Fishing...

This week my Dad has been home all week, on vacation.

Yesterday he decided to bring all the kids to the lake and go Fishing!

That made for some very happy kids!

Elsie is now begging for her own little pole so she and Daddy can go fishing together sometime!

James loved the idea of fishing.

But I think he loved the idea of being at the lake even more.

And he loved the fact that the fishing pole could be used like a weapon of sorts!

Elsie loved fishing way more than I thought she would!

Though she did announce that there was no way in heck she was going to touch a worm!

Typical girl, I guess!

Water is far too enticing to children.

It wasn't long before the little kids abandoned their fishing poles and just played in the water!

Auntie Ceara tried her hardest to help James,

but he proved to not be much of a fishermen,

just a water bug!

The kids were actually catching fish...

just little tiny ones, but still a fish!

Elsie was pretty excited!

One of the kids suggested bringing the fish home and butchering it for dinner!

As you can tell, just Papa Wayne and Colter are the fishers of the family!

The kids decided to fill a big bucket up with water

and keep the fish in it.

Filling that bucket kept James busy for a little while!

The fish kinda appeared to be half dead when they put it in the bucket...

but the kids didn't mind!

What a fun summer afternoon with Papa Wayne!

Friday Phone Dump...

Where has this week gone!?

I cannot believe it is already Friday!

Here is a peek into our week via phone pictures...

1. Last Friday Daddy took the day off!

Grandma B. and Daddy took the kids to the fair!

They had a blast, rode on rides, ate cotton candy, played games and came home with treasures!

Before the fair, we met Daddy at the park for Tacos...

then Daddy when to his chiropractor apt and the kids and I went to my sister's house.

Then it was off to the fair!

{Mommy went home though, thanks to bedrest...at least I snuck out for a little bit!}

 2. stylin' kids at the park...

 3. Sometimes I am an amazing mother

and I feed my children healthy food

from the Dairy Queen!

{I never hear my kids complain though!}

 4. Friday evening Daddy went to the

Baja Races in town...

so it was just the kids and I at home.

We spent the evening watching a movie

and You Tube videos!

My kids were happily watching videos in Spanish!

Since they only speak English, I have a funny feeling they had no clue what was going on!

 5. Sometimes life is quite tragic

especially when you are two years old

and your purple back-back won't zip up quite the way you wanted.

The only logical thing left to do is have a fit in the corner!

 6. Daddy's car has a sunroof...

What can possibly be better than sticking your whole head out the sunroof!?

Simple childhood moments...

 7. What fun!

Daddy will probably never again let me drive the kids in his car...

because not only did I let them stick their heads out the sunroof,

but I bought them tacos and fries too...

and they ate them in the car!

Mommy's car rules and Daddy's car rules are a bit different!

 8. My sister got all her wedding pictures back from her photographer!

They all turned out beautiful!!

 8. This week Ceara has been coming over to our house all week to help me with the kids so I can be on "bedrest"

Both the kids adore Auntie Ceara...

Elsie loves that Ceara fixes hair all fancy like!

A fishtail braid.

I have no clue how to do one!

 9.James is going through a transition.

A NO nap transition.

I think he still needs one, he thinks he does not.

He gets overly tired at bedtime and cant settle down when he skips his nap.

So sometimes it feels like we drive to the end of the earth waiting for him to fall asleep on car rides.

He exasperates me most days.

Thank goodness this is just a phase.

I hope!

 10. This week I have had a fairly good week.

Evenings are always full of pain though because I over do it all day.

It was so nice to have Ceara here to get the kids dinner, clean up the dinner mess and take the kids on a long walk so I could relax in the tub!

 11. Wednesday was Grammie's birthday!

My kids love celebrating other people's birthdays!

James picked out a special outfit all on his own in honor of Grammie's birthday.

A bow tie, a tie, a button down shirt, baseball shorts and suspenders!

And yes, I brought him to the dollar store dressed like that!

He had to pick out a gift for grammie.

He chose a plastic spider man plate and a giant squirt gun!

I think it was just what Grammie wanted!

 12. Elsie also wanted to look fancy for Gammie's birthday...

after thinking for a bit she came up with a new hair style to surprise Grammie with!

You see, Elsie knows Grammie loves trees,

so she wanted her hair to look like a tree!

{we used a straw to keep it standing strait up!}

Elsie went with Ceara to JCPenny's and picked out a pair of

Turquoise earrings and 2 bracelets for Grammie.

I love my Children's generous hearts!

 13. Since Ceara came to our house to help all week,

 my children were very happy to be back at home and playing with all their own toys!

I think living at Grammie's for the last couple months has been hard on them!

I think we are all ready for Angelina to be born so we can all get our own schedules back! Almost 7 weeks until full-term!

 14. The kids spent a couple hours playing play-doh!

Elsie made a play-doh face and wanted me to take a picture to text to Daddy.

Love her creativity!

I am linking up again with Life Rearranged.

Last week I posted and was all ready to link up,

but I forgot to join the link party!

Duh!

Pregnancy brain hard at work!

Wedding...

The day of my sister's wedding was a crazy one...

Jon was an usher, James was a ring bearer, Elsie was a flower girl and I was a brides maid...

And we had Grandma B. with us as a

"James watcher"

because he needs someone to watch him 24hrs a day

{He is a monkey, to put it lightly!}

Anyhow, since we were all a bit busy, I gave my mom my camera.

And I am sorry to say, I am not going to blog any of the photos!

My mom edited them all so well and posted them on her blog...

so, if you are dying to see them click below

 * Part 1  *  Part 2  *  Part 3 *

and find yourself on Merrywood Cottage surrounded by

Wedding bliss...

~Enjoy~

Friday Phone Dump...

Can you believe it...

I managed to do an Embrace the Camera post yesterday...

and a Friday Phone Dump post today!

 I feel amazing!

Since I haven't done a Phone Dump post in so long this is going to be long!

1. The kids have found a new favorite place to play at my parents house...the sandbox!

 2. Elsie is having a few food issues that we are working on...

she only wants what she wants...and a bit of fit will be had when she doesn't get her way! We are working on it!

3. This week my routine Dr. apt turned into an afternoon visit...I was hooked up to the monitors and had another ultrasound.

And I was given the sentence of bedrest!

Though I am not a very good patient and am up far too much...

I exasperate my mother!

4. The weather this week has been perfectly lovely!

Not hot and humid, just pleasantly warm...with a breeze!

So the kids have spent plenty of time outside.

5. Elsie is creative...

one day she made a paper mask...

Looks a little freaky in my opinion!

6. Last week I discovered that James has 3 of his 2 year old molars!

I didn't even know he was working on new teeth and they are all the way through!

7. Several weeks ago I noticed James had a black toe nail.

He is a wild child, so I truly have no clue what he did to give himself a black toe!

Now the toe nail fell off!

He is SO proud of that toe with no nail...

and we kept the lost nail in a little baggie so he could show daddy!

8. Elsie and I were sending goodnight kisses to Daddy, who was working out of town...

9. When a 2 year old has no nap and plays hard all day...

he might fall asleep very early while watching a show!

Just for the record, this has never happened before and I have high doubts that it will happen again!

10. I have been busy making plenty of little hair bows for Angelina's hair!

This one is her "going home" bow.

It matches her "going home" outfit perfectly!

11. I think my kids are wild!

I don't even know what possesses them sometimes!
Elsie loves to climb the closet shelf.
And last weekend James climbed on the kitchen counter and Jumped off!
On purpose. I have no clue why!

12. My little guy loves Candy...

{and wearing no shoes in stores!}

He calls candy "ana" and makes the ASL sign for candy!

I think this boy will always use sign language!

13. The new pink carseat cover came in the mail!

 Love it!

14. Playing Little House on the Prairie has been a very big thing lately.

My son looks pretty good as an old fashioned girl!

15. Baby socks and blankets...

Pink, pink, pink!

Can't wait to see those little baby toes in those little socks!

16. A fresh tablecloth and some bright flowers...

they brighten up the whole room and make me smile!

I am linking up with Life Rearranged

Embrace the Camera...

It's been a couple weeks again since my last

Embrace the Camera...

Not that I don't take pictures of the kids and I together...

I need to make it a priority to take more pictures of the kids with Jon...

I am a huge fan of self-portrait style pictures...so we have oodles of

mommy/kids pictures!

This picture below was from a couple weeks ago...

an impromptu trip to the Mall with the aunties!

One of the last shopping trips for the next several weeks...

Bummer...but gotta keep that baby cookin' longer!

My babies and me!

Since Jon works out of town we like to take lots of phone pictures to send him...

Just for the record, I really don't think James was quite as grumpy as he looks in this picture.

But then he is 2 now, so maybe he was that grumpy...ya never know with a 2 year old!

I am linking up again with The Anderson Crew...

26 Week Bump...

My not-so-little 26 week baby bump! It's hard to believe that in 13 weeks {or less} little Angelina will be here!

 Angelina is a super active little baby...I find it fun to watch my whole belly move when she gives those big ol' kicks...Elsie has even been able to feel her kick...James has tried to feel her kicks,  but he gets a bit impatient!

 After we say bedtime prayers, both the kids have to pull my shirt up and take turns giving Angelina a kiss and making the sign of the cross and say, "God be with you, God bless you!" Makes my heart happy! Both kids love their new sister so much already...so sweet!

 I think we are now all ready for the baby...we have the fancy pink carseat cover on the carseat, the closet full of more than enough pink clothes, shoes and big flowered hairbows...and we even bought little tiny newborn diapers. We practise co-sleeping, so we aren't going to set a crib up this time around...we did with the other 2 and never used it! We just need to take the little swing and moses basket out of the attic. With Elsie we had a ton of baby "stuff" and used hardly any of it...same story with James...this time we are smarter and know less is more. Babies just need arms to hold and cuddle them!

 After much debating {on Jon's part!} we finally have a middle name...Angelina Viviana! It was a toss up between Bronte and Viviana. Jon chose her name. {okay, from a list of names I selected!} Jon knows is drives me bonkers to not have a name way, way in advance {I already have names for our next couple kids all picked out!} so he likes to drag his feet. He didn't pick out Elsie's middle name until we were in the delivery room, so 3 months in advance is a huge improvement! I love the name he chose...I was secretly hoping he would pick Viviana...and so was Elsie!

 I have to say, I think this pregnancy is going very well, I was already on strict bedrest with medicine at this point with Elsie and James...so far so good this time! Not to say my lovely uterus has figured thing out! I still contract on a regular basis...strong and painful contractions, too! And the pressure still makes me want to pee my pants! I am going to the Dr every 2 weeks now being that I am labeled as a "high risk pregnancy"...I just saw the dr today, had another ultrasound and another fetal fibronectin test. The test was negative, so that is a super good sign! The ultrasound was also good, some changes have been made, but not enough to warrant the dire need for medicine!(Trying to avoid that altogether this time!} The dr. did tell me I need to be on bedrest though, so my days of shopping are over for now! You can tell we live in a small town, Elsie and I snuck away to the grocery store and ran into my Dr there...she reminded me that I had just been put on bedrest and grocery shopping didn't fall into the category of bedrest. Oops...next time I will have scan the parking lot better! 

13 weeks left...we can't wait...Jon keeps saying just 9 weeks...time will tell...I just know we are all quite anxious to hold little Angelina Viviana in our arms!

Jump Castle...

I am slowly getting closer and closer to those 4th of July and Birthday pictures!

Every year for the 4th of July, I beg Jon to rent a Jump Castle...and every year he says no. This year, however things were different...you see Jon was the one planning the 4th of July...so all on his own he decided to rent a Jump Castle! The kids were pretty thrilled!

The day of the 4th of July the weather was beyond hot...but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast jumping! They would run through the sprinkler first then get in and jump!

At one point all the guys were jumping in the castle, and almost flipped the darn thing on its side! Wild times, I tell ya!

The kids had a blast...I think it wore them out and they slept super good that night! Though I will say, maybe next year we will forget the Jump castle thing and just get a trampoline...it might be cheaper in the long run!