The 80 hr work week.

By law medical residents are not allowed to work more than 80hrs a week. 

Mark got ridiculously close to that number the last couple of weeks.

It has been a bit of a long month.

but

today is the last day of August!

And because of our decision to homeschool this year we are 

going camping instead of back to school.

I am excited.

For both camping and homeschooling. :)

But more on that later. 

Here is a glimpse of my lovelies (and a few extras of our flowers for Grandma Nancy) that spent the last long month playing, fighting, laughing, reading, and just in general being the awesome people they are.

 It was SO nice to sit down with my hubby and watch the BYU game last night.

I only made it to half time.  That might happen a lot.  Living in the eastern time zone makes for some late games. :)  Mark made it until the game was over in the wee hours of the morning and then enjoyed sleeping in until 9 this morning.  We are going to enjoy every minute of this long long weekend!

Peaches. 8.17.2012

I have the best husband ever.  He just finished his last night shift and woke up at noon to watch the kids so I could go on a MARATHON grocery trip.   He asked nonchalantly over lunch if I would like it if him and the kids started on the 48lbs of peaches waiting to be bottled.  "Um, no that would be great!"
Then when I got home I found everyone slaving away in the kitchen with over half of the peaches peeled sliced and ready to be bottled!  I left all the groceries in the van and we bottled peaches until dinner time.  The kids loved it and there may have been sticky sugar and peach juice EVERYWHERE as well as a little skinny Sam bum running around naked (that may or may not have peed and pooped while running around naked). But seriously what a great way to spend the afternoon!  I love my family.  Later as we lay in bed I told Mark he was Superman.  It's true.  He is my superman and I wish that I had a picture of him and the kids working in the kitchen with every single bowl in the house being used and every ounce of counter space covered.  There are now 21 happy bottles of peaches on the storage shelves and 5 happy bags of peaches in the freezer. :)

Wilson turns 5!!

August 6th, 2012.

It's true.  This sweet boy is five!!

Wilson has a special place in my heart.  

I think it's because he can drive me totally bonkers (and I mean totally) and yet still

melt me with his big innocent blue eyes.

Then I have massive guilt trips.

sigh.

Don't grow up Mr. Wilson.

I love you just the way you are. 

Even when I am totally bonkers.

 Wilson got a new toy from Grandma for his birthday.  He really really wanted some time to play with it alone but Sammy really really wanted to play too. (as Wilson was opening the box I asked Sammy what it was and he said, "IT'S MINE!!" - hmmm)

After quite a trying afternoon of keeping both boys off of each other Papa asked Wilson if he wanted to  go for a run (meaning Mark runs and Wilson rides his bike).  Wilson was thrilled and immediately ran over to Sam and said, "Sam you can play with my truck the WHOLE time I am gone ok!"

Wilson often surprises me with his ability to share.  Zina gave him a big bag of gummy worms for his birthday and without thinking twice he shared the entire bag with his brother and sister (and Mom!).

Reading books together.  

Zina has started reading Wilson the Magic Tree house books. 

I love to find them snuggled up on the couch with Zina reading out loud. 

 Here he is sharing his giant car book that he got in the mail from Grandma with his little brother.

I love moments like this!

For Wilson's birthday we took him to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo with our friends and their kids.

He loved the rides and the airplanes and the overall "carnival" atmosphere. 

He loved it so much that i took him back on his actual birthday which worked out well since Mark was home trying to sleep after a 12hr night shift in the ICU.

Above: the hot air balloon ride.

Below: Zina and Addie

Ready set takeoff!!  

The boys LOVED this ride. 

I think they went on it 20 times!  They could even make the plane fly up and down with their "controls" and they thought that was super cool.

Wilson giggle and giggled during this parachute ride.  It was very rewarding to see him so happy and having fun on his birthday. :)

After the air zoo we headed back to our place for dinner and birthday cake.  We had bbq pork on homemade whole wheat buns, pasta salad, veggies and a watermelon that was so mushy I had to throw it out. bummer.  Wilson picked out his birthday cake.  My kids love to sit on my lap and look through birthday cakes online and pick out the one they want.  This was Wilson's race track cake.  He also specified that it was to be a white chocolate cake with white chocolate icing so I googled recipes for both and it turned out super yummy!  Nice picks Wilson!

Opening presents! 

 If you can't tell race cars are Wilson current obsession. :)

The other day Wilson and I were visiting in the play room and he said

"Mom, did you know this toy can do the Salsa dance?"

He then proceeded to show me how Baby Tad sings the salsa.  I started to salsa dance and Wilson looked at me with a funny look and said, "That's not how you salsa dance!"

I said, "Oh how do you do it then."

He started the music again and started to dance saying, "you just do this and pretend someone is eating you with a chip!!"

Thanks for the giggle Wilson.

I love you!

Sunday 7.29.12

Last, last Sunday was so great.  So peaceful. So happy being together as a family. 

When you don't have Dad around on Sunday you stop taking if for granted when you do. :)

We were just enjoying being together as a family and I let Zina and Wilson take one million pictures with my camera :)

Nothing better than playing catch with Papa.

Today when I got dressed Sammy said, "MOM! You wook beeUtiful!"

Oh my sweet boy - that is the RIGHT thing to say to your very pregnant Mama. :)

I only sort of jumped.  It's pretty difficult these days. :) But Sammy was pleased none the less. 

Growing up so fast. 

This girl is such a peacemaker (almost all the time) and such a helper and really a truly amazing 6yr. old!

That would be chocolate ice cream dribbled down his shirt. Love Sunday dessert. 

Count those ribs!  I do feed him I promise!  He's just my skinny minny!

Kind of nice to have your kids hold the camera every once in a while.

Beautiful Summer Time.

Camping with the Girls!!

So the kids and I got invited to go camping with a couple of other moms and their kids in our ward.  We felt a little bad that Mark had to work instead of play, but not bad enough to turn them down. :)

We headed up to Grand Haven and camped pretty much on the beach of Lake Michigan.  Which was fun, but something I won't do again.  There was sand e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e!!!  The kids were in heaven.  It was like living in a sandbox and they were constantly entertained.  We had a couple of people stop and count the kids and ask 9 kids!! Are there any more?!! Ha ha.  4 Moms, and 9 kids between the ages of 8 and 1. :) It was so nice to camp and only have to be in charge of 1 meal!  Although it seemed that every time we went to cook a meal it started to rain. :)  Rollie's husband called as we were making dinner to tell us a huge storm was making it's way across Lake Michigan heading straight for us and sure enough there was a huge storm front up in the sky and the wind started to pick up.  We were a little nervous, and wondered if we should go home, but didn't. Ya we're pretty legit. :)  (even after Mark called to tell me that Michigan has the highest number of people killed by lightning in the nation and that most of them happen in a place called Grand Haven!! I believed him too...until he told me he was joking.  I thought it was funny that everyone elses husbands were concerned and Mark called to scare me instead!)

We did end up taking Megan's tent down because it was blowing over but waited out the storm in our tent eating an "indoor" picnic dinner and then headed out for ice cream in the rain.

By the time we got back the sun was shining and it was a beautiful evening!

Kade and Sammy

(these two are only about a mth apart and so cute together)

Wilson's getting ready to attack the waves. :)

Wilson, Kaya, Me, Sammy, Zina - behind us is Michael, Megan, and Samantha.

At dusk we headed over to the Grand Haven Musical Water Fountain for the evening show.  It was fun to snuggle up in the blankets and watch the show.

Zina, Matthew, Wilson, Sammy, Mandie (holding Kade) and Kaya.

No pictures of Rollie she was running around to keep up with her almost 2yr old Autumn.

The fountains!

The next morning was perfect. (and the kids slept like champs!!) The beach was empty and there was no riptide to worry about so the moms could relax a little and let the kids play.

And when Mark came home from work after we got home he brought me these. 

I think he missed me. :)

Either that or he felt bad for scaring me. 

lol.