Camping on Mt. Lemmon

Last Friday we loaded up the car to the breaking point to spend the weekend with some friends of ours on Mt. Lemmon. Jacob packed the car and between the camp stove, ice chest, chairs, and sleeping bags, there was no room to spare. Jacob and Marshall were the only ones that didn't have something surrounding their feet. I told Jacob that I wanted to drive on the way home and he just laughed at me.

I think we got there around 5:00 pm and right after we got the kids tent and the canopy that we put over the table up, it started to hail like crazy. Our friends took some pictures of the road on their way up and it looked like it had snowed. This is a piece of it in Jacob's ring just so you can see the size of the hail that was coming down hard on us in the middle of July. Crazy.

Soon after it stopped coming down, this fog showed up. Almost all the hail had melted by the time I got around to taking this picture.

The second day our kids were so tired and cranky. We told them to go lay in the tent and talk to each other and within 5 min the were out. I think they slept for about 2 hours and It gave us a good chunk of time to play cards with our friends.

They were much happier when they woke up and played really well together until it was time to eat. Cooking was nice and easy because we used Jacob's two burner camp stove. One of those big ones that uses a full size propane tank. It was really nice and was so glad that we had it. I highly recommend one.

The last night we had smores and the kids were SO happy to finally get one. We all only had one because they were way to sweet.

We had a fun time and I think we will make camping a yearly event. We were there two nights and we got super dirty and the laundry was ridiculous when we got back. I think it took me like 5 days to finally get the last load all folded and put away.

11 weeks

Marshall is now 11 weeks old and is finally starting to be fun and have some personality. He smiles a lot and doesn't really know what to do when I tickle him. I think it stresses him out. He just gets really grunty. I took him to his 2 month appointment about two weeks ago and he weighed in at 16 lbs and 26 inches. I like his fat roles and all of his creases.

He still isn't sleeping very well and I can't help but think that it is something I am doing wrong. He falls asleep for Jacob no problem, and then he stays asleep too. It takes me much longer to get him to stop being so squirmy. I hope his sleeping habits change for the better because I am so tired. Oh well, thats just how my life is right now I guess.

A normal day

I find myself sitting on the couch nursing a LOT. Then I usually get the laundry started but then it take two or three days to get it folded and pt away. The kitchen is rarely clean and there is always a dirty dish in the sink. We eat a lot of ham and cheese and pb&j for lunch. And quite often Zach is the only one that gets dressed before 2 pm.

On the flip side, Katie and Zach are best friends ( they still fight and get on each others nerves) and play so well together. They are so happy to see Jacob when he comes home from school or work and they are so happy with the simplest of things. My baby Marshall is not the best sleeper but he is starting to smile at me every time I talk to him.

Even though I get a little cranky and emotional about dumb things pretty frequently, my life is happy and good and very blessed.

Big Baby

Some of my friends were not able to see me at this point in my pregnancy. And those that did have told me a number of times that I need to put this pic on my blog. So for the sake of documenting here it is.

I was 2 days away from having Marshall in this picture. When I had him 2 days later he weighed 9 lbs 7 oz. and was 21 inches long. I know it's not like I was having twins but for a single baby my belly was pretty big. I love not being pregnant!

Sweet things children say

A sweet little conversation between Katie and her Daddy.

Katie: Hi Dad, how was work?

Jacob: Good, how was home?

Katie: Good, it's always wonderful.

It made me feel good that she would say that.

Jordan is home form Hungary

Jacob's brother Jordan came home from his mission a few weeks ago. The kids made a sign and we all went to the airport to welcome him back to the USA. He said it was a little weird to hear everyone around him speaking english. I thought that was funny. The kids had been looking forward to his homecoming for months and were so excited to see him.

First thing we did was go eat at IN and OUT Burger. We are so glad he is back.
(nice Jamie :)

We have big kids!

Jake and I are really tall measuring at 6,3" and 6,0". So I guess it is only natural that our children are super tall as well. After all, tall is beautiful and makes for great ball players.

Katie is almost 5 and 1/2 years and is 49 inches tall. That is the same as the average 7 year old.

Zach turned 4 last month and is 43 inches tall.

Marshall went to his 2 month appointment today and measured 26 inches and 16 lbs.

Marshall is getting fun!

Jake has always like to tease our kids. He really likes to see if he can get them to make this face. It is his favorite thing to do while they are babies. I'm just as bad because I don't keep him form doing it. It has always been some sound that Jake makes that will make the kids do this.

This is Katie.

Here is Zachary.
And here is Marshall. Don't judge us.
They smile a lot too. This is his first smile that we got a pic of.

ZACHARY

Zach is now 4 years old. He had his birthday last week and it was a very busy day. We have a membership the Reid Park Zoo here in Tucson so that is what we did first. It is a really great Zoo that isn't too big like the Phoenix Zoo. You can see the whole Zoo in about an hour and half. This pic is Katie and Zach playing in the little splash pad in the zoo.

After the zoo we went home to eat lunch and get Jake and then we went "real" bowling. Our kids have been bowling a lot on the wii and so Jake thought that they would really like to go real bowling and he was right. They had a lot of fun as you can see. It took Zach a little while to get his ball down the lane but he did alright. We had the bumpers up and He was still lucky to get two pins down, but that was good enough for him. He really had a blast.
Jake tried to show Katie how to bowl with one hand but she got frustrated with that pretty quickly and just stuck to two hands. She had quite a few grannie's that looked like this.
We asked Zach what he wanted for dinner and he told us that he wanted to go to the chop stick place. That would be Pei Wei. So that is where we went and then we came home to have cake and open presents. I did make the cake because I don't like buying them with weird colors and characters on them. And they just aren't good at all. Zach was very happy with his chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, it was delicious. Most of it is in the freezer now because there was a lot left over and I know I would eat it if it was left on the counter. It was a fun day and Zach was very happy with our family party.

Zach is a really sweet kid. Sometimes he can be a really big whiner and it really gets on our nerves but we love him anyway. He likes to do things himself and will keep trying until he gets it done. He really likes Star Wars, Star Trek, and Xmen and likes to pretend play with Katie. We sure do love our 4 year old. Happy Birthday Zach.