there is something so heavenly about him when he's sleeping.

And there is something so heavenly about those lashes. 

meeting cousin alice

I'm kind of doing pictures a little backwards.  We went to Michigan first, and then Cincinnati.

But I'm doing our Cincinnati visit first, because the number of pictures are way less overwhelming to sort through.

Plus I had grand plans of getting these all posted as a little birthday surprise to my dad (since neither him or my mom have seen these pictures yet). But I'm a little late on that.  Hope you enjoy anyway Dad.

Such sweet pictures these are.

This was the first time my sister and I have had our kids together.  On my sister's birthday too!

Gavin and Alice are just about 3 months apart. 

The big kids were so excited to meet Alice.  You would think they are babied out.  But they could hardle wait to get there and they were super disappointed they had to wait till the next morning to see her. 

We packed in as much as we could in the few shorts days we were there.

Some neccessary shopping.

And Gavin's first ice cream, in honor of Aunt Rebekah's birthday.

Even though we say Cincinnati, my sister actually lives in Taylor Mill, Kentucky, and Taylor begged and begged to get her picture taken with one of the street signs.

And wouldn't you know that just about 20 miles away was a Mason, Kentucky. He wasn't intersted in a picture though.

I wish our visit had been longer, but it was so fun for the kids to meet their new cousin for the first time, and for my sister and I have our kiddos all together!  I so wish the distance between us was much shorter.

gavin {7 months}

WOW, it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post.  Guess that's a little sign of the busyness around here.  July is always kind of a whirlwind, and this year has proven no different.

And right before the whirlwind began, Gavin turned 7 months.

It was the day before we left for vacation, I had a million things to do, and I was so proud of myself that I somehow fit in his pictures on the right day.  It was so nice knowing I got it done before we left.

Then I got to Michigan, was totally spacing out and clearing some room on my camera, and erased every single quilt shot that I had taken.  Total downer.

So we had to re-do them last week when we got home.  I was home for 2 days before leaving for another trip, and I had a total of 5 minutes to pull this off in between every thing that was going on.

I had no time to straighten the quilt, center him on it, mess with my camera or anything.  It was a race up the ladder (so I could be high enough to get above him for the shots), and I couldn't snap fast enough before he was rolling over and sitting up.  Looking back at the pictures, almost every shot had either another child's body part in them or a dog's tail or nose.  So I had a whole 3 pictures to choose from with none of the above. Oh man, I hope next month goes a bit smoother.

Gavin,

Month 7 has been a big one for you! Wow!

You started the month with just your bottom two teeth, and you quickly got your 4 top ones all at the same time - making 6 total! When Daddy came back from Africa, his little boy's toothless grin was gone.

Actually, there were several things that happened while Daddy was in Africa. You started sitting all by yourself with nothing to help you prop up. And you took your first long car ride (6 hours) to Mema and Papa's house in Missouri. This was a special trip because it was the first time you got to meet your Great Grandma!

All month you practiced and practiced getting up on your knees and starting to rock back and forth.

We knew that you'd be crawling soon, way faster than your brother and sister (and we were right!).

But until you caught on to the crawling thing, you spent most of this month rolling back and forth across the room to get wherever you wanted to go. One morning I left you playing on the floor in your room while I switched laundry. When I came back, you were not where I left you, and I didn't see you anywhere. My heart definitely skipped a beat and I felt a sense of panic, until I saw your little feet sticking out from under the crib. I should have taken a picture, because it was so cute. You had rolled all the way under your crib to hide from mom.



 Look at those teeth!  Holy moly I can't believe this child go so many teeth so fast.

I am definitely thankful my babies have always been good teethers, or else this could have been a nightmare.

You took forever to get good at eating food. You are kind of all over the place when we feed you, never holding your head still.  So it can be quite messy.  But this month we started you on some table food too - it's much nicer when you can just pick things up and feed yourself.



You didn't want to be left out of swimming lessons this summer, so during Mason and Taylor's lessons, you got in the pool with Mommy or Daddy.  And you loved it!  You definitely love the water just like your brother and sister.

This month we also started physical therapy with you because of some tight muscles in your neck causing you to favor one side.  The technical term is torticollis.  It's just a mild case, but the doctor wanted to get it treated.  We're hoping to get it taken care of soon, Mommy's getting tired of trying to carry you on the left side of my body, I'm just not as coordinated on that side.

It seems like everything is happening a lot sooner with you, and we are wondering if we are finally going to be getting ourselves the gift of an explorer and a mover!

You're 8 month post won't be too far off little boy.  Mommy's working hard to keep up with you!

what gavin's been up to

This little guy is going to keep me on my bloggin toes in order to stay caught up with all his changes.

He seems to be doing a lot of new things lately.

Like learning how to pick things up and feed himself.  He's almost a pro.

And his rolling across the room has quickly turned to this...

Whoah, sweet baby!  You're not suppossed to be doing this already!

And just this week on vacation, he's pushing himself all the way up and sitting up on his own.

Every time I get him from his crib, he's sitting up.  He hadn't ever done that at home yet.

He's really starting to play with things now.

 

And he's getting so close to pulling himself up on his feet.

Our prediction was that he'd be crawling by the end of vacation.

But we'll see.  I'm definitely in no hurry. He's already doing most all of these things way before Taylor and Mason did.

I think someone thinks he needs to be running and playing right alongside his brother and sister.

the princess bike project

Just 2 1/2 months ago we took the training wheels off the bike for our oldest.

And when I wrote about it,

I said that Mason would probably be right behind her.

And he was.

And we thought she picked it up quick.  He pretty much picked it up in one night.

This sweet little bike only got used for a short time before being outgrown.  In hindsight, we thought this was a pretty useless size to buy, they outgrow them so fast.  So we decided to wait a bit longer and just start Mason out on the next size, so it would last longer than a year. 

But this ltitle bike has been perfect in teaching our kids how to ride without training wheels.
The only problem for Mason is that it's covered in princesses. 2 years ago, during his princess dress stage, this may have been acceptable. But now-a-days, he's much more into things that bounce, roll, make noise and can be ridden, as opposed to things with sparkles and ruffles (thank goodness).

And since we still have another boy that this bike will go through, Daddy and Mason decided that the princesses needed to go.

 This is pretty much all Mason could think about for a few days.
Daddy says this is the first of many boy projects in the garage.

 We couldn't find handle grips or a seat that would work, so there are just a few traces of pink and princesses still.  But he doesn't seem to mind.

He loves it so much it came on vacation with us.